AllFreeNovel
Share Us
When we make eye contact, his brown eyes light up. “Willow!” He waves at me with a broad grin on his face.
I don’t return his smile.
When I make it to the other side of the gate, he comes forward to wrap his arms around me. I stand motionless in his embrace.
He clears his throat and steps away. “Come on, kid. Let’s grab your bags.”
We find my baggage carousel, but it takes a while for the luggage to arrive. A long moment of awkward silence stretches between us, and I wait with my arms folded across my chest.
“So…” he says, “How was the flight?”
“Long.”
“Any issues? I tried booking you a longer stopover in Dublin but couldn’t.”
“It’s fine.”
He nods. “Okay. That’s good.”
Silence again.
He clucks his tongue. “Well, I think you’re going to love Andarusia.”
“I doubt it.”
That shuts him up until the bags arrive. Mine is one of the first off the carousel, and I reach to grab it before he can help me. I pull the handle up and roll it a few steps away.
He stares at my bag, tilting his head. “Wait, that’s it? That’s all you brought?”
“Yeah.” I fold my arms.
He grabs the suitcase handle for me. “We can go shopping this weekend if you’d like?”
“I’m fine. Can we just go now? I’m fucking exhausted.”
He recoils when I curse, and though his lips set into a thin line, he doesn’t say anything.
Without another word, he leads me outside toward the pickup area. A blast of cold air hits me when we head through the automatic doors, and I stick my hands into the front pockets of my sweatshirt. The chill pierces through my joggers and raises goosebumps on my skin from head to toe. I shudder. Compared to south Texas, this weather is inhospitable for human life.
Looking out beyond the airport is a large expanse of flat, open fields of tall grass. There are no mountains, and I can’t make out any cities or villages from here.
Somehow, I’ve wound up in the middle of nowhere in eastern Europe. And it’s cold as fuck.
My eighteenth birthday can’t come fast enough. Because as soon as I’m a legal adult, I’m getting the hell out of here. I’m not sure where I’ll go, but anywhere is better than this place.
Cars and taxis zip past the curb at full speed along the thoroughfare, and I imagine throwing myself into the street. No one would have time to react, and all it would take is one car to put me out of my misery. I’d be dead on impact, so the pain would only last for a split second.
Unless it didn’t kill me. Maybe it would just maim me or turn me into a vegetable for the rest of my life.
My dad leads me over to a black town car waiting at the curb. A well-dressed driver exits from the driver’s seat and comes around to open the rear passenger door.
“Welcome to Andarusia, miss,” he says in an accented voice. He tips his hat at me and smiles.
The best I can manage is to grimace at him before sliding into the backseat. At least the heat is turned up, which starts to thaw the deep chill in my body.
Once everyone settles into the vehicle, the driver pulls into the street. Soon, the airport begins to disappear behind us in the rearview mirror.
“This is Ivan,” my dad says. “Ivan, this is my daughter, Willow.”
