Never Coming Home

Gerard’s POV
I drop the phone, and it hangs loosely by the cord.
“Hello?” I hear the voice still talking from the phone, trying to see if I’m still there, and then the line clicks. She hung up.
Frank outs a hand on my shoulder. “Gerard, look, it’s all gonna be fine. We can stay here for a little bit and then leave, back home. We can go home. You didn’t do anything wrong. Let’s just leave it at that.”
“No.” I say instantly. “We came here for a reason, and we’re gonna finish what we started.”
“So what are your next plans?” asks Susan. I look at her. Her eyes look concerned, generally concerned. Like she thinks I’ve gone mad.
“I’m going to go back to the return address on the letter. I brought it just in case.”
“Now?”
“Now.”
We hail a cab and the driver looks back at us, speaking in German. “Was ist Ihr Ziel?” he says. Clearly we don’t understand a word.
“Do you speak English?” asks Frank.
He nods. “Where would you like to go?”
“Here.” I hand him the return address I ripped from the envelope. He takes a look at it. “Alright, it’ll take about 15 minutes.”
We wait while we’re driven to our destination. I’m pretty sure I’m the only one here who’s thinking so hard, but I’m not sure. Nobody says a word throughout the entire drive, so maybe I’m not alone in my thoughts.
Once we reach the home, we pay the man and leave, looking up at the large flat. The door is towering over us, and I try to open it. “Locked.” I say.
“Hold on.” Says Lucy, taking out a hair pin and picking the lock in a few seconds.
“Impressive.” I say, opening the door and walking in, the three following behind me into the building. There was a door with the number 559 on it. I knocked on the door, and almost as soon as my hands left the wood, a tall woman opened the door.
“Hallo?”
“Hello, I’m Gerard.” I say.
She switches to English, sighing. “Oh, you’re here.”
“I just need to know one thing.” I say.
“What is that?”
“What happened to Alice Way?”
She thinks for a second. “I’m sorry, I don’t remember hearing of an Alice Way.”
I sigh and look down. “Okay, thank you anyway.”
“No problem.” And she smiles before closing the door in my face.
I don’t say a word, and no one says a word to me. We just silently walk outside, heading back to our inn, out of hope…
***************
Susan’s POV
I feel so bad for Gerard. He came all this way just to have his hope crushed right in front of his face. I don’t think he wants anyone here right now, so I’m going to go for a walk.
I head out the door, walking to the café we were at before.
The roads are crowded, people sitting against walls.
One girl holding a tin cup walks over to me.
“entschuldigen Sie mich, Fräulein, Sie haben keine Kleingeld haben?” she says. Of course, I don’t understand a word she’s saying.
“Umm…”
She seems to understand that I don’t speak German quite quickly.
“Francais? Nederlands? Espanol? English?”
“English, yes, English.”
“I was just wondering if you had any change to spare.”
“Oh, yes, I think so.” I fish through my pocket and find a euro coin, handing it to her.
“Thank you, so much.” She says gratefully. She looks tired and worn out, like she hadn’t eaten for days.
“Why don’t I buy you a hot chocolate?” I say. “You look like you haven’t seen one of those in ages.”
She smiles at me. “No, I couldn’t ask you for that.”
“Really, it’s fine.”
She hesitates for a second. “Alright.”
I quickly go into the café and come out with two hot chocolates. “Here you are.” I say, handing her the steaming cup.
“Thank you, miss.”
“It’s no problem.” She drinks it quicker than I’ve ever seen. “You must be thirsty.”
“You have no idea.”
“What’s your name?”
“Alice.”
I stop for a second. “…Alice Way?”
She looks up at me, confused. “Yes, Alice Way.”

Notes

So, this is what the next chapter is. It might be short, but it's something. I've been struggling to find time to write this one, lately. ^_^