Branches whipped by as she ran deeper into the woods. Breaths came in a steady rhythm, keeping pace with her footsteps on the leaf littered ground. Ducking under a limb, Melody finally felt like she was far enough out of sight of the house to slow down. Taking in her surroundings, she noticed that she was in a clearing. Above there was the last glow of the sun in the late afternoon; from where she had just exited from, sunbeams were lazily making their way through the trees. Across the clearing was pitch black, twigs cracking came from that direction and Melody began to slowly back back into the trees. As the leaves in front of her began to move, she turned and took off at a sprint, weaving through the trees, ducking limbs and skittering over the brush. Her mind was gripped by pure terror, the only thoughts of the nightmares that had plagued her for so long, the only goal to get out of the woods and back to open air.

It felt like it took hours but in reality she must have only been gone for at most thirty minutes. Walking slowly towards the backdoor, Melody could make out voices as she got closer, definitely Max’s and “Alexis?” Melody asked, opening the door to the kitchen, the voices stopped.

“Mel!” Alexis half shrieked, launching herself at Melody. “It’s been ages!”

“It’s been less than a week,” Melody grumbled and gingerly disengaged herself from her overly affectionate friend. “You were here helping me pack the other day.”

“Yes well, that’s far too long. Especially with you alone in this house.”

Melody looked at Max, “Well as you can see I’m not alone currently. Max is here helping me pack. Plus I have Copper.”

“Max can not be here all the time, no offense Max,” He held his hands up in surrender, “and Copper is a dog. He isn’t the best company.” Copper looked at her from his spot on the floor under the kitchen sink and huffed.

And that was how Alexis had convinced her to get out of the house for the night. They had of course first dropped off the donations at the church to the pastor’s wife. Currently they were at the nicest restaurant in town because Alexis “was just dying for good food”. Melody wasn’t going to complain. She knew her friend was just happy to see her regardless of the circumstances. And also wanted to get her out of the house. Max had insisted she go and that he would feed and walk Copper of course. Chivalrous to no end that man, demon, whatever in the hell he was.

“Melody, earth to Melody. You there?” Alexis was waving her hand in front of Melody’s face.

“Huh? Wha? Yea I guess I just zoned out for a minute there.” Melody focused on her friend.

“Ok. So as I was saying. It’s not healthy for you to mope around that house all alone. I know the shock of everything has been hard. I’m not saying don’t mourn, I would never. I loved your parents more than my own. Hell I was raised by your parents more than my own. But it has been months Mel. You need to get out of the house every once in a while,” She held up her hand as Melody went to interrupt, “and going to work doesn’t count either. Max is great. But he’s your employee. Unless he’s more than an employee? Didn’t think so.” As Melody vehemently shook her head no. “I know you had grand dreams of staying in California and traveling while you write the next great novel. But the reality of right now is you are here, and until you figure out what to do, make the best of what you have here ok?”

Melody blinked and looked at Alexis. She never thought she would be getting life advice from her carefree best friend whose hardest decision always seemed to be what lipstick to wear. “Since when did you get so smart?” She quipped, reaching for her martini.

“Since always you just never had a need to be dazzled by my brilliance before. Now I need a favor,” Alexis flashed her signature pout. “Alan will be here in five with his old roommate from college. He’s really cute and I need you to get along with my brother. Please, for me?”

“Was this about getting me out of the house or you getting laid?”

“Both, now smile!” Alexis hissed as a shadow fell over the table.

“Well now if it isn’t trouble.” A deep male voice chuckled. The owner of said voice walked around the table and gave Alexis a quick peck on the cheek. Melody hadn’t seen Alan since graduation day, gone was the awkward gangly teenager. While still almost the spitting image of Alexis, he appeared to be carved marble, while she had softer edges. His cropped hair from highschool now hung stylishly across his face. She could not believe that this was the same person, granted it had been years but still.

