Strangers wander in the dark
Strangers wander in the Dark
2 years later
Hannah walked up the sidewalk she knew so well. It had been two years since the last time, but somehow she knew that this was when she was supposed to be there. This was when she would figure out The Stranger.
It was raining, and the drops slid off her skin as she walked in a slow pace. They messed up her hair, and she pushed it back with shaking, numb fingers. It did nothing, of course. Her blonde locks would still fall in front of her eyes, sticking to the wet skin on her face.
She reached for the metal that once was around her neck before she remembered that it hadn’t been there for 2 years.
Oh, right.
She was going to see it again soon, though. And the thought terrified her. It terrified her that she was so nervous about seeing The Stranger again. Hearing her voice again. Touching her again.
Hannah smiled at the last thought.
She stopped when she saw a woman in front of her. Brown hair painted her shoulders and back, and denim trousers and a white T-shirt wrapped her body up. The rain made the T-shirt stick to her slim body, her sun-kissed skin.
‘’You said I should come back and find you on a rainy day’’
Hannah smiled as the brown-haired woman turned around rapidly, surprised by the sudden intrusion.
‘’I knew you’d come find me. Eventually’’ she smirked.
‘’Hi’’ she added with a grin.
‘’Hi’’ Hannah whispered back.
Her eyes were just as Hannah remembered them. Her face, her hair, the feelings, everything… It was so… Strange. It was exactly the same as Hannah remembered it to be.
‘So, I never did catch your name’’ Hannah smiled.
‘’Well, I never did catch yours either’’ The Stranger smirked coy.
‘’Hannah. Hannah Hart’’ she grinned.
‘’Hi, Hannah. I’m The Stranger. A.K.A Grace’’ she laughed.
Hannah looked down and laughed audibly.
‘’You remember’’ she said as she looked into the brown puddles again.
‘’How could I forget?’’ Grace smirked.
They were sitting on a couch in Grace’s living room. The walls were white, and covered with photos of her and a dog.
So she’s a dog person, huh? I like it, Hannah thought to herself.
‘’You want something to drink? Coffee, water, vodka?’’
Grace smiled at her and began to laugh softly at the last suggestion.
‘’Do you have tea?’’
Hannah had always been such a fan of tea, and she couldn’t even remember when she had tasted it last.
‘’Umh, no. Sorry, not quite the tea drinker. More of a beer drinker’’
Grace’s voice was so soft and full of comedy at the same time. Hannah wondered how she did that.
‘’Oh, okay. Then I’ll have some vodka, please’’
Hannah liked vodka. Vodka made all her fears and pain just slowly go away.
Grace disappeared into the kitchen for a moment before coming out with two wineglasses and a bottle of vodka.
‘’I don’t have any other clean glasses, so just pretend the vodka is wine’’
She smiled as she walked back to the couch.
‘’So… since I took you home with me, I think I want to know more about you’’
Grace poured some of the clear liquid into the two glasses and gave one to Hannah as she stared at her. Hannah was drowning, but at the same time soaring with the light feeling in her stomach when she stared back.
‘’Well, you didn’t buy me a drink first, so..’’
Hannah smiled as she waited for a reaction in Grace.
Grace started to laugh. Not a loud laugh, just audible enough that Hannah could hear it.
‘’No, but you really don’t want to hear it. It is a long story, and I don’t want to bore you’’
Hannah sighed as she said it. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to tell Grace. It was just that, she knew she couldn’t let someone in. She was afraid that she wouldn’t be able to shield herself against the oncoming pain when something would happen. And she knew something would.
‘’Well, we got all night’’
Grace tried to push Hannah. To get her guard down, but she couldn’t.
‘’No, maybe if we had more than just this night’’ Hannah playfully teased.
‘’Stay as long as you like, Hannah’’
Hannah didn’t expect those words. At least not from a person she barely knew. But then again, they knew each other.
