Chapter Twenty-Two

Selena

Through a Vale of Tears

At the end of my shift, Ormand asked me to check on a new shipment of young adult novels that just came in. I hated going in the back. It was creepier and colder than the actual store. I made a mental note to ask Ormand if we could call a handyman to check the thermostat, because no matter how many times I upped the temperature the frigid conditions didn’t cease.

Rubbing my arms, I said a little prayer and stepped into the backroom. I reached for the light switch. The single bulb sputtered to life. I swear I could see my breath. It was that cold. I checked the boxes one at a time. Nothing was labeled young adult, so I went deeper into the bowels of the storeroom.

The light from the bulb only stretched so far, so when I reached the middle of the room, it looked like twilight. I continued to scan the boxes. Where the hell did Ormand put the new arrivals? I always arranged new boxes closest to the door. He really needed a system.

Suddenly, the bulb died, blanketing the room in darkness. I yelped, bumping into a stack of boxes. I reached out, steadying the column so it wouldn’t tumble and trap me inside the room that just got a hundred times scarier.

“Hello?” I called out, hands still on the precariously leaning tower of boxes. “Can anybody hear me?”

A cold sweat rose across my forehead. I twisted the box I was holding to stabilize the stack. Once I was sure it wouldn’t fall on me, I gingerly moved away. I couldn’t see a thing. Not even my hands in front of my face. Shit!

I tried to remember just how far I was from the door. I couldn’t have been a few yards into the back. The storeroom wasn’t that big, but in the pitch black, it seemed like a huge cavern. Hands out in front of me, I inched my way to where I thought the door was. One painful step at a time. It seemed to take forever.

A hiss stopped me in my tracks. “Hello?”

This was right about the time in the slasher flick where the heroine encounters the bad guy. Oh, god! Oh, god! Oh, god! My heart tried to beat out of my chest. For all I knew, it wanted to run away as much as I did. My knees knocked together when whatever it was in the room with me hissed again.

The already arctic temperature dropped further. I could actually feel ice form on my skin. My whole body shook. When I inhaled, a putrid smell of rotten eggs made me cough. I pulled up my shirt’s collar to cover my nose and mouth.

“Hello!” My voice rose in desperation. Regardless of the hissing that seemed to grow more insistent by the second, I kept moving. I wanted to run, but if I did I could collide with the badly stacked boxes, and that would be the end of me.

“Ormand!” I screamed now. “Ormand! Help!”

The hissing grew deafening, drowning out my screams for help. I covered my ears and sank to my hunches. I couldn’t move anymore. Fear paralyzed me. The darkness all around seemed like a wide abyss I could no longer cross.

My heart beat so hard, my chest hurt.

The voice I heard in my head at Valley View commanded me to get up. I shook my head against it. Again and again it kept saying I should get up.

“I can’t, I can’t, I can’t,” I kept saying.

“Selena?”

Light flooded the room. I opened eyes I didn’t think I’d shut and looked up. Ormand stood by the door, his hand on the light switch. I’d been a yard away. Just a couple more steps, and I would have been free.

Embarrassed, and still a little shaken, I stood up. “I couldn’t find the box of new YA titles.” I ran my still shaking fingers through my curls. “I’m sorry.”

“You better come with me,” Ormand said.

“What?” My heart thudded in my throat. “Why?”

He blinked, and what I thought was menace in his eyes disappeared, replaced by that crooked-toothed smile. “Your friend’s outside waiting for you.”

Kyle. Relief showered over me, followed closely by a new sense of dread when I remembered where we were going. I thanked Ormand for his help and hurried out of the backroom.

…

The heavy atmosphere in Kyle’s Prius welcomed me when I slid into the front seat. I was still preoccupied by the freakiness of the storeroom when the uncomfortable silence abruptly pulled me out of trying to make sense of it. He didn’t greet me like he usually did. He didn’t even spare me a glance. I had just snapped my seatbelt on when he drove off toward town limits.

I said nothing. His I’m-okay act in school had run out. Not having to hide anymore with me, his anxiety and sadness were both on display in the wrinkle on his brow to the firm line of his lips. He gripped the steering wheel like a lifeline.