He motioned towards his companion who had gone to the other empty seat at the table,“Alexis, you remember Bryant. Bryant, meet Melody, Alexis’s best friend. She’s recently moved back to town.” Alan looked at Melody. “Bryant is in town to interview for our parents’ security business.” The two men took their seats. Alexis had planned the seating well, a round table with the two empty seats across the table from each other. No matter where he sat, Bryant was sitting next to Alexis; but that also meant that no matter where he sat, Alan was sitting next to Melody.

Alan turned to her, “Melody, I was so sorry to hear about the loss of your parents. I offer my deepest condolences.”

“Thank you,” She murmured. Definitely not the same person from high school. The Alan she knew would have never spoken so eloquently, let alone to her.

“I was sorry to miss the services. I was on an assignment and could not get away. But please if there is anything I can do to help let me know. I know Alexis has said you are trying to organize the house and go through everything. I could run things to the church for you, or carry boxes.”

“I’ll be sure to let you know.” Melody did her best to not look at him like he had horns growing out of his head. Although all things considered, that may be normal at this rate. She understood that they were no longer children but this was something else. They had despised each other growing up. There was only so much polite conversation or fake sympathy she could stand to take. “Excuse me,” Melody took another sip of her martini, “I’ll be right back.”

She walked slowly towards the bathrooms. Once inside she slid against the wall. “What in the ever living hell?” Melody gritted out. “I would have preferred him being a condescending ass.” She splashed some water on her face. “Well if he is going to fake nice,” she thought, “I can fake it with the best of them. I did it all through high school.” She sighed and made her way back to the table. She steeled herself for what was sure to be an interesting night.

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As she approached, Alan stood up and pulled out her chair. Melody cocked an eyebrow and sat down. “Proving chivalry isn’t dead?” she quipped.

“Something like that.” Alan responded with a smirk. Melody looked over at Alexis, hoping for a reprieve from the twilight zone she had sunk into. Her friend however had begun to charm her prey for the night. Bryant was helpless against Alexis’s charms. Melody couldn’t blame him; once Alexis decided what she wanted she went all in and could flitter and flutter around until someone was completely ensnared in her web and then they would thank her for the opportunity.

Melody focused back on Alan who was staring at her intently. Her eyes widened slightly and he grinned. He was taking pleasure in off-balancing her, she realized. Coughing slightly to try and cover her shock, “So Alan, what did you do after high school?”

“Well, I went to school; got a degree in criminal justice. My parents wanted me and Lex to take over their security business. She took over the business side as you know. I took over the actual assignments for the clients. I will go out, assess their needs, and get a package set up.”

“Assess their needs?” Melody never knew much about the McConnell’s business, it was never something Alexis talked about when they were kids. Even now when they talked, what Alexis did never came up.

“We cater to very,” Alan paused, seeming to not know how to phrase that to say next, “private and particular people. They value their security and trust us to keep them safe and keep their confidence. I will go out to their location, wherever that may be, and determine what is needed. Whether that is a system for their home, a team of security personnel, body guards, various different security needs can be filled by our business. Alexis ensures that all teams run smoothly and the clients are kept happy. If there were to be a breach it would be our company’s end.”

Melody took a sip of her quickly emptying martini. “That is quite the business. You must be very busy and your parent’s must be very proud to see you two following in their footsteps.”

Alan chuckled, “I assume they are. Mostly I believe they are just glad they are now able to travel and hand the hard work over to us. Last I checked they were somewhere in Europe.”

Melody vaguely remembered Alexis mentioning that her parents had missed the funeral due to being on an extended vacation. Now she realized that extended vacation was really just Alexis’s parents taking full advantage of their children keeping the family business running. The McConnell family had never been the warm and fuzzy family one would read about in story books. Melody could only recall meeting the elder McConnell’s maybe a handful of times; they hadn’t even shown up at the twins' high school graduation. The butler had been sent with their apologies, something about urgent business and having to catch a plane; although, after Alan explained the family business a bit further it did make slightly more sense.

“Now Melody, I’ve told you about me but what about you?” Alan asked, his eyes gleaming with curiosity and something else that Melody wasn’t quite sure of.

