2
It was twilight still but light was fading fast as she steered her car up the road to the mansion. As she drove slowly with the window down she could hear the gravely road crunching under the tires. The warm air floated softly around her. She loved the feeling of the warm breeze on her face. She stopped the car outside the large gates and got out. She closed the car door as quietly as possible, trying not to disturb the quietness of the evening and glanced up at the mansion.
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Inside, Edward sat in the shadows upstairs looking out the broken window that Jim had fallen from. He had seen a car coming up the path to the gate. A small rush of excitement had run through him at the thought of someone, anyone coming to the mansion. He had been so very lonely since his return to the empty mansion after having lived among the townspeople. He felt more lonely than ever before. More than after his father died. As awful as the townspeople had been to him in the end, he still missed them - their busyness, their conversations, their activities. He had liked to listen to them and watch them and he missed all that very much. The emptiness of his great house was cold around him. And of course he missed Kim - her warmth and her kindness. But he had watched her from his window and saw how she no longer glanced up at his house as she did the first week or two after the incident. He saw how she had begun walking back and forth to school with the same boy everyday. He saw how she looked happy and how she hugged the boy after he walked her to her door. He knew full well that she had chosen not to return in order to protect him but he also knew deep down that she would be happier with a "normal" person and that he was not that. He wished her well, he wished her happiness, as only one who truly loves can wish for another who once loved them but who left. He had grieved deeply for her and his heart had ached painfully and his tears had flowed copiously for many days after she left. Now, when he was not caring for the grounds of the mansion or tending to the simple needs of his daily life, he just sat for long periods of time at the broken window, longing for relief from the loneliness of his existence.
He always felt better as night began to fall. He guessed the loneliness was not as severe at night because the town grew less busy and there was not as severe a contrast to his aloneness. So he had a measure of peace in the evening and he enjoyed seeing the lights of the town and cities beyond as they twinkled in the distance. It was as he sat that he had seen the car approach and then someone get out. And so he had felt the excitement at the thought of someone that might break the awful quiet of his loneliness. But he also felt a bit of fear at the memory of the vicious crowd that had gathered outside that awful night. He sat quietly and saw a girl/woman get out of the car and approach the mansion.
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Nora looked up at the shattered window that Jim had fallen from and tried to put the memories of that night out of her thoughts. As she glanced about the path that led to the door she noticed that the yard looked very well taken care of.
"Oh no," she thought, "maybe someone else is living here now." She hadn't thought that was possible since the house had never been repaired, yet the landscaping was immaculate.
"Oh that's probably it - they have a landscaper come to keep up the yard each week. But there's no way anyone lives here," she reasoned with herself as she looked at the blackness of the windows and again at the broken window that had never been replaced.
"That place is empty," she realized with relief.
.
Note: I apologize for my limited vocabulary and probably poor sentence structure etc., etc., etc. I'm not college educated but I hope I am getting the mood of the story across.
It was twilight still but light was fading fast as she steered her car up the road to the mansion. As she drove slowly with the window down she could hear the gravely road crunching under the tires. The warm air floated softly around her. She loved the feeling of the warm breeze on her face. She stopped the car outside the large gates and got out. She closed the car door as quietly as possible, trying not to disturb the quietness of the evening and glanced up at the mansion.
**************************************************************************** **
Inside, Edward sat in the shadows upstairs looking out the broken window that Jim had fallen from. He had seen a car coming up the path to the gate. A small rush of excitement had run through him at the thought of someone, anyone coming to the mansion. He had been so very lonely since his return to the empty mansion after having lived among the townspeople. He felt more lonely than ever before. More than after his father died. As awful as the townspeople had been to him in the end, he still missed them - their busyness, their conversations, their activities. He had liked to listen to them and watch them and he missed all that very much. The emptiness of his great house was cold around him. And of course he missed Kim - her warmth and her kindness. But he had watched her from his window and saw how she no longer glanced up at his house as she did the first week or two after the incident. He saw how she had begun walking back and forth to school with the same boy everyday. He saw how she looked happy and how she hugged the boy after he walked her to her door. He knew full well that she had chosen not to return in order to protect him but he also knew deep down that she would be happier with a "normal" person and that he was not that. He wished her well, he wished her happiness, as only one who truly loves can wish for another who once loved them but who left. He had grieved deeply for her and his heart had ached painfully and his tears had flowed copiously for many days after she left. Now, when he was not caring for the grounds of the mansion or tending to the simple needs of his daily life, he just sat for long periods of time at the broken window, longing for relief from the loneliness of his existence.
He always felt better as night began to fall. He guessed the loneliness was not as severe at night because the town grew less busy and there was not as severe a contrast to his aloneness. So he had a measure of peace in the evening and he enjoyed seeing the lights of the town and cities beyond as they twinkled in the distance. It was as he sat that he had seen the car approach and then someone get out. And so he had felt the excitement at the thought of someone that might break the awful quiet of his loneliness. But he also felt a bit of fear at the memory of the vicious crowd that had gathered outside that awful night. He sat quietly and saw a girl/woman get out of the car and approach the mansion.
**************************************************************************** **
Nora looked up at the shattered window that Jim had fallen from and tried to put the memories of that night out of her thoughts. As she glanced about the path that led to the door she noticed that the yard looked very well taken care of.
"Oh no," she thought, "maybe someone else is living here now." She hadn't thought that was possible since the house had never been repaired, yet the landscaping was immaculate.
"Oh that's probably it - they have a landscaper come to keep up the yard each week. But there's no way anyone lives here," she reasoned with herself as she looked at the blackness of the windows and again at the broken window that had never been replaced.
"That place is empty," she realized with relief.
.
Note: I apologize for my limited vocabulary and probably poor sentence structure etc., etc., etc. I'm not college educated but I hope I am getting the mood of the story across.