Chapter 8

The clouds parted to let the moon light the wetness of the night. The rain had come to a halt an hour ago but there was still no sign of Chloe.

Diana fiddled with a stray strand of hair that came loose from her bun. Chloe was long past her curfew and Diana blamed her tardiness on the unforeseen terrible weather. But now, as the sky began to clear up, there was a bad feeling that twisted Diana's insides the wrong way.

The door opened and the sound of it felt like music to her ears. She hurriedly stood up from her spot and went to welcome her niece, "You're back! I was worried sick—"

She stopped mid-sentence when she saw Dave walk in through the door and shut it behind him. He shrugged out of his coat, giving Diana a confused look. "She's not back yet?" he asked, clearly concerned.

With a frustrated gesture, she shook her head. "We should call Ronald. Maybe she's still at the inn?"

"I'll give him a call," he gave her a reassuring smile and gently squeezed her shoulders. "You shouldn't worry too much, you know it's bad for your health."

Diana brushed his hand away and went back to the living room to retrieve her phone. He looked at the faint look on her face and sighed, grabbing the phone from her. He went to the kitchen with Diana behind him and sat on one of the dinning chairs.

With one hand on Diana's, he dialed the number to the inn which was answered after two rings by a very businesslike Ronald.

"You sound busy," Dave said and heard him sigh wearily in response. Ronald answered saying the inn suddenly became hectic with people coming in to get shelter till the rain let up.

"Well, I won't take much of your time. I just wanted to ask if Chloe's still there by any chance?"

"Chloe?" his crisp voice answered back sounding surprised. "Wait a second, will you? -HEY EDVIN!" he yelled his son's name then asked him about Chloe. "Ah, my son tells me that she already left. Is everything okay?"

Dave stared ahead, unblinking. "How long ago did she leave?"

He exchanged another few words with his son then turned his voice to the phone answering Dave's question, "It's been four hours."

Dave's grip on the phone tightened and he didn't say anything, keenly aware of his wife listening in on the conversation.

"Hasn't she reached home yet?" Ronald asked, sounding worried.

"No. She hasn't." Then he hung up before Ronald could ask more.

"So?" Diana asked, anxious about the sudden silence of her husband after the call had ended. "What did he say? Is she coming home now?"

Dave tried to think up an excuse. Diana had a slight heart condition that rendered high stress even life threatening. But he couldn't hide this from his wife, not when he knew it would worry her more if he did.

Not to mention she would be furious if he didn't tell her the truth. So the truth it was.

"She had left the inn four hours ago," he replied with a defeated tone.

It took a while for Diana to grasp what he had said but when she did, she gasped and slumped forward on her chair with her head in her hands, realising the gravity of the situation. "What are we going to do?" She ran a hand through her hair and squeezed her eyes shut, feeling lightheaded. That poor child...!

"Did you try her cell phone?" Dave tried to reassure his wife but his own voice wavered.

She nodded. "The line was dead."

Both of them sat there with worry creasing their foreheads. It felt like they had aged ten more years concerned about their niece's safety.

"We need to send out a search party," Diana said with urgency. "She's in trouble, I just know it! She said she saw someone stalking her, I should've believed her."

She suddenly got off the chair with a feverish look on her face and went for the door but Dave got to her first and held her to him, rubbing her shoulders soothingly while his own heart beat ran frantic.

"I'm worried, Dave. What if something happened to her again? How could I live loosing her twice. How will I ever face my sister?" Hot tears ran down her face as she sobbed against Dave's chest.

