Chapter 6

With so many people waiting for my next live-streaming to start, even I got a little nervous, but there was no way I could let our fans down. I had never expected my last stream to be an instant success, but if Dullahan wanted the truth to be known, nothing could stop him.

It felt like the door to fame and paying my share of the rent was flung wide open by him. So I guess he wasn't as bad as the tales tried to portray him. Was that the reason he was helping me, hoping I would redeem his name?

I stood on the country road, clicked play for the live to start, and shared my findings with our fans. They were loving it. So then, did that mean I didn't have any reason to be afraid of him any more? He was just someone who didn't fit in and was misunderstood, just like me.

A sudden thought passed through my head, and I paused mid-sentence in the live stream. But if I wasn't afraid any more, there was no reason why Freja would let me sleep in her bed… I didn't want to disappoint her and make her feel lonely again.

Feeling that all hope was fading and Freja might be lost in the darkness and never dare to share her heart with anyone again, I grabbed the last option that destiny offered me. I asked our fans what I should do.

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I let her babble to the bots for a while, but in the end, I got cold, and so I dragged her back to our room. The last thing I wanted was for her to get ill. If that happened, our flight back would be unbearable, no matter what I did.

At least she still seemed interested in the paranormal investigations, so I didn't need to find her anything else to do just now, as I had worried would be the case. More often than not, her enthusiasm didn’t last more than a few days, and I had even found an aquarium in Dublin we could visit as the worst-case scenario.

Beyond the Veil almost beat the record of bookstagram, but that project went on for so long only because it took me a while to figure out that she didn't read any of those books she bought online. It was her first project, so I forgave myself for overlooking it. Back then, I still tried to believe that she would actually act as a responsible adult and continue with what she had started for more than a week.

I checked my phone. It was getting late, and Vera had missed her feeding time. I glanced at her. She didn’t seem to notice it yet, but I didn’t want to take any chances. She always got so restless when she was hungry.

“What do you want to eat?”, I asked.

She stared at her phone for a while before she replied with a smile.

“Anything you like.”

I sighed and ordered us pizza. I wanted to have a quiet evening, so I decided to go with something that she would eat without a fuss.

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I was surprised when the pizza arrived at our room. I really believed that Freja would want to try some local specialities, and I had braced myself for it. But I wanted to make her happy, so if pizza was her favourite food, I didn't mind it. I smiled and started to eat, happy that all the advice I had gotten from our fans was already paying off.

To show how grateful I was for their help, I published some raw footage from our investigation on our channel. I hoped that Freja would be happy that she didn’t edit it. It seemed that our fans preferred raw footage over the polished documentary we planned to do. It was a great insight for the future that would help us to cut the production cycle to a minimum, and I started to wonder if all other projects failed because Freja overedited our content.

It didn’t really matter. Now that I had finally found the key to our success, she would finally be able to relax and take it easy while I brought in enough money to support us.

I wondered which advice I should follow next. It would be nice if we could have a bath together. I could wash her back, and she could comb my hair afterwards, but unfortunately, we only had a shower in the corridor, so this option was out. I scrolled through the chat, looking for more inspiration, then smiled and put my head on her lap.

“What are you doing?”, she frowned.

I knew how difficult it was for her to accept love. But I was willing to play along with her denial and give her the reason she needed to allow it without the fear that someone would see how much she longed for it.

“I will be quiet if you let me stay like this.”

“Fine”, she sighed and went back to reading on her phone.

I lay as still as I could, not wanting to disturb her. It made me happy that she felt safe enough with me to read one of her books without any worries that I would find out how silly they were and learn about her soft side.

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To my surprise, she kept her promise, and only the weight of her head on my lap reminded me that she was still in the same room as me. It was pretty rare to have such a prolonged period of silence with her around.

I put my hand on her forehead, but she didn’t seem to have a fever. I guess she just got tired after all the walking we had done. It was probably the case, I thought. Normally, she wouldn’t walk further than the distance between the sofa and the fridge, and in those circumstances, it would take her years to cover the distance we had walked today.

So it was a good decision that I had shortened our trip, and we would go home tomorrow instead. I could handle keeping her entertained for half a day. There was no chance she would want to go outside and film anything after today, so this was probably the end of Beyond the Veil.

Anyway, it had lasted longer than I had expected, and for sure, she would soon find something else to do and forget about it, distracted by a shiny new thing in front of her. At least this trip wasn’t as bad as I had expected, and had gone pretty smoothly. Except for the fact that it cost me a fortune, but if she seemed happy, I didn’t mind it.

On the flip side, I worried it would somehow reinforce her idea that we are girlfriends, but as long as she didn’t put too much of it online, I let it be. I suppose I got used to having her around, and I would probably miss her if she were to go.

I kept reading and started to wonder if Maara would finally accept Tamra's feelings when Vera stirred on my lap. I sighed. Not now. I looked at her, only to be met with her bright smile.

“What?”

“Tired…”, she said quietly.

“Go to sleep then…”

She looked at the window and pressed herself into me, whispering,

“Dullahan…”

“Fine, sleep here if you want, but don’t get used to it. Tomorrow we are going home”