The sweet perfume of roses made me turn around and glance at the backseat. About two dozen yellow roses lay across the seat. His mother’s favorite. I smiled sadly. He still thought about what she would have liked.

Facing forward again, I reached out and squeezed his right shoulder.

“Everything’s gonna be okay,” I whispered around the lump in my throat. I needed to pull it together for him.

He nodded once, keeping his eyes aimed forward. The sun dipped lower, casting heavy shadows across the road, giving the quiet in the car an edge. I thought about the time I first met my best friend. It was a very exciting day for my six-year-old self. Grams thought I was emotionally stable enough to go to Maggie’s with her. When we entered the place, I spotted Kyle sitting at the counter with Garret. He’d been answering the puzzles on the kiddie paper placemat with crayons. It had been a year since my parents had abandoned me. I had been a complete wreck, crying myself to sleep every night, wanting them back.

Because of my fragile state of mind, my grandparents kept me secret from the town that entire year—no small feat. They didn’t even enroll me in school. The town didn’t even know about me until that day at the diner. Of course, my grandparents told everyone the truth: my parents died during a hurricane in New Orleans. Nobody asked questions after that explanation. Not even Kyle.

Grams plopped me on a stool beside him and slid a puzzle placemat in front of me. He smiled the charming smile I knew so well now and slid the plastic cup of crayons my way. Something about him put me at ease right away, especially when he helped me with the puzzles. We’d been attached at the hip ever since. And when I found out I had visions of the future, he had been one of the few people I had the courage to tell. He didn’t believe me at first, but he kept my secret anyway.

I never got a chance to meet his parents. They were always away on some business trip together. Even then, Kyle was under the care of Riona, while Garret ran the family business. But he never resented his parents’ constant absences. Apparently, they had video chats every night.

They died in a plane crash a few months after Kyle’s tenth birthday, leaving him with two legal guardians and a multi-billion dollar web company. His devastation affected those around him, especially Penny and me—we didn’t know what to do or say. And since no bodies were found, he refused to believe they were really gone. He said he’d keep searching until he saw evidence of their deaths for himself. Year after year, his hold on that hope grew weaker and weaker. Finally, two years ago, he allowed Garret to set up a grave marker for them. I didn’t see him for a month after that. When he finally returned to school, he acted like nothing happened—all genuine warmth and sincere smiles. Penny and I didn’t have the heart to question him about his disappearance.

Now, in his car, I felt the sadness growing around him as we drove down Highway 16. It was my turn to support him. It didn’t matter what I was going through, I needed to be here for one of the most important people in my life.

I gave him discrete, sideways glances while he drove up the winding road that had tall pines flanking each side like pillars holding up the sky. About a mile away from our destination, Greenwood’s low walls stretched out like uneven toy blocks piled together by a toddler. My thoughts mimicked the aged stone, stacked over each other and held together by mortar made of worry and anxiety.

After shutting off the engine of his hybrid at the entrance, he stared at the open wrought-iron gates. He sat and just looked at the bold, black letters spelling out GREENWOOD in an arch. Knowing to wait, I settled into a comfortable position in my seat and stared at the interlocking vines of the gate’s design. He sighed heavily. I turned my head to face him until my cheek touched the headrest. To my surprise, he’d done the same thing. His slate-gray eyes never looked as tired as they did then.

Without breaking eye contact, I reached for his hand, which rested on the side of his seat. I squeezed his clammy fingers hard. I wanted my warmth to seep into him and tell him that I wasn’t going anywhere. That I’d do this with him no matter what.

Then, like the first sunrise of autumn—golden-yellow brightness—he smiled. It formed in stages, beginning at the corners of his mouth. His lips pulled up, causing his cheekbones to become pronounced, ending with his eyes crinkling. A genuine smile, same as the one he’d given Penny and me the day he returned from his month-long absence.

“Ready?” I asked tentatively.

He returned my squeeze. “Ready.”

Everything was going to be fine.

I repaid his smile. Then I let go of his hand and opened my door.

The moment I stepped out, imaginary cold hands touched my back, sending shivers all over my body. Creepy, much? The same unease I felt the first time I stood outside the bookstore, and most recently, in the stockroom, wrapped around me like a heavy blanket. I rubbed my arms to stop thinking of the eerie air surrounding us.

