Mansion of Love

In the morning, Saphire's eyes were puffy and she had a headache.

"Didn't you sleep all night, Saphire? You're eyes are so puffy." Mary said, noticing Saphire's eyes.

"No, I'm ok," she said. "Where's Odd? I promised him a tour of the fields."

"In his room."

"I'll see you at dinner!"

"Oh, don't go anywhere but the fields! Remember what happened last time?"

"Yeah!"

Saphire knocked on Odd's door, he answered, and he noticed Saphire's red eyes.

"Did you get any sleep last night?" he asked.

"That doesn't matter. You still want a tour of the fields?"

Odd nodded his head and closed the door behind him.

Outside, Saphire and Odd were walking and Saphire was talking while Odd was silent.

"These are the stables, where the horses sleep and eat. This is where the people get to ride the horses. And this is the field." she said.

Odd didn't say anything, until he saw a red farm house, that Saphire didn't mention.

"What's that?"he asked.

"Oh, that...um.....that's where Leslie used to live."

"Used to?"

"She died two months ago," Saphire replied. "I probably shouldn't tell you, it might freak you out."

"Why? Tell me, I want to know."

"Well, a lawyer used to live her. He killed his wife, and his daughter, he stuffed her body underneath some of the hay inside the farm house," she explained. "And whoever has a done a wrong deed and goes inside the farm house, doesn't come back out."

"Why?"

"Because she kills them! And stuffs their body underneath the hay."

"You expect me to believe that?"

"It's true!"

"Right, sure it is," Odd suddenly got an idea. "I say we go in there and find the body."

"What? No!"

"Fine, I'll go!"

Saphire tried to stop him, but he wouldn't listen. He went inside the farm house and came back out screaming.

"I saw it! And it blinked at me!" he cried.

"Let me see!" Saphire said.

Saphire went inside and screamed really loud.

She came out and didn't say anything.

"Are you ok?" Odd asked.

She didn't answer, instead she started laughing.

Odd didn't understand why she was laughing, he thought she turned crazy after seeing the body. He went up to her and put his hands on her shoulders.

"Saphire, what's wrong with you?"

Saphire pushed him away and said, "I can't believe you actually fell for that!"

"Huh?"

"Mr. Hair Twister! I figured out you tied locks of my beautiful hair to my bedposts."

"But, how did you-" Odd was cut off.

"I pretended to be nice to you. I smiled at you. By the way, that body you saw, wasn't real, it was a baby doll. You really think I would be nice to a boy?"

Saphire stopped laughing, when she heard a wolf whistle, she spun around and saw a shadowy figure.

"Who is that?" Odd asked.

The person came out of the bushes, Saphire realized who it was, and backed away.

"Mark." she whispered.

Odd looked at Saphire and saw fear in her eyes.

There was something strange about Mark, whenever you see him, you sorta hear a western theme around him.

"I see you're still afraid of me, Saphire," Mark said. "And I also see you've gotten a new boyfriend, that also likes to torture you."

"He's not my boyfriend!"

Mark came closer to her and stroked her hand, Odd noticed Saphire didn't pull away or leave.

"You must've been very sad after Matt dumped you!"

Odd saw Saphire's hand turn into a fist and she pulled away from him, she was about to leave, but he pulled his arm back.

"I've broken your arm before, I can break it again." he warned.

Saphire had that look of fear in her eyes again.

"You know Saphire you've gotten cuter," he was now stroking her hair. "I only hurt you because I cared about you."

"You cared about me?! If you cared about me, you wouldn't have broken my arm, you wouldn't have hit my head with a rock, you wouldn't have tried to kill me, and you wouldn't have tortured me everyday!"

"I was different then." he said simply.

He leaned into kiss her, but she pushed him away and started running. She noticed Odd was still staring at Mark who had hit his head on a tree and had broken it when he landed on it.

"That dude is strong!" Odd commented.

Saphire pulled his hand and started running.

"Can't you run any faster?" Saphire asked.

"I'm running as fast as I can!"

"We have to go over that gate, I know a shortcut back to Mary's. You go first!"

Odd climbed over the gate, but Saphire took some time.

"Give me your hand!" Odd said to Saphire.

"Oh no, my bracelet's stuck!" Saphire cried.

"Can you get it out?"

"I'm trying, you go run!"

"No, I'm not leaving you!"

"Just go! I'll be fine." she insisted.

Odd didn't want to go at first, but Saphire persuaded him.

Saphire finally got her bracelet unstuck and started running, she couldn't see Odd anymore.

Suddenly, she felt someone put a hand over her mouth and pull her down, behind a tree. The person who was holding Saphire was Odd. She didn't realize it at first, but then she heard Mark's voice near the tree.

"I'll get that girl if it's the last thing I do," he said. "I waited years for her to come back and if I lose her now, I'll never get her back!"

After Mark left to look somewhere else, Odd let go of her.

"Are you ok?" Odd asked.

"Fine." she said.

"Come on."

"Wait, I just wanna get some water."

Saphire went over to one of the trees and filled a bottle with water. The trees had a faucet and a bottle underneath it.

"Ok, let's go," Saphire said. "We'll save this water for tomorrow."

"Wait, let me go first, in case he's still out there."

They ran together until they reached Mary's house.

Mary was surprised to see them panting and out of breath.

"What happened?" she asked.

"We ran... in to..... Mark!" Saphire explained.

"Oh no! Tell me what happened."

After Saphire finished explaining, she drank a lot of water, but not from the bottle.

"I think I'll go to bed early." Saphire said.

Saphire changed her clothes and went to bed, but she had a nightmare and couldn't go back to sleep, so she went downstairs.

"Where's Mary?" she asked Odd.

"In the kitchen." he answered.

"Um... can I talk to you about something?"

"Sure."

"In my room?"

Odd stood up to go with Saphire and Saphire saw Mary give her a smile, so she smiled back.