Four Men Crept Into My Childhood Room, So I Kept My Eyes Shut novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: The Box

I did not sleep after that.

Clint lay beside me until the window went grey, and then he got up and left the room without a word.

I stared at the ceiling and counted the letters.

Ten years of months.

A hundred and twenty.

At nine I found the box.

I had gone up to the hayloft because Abel said there was a cracked rafter, and I wanted to see it for myself.

Behind a bale, tucked under a feed sack, sat a battered tin with a rusted latch.

I opened it.

It was full of envelopes.

All of them were addressed to me, in Clint's square, careful handwriting.

None of them had stamps.

My hands were shaking when I pulled the first one out.

It was dated ten years back, the week after I left.

Beth, it began. The kitchen is quiet. Abel says it is just the season. I think he is wrong.

I read it standing in the straw, with the light coming slantwise through the cracks.

I read another, and another.

Clint wrote about the weather and the dog and a bull that kicked him.

He wrote that he had driven past the bus station twice.

He wrote that he was sorry.

At the bottom of the tin, folded small, was one more.

The date on it was the night before I left.

I unfolded it with my thumbnail.

I stood at your door tonight, it said. I didn't knock. Your father asked us to let you go, and I told myself he was right. I am going to be sorry about it for the rest of my life.

← Chapter 8 · All chapters · Chapter 10 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend