The Darkest Eternities

XVII. Bloody fangs

Cara

Undecided, I stared at the envelope in my hand. I had been putting this off for over a week and this was the last chance I would get to read it for the next week. As much as I had wanted to know more about my mom and why she left, now that I had the chance, I was hesitant.

If I did -eventually- open the letter, the world where it was just me and my dad and my mom had fallen off the face of the earth would collapse and another world would appear. In this second world my mother would possibly be the bad guy.

I had been ignoring this for years and now it was time for me to know the truth but I was afraid of it.

Now the truth was in my hands...Was I ready for the truth?

Not yet! It can wait...some more.

I'll read it when I get back. I convinced myself to let it wait another week. I had waited a decade, what was one more week?

Sighing, I threw it on my desk then decided it was too out-in-the-open so I put it back inside the top drawer.

Thanks to the school's Student Abroad Travel Program or S.A.T.P every year students in the twelfth garden got an opportunity to travel abroad for a week. History students usually went to Italy or Greece.

I made sure I had everything I needed including an English-Italian dictionary. I preferred the book to the app on my phone. I was done packing and I must admit, I pack like a boss.

Feeling extremely proud of myself, I headed downstairs lugging my heavy medium-sized suitcase behind me. It was heavier than it looked. My dad just stood at the bottom of the staircase being no help at all. I was still happy and proud though.

I had really been looking forward to this trip.

"You have everything, right?" My father confirmed.

"Uh-huh, " I reassured him, putting him at ease. He worried that I would forget something and that the forgotten item's necessity and unavailability would somehow result in my death or something worse than death. Yes, to him there were things worse than death.

I quickly had my breakfast. Dadhad managed to whip up some blueberry pancakes, my favourite. He must have been using the cookbook I got him.

"You're sure you don't need me to drive you?" My father asked. I shook my head. "Who is driving you by the way?"

"A friend,"I told him. When I told Ivan that I needed someone to drive me to school he offered and I took his offer. I couldn't drive myself because if I did my car would have to stay there for the next week until I got back and I did want to get back and find it a victim of vandalism.

"So who is driving you to the airport?" Dad asked again... for the millionth time now.

"I have told you this before dad. Once we get to the school we will board the bus which will in turn take us to the airport once we have confirmed everything with the teachers in charge," I reminded him.

"That's a rather messy plan don't you think? Why can't the students drive themselves to the airport and you meet there around two hours before the flight so that you can make the final arrangements?"

I merely shrugged. I agreed with his suggestion but the school had already chosen the other plan. It did not matter as long as we were in Italy by tonight. The flight would be long, about thirteen and a half hours because Rome was approximately ten thousand two hundred kilometres away – as a scientist, my dad had always been a big supporter of the metric system and I'd ended up sharing his views on it.

I checked the time on the clock. 7:23.

Ivan is going to be here any minute now.

After wrapping things up I quickly said my goodbyes to my father which took a while. We were rarely away from each other so it was a little hard to deal with the fact that I would not be seeing him for a week.