‘’Thank you’’
Hannah didn’t know what else to say. No, I can’t stay because it will be the destruction of our silent companionship? No, that ship had already left dock and sailed away.
‘’Well, I only have one bedroom, so I’ll sleep on the couch’’
Grace smiled at her. God, that smile was so beautiful.
‘’No, you have done so much already. I can’t take your bed from-‘’
Hannah didn’t get to finish her sentence.
‘’Please, you have probably slept on the ground for God knows how long. You need a proper bed’’
Hannah exhaled slowly before nodding in response.
‘’Yeah, you’re probably right dude. But I can’t take your bed from you. I just can’t’’
Grace pursed her lips into a smirk.
‘’Well, then we’ll both sleep in the bed.’’
Hannah hid a laugh as she tried to get the conversation to another road.
‘’So… Where is Lex?’’ she smiled as she tried to look for the little girl.
Grace put down the half empty wineglass. Her eyes drained of all the playful coyness that had been there a moment ago. She looked down at her fingers and started counting them.
‘’Much has happened since we met’’ she muttered under a breath.
‘’Lex…’’ she whispered, and Hannah could tell she had a rough time saying the name aloud.
Grace looked up at Hannah with tears welling in her eyes.
‘’She… She died’’ she croaked.
Hannah put down the glass and embraced Grace.
‘’When?’’ she muffled into brown locks.
Grace placed her arms around Hannah’s upper body and let out a sob.
‘’A few months after we met you’’ she whispered, voice raspy from the oncoming storm of tears.
‘’She just wanted ice cream. Some guy hit her with his car, and just kept on driving. She died because she wanted ice cream’’ she cried into Hannah’s neck.
Hannah held on to her as she started shaking in her embrace.
She had never seen anyone crumble like this before. She hadn’t seen someone lose all happiness and hope in the matter of seconds, and she didn’t know what to do. So she just held on to Grace, making sure she didn’t fall into a pit of sorrow. Because God knows, that was what Hannah did after she lost Drew.
‘’God, I’m so sorry’’ she muttered in the brown locks.
Grace pulled away from Hannah and tried to wipe away the tears on her skin, but there was too much.
‘’I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-‘’
Grace didn’t get to finish whatever she was going to say, because Hannah’s hands were on her cheeks. Thumbs stroking away the tears under her puffy eyes.
‘’I know what it’s like’’ she smiled sadly.
Hannah inhaled deeply before continuing.
‘’I lost my brother five years ago’’ she whispered.
Grace looked at her, sorrow filled every corner of her eyes as she opened her mouth to say something. But Hannah spoke before she got anything out.
‘’I don’t remember how it happened. I only remember his last words’’
Hannah exhaled, feeling her own tears starting to push behind her eyes.
‘’’Take this’ he said. ‘It will protect you when you are scared’. Then I watched the life run out of his eyes’’ she said, lips trembling and voice flailing.
She grabbed Grace’s hands and pulled them up to her chest.
‘’I know the pain. The thought of ‘what if’. But it’s no good. It only hinders you in going on’’ Hannah whispered, feeling one silent tear run down her own face and drip off onto the beige leather couch.
‘’The necklace’’ Grace said.
It wasn’t a question. It was a statement, stating the obvious in Hannah’s words.
She pulled away one of her hands and guided it to her back pocket, drawing out a necklace with a circular metal attached to it.
‘’I think this is yours’’ she said, holding the necklace in front of Hannah.
‘’Keep it’’ Hannah smiled.
‘’It was hers’’ she added when Grace didn’t lower her hand.
Grace let the hand and the necklace fall to her lap.
‘’You know, she never did take this thing off’’ she laughed weakly.
She looked up into Hannah’s eyes, and Hannah could see how Grace’s world had crumbled the past two years. How it was still crumbling when she looked at Hannah.
‘’She wore it every day’’ she smiled.
‘’She wore it when she…’’
Grace looked down and started counting her fingers again. Hannah reached out to them, and stopped the counting. Grace looked up again, smiling weakly.
