Page 51 of Bear Strength

“Do you think it’s possible to live without fear?” she suddenly asks. Her eyes are still glued to the surface of the lake, as if she’s expecting something to happen to it, and she doesn’t want to miss it.

“Would you want to?”

“What do you mean?” she finally turns to me. I see confusion in her eyes.

“Adrian once told me, he read in one of those books of his, light wouldn’t exist without darkness. So, everything you appreciate wouldn’t be as valuable if you got it easily, without fear, or hard work, or some kind of sacrifice.”

“You know what, I never saw it like that,” she smiles.

“Yeah, that’s what we have Adrian for,” I smile back. “Smart ass.”

She chuckles. We both gaze into the distance. Who knows? Maybe we see the same thing?

We remain like that for a while. She gets closer to me. I wrap my arms around her. I remember wanting to fuck her on the way to her place, but all need and desire for that are gone. My dick is asleep. Not because it doesn’t want her. Hell, it wants her all the time. But, it’s calm. My body is calm. My mind is calm. All I need is her presence to be truly happy. I know that now.

We reach her home quickly afterwards. We didn’t even notice that it’s starting to get dark slowly. Exactly what we’ve been trying to avoid.

When she gets off the bike, her face changes. There is sadness. No fear. Just deep, deep sadness.

“Everything OK?” I ask her. My hand rests on her shoulder, as she gazes at her home. I wonder does she even see it as her home anymore.

“Just wondering when we’ll be able to get back here,” she replies.

“You don’t like it at our place?”

“Oh, no, it’s not that,” she immediately turns to me. I feel the scalding touch of her palm against my cheek. “I feel very welcome at your place. It’s just, this was the first place where I truly felt like I did everything right. I got a job. Dominick started school. I haven’t been late on any of my bills. I feel like my old self again. And now, I’m afraid I’ll have that taken away from me again.”

“Look here,” I cup her chin, making her look at me. “No one can take that away from you, unless you let them.”

“Do you think so?”

“Absolutely,” I nod.

“I must admit, it feels nice to hold onto hope that Dom and I will eventually be returning here. I like this little house, despite its not so nice history. I feel like we’re both broken in a way, and we finally found each other. Perfectly broken. Perfectly aligned in that way.”

“Sounds very poetic,” I smile.

“Sounds like a waste of time, is what Mason would say,” she replies. “Let’s do what we came here to do.”

She takes a step first. She unlocks the door, and opens it. It’s pitch dark inside. Almost like there’s no electricity. But, sheswitches on the light, and all’s well again. That little worm of doubt is gone. The fucker. I hate when he does that.

“I’ll just go upstairs and grab a few things from my room. Can you get everything from Dom’s list?” she asks, giving me a little piece of paper.

I take it. Blue sweatshirt. Jeans. Socks. Underwear. Toothbrush. Cologne. PS. I chuckle. Adrian told me he played with Dominick. I bet the kid whopped his ass.

“It’s the first one to the left, upstairs,” she tells me.

I follow her upstairs. The stairs creak. Annoyingly so. But, I endure it. We’ll be out of here in a jiffy. She disappears in a room down the small hallway. I enter the one I was instructed to.

The moment I enter, I recognize it for what it is. A teenage boy’s room. A room that would eventually have one of those do not disturb signs pinned to the door. Dirty socks on the floor. Open books still lying on the table. The window over it open.

I glance over at the closed wardrobe in the corner. This is the moment where, in horror movies, the killer jumps out and takes me out. Well, not in my movie, buddy. I rush over there, opening the wardrobe with a vengeance.

My heart in my heels, I chuckle. It’s empty. Of course it’s fucking empty. I feel stupid for even thinking something like that. There’s bad mojo in this house. I’ll just grab the stuff from the list and….

At that moment, I hear the sound of shattered glass. Instinctively, I look at the window. Still open. Untouched.

“Danica?” I shout.

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