“What will you do next year, Ron?” Minnie asked suddenly, in a voice that came out far more solemn than she had intended. Her head swam pleasantly, and the pit of her stomach was warm with the wine.
Ronnie yawned and chuckled, “God, you sound like my mother.”
“Oi,” she nudged him in the ribs. “I’m not nagging, I just… well, I’ll be going off to university in a few years. I want you to come with me.”
He sighed and moved her chin with his hand so that she was staring up at him, his icy irises twinkling in the moonlight. “I will. I promised you, didn’t I? Maybe I’m not exactly Oxford material, but I’ll learn a trade. Apparently, plumbers get shit tonnes of money…”
“You could do an apprenticeship!” suggested Minnie, brightening. “I’ll help you look. By the time I go away, you could already be working.”
“I’ll save up for a deposit on a flat,” promised Ronnie, tracing the smooth skin on her cheek with his forefinger. He pushed her long blonde hair behind her ear and planted a kiss on her forehead. “Don’t you worry your pretty little head...”
He spoke so genuinely that, at that moment, Minnie was certain of their future. It was all going to pan out exactly how she had always dreamed it. The dream job, the beautiful house, the lavish white wedding, and then someday a perfect little family of their own.
She wasn’t to know then that this was all merely a fantasy that would be cruelly torn away from her that same night.
Chapter Eight
2019
In spite of the heavy grey pellets of rain hammering down across the wide windscreen, Jared Rostas was in high spirits. He hummed along to the radio as he drummed his fingers against the steering wheel and even murmured the occasional lyric underneath his breath.
Since he was a child, he’d always wanted to be an explorer. He’d read about Columbus and watched Indiana Jones until he knew the script off by heart, hopelessly besotted by the dream of one day discovering his own country.
The memory made him chuckle to himself.
Perhaps he would never find untouched soil on this earth, but he could still enjoy the pleasures of following in others’ footsteps. And just maybe, if all went to plan, he could even make a decent living out of it.
Footsteps distracted him from his thoughts, and he smiled.
“Nice nap?” he asked, not taking his eyes off the grim landscape in front of him.
Jared’s wife, Sienna, sat in the passenger seat and placed a hand on his knee. “Couldn’t sleep,” she answered, “this rain is far too loud.”
“Aw, baby,” Jared teased playfully, “perhaps we’ll stop in a while. I’m starving, and it’ll be dark soon.”
Sienna glanced out through the glass and grimaced. They’d gone off-road at the request of one of their YouTube fans. It wasn’t a part of their original plan, but it was too good an opportunity to miss. Viewer engagement was key to gaining popularity on YouTube; Sienna had matter-of-factly informed her husband when they’d received the message.
And then, when they announced their plans to visit Lonely Loch, dozens of other viewers had suddenly chimed in, gushing about how excited they were for the vlog of their detour. They’d even gained a hundred or so more followers, just for announcing it!
“I can see why they call it lonely,” Sienna commented, squinting her eyes to study the foggy, marshy landscape that stretched out all around them. A cold shiver prickled up and down her arms. She shuddered.
“Come on, let’s park up,” she said, squeezing her husband’s thigh. “I’ll make some nice hot soup; then we can crawl into bed and watch a movie.”
Jared traced his lower lip with his tongue, “well, I was hoping to find somewhere that didn’t look so muddy to park, but I don’t think I’ve seen concrete for miles…”
“That’s what the thousand dollar tyres are for,” Sienna said, “we won’t sink. Come on; you can barely see anything anyway; it’s too damn foggy. Hopefully, tomorrow the rain will have cleared, and we can put on our boots and go exploring this wasteland properly.”
Thousand dollar tyres were only the beginning of the seemingly endless flow of cash that had needed to be pumped into the double-decker RV. It had cost the couple over a million in total, money that had come from inheritance and a life insurance fund from Jared’s birth father- a high-profile criminal who Jared had never even gotten to meet.
Still, the money had been a nice surprise and had meant that Jared and Sienna could finally live out their dream of travelling the world in a motor home. However, Jared’s inheritance, although an extremely generous amount, had quickly diminished thanks to the RV. It cost a fortune to renovate; it cost a fortune to maintain and run, and it had cost a fortune to transport the thing to Europe.
That’s why it was so very important that their YouTube channel took off and started earning them some money before what was left of their rapidly vanishing bank balance was totally obliterated.
And it was getting there, ever-so-steadily.
The RV tour video was the most popular, understandably. People were in awe of the double-decker and its lavish interiors. At campsites, strangers were always left dumbfounded by how functional it was as well, with two bathrooms (including a designer bathtub); a state-of-the-art kitchen and laundry room; five beds; a dining table, and five separate plasma TV screens. It was, Jared and Sienna thought proudly, a true work of art. It was their love child and well worth every single cent.
As predicted, the sky soon began to melt into a dark, inky blue, and Jared finally gave in and parked. They folded down the shutters and locked the doors, ate their soup, and then snuggled up under the bed covers to finish watching the crappy horror movie they’d started on Netflix.
Jared tutted under his breath, irritated when the Netflix error sign appeared on the screen. “What the hell?” he muttered,
