Free Third to Die by Carys Jones

life for him and still he locked her out, surrounded himself with secrets.
    “I’m sorry, honey, I know you’re emotional right now.” Aiden reached out and gently took her hand in his. His touch was warm and reassuring. “There’s a lot you don’t know about my life in Greensburg. I ran out of there so fast when I got accepted into college and never looked back. But things happened there. I lost a friend.”
    “Aid, I didn’t know.” Isla’s expression softened and her shoulders relaxed.
    “I didn’t tell you, I didn’t tell anyone. It was never something I wanted to talk about.”
    “So why do you need to go back now?”
    “My friend who came here, John, he thinks there is more to our friend’s death than we originally thought.”
    “That sounds like a job for the police.” Isla tried to pull her hand back, but Aiden held it tightly.
    “There’s something going on, they need my help.”
    Isla tried again and this time managed to free her hand. She folded her arms across her chest and stared at her husband as her nostrils flared.
    “You can’t keep going on these hero quests,” she told him bluntly.
    “That’s not what this is.”
    “It’s always what it is!” Isla cried as she abruptly stood up, causing her chair to go skidding clumsily across the laminated floor of the kitchen.
    “You’re so caught up in trying to save people, in trying to rewrite history!”
    “Isla, I appreciate you’re angry but it’s not like that.”
    “Our life is here now, Aid!” Isla gestured wildly to the room around her. “Avalon is our home. You brought us here, remember? But you keep going off on these quests, leaving me alone!”
    Aiden walked over to his wife and placed a strong arm around her.
    “I have to do this,” he said softly, pulling her towards him. She didn’t resist and let her head rest upon his chest, savouring how he smelled of cedar wood and beer.
    “I owe it to my friend.”
    “I just want to keep you here.”
    “I know,” Aiden leaned down and kissed her forehead. “I’ll be gone just a few days, that’s all. I’ll be back before you know it.”
    Isla wasn’t so sure. In a town where she knew no one and with little to do, each of Aiden’s trips stretched out before her like an infinite amount of time which she struggled to fill. It wouldn’t have been that way in Chicago. Back then when he left on a business trip she barely noticed as her social calendar was bursting with drinks with friends and meals out. Things were different for Isla in Avalon, things were emptier.
    *
    It took twelve long hours for Aiden to drive back to his home town of Greensburg. He’d stop to get gas, to stretch his legs, grab a bite to eat, but mainly he spent his time on the road, eager to get there. He’d looked at flying out there but, as he’d predicted, Greensburg was so far out from its closest airport that he might as well just drive. So he slung his suitcase into his trunk, kissed his wife and daughter goodbye and left Avalon in his rear-view mirror.
    He drove through an impressive amount of nothingness. Vast quantities of land blurred by him, devoid of any signs of life or inhabitation. When he went on long road trips like this he was reminded of how empty America could be. He could drive for hours without seeing a single home or gas station. The isolation began to creep in on him. Even the bright melodies of his radio couldn’t suppress the loneliness which comes from being out on the open road. Instead of feeling free, Aiden just felt lost, like a solitary leaf floating on the surface of an immense lake.
    Finally, as the light began to fade, he entered Greensburg. It was a strange sensation to return to the town he’d so eagerly fled, the town where his parents were laid to rest. He rolled into town and stopped at the cross-section lights.
    Greensburg was larger than Avalon, but only slightly. It boasted a town square with three cafes, a library, doctor’s surgery and police station.