Cameron

"Hey, Caleb. I wanna ask you something," I said.

Caleb looked up from snapping lines on the floor. Sweat ran on the side of his face, and he wiped it with his arm. He drove in before breakfast and helped me with the reno since morning.

"You're too late," he said and grinned. "I'm already marrying someone else."

I snickered. I placed a fresh pitcher of iced tea I just made from the kitchen downstairs on the makeshift worktable in the hallway.

I had renovated the downstairs kitchen a while ago—just enough to make it functional. I didn't like bringing a cooler with me to keep my drinks and food cold if I could help it. I hooked up the electricity and installed an old fridge I had in storage in the kitchen.

In the last two weeks I had stripped all six bedrooms on the second floor down to the bones. I decided to start on the three huge bedrooms on the right wing and fix them first and slowly work my way to the left wing.

I was hoping I could salvage the hardwood floors, but when I ripped off the carpet, I discovered the water damage was so bad all of them had to be replaced.

After finding where the leak came from and repaired, the new subfloors were installed, sanded, checked for moisture, and levelled. Caleb was prepping them now so we can install the underlayment.

I managed to snag a good deal from my supplier, bit the bullet and paid for a huge order of flooring. The new floors have been laid out in the room next door for a few days and were ready to be installed. Since the old baseboards and molding were still in good shape, I was keeping them.

"What if I promise to give you one hell of a honeymoon?" I deadpanned.

Now Caleb was the one who snickered. "Okay. I'll think about it."

"There's a glass in my sink again," I said. "Why the hell do you always leave a cup in the sink? Does that give you a hard on?"

"Kinda. Toss me that measuring tape." I tossed it and he caught it. "Who only has one measuring tape? I can't believe you don't have a spare." He measured, jot down numbers on a notepad. "What if you lose it?"

"Then I'll just buy another," I said.

"When my dad left us," he said after a moment, "Ben raised me."

He didn't like talking about his childhood, but he told me enough about it that I knew. But why was he telling me this suddenly?

"But when I started high school, that's when Ben went to college. He lived in the dorms. Mom was busy and out of the country all the time."

"You were alone most of the time," I said.

"You were in the same boat."

I grunted in reply.

He continued, "When there's a glass in the sink, I knew that Ben's home."

I filled his glass with iced tea, handed it to him.

Maybe having a glass in the sink made it more bearable for him to be alone, made him feel comforted. It reminded him that someone... loved him. We worked for a bit and moved on to installing the flooring.

"By the way," Caleb said. "What are you gonna do with that chimney?"

The damaged chimney that Rick pointed out was in an annex in the left wing—a sort of mini ballroom that was connected to the house by a covered walkway. Whatever damage it already had or would have would not affect the main house. I could get rid of the annex if I wanted to. I'd decide what to do with it later.

"Nothing."

"What do you mean, nothing?"

I hammered the next piece, nailed it. "Can't look at that chimney until you hack off those rose bushes. They're crawling up the roof now."

"You know when I agreed to hack them off it was pretty dark outside. Didn't know they were dinosaur sized."

"Short straw is a short straw," I said. "You got the rest of your life to do it, anyway."

He rolled his eyes. "Till death do us part, right?"

When Caleb left, I finished the rest of the floor, cursed when the last pieces left were all warped. The rest of the flooring wouldn't be delivered till week after next.

"Shit."

I was itching to finish the whole room. Either wait for the order or drive to the city now and pick up a few pieces of flooring so I could complete the room. I thought about it for two seconds, then ran back to my cabin for a quick shower, put on a white shirt and jeans, grab my keys and hopped in my truck. Opening the glove box, I searched for my list.

Since I was heading to the city, I could pick up a few more items on the way. Now if I could just find that damn list—

I stilled when something fell out from the glove box to the floorboard. It was the blue hair tie. It had finally snapped during basketball practice. It was strange that it happened when she was there. Had she seen it? Did she recognize it?

I bent and picked it up, placed it in my pocket. Ignoring the knot in my stomach, I jumped in my truck and drove off.

"Shit."

There was a long barricade blocking the street, with orange cones lined up in the middle of the road. The street was closed. Heavy rains had pounded the road to a pulp, and holes as huge and deep as a black hole littered it. They were repairing the roads, but there was more forecast of heavy rains. I figured they'd be back to repair them again in a few weeks.

I backed up my truck, made a U-turn, kept driving until I hit a street that wasn't barricaded. And stopped. This was the street of my childhood. The street where the house in my nightmares stood.

