“You know handwriting can be forged, right?”
“What are you trying to do?” Eva eyed her suspiciously.
“Nothing, I’m just trying to understand this.”
“What is there to understand!?” Eva snapped. “My dad is alive. I’m going to meet him tonight. What kind of an explanation do you need?”
“Nothing, just…” Bella bit her tongue. “I just don’t want you to get hurt.”
“You have no idea what’s going on, and you are telling me something about not getting hurt.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you upset, just…”
“Can’t you just be happy for me?” Eva’s eyes glistened with tears.
“Of course, of course…”
The two girls hugged each other. Eva felt like her heart was going to burst out of her chest cavity. She couldn’t wait for midnight. She had no idea how she was going to make the time fly by. She would have to wait, and then, everything would be revealed.
Chapter 23
It was ten minutes to midnight. The night was even darker than usual. There was no moon in the sky. Only a few stars, scattered around, looking lost in time and space. Eva was standing next to the closed well. The bucket was there. She could only hope that tonight, no one would come looking for the blood dealer, whichever of the two they needed. But, that didn’t really matter. If someone did come, she’d make them go back. It was her turn to be here by the well and no one was going to take it away from her.
She checked her watch. It was seven minutes to midnight. Time passed slowly. Even more slowly now that midnight was so close. A raven croaked from a nearby bush and Eva jumped with fright, almost dropping her flashlight.
“Shit,” she whispered to herself. “It’s okay, Eva, it’s just the woods. Nothing else.”
She tried to calm herself down by speaking aloud to herself. She figured the sound of someone’s voice, even her own, would soothe her. She tried to remain perfectly still, like a hunter waiting on its prey. A twig broke somewhere behind her and she immediately turned around. There was nothing there. She switched off her flashlight, thinking it was probably better that no one saw the light. That would be suspicious. It might make some curious people want to come over and see what was going on.
She swallowed heavily. She wished she could have brought someone along, but her father said not to and she knew she needed to obey him, for the sake of everyone involved. The raven croaked again and she felt like throwing a rock at him for scaring her, as if she wasn’t scared stiff already.
She checked the time. It was one minute to midnight. She looked around. All was still, eerily so. She wished her dad had chosen a more illuminated place to meet but, of course, that was out of the question.
There was a sound behind her and she jumped, turning around immediately. There was a hooded figure standing in front of her. Eva froze. She was too scared to run, too scared to scream, too scared to do anything. The figure took one step towards her, its arms coming up to take off the hood.
When the hood was off, she recognized the greying hair, the lips, the thick, bushy eyebrows. Half of his face was covered in scars. The sight of them made her want to cry. She pressed her hands against her lips, trying to suppress a gasp.
“It’s okay, Evie pie,” he spoke calmly, and she knew it was him.
She rushed over to him and jumped into his arms. He felt thinner, his hands weren’t as soft as before and he’d lost weight. She wondered how many more scars his body carried. But, this wasn’t the moment for such questions. This was a moment to be in awe of how good life could be sometimes, bringing us back what we once thought was lost forever.
“Dad…”she whispered into his neck, her tears streaming down her face.
“It’s okay, just let it out…” he whispered back, his arms holding her tight.
They stood like that, hugging in silence, for what appeared to be an eternity. She had missed so many hugs, she wanted them all back at once. When he finally let go, she wiped her tears with her sleeve. She got out her flashlight but he covered it with his hand.
“We mustn’t attract any attention,” he told her, “and, we can’t stay here. It’s not safe to talk.”
He turned around, as if he expected someone to jump at them from any bush around them. She could feel his anxiety on her own skin. Then, a twig snapped nearby, and her dad immediately looked in that direction. She herself couldn’t see anything but the look in his eyes told her that he could.
“We need to run, now!”
He grabbed her by the hand and she squeezed it tight, knowing that if she let go now, she might never see him again. She dared not risk it. They dashed towards the edge of the school ground, and Eva knew that they were headed in the direction of the woods. That was probably where he’d been hiding all this time.
She breathed heavily, as he pulled her to keep going. She couldn’t slack off, not now when time was of the essence. Every once in a while, he would turn around, but he wasn’t looking at her. He was looking somewhere behind her, with that same look in his eyes. It made her afraid, so afraid that she herself dared not look back. She tried to see if she could hear anything behind them, but the only noise that was there was the sound of their own footsteps, stomping over dry leaves, mud and little broken twigs.
Eva looked up and she realized that the moon was peeking through the ominously dark clouds, as if it was doing its best to light their way. She looked ahead, but she couldn’t see anything other than trees and bushes, and total darkness. Finally, her dad stopped. She welcomed the opportunity to take a deep breath and she could hear him wheezing. He lowered his head down, as if he’d just run a half-marathon.