๐ณ๐๐๐-๐ด๐๐ ๐ท๐๐๐๐๐
๐หหณยทห ึดึถึธ โ๐ทอโ ึดึถึธหยทหณห๐ ึดึถึธ
Spontaneous decisions had never really been something Lily-Mae was familiar with. She typically spent a lot of time in her head, mulling things over. Being
thoughtless wasn't in her vocabulary. Yet, she was already four hours into a five hour drive from her house to a farm she hadn't seen in over two decades. She'd simply tossed herself into her Mazda Miata, turned off her phone, and set off onto the road like it was the only logical decision.
Two hours into the drive, she turned her phone on. She needed
someone to know that she was okay. She'd originally planned on calling her best friend, the only woman on Earth who didn't make her feel insane for complaining about her
loving fiancรฉ, her
amazing parents, and her
perfect life. Lily-Mae had just planned on telling Adeline that she was safe and what she was doing, hoping to God
someone would help her feel less insane. But the minute her phone turned on, several missed calls and messages began flooding in.
Twenty-four calls from Carter, followed by eighteen messages. Then, thirty calls from her Mother and a singular text from her father. Her eyes focused heavily on the road, doing her best to ignore the voicemails and messages left by her fiancรฉ that spiralled in her mind. Well,
ex-fiancรฉ now.
"You're making a mistake, don't do this."
"We get married in a month, are you stupid?"
"I put too much work into you just for you to think you can throw it all away."
"You're nothing without me, Lily-Mae."
Lily-Mae couldn't even bear to listen to the multiple voicemails left by her mother, or the singular text her father had sent. Carter's words were enough for the night, eyes reddened from the tears that now stained her cheeks. Her fingers gripped the steering wheel tightly, a shuttered breath escaping her lips. Had running away in the middle of the night been the best decision? Probably not, but it beat dealing with the aftermath of
daring to raise her voice at Carter and leave her ring behind.
Her finger felt oddly naked without it, like there was a piece missing from her. If she wasn't Carter's fiancรฉ, then who was she? Lily-Mae struggled to come up with an answer. Her mouth felt dry, her body was tense all around. As much as she tried, she couldn't relax at all. Not until she was at the farm, in front of it's burgundy door and creaky steps. At 11:50PM, she finally drove past an old, beat-up sign.
'๐พ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ณ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐น๐๐
๐๐!'
The letters were aged, just barely visible in the dark of night. A twinge of sweat rolled down her neck, and a chill ran down her spine. Excitement? Fear?
Both? Lily-Mae couldn't put her finger on it, but driving into Little Ridge brought back a familiar feeling that flooded her senses. Her mother always complained on the drive there, chiding they should have flown. Her father retorted that the drive would help Lily-Mae build character,
patience. But really, it was Grandpa Maverick that had taught her patience, not the silly drives to him. Lily-Mae couldn't be anymore impatient during their drives to Little Rock.
It didn't matter what time of day it was, Grandpa Maverick would always be waiting on the porch for her. He'd be sitting on his swing with a fresh glass of tea for her, his arms open as she ran and tripped up his steps. Pulling up to the long, quiet driveway of Mossy Oaks Farm was bittersweet.
The farm hadn't been torn down like she was told. It still stood tall, whispering it's hundred-year-old secrets to her just like it did when she was little. When Lily-Mae stepped out of her car, the silence in the air carried. Only little chirps of crickets could be heard, and the warm air smelled like grass, menure, and rain. The scent brought tears to her eyes, a small sniffles escaping her lips as she quickly wiped her face.
Lily-Mae began approaching the steps, wiping the sweat building on her hands on the back pockets of her jeans. She hadn't packed much, if anything. The only thing she had on her was her purse, and a pair of pajamas in the backseat that she'd tossed. She
absolutely was not sleeping in jeans. As she approached the portch, Lily-Mae noticed something odd.
Incredibly odd.In one of the bedrooms on the second floor, there was a gentle light illuminating from the window. Just soft enough for her to notice, and for her to panick.
Of course, the night she comes back to the farm it's getting robbed! Or maybe there were squatters? Lily-Mae carefully opened the back seat of her car, pulling out the wooden baseball bat she kept back there. Everyone called her crazy for keeping something like that in the back seat, but safety always came first! Didn't matter if she was in the city, in the country, or on a ship; Lily-Mae knew how to handle herself with a bat.
With the deed to the farm, a pair of keys had been given to her by her mother. Lily-Mae quietly tried the keys, happy to find that they still worked! Walking into the house felt like walking into a museum. Everything was left exactly as it was. Her fingers tightened around the handle of the bat, looking along the walls where her grandfather's old decorations still hung as if he hadn't died at all. Surprisingly, there was also still a photo of them together by the front door. It was his favorite picture, he loved looking at it in the morning and coming home to it.
Lily-Mae's feet creaked underneath the old wood of the house, inspecting pairs of shoes still messily scrambled at the door. Nobody had been living in the house for over eight years, yet it still looked...homey? Like it was kept up to shape, like somebody had been coming by making sure everything was clean and well-kept.
Like someone had still been living there.Gripping the handle of the baseball bat, Lily-Mae whipped her head around only to be face to face with an unfamiliar face. A
man at that, fear striking her entire body as a startled gasp-squeal escaped her. She for sure had thought the house was being robbed, but hadn't expected to come face to face with the robber himself! Brows furrowed, cheeks flushed, Lily-Mae kept the bat between the two of them.
"How
dare you burgle an old man's house!" She accused, voice wobbling with a false sense of courage.
Maybe she should have just called the cops...?