Riley got home after Saint and went straight to her bedroom. She took her time in the shower tending to all her scrapes and bruises. When she was done, she laid down trying to go to sleep for over an hour. She spent most of that time tossing and turning. Eventually she gave up.
She soothed her jaggedness in her favorite spot. A window seat stuffed full of comfy pillows and blankets in the living room. For a while she watched hypnotized by the snow as it danced around in the cold night wind. Lulled by the spin of the magic mill as in her weariness it seemed to go faster and faster.
Even after the snow stopped Riley just sat watching. In the end she got one of her mom’s poetry books off the shelf and started reading. No one there to discourage her now. She fell asleep with the book in her lap in that fuzzy time between late night and early morning.
Saint had also gone directly from the stable to his bedroom. For whatever bravado he had put on in front of Riley, his behavior was that of concern. He took one of the straight-backed chairs from the dining table, setting it up by his bedroom window.
He was probably thinking about it as protecting Carter. She had more important things to worry about. And protecting Riley from what she couldn’t handle. And protecting them both from themselves.
Saint stared out the window as his brain went around. Except Riley had taken a nap. As she tossed and turned unable to find the sweet embrace of sleep, Saint’s eyes started drooping.
Then he started to jerk himself awake, seemingly unaware that he had even been asleep. Finally, as if performing some unspoken penance, he slid down and curled up on the floor next to the window.
He snapped awake a few hours later before Riley. From his bedroom window he didn’t notice anything out of place. Out in the living room he gently removed the book from Riley’s lap and put it back on the shelf. It was as he watched Riley asleep in the window box, he first started noticing something off.
The most obvious was the magic-mill. It hadn’t been just because Riley was tired. There was no question now it was going way faster than normal. But the magic-mill was just an indicator. Nothing more. But to what? Saint stood staring out the window entranced. Trying to put his finger on what he was missing.
And so that’s how it came to be that Riley woke up a little after the sun broke with Saint’s face hovering two inches above her own.
“Fuck! Saint!”
His response was to point out the window. “Is there something weird about that house?”
In her half-awake state Riley couldn’t stop her response. “I know there is something weird about you.”
She pushed him away from her. He eased back but maintained a face of horror. He whispered, “I am telling you to look at that house.”
Riley narrowed her eyes doing her best to engage her brain.
“I don’t know Saint. Does this have to be right now?”
“Look out the window and tell me. What’s wrong with that house.”
Riley turned her head and looked out. Then she sat up very slowly. There was a hill on the west side of the courtyard across from the apartment that had a house. Both Saint and Riley, as did most of the villagers, looked at that house at least a dozen times a day. But the house that sat on the hill was not the same house that had sat there before.
Even without the constant exposure, the house was just not quite right. The architecture was strangely pointy and aggressive. And the dead giveaway, there was no snow anywhere on it. Also, not a single trace of the other house to be seen. The poem had been vague but the implications implicated were upsetting to say the least.
But Riley’s brain still hadn’t fully engaged. She looked at Saint with panic.
“You have to go tell mom!”
Saint’s face was confused and then disappointed. Something about what she said wasn’t right. And then all at once understanding, sadness, everything tumbled across Riley’s face.
“Riley. We don’t have time for this right now.”
Riley looked at Saint and his same frustration was reflected back at him.
Saint cursed quietly under his breath. “This is bigger than you and me.”
Riley, half awake from a fitful night of sleep, with her eyes narrowed. But she had to admit he was right.
“Fine. What do we need to do.”
Now Saint looked confused. “You go tell Carter.”
Riley was at her ragged edge. “She made her point last night. Wasn’t that your whole argument?”
“You know it’s different now. Stop looking for a fight and help this family.”
Riley flinched. Saint stared at her with no emotion. Eventually he straightened up and declared, “We are wasting time. I am going to go help people. If you want to help then you will follow the rules. For once.”
He even spat out as he turned around, “Selfish.” He grabbed his jacket, and left the apartment.
Riley dressed casually, not wasting time on redundant underlayers. She didn’t even stop to brush her teeth. Carter could deal with Riley’s bad breath.
On the way out of the bedroom, she stopped short at the dirty, torn black dress tossed over the chair. Riley had borrowed it without asking from Carter’s closet the night before in the rush. Not wanting to come all the way home and change before and miss a moment of Victoria’s wake.
There were so many choices Riley could have made. It was a plain black dress, nothing fancy, and Riley being shorter than Carter it likely didn’t even fit. Riley could throw it away and Carter might never even notice it was gone. Riley could send it to the family tailor, getting it mended as if nothing had ever ripped it apart. Have it sent back to Carter and again, she might never even notice.
With a wry smile Riley put the dress on a hanger and took it with her. She was dragging her feet as she went outside, staring across the courtyard at what used to be her close and familiar childhood home. Now it couldn’t have felt further away.
