It all came back to me.

The letter was from Edward Peaks, my dad's friend. I got the letter right before I was going to go to the oil rig, put it in my coat, but forgot all about it because of the call I got from Mike and the ensuing chaos.

Shit, I had completely forgotten about it.

God, that all seemed so immeasurably far away now...

As I read Edward Peaks' name on the back of the envelope, something compelled me to open it and read it right away, despite the situation. You sent this to me a month ago, what did you want then? It couldn't have been anything too important... But something within me forced me to tear the envelope open and I began to read:

Dear Markus,

Perhaps you do not remember me, but I was once a very good friend of your father's. I remember you, how you used to run through the gardens of my mansion and pore through my library when you were but a wee lad. I always took great joy when you would come with your father to visit, as my wife and I never had children of our own, though I had always wanted a son.

I regret not having a chance to speak with you at your father's funeral.

And that is where I come to the purpose of this letter:

I owe your father the world. I don't know if he ever told you, but he was responsible for saving my life when we were both much younger. If it hadn't been for him, my wealth would have accounted for nothing and I would no longer be on this earth.

Though I had always wanted to repay him, he never would accept money or any such gifts from me, saying that my friendship was more valuable to him than all the money I could give him.

But hearing that you, the son of my saviour, is suffering in the pit of poverty while I live in luxury has done a number on my conscious.

In order to repay your father, I would ask that you bring you and your family to see me at my manor in Ertonburg.

According to my sources, the future looks rather bleak.

Bleaker than you could ever imagine.

You could be safe with me. I have ample supplies, and my manor is sufficiently equipped to survive even the worst of scenarios. If I so desired, I could house an entire village for years. You could safely live here for the rest of your life, no matter what happens. I absolutely guarantee it. Absolutely.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

It's the least I could do to repay your late father.

My contact information and address are on the other side of this page.

Come quickly,

Edward Peaks

After I finished reading, I dropped the letter in shock.

I couldn't believe it. It seemed like something out of the fairy tales I used to read at his house.

But the part that shocked me the most was that almost by pure coincidence, I had been robbed of this opportunity. I shook with sorrow as I realized that if I hadn't forgotten about the letter, if I had opened it after my call with Mike...

We would have been at the manor by now.

We would have been safe.

And... Jessica would have been alive.

Are you kidding me?!

Something as small and seemingly insignificant as that?!

If only I had opened a piece of paper sooner, Jessica would be alive right now?!

"God damn it!" I shouted in rage and screamed, my cry mingling with the howls of the approaching beasts.

Jared and Aaron turned to me, worried.

"What's wrong dad?" Aaron asked.

Though I was still choked with sorrow by the possibility that Jessica could have been alive right now, I remembered the talk I had with Jared.

"There's no point in worrying about what ifs, we can't change the past." That's what I had told him.

I was right. I couldn't do anything about it, so right now I had to grab onto any options I had. And, right now there was a way for Aaron to be safe. Though I had failed to save Jessica, I wouldn't fail to save Aaron.

I spoke up, talking quickly as the frantic howling came closer, "This letter... I got it before the storm. It's from one of my dad's friends. Apparently he's pretty rich. Before the storm, he had invited us to go to his manor... said we'd be safe there. So, we have a place to go to now! If we can reach the manor, I'm sure we'll be alright."

I handed Jared the letter to read, his eyes widened as he quickly scanned it over, "Wow... we might be lucky... it's in Ertonburg, I think that's just under two hours away- Oh, but we'll have to go around Crestland City. That will take longer, maybe a few more hours... We don't want to go through any more heavily populated areas than we have to. At least, that's what I think."

Some of the howling had transformed into furious barking, and by now it sounded like it wouldn't be long before they reached us.

As we finished packing up, I realized something, "I don't know exactly where the manor is. If we could just find a way to connect to the internet, we could use a map..."

Jared nodded, "I guess that's our first priority. Alright, I think we've got everything packed that we can find a use for."

The howling grew louder.

"Well, let's run to the car while we still can," I said as we stepped towards the stairway, preparing to move the stuff blocking the door so that we could leave the basement.

A loud crashing noise from upstairs made all three of us freeze.

One of them, whatever they were, had made it inside.

Jared and I glanced at each other. "What do we do?" our eyes seemed to ask each other.

The howling and barking suddenly stopped and I heard the sound of the thing's nails clacking on the floor of the house as it slowly made its way towards the basement door.

Jared aimed the shotgun. I brought Aaron away from the stairs.

All was quiet.