I hadn't driven on this street in years. I could take another street. I could keep pretending this street didn't exist, forget about it. But Kara's blue hair tie felt as heavy as the whole world in my pocket.

I balled my hand into a fist and bit my knuckle. To hell with it. Cold sweat popped on my brow as I passed by houses and open fields. It was the same street as any other street in this town. Nothing was different about it. Nothing at all except that it held memories that I kept running away from.

Why would I willingly revisit it now?

Even before the question slid in my mind I already knew why.

It was Kara. The moment she showed up in that particular nightmare had triggered something inside me. She shouldn't have been there. Not in that house.

My mind had always protected her from that nightmare somehow. Seeing her harmed, even if it wasn't real, had awaken something primitive inside me.

The sun peeked through the leaves and branches as I drove by houses and small fields. I remembered an old tire swing in the front yard of a yellow bungalow, but now it's gone. The decaying farmhouse with red peeling paint was still standing. A log cabin with a big apple tree. I had walked this street alone when I was eight years old, and then with Pete later when he became my friend.

My heart was pounding. Louder and louder until it was all I could hear. Feeling dizzy, I pulled to the side of the road. The knock on the driver's side window startled me.

"Hey, boy, are ya alright?"

I swiped my palm over my mouth and chin. Air, I needed air. Pressing a button, the window slid down. Big, wrinkled hands curled around my open window before the scent of tobacco and mint hit my nostrils.

"You look a little pale. Should I call anybody for ya?"

"No," I croaked. "Thanks."

He was old. His hair was white and wispy, the sparse strands standing on top of his head. His face had deep creases and folds, like a shirt left and forgotten in the dryer, but his eyes were kind and familiar.

"Say, boy, did ya live here before?"

He looked behind him, to the house where my nightmares lived, to the house I had shared with Raven when I was eight years old, then back at me. I pulled back.

"Say, are ya Cameron?" A smile split his crumpled face. "How are ya, boy? It's me, Romeo. Don't ya remember? Ya used to steal apples from my apple tree, ya did. Chased ya but could never catch ya. How are ya?"

I swallowed the lump in my throat. I remembered him. He had been...kind to me. Contrary to what he said, he had caught me once after stealing apples from his tree. But instead of kicking my ass, he'd given me two dollars and told me to buy something to drink.

"I'm sorry about the apples."

He laughed heartily, then started hacking. When he was done, he continued, "Don't ya worry about them apples. Still standing, that apple tree. Did ya come back to take a look at ya old house? Been in the market for years. No one wants to buy it. I'm looking after it. Ya wanna take a look?"

Did he know what happened in there? If my nightmare was real, he would have heard of it back then. Possibly seen the police, paramedics in front of the house that night.

I wanted to ask him, but at the same I didn't. It didn't matter because I couldn't get the words out. Anxiety wrapped around my chest.

He didn't wait for my answer and shuffled his way to the driveway of my old house, waving me over.

"Lights still working, but water's shut down. I'm going to pop back to my house and get us some drinks. Ya go ahead and take a look. Front door's open."

"Thanks."

"Boy, did ya grow up! Tall as a tree and twice as huge. Good lookin' too. Say, are ya married?"

"No."

"Well, don't wait too long. The lady won't wait for ya forever."

I watched him hobble down the street for a few seconds, then closed my eyes and took a deep breath. The urge to run back to my truck and drive away was strong. I was afraid of what this house would make me remember once I entered it.

I slid my hand in my pocket, wrapped Kara's blue hair tie in my fist. And somehow, I knew what I had to do.

I opened my eyes and turned around. The house looked the same as I remembered it. Made of red brick and wood, it was a two-story house with white shutters and a deep covered porch. It looked just like any other house on the street. There was nothing special about it. Nothing at all.

Except that it felt like it was waiting for me.

From where I was standing, I could see the basement window where I used to escape outside. When I lived here, I made sure it was never locked.

I took a step forward, felt my knees shake. When I closed my hand on the doorknob, cold sweat popped on my brow.

Keep going, motherfucker.

I gritted my teeth and opened it.

A/N: Hi loves, how are you? I hope you are well and you are happy! There are two chapters I just published today. Make sure you read part one (chapter 13) and part two (chapter 14). I hope you enjoyed reading them! I just love it when Cameron and Caleb are together. 😊 I'm working on chapter 15 right now and hope to finish it soon! I will keep you updated on my Instagram @isabelleronin