‘’When she died’’ she whispered.
‘’I’m so sorry’’ Hannah said, looking into a silent ocean and weak puddles.
‘’I don’t think I can spend every day looking at it’’ Grace said and tried to give it to Hannah once more.
‘’Keep it’’ Hannah whispered as she closed Grace’s fingers around the circular metal.
‘’I’ve got my own’’ she said as Grace looked at Hannah’s fingers lock around her own.
Hannah pulled up the sleeve of her sweater and showed Grace the ink imprinted in her skin, inside her right forearm. It was the same symbol as on the metal.
‘’You know, it doesn’t really mean ‘protect the unprotected’’’ Hannah laughed as she looked at the tattoo.
‘’It was just something he said to make me feel better’’ she smiled.
She looked at Grace again, who was still looking at the black ink.
‘’I know’’ she murmured, eyes still gazing on the tattoo.
‘’It has a triskelion in the middle’’ she smiled.
‘’The Celtic symbol of three’’ Hannah grinned.
‘’Mother, father, child’’ Grace said as she traced the symbol with her finger.
‘’Light, shadow, dark’’ Hannah breathed as she felt the warm finger on her sensitive skin.
‘’Moving on’’ Grace sighed as she looked up into Hannah’s blue orbs again.
‘’Yeah’’ Hannah whispered as the tattooed hand slid up the arm that had traced it and up to Grace’s cheek.
She closed her eyes and inched her face closer to Grace’s, let her lips wait a few centimeters away from Grace’s. Warm breath trickled her lips as she was waiting there.
What am I waiting for? She thought to herself.
‘’Maybe we shouldn’t’’ she sighed as she drew herself away from the warmth.
Grace had closed her eyes at the same time as Hannah, and now she opened them.
‘’Why?’’ she whispered with a hunger in her eyes.
‘’We don’t know each other’’ Hannah muttered.
They both knew that was a lie. They knew each other. Hannah was only scared she would be abandoned. That if they did do something Grace would realize that she had to stay away from Hannah’s problems, or else they would become her problems too.
‘’I can wait’’ Grace smirked.
‘’Yeah, I bet’’ Hannah laughed and Grace joined in.
Hannah opened her eyes.
It had all been so sudden. One minute they were walking, hand in hand, down the wavy path. And the next… She was laying on the ground, her head pushed down deep in the dirt.
She turned it to see her brother lying on his back.
‘’Drew…’’ she whispered as she saw the red blood sliding from his mouth.
She reached out her hand to touch him, and he winced at the contact. He coughed and put the necklace in her hand.
‘’Take this’’ he breathed.
‘’It will protect you when you’re scared’’ he gaged and his emerald eyes slowly became blank. It was as if the color slid out with the blood from his mouth and his hand relaxed in hers, still holding on to the necklace.
‘’Drew’’ she whispered again and closed her eyes.
She was too exhausted, too beaten, to keep herself awake.
‘’Hey! Hey, calm down’’
Hannah felt strong arms holding her down, and she opened her eyes to find Grace on top of her. Her drowsy eyes had worry seeping through them and she smiled tiredly as she rolled off of Hannah.
‘’What did you dream about? I’m pretty sure it was a nightmare by the way you winced and writhed’’ she huffed out when her back hit the mattress.
‘’Nothing. It was nothing’’ Hannah whispered while her eyes closed again.
‘’Okay, if you say so’’ Grace whispered in her ear as she put her arm around Hannah’s waist.
Hannah took a deep breath before deciding if she should tell Grace or not. She decided that she would tell her.
‘’It was Drew. I dreamed about him’’ she sighed into the pillow.
‘’Okay’’ Grace whispered.
Hannah was grateful she didn’t pursue it even further, because Hannah was not up for that right now.
‘’Just… Try to get some shut-eye, yeah?’’ she sighed drowsy in Hannah’s ear.
‘’Yeah’’