Blacken by Alandra Rankin (i love reading books txt) 📕

shook her head, steadying her breath and closing her eyes for a beat, releasing her grip.

“I can see why ya took so long, I had my suspicions, but I really was not expecting anythin’ like this. However, it is nice to meet you all official like, Rhulle,” she raised her hand out in front of her, ready to greet properly.

He only pressed his palm to hers in the greeting.

“Are you, alright? I understand this is a lot, would you like to sit?” He conveyed calm much better than Avie could attempt, beckoning them towards the chesterfield.

They sat and talked hours into the evening, Sandra warming up to the truxen more and more as the minutes ticked by. The redhead felt reassured, having the pair’s meeting go infinitely better than how Rhulle and Owen started off. Hell, Even Rhulle and Avie in their first meeting.

She snapped out of her reverie as she realized Sandra was talking once again.

“—And even if he stayed out in that glorified shack, that’s no life for either of you. So, I do understand, and I support your decision. Are you guys plannin’ to live off grid, livin’ off of the fat of the land?”

She coughed once, trying to disguise that she only heard part of the speech, “Right, he knows everything about what we would need to do. We were going to start building soon now that the snow is melting. It would be somewhere in these woods, though I don’t know exactly where, or how well I could maybe even come back to find the town.”

“I want to help, any way I can, sugar. You need tools? I got 'em! You need food or blankets or anythin’, I can be there. I want to still see you grow, you and Rhulle. If you’d let me, I can take time off and assist with some of the building, that way I can know where y’all are and visit every month… Discreetly, of course. I used to be quite the outdoors woman in my prime!”

Avie could have dropped her cup. She so desperately wanted that connection to Sandra, wanted so badly to keep her friendship after everything. The woman was tempted to ask if she wanted to live out there too, to have her own cabin in a sanctuary of woodland. To hear her avidly wanting to help the couple in building and even visiting, she couldn’t pass it up!

“Sandy… Would you, really? That sounds amazing, it’s not too much?”

She laughed, “Of course not! I’ll be sticking ‘round here in Blacken, and y’all deserve someone on the inside that can lend a helpin’ hand. You two have been survivin’ on your own for so long, it’s all right ta ask for a lil’ help.”

“I forget that’s an option sometimes. Sandy, thank you, from the bottom of my heart.”

They exchanged a hug, “Do ya ever think about how people will never know?”

“Never know what?” The redhead returned to her seat.

Sandra hummed, “Every person who has lived in Blacken knows ‘bout the odd phenomenon that brought people in ta stay. But no one will ever know that it was you who put a stop to it, that you found out what was really causin’ all of it to happen and found a way to fix it all. Do you ever want people to know?”

Avie smiled.

Yesterday, with the sun low in the sky, the rays glittered through windows of the library, guiding her to the back. Descending the steps into the restricted area, she used a small key to open the metal door, the hinges protesting loudly at her entrance. Striding in, it became very evident that not a soul tread here since Owen, her footprints leaving tracks in the settled dust.

His notes scattered about, still unbothered, locked within their own time capsule. The woman picked up a random hardcover, flipping pages to see his handwriting lingering in the margins there too. The room filled with a mystery unsolved.

She sighed, bittersweet. The silver key used to gain entrance was placed down on a desk beside his notes.

The mystery of Blacken was never really of anyone’s interest. As long as it had been going on, it suddenly stopped, leaving people to wonder and speculate from the abrupt shift; it had been normal for them after all. There were a few others in the past who also took an interest, who knew how far they got before giving up or being compelled to stop. There were only two that had seemed to find the answer. One embraced it, the other wanted to eradicate it. Would anyone else in the future take an interest in the odd tale about the small city surrounded by forestry, and why so many people came and went?

It was all just a part of history now, another chapter to be locked away in the archives.

“No, I don’t. Let it be a mystery, let people be entertained with it if they choose. It’s more fun that way.”

EPILOGUE

Taking the well-versed dirt path that guided her home, Avie reached out to her side, allowing the leaves and tall grass to tickle her palm as she walked, her other arm cradling a basket filled with a mix of flowers and berries.

A babbling brook sang to her in the near distance, sunlight gently touching her skin. The woman paused for a beat, allowing the golden rays to wash over her face, soaking in their warmth as they peeked through the trees. Playing with her hair, she flicked the strands to one side as they kept tucking into the woven basket’s handle as she walked.

The small cottage came into view, smoke billowing out of the pebble chimney as her vovii dug up potatoes from the garden. He stopped as soon as he saw her, smiling as Avie approached with the happy giggles of their small child being lifted into his arms.

“Welcome back.”

“Mama!”

She kissed both of them while a hand encircled the small bump of her stomach, “There are my two favourite boys. I