THE TRUTH SHOCKS

       It was around eight o'clock in the evening when they finished with the Reverend and Ethan was scared of a possible breakdown. When they didn't find any other alternative, Faith said;

       "I don't know where else we could go except for my family house." 

      "Is it around here?" Ethan asked 

      "It's a few miles down the road we could get there faster with a car." 

      "Are you sure you want us to go there? I mean memories could hunt you there." 

     Faith scoffed.  "What memories? I'm way past that now." 

    Ethan noticed that Faith was not quite stable. She was exhausted and kind of still rushed her words when she talked. She was still dazed from the truth she had learned about her family that day. He decided to let her be and just get her to somewhere she could finally rest. 

       They got into the car and Ethan started the car and warmed it and they finally pulled away from the front of the clergy's house. 

        "I can't believe my mother is alive," she said as they were pulling away. 

      "I am glad she is, at least, you would get to see her." 

     "I don't know, I have not seen her for years now and I don't know what it would feel like, I don't even know how to act." 

       "I'm sure you would be great." 

       "Oh, my God, Josh needs to hear this, but I want to be sure she is the one first before I go ahead and say anything to anyone." 

       "That's right, take your time." 

       "And my dad was just a bastard, he is not fit to be called my dad, he was actually the one who was deranged and he had my mom go to an asylum for that." 

     Ethan smiled.  "But I don't know why he treated you kids like that, I'm sure Douglas and you were never troublemakers. He should have loved someone, at least one or both of you." 

       "He hit us and my mom because he could. Because there was no one to stop him. Because he was a bastard."  

     She gestured to her right and he pulled into the driveway, angling off to the left, the headlight helped him catch a glimpse of the house and he parked in front of the house that looked hunted. Grasses had climbed up to the rooftop. 

    After shutting off the engine, he went out of the car and circled over to her side and opened the door. The place was dark and he had to hold her hand as they started walking up to the porch. They climbed the stairs to the porch and she turned on her phone torchlight. 

      "The keys," she looked around in confusion and then nodded in remembrance.  "We always keep a spare under the flower pot, she pointed her torchlight on the flower pot that had been occupied with weeds and reached under it and took out a bunch of keys that had little rust here and there.  "I hope it fits." 

    Ethan took it from her and slot it into the keyhole and had to twist with a little bit of strength before they heard a click. He held the knob and twisted it and pushed the door back. The door whined as it pushed back slowly and Faith suddenly felt like she was in a scene of a horror movie. It was a good thing she came with Ethan. 

      He turned on the torchlight on his phone too and started inside when she just stood there, staring at the door. Then he turned to her.  "Ain't you coming in? Was this a bad idea?" 

      "No...no," She blinked.  "It's just that in all my life, no one had ever set foot inside this house." She went in and was jerked a bit when the door closed.  "Besides me, Josh, my mom, my dad and Father Bernard." She turned on the lights and they twitched and fluctuated severally before they became steady. 

       The furniture in the room was covered with white sheets that have turned brown for years as a result of dust. There was not much furniture in the house as her father had been frugal. The house was old and so was everything in it. The paints were peeled and there were no papers applied to the walls, no new flooring, not in her lifetime, the rugs were ancient. Everything was depressingly out of date. Then, there were cobwebs and dust that made it look more spooky. They stood by the door for a while, looking around the living room. 

      "All repaired had been done by my dad," she continued. "Deliveries had come no further than the front door, we didn't have friends, no relatives, no classmates to visit us and we have never gone to a classmate's home." 

      Ethan let out a deep breath.  "That was saddening." He made the first move towards the stairs and she followed him. 

      "Quite depressing," she said slowly, casting her torchlight behind just to make sure no evil was lurking around, maybe her father's ghost. It might get angry that she had invited an unbeliever into his house. She shook her head, trying to blot out that thought from her head. She had to slide her hands into Ethan's and he grabbed her as if he knew she was scared. 

      He climbed the stairs with her his boots sounding heavy on the woods and stopped when one of the stairs quaked under his weight, he quickly climbed to the other step.  "Be careful, that step is not strong and it's dangerous." 

     She only stepped on it with one foot and placed the other foot on the step that Ethan was on.   

     "Could just arrange a room and rest tonight until tomorrow." 

      "I concur," she said and turned on the lights for the hallway when they got to the landing. 

    The hallway was no different from the living room, with old and peeled paintings. The rugs were outdated.  

    She gestured to the first door by her right. "That's my father's study. It's mostly religious books, Bibles and bible study outlines, you know." 

       "He should have opened a church you know, if all that energy was exerted into the church, he would have led a lot of people to heaven, you know." 

      They both laughed and moved on to the other door. She stopped. 

     "This is his majesty's room." She placed her hand on the knob and turned it. The door gave way and she suddenly had a feeling that her dad was there and was coming out. She quickly shut the door and let out a deep breath. 

     Ethan looked at her in confusion.  "Are you alright?" he asked holding her shoulders. 

       "I'm fine...it's just a weird feeling." 

       "I asked if you would be able to stay here tonight, I hope memories ain't hunting you. It's not late we could go and check into a guest house." 

     "No, it's fine, I'm fine really." 

      She took him to her room which was ridiculously outdated as the rest of the house, small with a twin-size bed, worn out wallpaper, a bedspread and ruffly curtains in washed-out pink. Nothing else except for the places on the wall that indicated that pictures had once, hung there, little shelves by the corners, a brown, bare dresser, a small desk and a small, empty closet. 

       "We can manage here tonight," she said slowly and started to remove her coat. 

     He shrugged.  "Don't you like want to eat something? We could go out and get something to eat."

     "Go ahead without me, I just want to sleep," she said and drew the out the bedspread. There was a quilt lying beneath it. 

      "I was just worried about you," he said. 

     She into bed and smiled up at him.  "Come to bed then." 

      "I have to go lock up the doors." He removed his jacket and hung it on the dresser and walked out of the room. 

      He locked the front door and turned off the lights when he went upstairs again.  Faith was fast asleep when he came back up to the room, she was lying on her side. He sat down on the bed beside her and stared at her for a while. He tugged a strand of hair that had fallen across her face behind her ears. 

      "You are exhausted indeed." He watched her for a while, then stripped to his boxers short, he climbed in behind her and slid his arm through hers and it fell on her stomach. 

     She snuggled up to him and muttered something he didn't really get in her sleep. He drew the quilt and covered them both and in a matter of minutes, he was asleep himself. 

      Faith woke up in the middle of the night from a nightmare and Ethan had to calm her down. Other than that, they slept peacefully through the night. 

        When Ethan woke up the next morning, Faith was still fast asleep and he didn't want to wake her, but her phone began to ring and he quickly grabbed it, so she won't wake. It was Nora and he contemplated answering it or not, but he answered it after a while. 

      "Baby girl," Nora called once he answered the phone. 

       "Nora, she's still asleep. Can you call back later?" 

       "Oh, Ethan. How has it been?" 

        "Shocking," Ethan said matter of factly . 

       "Alright, I will hear it all from Faith. Bye, Ethan." 

        "Bye, Nora."