Page 31 of Conquer

I been walking but changed directions, making sure I didn’t pass my house again.

I made it to Ed’s in an hour, maybe less, no easy feat considering the distance, the adrenaline moving me through the quiet streets faster than I would have moved on a normal day.

If I stopped to think, I knew I would freak out, but I was as calm as I could be as I ran up to Ed’s porch and knocked on the door. I hated showing up unannounced, but knew he wouldn’t hold it against me.

The porch light popped on, and I saw movement behind the curtains, but then I heard the chain lock being pulled off the door.

Ed opened the door and ushered me in without word, closing the locked the door behind me, and then led me to his back room.

He closed that door too, and I looked down and noticed that he was holding his gun.

“Little late for that steak dinner, eh, Sammy?” he said.

“Ed, I’m in trouble,” I said.

“I never would have guessed,” he replied, his eyes twinkling, his weathered face flushed deep red.

Despite the circumstances and the emotions that were crashing through me, I gave him a grudging smile.

But Ed was serious an instant later. “Tell me about it, Sam,” he said.

I locked eyes with him, took a deep breath, and then began to spill my guts.

Adrian

Sam wasn’t at her house when I got there.

I hadn’t expected her to be, but I was still disappointed. And though I instantly knew she was gone and hadn’t even bothered to lock the door behind her, I still looked around.

Her dining room was in shambles, the neat piles that represented years of her effort scattered across the floor. I found her purse emptied, the recorders thrown on the floor. I didn’t bother to look at them closely and instead went to her bedroom, saw the clothes that were scattered on the floor.

Though I didn’t want to, I couldn’t help but think back to the first time I’d been in this room, an unknown interloper. Thought about how I had loved her even then, thought of the joy I had felt when I’d returned here, not lurking in the shadows, but welcomed.

Loved.

“Fuck!” I yelled as I punched the wall.

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