River & Revenge

04 | valak's abandoned daughter

R I V E R

     He felt as if he was being guided into a horror movie.

An abandoned house filled the space in front of him, standing tall but weak. Although the termites had feasted upon it for years, it still appeared intact enough. Maybe a blow and it'd fly away, River wasn't sure. Rusted metallic gates, shattered windows and several cracks weren't small enough to deceive his eyes.

Weak and pathetic, the house didn't fail to remind him of someone.

It offered an eerie sense of awareness, regardless of how beautiful the mountains not so far away looked, the house—the whole town—appeared to be nothing but Valak's home. In the middle of nowhere, the town of Elesk was one of the perfect places to hide but only at the cost of giving up necessities. Even though the place reeked of dead rats and moss, River decided he wasn't going to complain about it. Luxury hadn't been in his fate for a while now. He was alive, that mattered more.

He sighed. Instead of a large number of boxes, ready to start a new life, what he had last week was a small duffle bag and no clue how many days of freedom he had left. When a month ago, he was informed they had managed to find his hideout, he had no choice but to run. He had spent half a year in a small cabin near the countryside, hiding perfectly away from any pair of eyes which could pose a threat as well as making contacts in case of any emergencies. His time spent there did come in handy when he left but it had been a tough choice. He had grown fond of the place.

A bird chirped close to him, flying away when he moved. Its wings flapped, gliding above the house eventually and he took a full view of the house, once again.

It was two-floored. Moss enfolded various areas of the house and two trees on each side of it had infested it completely, their branches growing peacefully through the various broken windows. The trees had made the house a home of their own and a dead rat, rotting by the edge of the broken swing wasn't a good sight but he decided, he could move past it.

Ignoring the state of the house wasn't a hard task, the house or he could say his new temporary home was as good as it could get for him but when a ragged doll's eyes, two-floor above pierced into his from the window, it became harder to breathe.

A new house, a haunted doll. It was like walking into a trap but the doll at the window was alive, ragged from living on the streets all her life but alive and the doll was the only one who could save him for now.

She waved, the skin on the palm of her hand torn in various spots.

Ignoring her felt like a crime but River was already a criminal, it didn't matter.

He stood anxious and uncomfortable, gulping his saliva as his stomach rolled. His nasal passage was blocked, the chilly wind was to be blamed and as another wave of wind managed to redden my nose further, he wiped it on the arm of his silver t-shirt. He could blame his anxiety on the cold but in truth, Rosalyn Green made him nervous. Beneath the innocent infatuated facade, River suspected she held something much more devious than she showed.

He looked away then, letting his mind linger on anything other than the girl in the window. She moved when he didn't reciprocate her greetings and he groaned from the utter despair in the pits of my heart.

"Rev," his jaws tightened when she approached. He wasn't sure how she stepped down that quickly, but her sight didn't fail to sour his spirit further. He hated the nickname he'd gotten from her; he wasn't a fan of nicknames in general but he knew defying her would only result in something he wasn't looking forward to. So, he kept his mouth shut and braced himself to give a sweet smile to the girl in the pair of new fancy heels and dress. "Are you coming in?" She asked and he nodded.