She was the girl who was afraid of love. Terrified of it. It isn't permanent, she believed, it leaves you and it leaves you broken.
He was the boy who desperately needed it. Love--the only thing that could've rooted him to this world.
Ophelia and...
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"Is this..." I trailed off, staring. It was beautiful.
"Yeah." Alastair glanced at me, before driving the car past the opened iron gates, standing tall on each side of us. "My parent's house."
I'd like to believe he sounded sad when he said that, but he didn't. Once again, like all those other times, his voice stayed devoid of any emotion.
I forced my gaze away from him, back towards the house in front of me.
Alastair stopped the car when we neared the mansion, parking it along the paved driveway. When I got out, my eyes darted around, trying to take everything in at the same time. I'm pretty sure my mouth was still parted in surprise.
Though what surprised me more was the untamed grass on each side of the paved path. And not just that, but the silence as we both walked towards the entrance of the huge house. It looked empty and sad.
That's when I remembered Alastair telling me how it had been left abandoned for a long time now.
How could someone leave such a beautiful place like this?
Alastair shrugged. "I'm guessing my aunt or our other close relatives were scared that something else might happen if they even tried renovating this place." I must've spoken it out loud. "So they left it abandoned."
"Oh," I replied, still too transfixed at the magnificent structure in front of me. "Why is it...why is it so far from the town?"
The entire land was secluded away from the rest of the population. It should've been all scary, but for some reason, it also felt strangely peaceful.
Alastair took his time to reply. I looked at him and saw his gaze directed at the tall closed doors in front of us, frowning, almost as if he was trying to figure something out.
"They thought this was peaceful. Away from the townspeople and all the noise," he murmured, before looking back at me. "My parents."
I nodded because somehow, I understood. It could've been peaceful once, but now that everyone was gone from here it just looked sad. Hauntingly sad.
My eyes darted across the land before stopping at a small shed near the tall iron gates we had just passed from. I hadn't really noticed it before.
"Are there any guards here?" I asked him curiously. God, I was bubbling with questions.
Alastair started walking towards the doors. "There can't be." He passed me a glance over his shoulder. "The guard shed is trashed." And when I squinted enough, I realized that he was right.
