Chapter 6

Her things were gone, and so was the money.

Was he a fool? Had he really been duped so easily? Had he simply been a means to an end?

Standing at the edge of the town, he was certain she had left this way. The breeze tugged at his hair, blowing him out towards the woods as though the very element she controlled urged him after. The tight ache in his chest, however, held him like an anchor, dragging him down the other way, trying to pull him back into the listless current of his former life. The silence of it already filled him with dismay.

Turning away, he took but a few long strides before the weight was too great. In the playful breeze he heard the music of the festival well down the street. It made the ache tear open a little more as every song she had played for him danced through his troubled thoughts.

Snarling at himself, he forced a few more steps before a nagging sound in his mind made him pause once more. In every song had been that forlorn note, something he had not been able to place. No matter how jaunty a tune, she always slipped that melancholy twinge into every piece she played ... except the one time she had played just for him and only him.

It had been but a few seconds, just a blip in the expanse of his lifetime. But, it had been real. Genuine. It had moved him, entranced him, bewitched him. It had been so full of love and desire, her enchanting eyes soft and shining with adulation. And it was the only thing he could remember that didn’t have that wistful, soul wrenching note.

His march through the wilds had never felt so urgent– or so dull. Three agonizingly quiet days he had to contemplate the reason for her sudden disappearance. Three cold and lonesome nights to realize just what a fool he had been for not recognizing the signs before.

The trek across the punishing landscape was arduous. She traveled in a hurry that challenged even his long strides– a straight line directly southwest, skipping all towns and roads. No matter how hot the day or how dark the night, she did not stop. They covered a greater distance in this chase than in their wanderings, and he couldn’t help but feel a dread creep into his thoughts. No one walked like this without purpose. How dire could that purpose be? Why had she never told him?

As the morning of the fourth day crested a fiery orange and gold, he was close. Her footprints through a crop field were but moments before him. The trail led him to a town. He had been here once before, long before these new buildings had come up along the edges.

Pausing at the paved road that now hid her trail, he decided to follow it. In slow, purposeful steps, he followed his nose straight ahead even when it branched in many ways, down the front of buildings and off deeper into town. The few people out this early who saw him coming quickly vanished. Amongst the scent of terror that he elicited, he pursued a perfume that begged for his obsession like the sweet, silvery voice laced in panic that begged quietly in a messy space between warehouses.

“ ... told me over the phone, so you must be lying.”

“I swear, Damin, I-I’m not lying. I-I-I just met him outside of town, on-on the road. I-I was just flirting, that’s all. J-Just being friendly.”

“See, I have a real hard time believing that,” returned a man in a malicious tone. “Maxwell was real specific on what he saw. Said the two of you were being awfully ‘snuggly.’ You know the boss gets pissed when his toys play without him. He won’t like it when he finds out.” The man stepped closer, making her back up. “You remember what happened last time you pissed him off?”

Her breath quickened, holding in tears, her hands up in a silent plea to stay back that he did not abide. “L-L-Look, Damin, you-you don’t have to say anything to him. I-I have some money. I’m-I’m coming back, aren’t I? Please, don’t say anything to Kevin!”