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Was it only days ago?
Feels like a lifetime.
“I don’t know what you mean.” My wife is many things, but a liar she is not. I feel the way her body tenses on top of me.
I rub her back, trying to bring a semblance of comfort. Seeing my wife retreat back into her shell makes me feel particularly violent. Still, I want to know.
When she realizes I’m not going to give up, Rose sighs, turning her head so she’s looking up at me. “It’s not a fun story.”
“I don’t need a fun story. I just need your story.”
Rose hesitates for a fraction of a second before asking, “If I share, you’ll share your story too?”
“That’s the deal.” I nod.
“I’m not sure where to start,” she admits. I don’t respond, giving her time to collect her thoughts. Of course I want to know all of her history, but I’ll take what she can give me.
“I come from a town called Grym Hollow. It’s a small, secluded town. Basically you are born there and die there.”
“Like this kingdom?”
“I suppose, in a way.” She shrugs. “But also different. We don’t have a king or queen. It’s just a normal town, except we have The Guardian. Many avoid him though. He lives on the outskirts and never wanders into town. He protects Grym Hollow.”
Interesting. I don’t know why Ender has set up his home in this human town, but he has a reason for everything he does. The Guardian always has knowledge that others don’t, so I can only assume this place is important in some way.
It brought me Rose, after all.
“I had a pretty good childhood, not anything I can complain about,” Rose continues. “But when I turned eighteen, my parents died in a car accident.” She pauses before asking, “Do you know what a car is?”
“My mother was human. Yes, wife, I know what a car is—or rather was. I expect they’ve changed a lot since her day,” I muse.
“Right, anyways, I was left to take care of my sister and I don’t think I would have made it through that time if it wasn’t for Stefan.”
This time I’m the one that tenses, my hand stilling on her back. Rose notices my change in demeanor and laughs. “Simmer down, dragon. Let me finish my story.”
The smile quickly vanishes from her lips as she says, “Stefan was there for me when the whole town decided an eighteen-year-old who had just gone through the most traumatic moment of her life was too much to handle.
“Neither one of us meant for it to happen, but we fell in love. I was still fucked up and not really taking care of myself, but I was so sure that those things wouldn’t matter as long as I had the man I loved by my side. I just had to stay positive.
“That worked…for a while. Until it didn’t. The sadness always came back and I just couldn’t put on an act some days. I retreated and would get resentful when people told me to get over something that happened so long ago. As if losing your parents and the grief that comes with it should have an expiration date.
“My sister was the opposite. She sought out people to escape her misery, always becoming the life of the party. I suppose people cope differently,” she adds.
Tears start rolling down Rose’s cheeks. Anger and despair like I’ve never known flare to life within me. “Anyone who has not lost their parents in a horrific way can’t even begin to understand the deep sadness and emptiness we feel every fucking day. Shame on those people.”
Despite her tears, Rose offers me a smile. She places a hand on my chest and says, “It is an awful feeling, isn't it? I always feel like I have my grief in check and at random times it unleashes, surprising me.
“Anyway, apparently I didn’t have as good of a hold on my grief as I thought I did. I pulled away from Stefan. I couldn’t keep pretending to be happy and all he wanted to do was move on from that incident. He said I can’t keep living in the past and I should think about the future. It was only fair for our relationship.”
I’ve had relationships before Rose; I wasn’t celibate, but I’ve never been in love. Infatuation and lust? More times than I could count. But it was never serious and always fizzled out in a few months. That was the life I knew, the life I was content with.
But it isn’t the life I want anymore.
I want Rose in every way a man could have a woman like her.
“So you grew apart. Is that why you agreed to come here? To get away from Stefan?” I ask the question, but I’m not certain I want to hear the answer.
“Sort of,” she admits. “Stefan actually betrayed me. Him and my sister. I found out he was cheating on me with my sister. Both of them connected over their mutual disdain for me, apparently. The grief and sadness I held were too much for them. My sister’s the reason I’m here, though. She got pregnant and it wasn’t an easy pregnancy. There was a chance she would die in childbirth.