“Cold?” Kyle asked while he pulled out the yellow roses from the backseat.

“It’s weird,” I said, looking around. “It’s just the end of September. Aren’t you cold?”

He blinked a couple of times. “No. But if you are, I have a jacket in the trunk.”

“I think it’s being here.”

“Then let’s get this over with.” He tilted his head toward the gates and walked on ahead.

I kept up with his long strides. I felt nervous being among the dead. The thought of corpses crawling out of their graves freaked me out. My Night of the Living Dead experience at Valley View picked that time to replay in my head. I rationalized my fear by thinking I didn’t want to leave Kyle because he needed me for support. The croaking frogs and humming crickets didn’t help ease the spooky quiet. Large pines loomed ominously in clumps on each side of the clearing, like silent guards watching over the gravestones.

“Did you know,” Kyle said. “Gravestones were once believed to have been used to keep the living dead from rising from their resting places?”

I laughed nervously. Why’d he have to mention that particular factoid now? Gravestones didn’t stop the puppets at Valley View. “Do you believe the dead can…” I swallowed. “You know…”

“What?” He stopped and looked at me, yellow roses in his hands.

I rubbed my arms. “Do you believe that the dead can rise again?”

He laughed, cutting the eeriness of being the only two people in Greenwood. “If I knew you’d be this freaked out, I would have come alone.”

He meant it as a joke, but I still felt bad for showing any weakness. I blamed it on my stockroom experience. My nerves were still too raw. Despite that, I reminded myself of why I was here. I let go of my arms and stood up straight, jutting my chin out.

“I can do this,” I said with a shaky grin.

“That’s more like it.” He returned my enthusiasm with a small smile.

I ran to his side and entwined my arm with his. “Let’s go.”

Even with his answering shoulder bump, we still hurried past rows of tombstones, marble statutes, and a variety of crosses. In the distance, a large, marble angel came into view. He slowed his pace. The lightness around him turned heavy again. The storm cloud above his head returned. I matched my steps with his while looking straight ahead.

The angel, once pristine, now showed the effects of weather and time. With its wings tucked behind it, the statue’s arms and face reached for the heavens as if asking for blessings. Or deliverance. I couldn’t be sure. Below the angel’s feet, a gold-lettered granite slab stated: Alexander and Tanya Hilliard, beloved parents. Never found. Never lost.

Tears threatened to fall from my eyes. The inscription got me every time. I lifted my hands to cover my trembling lips. Kyle still believed his parents were alive somewhere. He fell to his knees and placed the bouquet of roses on the patch of grass beneath the angel. His shoulders shook as he covered his face with his hands.

Sobs filled the air around us.

The sun had set beyond the tall pines by the time Kyle wiped away the last of his tears and stood up. He stretched from his fingers all the way to his toes. I distinctly heard some joints popping.

The coming gloom brought with it a gray twilight. A soft mist gathered on the ground, covering the graves in a damp, smoky blanket. Kyle faced me again, and in the dim light, I could see the tip of his nose was red, and his usually light gray eyes copied a stormy sky.

“I’m really glad you came,” he said softly.

I bridged the gap between us and threw my arms around his shoulders, giving him the biggest, warmest hug I could muster. He pulled me up until my toes barely touched the ground.

“I braved the scary cemetery for you,” I said even if my eyes welled up.

“I owe you one.” He barked a sad laugh. After a minute, he said, “I still miss them.”

My heart crumpled a little. “Every damn day,” I replied.

“What?” A sniff escaped his nose.

“I miss my mom and dad every day,” I clarified in a gentle tone. “The loneliness and the missing them never goes away.”

Kyle buried his head deeper into my shoulder, and I felt the spreading dampness from his tears on my sweater. We shared the same sadness.

I understood that he was closer to his parents than I was to mine since they died when I was much younger than him. But grief was grief. I only had a few concrete memories of them. Actually, if Grams didn’t have pictures of them hanging on the walls of the living room and up the stairs, I wouldn’t have been able to recall the light in my mother’s eyes or the laugh lines on my father’s face. They were more like flickers of light at the back of my mind now, but it didn’t mean I thought of them any less.

Forgetting all the craziness in my life, I lost myself in memories of my parents’ scent and touch and Kyle’s comforting embrace.