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To this day, I couldn’t understand why she had to go and change what it was that we were. She tried to change the very fabric that had woven us. That change broke us. Attempting to be something else, as if she didn’t realize our makeup as a couple was already set in stone, ruined our sacred union. She, a stay at home wife. Me, a man who had inherited a small fortune but worked hard so that my family for generations would have everything they could ever dream of having. My father did that before he died. My grandfather did it too. Why did Raven feel the need to change it for our family? Why did she want to go outside of our home to find happiness?
Looking over my shoulder, I observed the frantic woman riding in my backseat. She was a passionate, independent woman who followed her own path and became a singer. Even with the thousands of downloads that I had bought of her music, her album would have made it to number one without me. The Billboard sales data proved that to me. My fiery gray eyes staring back at me in my rearview mirror expressed the pain I had of not being responsible for putting Alise on top. Like my Raven once desired to be, Alise was in charge of her life. I supported Alise’s career, doing for her what I didn’t do for my Raven. That should count for something, right?
Once upon a time, Raven had dreams too. When she was here, walking the earth, I couldn’t understand why she would want to dream when our reality gave us everything a person could want and need in life. She always talked about opening up a storefront that would have all of her specially baked items in there. I would listen as she spoke and watch the adoration in her eyes as she talked about the bakery, never thinking it would become a reality. Being my wife should have been enough.
Why Raven? Why wasn’t I enough?
My tires ate up the road as I drove down highway 280, playing Alise’s version of forevermore. Maybe it was meant for Raven to leave me so that I could find someone to unbreak my heart by singing soulful songs to mend it. Someone who could bring my soul back alive one dimpled smile at a time. Alise banging on the window, asking me to let her go was the antithesis to my heart’s revival. She didn’t want to be in the back of my car, yet there was no way that I could let her go.
Soon, Alise. Soon, you too will fall in love with me.
I hoped she would.
I hadn't seen or heard from Raven's ghost in two weeks, not since I had gone to Alise’s house, stood in her backyard and listened to her make love to her bodyguard. The man was a nuisance, and I was convinced Alise was only entertaining him because I hadn’t been bold enough to take her heart. Well, now, I had made my bold move and physically took her body. Her heart was next. There was something ominous about taking a woman at gunpoint and smiling as I drove away. However, somewhere deep inside of me, a foolish man was looking for his forever. Nothing more, nothing less.
The way I cried for Alise that night outside of her house must have driven a wedge between Raven and me. Not even her ghost would visit me now, and I missed her. Raven. My lover of all times. She would never have looked at another man the way Alise did. Raven’s smile was reserved for me. It was a smile that had a way of beguiling my sad soul into smiling at any moment.
“Nevermore,” Raven’s voice sounded off in the car.
I glanced around the car to look for her, but I was alone save for Alise, who was doing her best to break free from the backseat. I pressed a button on my dash and a light gas emitted in the air in the back of the car. As the sleeping gas sprayed into the air, it only affected her. I had the car modified for the sole purpose of taking her when I realized I had no other option than to force Alise’s hand to bring her here.
Looking through the rearview mirror, I watched the gas take effect on her. She tried to fight it by yelling and coughing, but there was no use. She rubbed her eyes until she couldn’t hold them open any longer.
“Sleep, my beautiful Alise. My Raven reincarnated. Rest, my dear.”
I reclined my head in the seat and tried my best to be at ease with all that I had done. I laid my foot into the gas and drove faster. Soon, we would be at the place where Raven and I used to drive each other up the wall with passionate lovemaking. I would show Alise what it really felt like to be made love to. I turned on her newest single, Heart Broken, and let the melody take me away. The lyrics told me exactly what she needed:
“Men always want it all. Even as they make the tears fall. They don’t treat us like the queens we are. We travel the world for them, near and far. But they don’t appreciate the diamond in the rough. They never do, and it’s so hard, so tough. He wants the diamond in the rough every time. But won’t do what it takes to make her shine. Never going the extra mile that it takes to be mine…”
Listening to the song, I knew exactly what she needed—not wild, roaring, and growling
relations like Bruiser had given her, but to have a man cherish and mesmerize her with precious diamonds. Soon, her past heartbreaks would be a thing of the past. Instead, she was going to be making the sounds of my love and craving my touch. And, I would use my fortune to give her anything her heart desired.
Two and a half hours after leaving Lafayette, I arrived at the road to the cabin. I turned down the gravelly driveway and rode for two miles before I reached it. It was a highly secluded property, perfect for Alise and me to connect without any interruptions from the outside world. I picked her up from the backseat, tossed her over my shoulder, and walked toward the front door.
Inside, my faint foot-falls against the hardwood floors were the only sounds that could be heard. “You hear that, my love. Complete silence, just the way we like it,” I said to her as I placed her in the center of the bed.
I hated to wield my gun at her earlier. It hurt me even more to have to throw her into the car, but I had to do it so that I could get her to come with me. Spending time here always did Raven good. After some time away from the world, Alise would see things my way too. The cabin was decorated with memories, pictures, keepsakes, and decorations that Raven and I had collected. Now that I had Alise, she could add her touch to it, as well.
“Van!” Alise said, sitting up in the bed and backing away from me until her back was pressed against the backboard. “This is wrong. Take me back to…just take me home.”
“You’re awake, my love?” I asked, ignoring the nonsense about us leaving here. We weren’t going anywhere any time soon.
“Please. Just let me go. I won’t cause you any problems if you just let me go. You don’t even have to take me. I’ll find my way back.”
I slowly crawled up the bed, following her as she moved away from me. “We need this, Alise. This is the only way I could get you to listen to me.”
“By bringing me to a haunted house?” She looked around the room at all of Raven’s pictures on the walls. Then, her eyes returned to mine with more questions than before.
“You are my rare and radiant woman whom the angels sent for me. There is no one else for me than you.”
“That’s not true, Van.”
“We are meant to be, so we must be. I don’t want to be alone anymore. Make it stop, make the hurting stop, Raven!”
“Why do you keep calling me Raven?”
“Because—”
