Jenny
“Oh God,” I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose in one hand and glaring down at the letter I had tossed onto the table. These men were ruthless and relentless, and they wanted their money. I didn’t have anything. I was already trying my best to pay off the bank loans so they didn’t foreclose on the farm. It had been all that I could do to make them call off their dogs by giving them the rest of my mother’s inheritance. Now, I was being hounded by something a lot more dangerous, and I didn’t know what to do.
Oberon came out of the hallway and looked at me, his golden eyes shimmering with concern. He sat down at the table across from me and tilted his head. “Is something wrong?” he asked, his gaze serious and unwavering.
I felt small under his eyes, as if, somehow, this man were larger-than-life. What was I doing here? Looking at all these letters out in the open for anybody to see? It was a threat, it was a handwritten threat, and one the police would only put in my file as evidence without having any of the wherewithal to actually do something about it. I had a feeling they would rather let me die than get themselves mixed up in whatever criminal drug ring my husband had been associated with during the last years of his life.
Sure, I understood there was a protocol to approaching these things, but that didn’t mean it excused their dismissal of my serious concerns. My life was on the line, why was that less important to them than their investigation? I would never really understand. They already knew these men were criminals. What were they waiting for? They wanted to take the big boss down? Did they really think he was going to come and show up in this tiny town in New Mexico? It was ridiculous.
They were headquartered in Nevada. Even I knew that. This wasn’t the jurisdiction of the local law enforcement. They were just so full of themselves for having an important case that they were reluctant to do anything that might jeopardize that. They wanted to be heroes, and recognized by the rest of the world. They wanted the president of the United States himself to jump from his chair and come down to shake their hands. It was ridiculous. And I resented the hell out of them for it.
It didn’t matter how much I told them. It didn’t make a difference. I could speak until I was blue in the face, and they would still go about their business as if nothing was out of the ordinary and my life wasn’t in danger. They had offered a bodyguard for my protection, but having him around had been more like having a babysitter, and I decided to call the whole thing off.
They seemed relieved to hear it, and now I had been on my own for the past year and a half, trying to figure out what I was going to do. I could complain to the police until I was blue in the face, and nothing would change. I would always be in the same amount of danger as I was now.
“Jenny? What is it?”
Oberon’s deep voice cut into my thoughts, and my eyes darted up from my letter and settled on his face.
“It’s really nothing,” I said, reaching out to snatch the letter away before he saw. But somehow, he was faster, and grabbed it in his broad hand. He read it over quickly, his features creasing in this pleasure. “Humans write so strangely,” he muttered under his breath.
I frowned and stared at him in confusion. “What?”
I was beginning to seriously regret not taking him to the hospital. There was clearly something neurological going on here. If I didn’t get him the help he needed, what was going to happen to him? I would be responsible for allowing this man to deteriorate under my care. I would have to call a doctor and see about getting him an appointment for testing in the morning. That was the last straw.
“I just mean, that as a whole, humanity is intrinsically flawed,” Oberon said, sitting back in his seat and glancing at me from above the paper. “Why is he threatening you? Why would one human want to destroy another? It doesn’t make any sense. It’s so peculiar. We’re supposed to work together, right?”
I felt a bizarre wave of relief when I heard Oberon say we, and sank back against my chair to stare at him. “Yeah, that’s kind of the idea, but not everybody sees it that way.”
“Why are these men so angry with you?” Oberon asked, finally handing the letter back over to me. “What have you done?”
Now, his words made me prickle, and whatever relief was there quickly evaporated into anger.
“I didn’t do anything wrong. It was my good for nothing late husband. He got himself into some trouble, and now they want me to make up for it.”
“What kind of trouble?” Oberon asked. “What would drive another human to act this way?”
I scoffed. “Money. Plain and simple. Money makes people do the worst things.”
Oberon nodded at this, and then tilted his head thoughtfully, his eyes lingering on my face. “Well, they are not going to hurt you. Because they cannot hurt me. After all, I owe you my life. I will stay here and protect you. That is the way it must be now.”
He stood up, seemingly pleased with this new arrangement, and disappeared back down the hallway. I heard the soft click of his door as he shut himself into the small bedroom. My heart was drumming wildly. What had he meant by that? This was entirely too ridiculous. Maybe I really should call the doctor.
But when I stood up, my legs shaking involuntarily as I did so, I felt a pang of guilt. Maybe he wasn’t crazy at all. Maybe he hadn’t had brain damage at all. Maybe he really was just simply perplexed by the senseless violence of this world. Who wasn’t? Anybody who accepted it blindly was probably part of the problem.
It was such a strange thing for Oberon to say; that he owed me his life. I had no idea why he thought that was appropriate. Nobody truly believed that anymore. Maybe he was just speaking to speak because he felt like he owed me, or maybe he just didn’t want me to worry. Men liked to say things to make themselves feel strong and on top of things, even if they weren’t. He was probably just spouting off to make himself feel important.
And yet, there was something about the confidence in his voice that made me wonder. He seemed to have an unwavering simplicity about him; as if he said what he meant and nothing more or less. It was naïve in a way, really. But it was also refreshing. Most people had a hard time with being straight-forward. That didn’t seem to be something that my new guest had any issues with.
I gazed down at the letter he had left discarded on the table in front of me. I was getting used to the maddening, scrawled handwriting that the letters were written in, but the implication that I might lose my life if I didn’t comply. There was nothing more terrifying than the thought that I might end up losing everything that I had worked for. If I survived, that would be worse than anything else that could ever happen.
If I ended up destitute, I might end up having to go back to my father groveling. He had already made it quite clear how unlikely it was for me to be able to get back in his good graces. And frankly, I didn’t want to be anywhere near him. I have never cared about what he thought of me. At least, not once I realized he was abusive. It was only then that I stopped blaming myself for the way he treated me, and if I had to live with him again, I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to survive it this time.
When I was young, I was a lot more adaptable. I had better coping mechanisms. I was able to get used to the horrible environment that I was in. But as an adult, that would be a lot harder. I was used to being alone. I was used to taking care of myself. And I didn’t want to feel like I owed anybody anything, even if half the banks and mobsters in the state were ready to come after me.
My thoughts went back to Oberon, somehow, his presence lifting my spirits. What if it was possible that he really could help me? Maybe I was safer with him here after all. Although, it seemed unlikely that I should get my hopes up, it was still a very exciting thought. Maybe I didn’t have to worry so much. Maybe everything was going to be all right.
This was too much to think about. I was beginning to become overwhelmed by my anxiety, and I stood up quickly from the table, clearing it off and taking a big, deep breath. It was time to busy myself on the farm. There was a lot to do, and time was wasting away. I had gotten a little bit out of my routine ever since finding the strange man in the desert, but it was time to get back on track. I knew that once I found my rhythm again, everything was going to be all right. Even if the threats kept coming.