"Sssh," Dave tried to comfort her and melt her panic away but it didn't do much to relieve his own alarm. "We will find her. I won't let anything happen to our little girl, I promise."

~~~

Why did they want to know when Chloe left? Edvin thought as he wiped the table.

Before he could deduce the reason, he heard his father's voice loudly calling in to the phone.

"What? She hasn't been back-?!" Ronald suddenly pulled away from the receiver and glared at it. "Son of a gun, hung up on me!"

Edvin couldn't help himself from cutting in and asked, "What happened?"

His father raked a hand through his hair. "That's what I want to know!"

Ronald redialed Dave's landline which was answered by the answering machine. Then he tried Chloe's number but she didn't answer either.

Seeing the worried look on his father's face, Edvin took off the apron he was wearing and asked again. "What happened, dad?"

He looked from Edvin to the slightly thinning crowd of customers at the inn and sighed. "It seems that Chloe isn't home yet. Did she say anything to you before she left?"

Edvin's eyes widened as he realised now why the two Rosamunds wanted to know when she left the inn. He slowly shook his head. "She said she was tired and wanted to go sleep at home so she left early before it got too dark."

His father's grim expression said it all. "Take care of the remaining customers will you? I'll go talk to yer ma," said Ronald before leaving through the door behind him.

Edvin nodded and did as he was told but his mind was preoccupied with all sorts scenarios. He couldn't help but think, if something happened to her, was it his fault? If it was, this would be the second time, wouldn't it?

He stopped what he was doing and shook his head, not willing to continue that thought.

He knew that she had found out about his feelings for her without the need of a confession. He couldn't help but wonder, did she leave because his feelings made her uncomfortable?

He thought back on the brief time he had spent with her. She had a habit of keeping her worries to herself. Even if she was upset with something, she wouldn't make it apparent. Instead she would just plaster a smile on her face and pretend she wasn't bothered.

Lately, however, her behaviour became very odd.

His mind wandered back to the time when he saw Chloe glancing uneasily over her shoulder every once in a while. How she was so spooked that day when he came to pick her up from the farmhouse. She was trembling and was frightened of something. Now it was Edvin who was frightened for her.

"Damn it."

He dropped the rag he was holding and rushed out the door to get some fresh air.

It felt like he was suffocating. He ran a hand through his hair and inhaled the cold brittle air.

Why did she never tell him?

She was scared.

This entire time, all by herself.

Why didn't he figure it out before? All the signs were right there, in front of him?

He should've realised something was wrong the day she stopped using the Rose and Lily path to come to the inn. That was the first place she had admired when she arrived here.

He went back inside and tried to busy himself to keep his mind from conjuring all the worst possibilities. He remembered years ago when both of them were just children. He remembered the last time they played together in the woods.

And then she went missing. He closed his eyes.

A cold waft drifted in when the doors opened. Edvin looked up and saw Chloe's aunt rushing in with a worried look on her face, Dave following close behind her.

"Edvin, where's your mother?" Diana asked, slightly fumbling with her coat as she tried to take it off. Dave stepped in from behind and helped her take it off before pulling off his own.

Edvin just stared at them, taken aback by their distressed entrance but quickly recovered, nudging his head towards the door that lead to the living room through the kitchen. Dave nodded in acknowledgement and ushered Diana through the door.

In the next few minutes, Edvin wrapped up whatever it was that he was doing and went to look for the elders that disappeared through the door, leaving the other part timer in charge of waiting tables. Once inside, seeing the empty living room, he knew exactly where he would find them.

The basement.

That's where they always huddled together in the nick of night. It was like a ritual for them but Edvin had never bothered to wonder about it more than what was necessary. He knew that these little gatherings weren't ordinary and he had always vaguely avoided getting involved in their affairs.

But this time it was different. If this had anything to do with Chloe being in any kind of danger, he wanted to be involved. He had made a promise to protect her in the past and whether she remembered it or not, he was going to keep it.

He opened the door to the basement. It was dark aside from the dim light coming from the candles. It smelled moist inside and as he descended down the stairs, he saw many barrels lining the walls.

In the centre was a round table with five chairs around it on which sat both his parents and Chloe's two relatives. The atmosphere of the room was heavy with dreary speculations. He could feel the anxiety in the air as he heard the uneasy voices of his parents along with Diana and Dave's.

His mother's shrill voice cut through the heavy atmosphere of the room as she said, "I knew this would happen! Since the day you brought her here, I had always told you that this would happen. If only you had listened to me then, we could've-"

He heard his father speak up and interrupt Joanne's complaints, "Enough! We don't know for sure the reason for her disappearance. She could be at a friend's place and we'd be worrying for nothing."

Dave scoffed in disagreement. "You think she would have any friends here? So long as she's associated with us Rosamunds, she will never be considered a part of this town."

"Then, why would you do it? Why would you bring her back here when she was still vulnerable to their hostility?" Joanne asked and Edvin saw Diana flinch.

"She-" her eyes downcast, Diana stumbled to find the right words. "She was slowly dying in that place. She needed someone. And I wanted to be there for her, I wanted to help her," her voice trembled with emotion as she was reminded of the memories from years ago.

"Do you have any idea what it was like for me all these years? Being childless?!" She felt her eyes wet with tears as she held on to Dave's hand for support.

"I just.... wanted to be a mother for her. Just be a mother for once." Her voice shook as she uttered the last words weakly.

Dave gave her hand a good squeeze and said, "Chloe has always been like our own child. Tell me something, Joanne, if it were Edvin who had went through such a painful experience, would you just stand by and watch?"

The flames from the candles flickered as Joanne's expression contorted from that of sorrow to that of regret and she fell silent not knowing what to say.

Edvin had heard enough now. He finally decided to let them know of his presence by strutting in and casually sitting down on that one empty chair at the table. All four of them just stared at him dumbstruck.

"I'm sorry to butt in insensitively but what painful experience are we talking about? Mind filling me in?" Edvin inquired with a calm tone however he felt anything but calm. "I know of Chloe's mother and I also know that she's dead. But what's this about her being in danger?"

