Thank you so much for the feedback girls...
xxoo
"This place must be in the middle of nowhere," Tyler complained as he hit the steering wheel angrily. "We seem to be lost."
"Calm down, Ty," I replied, sighing. I was hot, tired and angry and just wanted the drive to be over. "Why don't we just stop and ask someone for directions?"
"There is no-one around, An! Who do you think I can ask?" he exploded.
Typical male, I thought to myself. The odds that he would stop to ask for directions, even if there were people around, were slim to none. That just wasn't the male way.
"Just take it easy, Tyler. No need to be mad," I said, feeling a little bit broken inside. Tyler had not this angry, yelling kind of man before.
Finally, we came to an old barn near the edge of the road. We pulled up and stopped in front of it. Tyler got out of the car, approached the barn and called, "Hello, is anybody there?"
I was sitting in the car, waiting and thinking about Drover's Run. It must have been a large property. Full of secrets and dark nooks and crannies waiting to be explored. I was excited about the house and about the fact I might get to see some relatives maybe. An old, dirty man exited the barn. Tyler and him talked quickly, hands moving, their fingers pointing silent directions as I watched them through the glass of the windscreen.
"Does he know anything about the house?" I asked when Tyler came back to the car.
"Yeah," he replied. "It's a half hour drive from here and down a long driveway. But he did say there was no one living there."
"Oh," I answered and offered nothing more as Tyler probed me on the tone of my reply. From that moment I felt a little bit weird, a little bit disappointed. I closed my eyes and found myself lost in thought. What could have happened to the house? Why didn't anyone live there anymore? Did my mum ever wonder about there, dream about it or think about it? There were so many possibilities and through my hazy sleep, I realized I was simply a confused girl who had been hoping to find her family.
"We're here," Tyler called softly as he woke me up from my daydream.
"What?" I asked, groggy and confused.
"I said we're here, An! We're here, Drover's Run, remember?" he asked, laughing.
"Oh sorry," I replied, drifting into consciousness. I looked out the window and gasped. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was a gorgeous old house, made of stone. If the builder had been trying to make it look like a proud and majestic farmhouse in the center of a large, once bustling property, he had been rather effective. Broken lattices of wood and trellises of creeping and rotting ivy adorned the walls, giving it an ethereal look. Broken fences stood proudly in lines across the ground and I could almost imagine the horses, cattle and sheep that had once thrived here. Despite it's age and rundown, dirty state, it took my breath away, and caused me to lose my vocabulary and simply utter the word, 'Wow,' as any manner of beautiful thing often does.
"It's really old," Tyler said. "And needs so much repairing, so much cleaning. So much work."
"Yeah, but I don't think it's more work than we can handle. Some cleaning, some minor repairs. No trouble at all," I replied, as I wandered around the house. I refused to let him disillusion me and I could see myself restoring the beautiful house (I already had major plans) and I let him know so. I quickly, inviting no argument continued my spiel. "Lets find a way to get in!"
There were so many entrances into the house but all of them were locked. I was all up for breaking a window or something of the kind. After all, it was my property and I planned on re-doing the house anyway.
"There may be somebody inside, An. We should knock on the door," Ty suggested gently. It seemed that leaving the car had cured him and he was the man I'd fallen in love with.
"Yeah okay," I said, a little unsure. "Let's try that first."
I approached the front door and knocked in quick succession. There was no sound for a while but then I heard someone walking quickly towards the door.
"I've told you people, I'm not selling!" she shouted as she tried to open the door from inside, but she found she couldn't.
"Okay, no one's in. Let's go and break a window," Ty said, after standing silent for a while.
I looked at him like he was strange. This was completely weird. Hadn't he heard the voice?
"But there's a woman inside!" I interjected. Tyler peered at me worriedly.
"What woman?" he asked.
"Didn't you hear? She told us that she wasn't selling the house," I explained and gazed at him with the same expression he had just gazed at me with.
"An, I heard nothing. There is no one inside. What's wrong with you?" he asked.
I shot a glare at him. Nothing was wrong with me. I reached for the door handle, spun it and found it was not locked anymore.
"See!" I cried. "She unlocked the door."
I pushed the door and looked inside. It was dark and humid. A musty smell came from the house and I nearly gagged but rather than wait, I forced myself to glance into the house. All I could see the long hall with many doors on both sides.
"Go ahead," Tyler demanded, pushing me to enter.
"Yeah, okay," I whispered, complaining that as the male he should be the first to enter. After a minute I gave in and took the first step in and called to see if I could find the lady. "Hello?"
"I told you there was nobody, An. Who are you calling out for?" Tyler asked.
I decided just not to answer him. He didn't understand. I guessed that I had had a dream, a vision or something earlier, because as I looked around, I realized it was impossible for anyone to live in that mess.
"Just incase" I replied finally, after Tyler had repeated his question two more times. We were both frustrating each other incredibly.
Just as we were about to go further in the house, we heard a car pulling over. We left the house to see who it was. I could see an angry looking-man through the windscreen and I raised my hand slightly as a half-wave, half-surrender. He ignored me and concentrated on causing as big dust pile as he could when he swerved into his parking space.
"Who the hell are you?" the man shouted as he climbed out of his Ute.
