Halloween

1938

She could swear it was more awkward when he appeared. She could understand after the last time they met.
“Edward,” she greeted him with a smile. “It’s nice to see you.”
“Same for you, Marie,” he said. “It’s been a few years, what year is it?”
“1938,” she said. Her smile widened. “I’m in America anymore, I, uh… decided to move and be somewhere else for a while.”

“And where are we, dare I ask?” He turned to look around at the small house she was in.
“Manchester,” she said. “In England.”
“My home country.” Marie nodded and he seemed a little happier as he turned back to her.
“There’s tensions though, there’s talk of another war. A mad man called Hitler is keeping people in camps and killing them. Mostly Jewish people but other people too. Whoever they deem inferior or deviant, it makes me sick.”
“Human cruelty never ceases to amaze me,” he muttered, furrowing his brow.
“It’s murder, from what I hear. And I can’t do anything.”

Edward stared at her for a moment before taking her hand in his own.
“I think you’ll find that you’ll be rather useful and will do a lot more than you realise,” he said. “But as to the reason I am here, it wants to know why you’re here.”
“I just needed an escape, I suppose.”
“There’s more than that,” he said, a little too sharply. Marie sighed.

Marie picked up the letter and furrowed her brow. Who would have sent her a letter? She couldn’t recognise the handwriting and upon opening it and reading through it, she felt shaken.

“Death threats,” she said. “They kept sending death threats, delivered by hand or by post, every week and sometimes more.”
“That’s…”
“Irritating, at first. Shocking, maybe,” she said with a shrug. “I could ignore it at first. But… but then it just started chipping away at me and… and I couldn’t deal with it.”
“The police,” he asked, “were they as useless as always?”
“Yes,” she sighed. “They said it wasn’t a crime and even if it was, they couldn’t find out who had sent them.”
“It seems they are becoming more and more useless,” muttered Edward. “I’m sorry they can’t do anything to help you.”

“I’ll be fine,” said Marie with a shrug. Edward frowned.
“I don’t think you are,” he said. “And I don’t think you believe what you have just said.”
Marie took a deep breath and shook her head. “No, I… I don’t.”
“Someday, Marie, you will be fine,” he said. “I can promise you that.”
“I know, everyone says that to me,” she said quietly. “I just… it’s difficult.”
“I know it is,” he said. He placed a kiss on the back of her hand. “But unlike the others, I can promise it. I can promise it will get better.”

Marie rested her head on his chest and he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a hug.
“I wish you had a happier life, my dear,” he whispered as he kissed her forehead. “I wish you were so much happier, you deserve it after all that has happened to you.”
“I wish you had a better life too,” she said. “But things don’t happen like that.”
“I know,” he said. “It would be a lot kinder if it did. But, Marie, I think we both know you aren’t dying tonight.”

“I already knew when you arrived, nothing too tragic has happened and if a miscarriage wasn’t enough…”
“Goodnight, my dear,” he said as he stepped back.
Marie gave a weak smile. “Goodnight.”