~~~

A figure of a man sat amongst the few still drinking at the bar in the inn. There wasn't much of a crowd but he blended in like the rest of them, dazzled by the evening and just wanting to spend some time off work.

He sat there with his mug of beer and sipped at it leisurely. With his left palm propped under his chin, he scanned the diner in passing. He saw the father, Ronald Bolt managing the bar and his son, Edvin Bolt working along with another part timer waiting tables.

A phone rang at the counter, Ronald answered and heard something about the niece living in the farmhouse going missing.

A distressing call from the neighbours and the tense conversation that followed between Ronald and his son before he left Edvin in charge of the diner and went to fetch his wife.

He saw it all.

By the time he emptied the mug, he had witnessed the worried entrance of the two Rosamunds who disappeared behind the doors that lead to the inside of the Bolt's residence. Edvin followed and the man watched the scene play before him with petty amusement. A low inaudible chuckle resounded in his chest.

Fools.

He perceived everything that went around at the inn. Particularly, everything that concerned the disappearance of Chloe Campbell. He knew what distressed them and humoured himself at their foolishness.

It was too late now.

They can look for her all they want but they won't find her anywhere. She was already dead.

I made sure of it.

A dark smile twisted the corner of his lips. He was enjoying himself. He put on his outerwear and threw some change at the bar before getting up to leave.

He was enclosed by an eery gloom. Not many people noticed it but those that did, knew better than to cross paths with him. The darkness was burrowing holes inside of him. It was making him loose his sanity.

Once outside and a good distance away from the inn, the low rumbling of laughter that he had contained broke free. He was laughing now, maniacally so. This was the same pathway she so dearly loved taking. All those flowers adorning this track were now lost in their colour and bloom.

He remembered the first time he saw her, awkward and despondent. She was not like the other two Rosamunds. He knew she was different the moment he laid eyes on her.

There were just traces of it but he could see it: the magic that surrounded her.

She thinks just because she changed her surname that she's any less of a monster. Just because she's a Campbell, doesn't mean her Rosamund blood runs any thinner.

Chloe Campbell was an abomination and someone needed to do something about her accursed existence before it was too late.

He did this town a favour by drowning her.

At that he laughed again.

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