1
He stares at the abandoned house, a fallen oak tree lying to his left and the garden poisoned by weeds to his right. There's no sign of life from the house, except for the fact that she is standing there on the front porch, staring directly at him.
It's as if she was waiting for him, after all this time.
"Welcome home." She says this with a tone so eerie that a chill runs down his spine.
Despite every instinct telling him not to, despite the creeping sense of unease gnawing at him, there is something in him that yearns to remember. He finds himself walking past the oak tree, past the garden, and up the steps.
"It's been so long." She says as he reaches the door, her smile softening as a welcome sign. Her laughter and the way she used to smile flicker in his memory, offering him comfort, but she is different now. Her smile is sharper, but he can still sense the girl he once loved.
"It surely has been."
As they step into the house, he can't help but notice all of the changes. The lack of decorations makes the house look bigger than before. However, the dark walls give each room a suffocating feeling, accentuated by the dreary, dusty carpets and furniture. On top of this, the house is so freezing that he can see his breath cloud in front of him with each exhale.
"Do you need help fixing the heat?" He questions as he sits down on the couch opposite her.
She glances at him, her brow furrowing for a moment. "Oh - that. No, I'm fine." She pauses. "I'm just always hot."
He watches her as she moves around the room, noticing that her eyes never fully leave him. Her hands move quickly as she rearranges parts of the room. She brushes the dust off of an old lamp and tidies the objects on the coffee table of the living room, like rearranging pieces of a puzzle that never fit to begin with. Her hands move quickly, but her attention stays firmly on him. She sits down on the other couch across from him, her eyes still locked with his. The silence between them feels heavier than it should, instead of the light curiosity of catching up with an old friend.
"Don't you think we could start over?" She says in a pleading tone with a kind of desperation that doesn't match her cold eyes. He doesn't know what to say. "I know it's been so long, but I figured you returning was a sign." Her smile falters only briefly, but it's enough to make him feel like he's staring at a ghost, or a version of the girl he once knew.
"You seem… different now." He doesn't know what else to say. He knows that he, too, is different, but she seems like a completely new version of herself. A version that seems to be hiding something.
"What's wrong with different?" she asks, leaning slightly forward. "You remember how we used to be, don't you? I'm still the girl who laughed with you, the one who would… do anything for you?" Her voice wavers just briefly, like a delicate flame shuttering in the wind. He can never tell what she's truly thinking. "Of course I've changed. And I'm sure you have, too. But we can have everything we used to have again."
"You're trying too hard," he blurts out before he can rethink his words. "I just got back into town. Why rush things?"
Her eyes darken, and for the briefest second he sees a change in her. It's as if a hidden part of her finally broke through. She blinks. It's gone.
"I just want you to stay. I know I can give you what you need. I thought I'd never see you again, but now? Even just in these few moments together I know we have something special." The words sound sweet, but the way she's looking at him now, her gaze fixed with such intensity, feels like she's trying to hold him in place, like she's pulling him into her world. A world he doesn't belong in.
He attempts to stand up, but he realizes he can't - not out of indecision, but because the house itself feels alive, feels like it's moving in on him, with her eyes acting as the red laser pointed at him - the target. This isn't the girl he once loved. He senses that something darker has taken over her, something that wants him, something that has been… waiting for him. Something besides her. She looks at him with such intensity, he can see that she fully believes that he's meant to be here, meant to stay.