Free Shimmers & Shrouds (Abstruse) by Scarlett Brukett Page A

over car ride. There were always some unspoken rules that I had to follow when I was with her.
She looked at me with exasperated dark eyes. "Where are you taking me?"Her voice was cautious.
"It is a surprise." I looked straight. I didn’t want to disclose the secret so early. I was taken aback at grandma’s declaration to bring Oceana for the dinner. Could it be any more comforting?
"You are driving on a deserted road for the past fifteen minutes, what kind of surprise is this?" she frowned. Jesus! Where was she going with this?
"Good things come to those who wait." I smiled, ignoring her hateful glances.
She reluctantly leaned back on her seat, staring out as usual.
 "It’s a Reventon, drive it like one." She muttered.
I increased the speed unwillingly from sixty miles per hour to a hundred. All I could see from my window was a faint blurred painting of the suburbs. I felt uneasy. I was not used to drive with such a great speed. The abrupt silence had started to pierce my ears, so I switched on the radio for the atmosphere to lighten. Surprisingly the station played one of my favorite songs.
    ‘Everything I ask for.’
I concentrated more on the lyrics, since the song had just started. We had missed a line or two.
Just then I heard her humming along with the song, wow. She was a singer too?
I muted the radio so I could hear her sing, but she stopped, unexpectedly. She turned to look at me with those beautiful big eyes.
"Your voice is fab." I smiled. Hoping she would return me the same thing.
"Thank you, this is a beautiful track." She blushed and blinked her eyes. Smiling like a child. Yes! The stupid jumpy jittery Oceana was back.
I took a sharp left turn, and continued to drive on the now sophisticatedly groomed lawn. The castle was now in sight. And the guards were checking in.
Oceana took a long look out of window and then back at me, puzzled.
"Are we here to take a tour of the museum? Is this your surprise?" She was staring at me with her wide eyes.
"This is my house." I rolled my eyes off into space. My house doesn’t look like a museum… Does it? No. Of course not.
"You gotta be kidding me." she gasped. I wouldn’t blame her, the castle was embarrassingly big. And her shiny eyes, efficiently working with her brilliant brain were taking a usual guess as to why just a small family like ours would live in a castle where an approximate number of seventy people can live comfortably.
"I am not." I glared at her.
I parked the Reventon just a few yards away from the castle. So she could surely admire one of the most beautiful pieces of history. What would one expect from a student who has taken history as one of her majors?
"Christ!! This is an entire castle!" She looked at me in an instant, her mouth had dropped open. I wanted to stay calm, but I couldn't help but giggle.
"You liked it?" I breathed.
"I love it." Her eyes twinkled like never before.
"You've yet to see the inside." I reminded her.
"Wow Orpheus, I can't believe you're taking me in for a free tour!"
"Me too. I am usually not so generous." I winked.
"Very funny." She shook her head. And opened the door of the car, and my grandmother was inside my head in no time. The horror I would be facing if she got to know from Oceana that I didn't act like a man was unimaginable.
"Be seated." I must have surprised her. She was shocked.
"Are we going back?" Her left eyebrow cocked up and her lips were pressed into a hard line.
"No stupid. Courtesy demands" I tried to calm my heart beat. I would be dead someday if she continued with stunning me all the time. I opened my door, closed it behind me, walked towards her side and opened the door for her.
"Sweet." She beamed a smile as she stepped out.
"You should say thanks. And bow a little." I commented, I loved making her angry.
"It’s too late Orpheus. You should have given me this 'rule class' back at home." She started walking away, towards the extra large field of excellently groomed