“Well,” She trailed off, unsure what to say. Thankfully she was spared for a few seconds as the waiter came to take their order. Melody made sure to order another martini; Alexis was driving her anyway, although, when she glanced across the table she was not entirely sure she was going to have a ride home. Her friend and Bryant had barely been able to look away from each other to place an order, let alone spare a work for Melody or Alan. Did this town even have Uber or Lyft yet? She knew she should have fought Alexis harder on driving herself. “Maybe Max could come get me?” She thought to herself.

“Well?” Alan prompted her once the waiter had finished.

“Well, as I’m sure you know because Alexis came for the summer, I went to California to live with my Uncle. I went to college, Berkeley. I wrote a few things and now I’m back here trying to run my parents’ business as best I can.”

“Tell me about the things you wrote.”

“Really? Well poems and short stories mostly. Nothing recognizable and nothing that would pay the bills so to speak. I could only continue to live out there after school because Uncle Spencer let me live there all but rent free. What I did bring in was enough to pay what he asked. When the poems and stories didn’t sell I wrote freelance columns for some of the newspapers. I was considering looking into editing just to get a steady paycheck before, well, before.” Melody finished lamely.

“It takes a lot of guts to keep going and pushing forward towards something you want. And to not live off the kindness of others even when offered freely.” Alan tipped his glass towards her. “It speaks to your character to want to make it on your own, and to work hard on what you want by any means necessary. I’m impressed.You seem far different than the obnoxious, sarcastic girl from when we were children.”

Melody grinned and raised her own glass towards him, “Oh no. I can more than assure you I am still obnoxious and sarcastic. I am just better at engaging in conversation. Especially if I’m eliciting such civil conversation from you my good sir.”

Alan returned her grin with a smirk, “I had to promise to be on my best behavior. It seems they,” he motioned towards the other side of the table, “had similar ideas for this evening. Both elicited a promise for civility at the least, on pain of death.”

Melody laughed, “I wasn’t even told you were going to be here until you were about to show up. She knew I wouldn’t be likely to come otherwise. My promise of civility came after being trapped.”

It was Alan’s turn to laugh. “My sister is nothing if not devious. And perceptive. Knowing what I know of growing up with you, the second you heard I was going to be here you, Melody Grimes, were trying to figure out how to teleport out of here.”

“Sink through the floor actually, but oh so close.” Melody couldn’t help but chuckle. “Honestly you aren’t that terrible. It’s almost like you grew up between highschool and now.”

“So did you Melody,” Alan said, looking her directly in the eyes, the teasing hint in his voice gone.

Melody blushed and sipped on her martini. She was thankful for the second time that night about the waiter’s impeccable timing as a plate of food was slid in front of her. She focused her attention on the meal in front of her. Sparing a glance for Alexis, Melody noticed that her friend hadn’t even noticed her food showing up. Neither had Bryant. Melody was definitely going to have to find a different way home tonight. She reached for her phone to try and text Max. While she wanted space to wrap her head around everything, she wanted to walk home even less than she wanted space.

“Everything alright Melody?”

“Hm? Oh yea, just Alexis was my ride and from the looks of things across the table I’m going to need an alternative. I’m going to text Max to see if he could come get me. Walking home isn’t necessarily high on my to-do list.”

Alan cocked an eyebrow, “I didn’t realize you were that close with your office manager.”

“You and I both, buddy.” Melody thought sarcastically.

“But,” Alan continued, “I would be more than happy to give you a ride home. I would hate for my sister’s little scheme to leave you stuck here.”

“Oh but I couldn’t ask you to do that. We live on opposite sides of town!”

“Don’t worry about it. From the look of things I’m not going to want to go right home either.” Alan wrinkled his nose at the scene across the table and shook his head at the sight of his sister and friend clearly enamored with each other. It was clear the second they were not in public they would not be quite as restrained, although restrained was being generous, Alexis had moved so close she was practically in Bryant’s lap. Melody turned away again as Alexis moved in to run her hand down Bryant’s arm for the hundredth time.

“Well in that case I accept. Thank you for the offer.”

“Thank you for sparing me for the little bit it takes to drive you home.”