Ephemeral (2)

I wish I could say that I wasn’t afraid of the dark.

I was a grown woman. Independent, college educated and all that. But you know what? You try sitting in the dark in a huge Bulgarian mansion at night, where your only company is an old senile man.

I tried to distract myself as best as I could. I listened to a couple of podcasts, texted some friends, and played some dumb games on my phone. But eventually, the battery reached 10%, and I had to find other sources of entertainment.

Did I mention that this place has no working electricity?

It’s weird, right? Surely this guy was loaded, or at the very least, had a rich relative taking care of his expenses. Not everyone has the luxury to retire in such a place. So, why no electricity?

Maybe he forgot to pay his bills. He’s been doing a lot of that lately.

Yeah okay, that was a little cruel.

I sighed and pocketed my phone, using my flashlight to navigate to the kitchen, where I retrieved one of the gas lanterns.

It was always surreal to light one of those up. Young woman with a gas lantern walking alone at night in a very old European mansion. That was either the premise of a budget horror movie, or I had accidentally stumbled back to the 18th century.  Either way, the little antiquity emitted a warm, faint blue-ish light, casting giant shadows on the wall. I instantly felt better.

I went back to the living room to check on Mr. Oldest Being Alive, who was still very much knocked out. He looked almost peaceful. I quietly put the lantern on the table, then slipped outside for a quick cigarette.

I wonder if dementia patients dream.

Are they young in their dreams?

It was an eerily quiet night, all in all. One of the perks of being rich, I suppose, was that you could build a big ass house right outside a forest, far away from any sort of human civilization. Which conveniently implied that there was no artificial light, and with it, came my favorite part about this job.

I lit my cigarette and found a small patch of grass where I dropped myself, then stared above me. A million stars stared right back, scattered across the impossibly vast night sky.

What a fucking view.

Perhaps I should try being rich, in the next life. 

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