It was Saturday morning, the man knelt down at the
gravestone and moved his weather-worn hand on the etched letters. “Beloved wife, mother, and friend.” He
moved his fingers down to the name “Annette
Winfrey - May 2, 1975 – October 5, 2015” A rose etched in the stone. He
sighed to himself as he stood back up and slowly moved to the grave beside it,
much smaller but with no less significance. He read the words silently in his mind
though he had read them a thousand times before “Kara Winfrey, God’s garden has need for little flowers. July 25, 2005 –
October 5, 2015” A small daisy etched in hers.
He winced at the words as if ripping open a large scar that
had barely begun to heal. It had been six months since the accident, yet the
pain was still fresh in his mind. Still… today he tried to smile. The side of
his mouth curved, just barely as he stared down at his daughter’s grave and
spoke quietly, “I try every day to smile for you… it’s still hard though, after
all I can’t hear your footsteps running down the hallway anymore. I can’t
pretend not to see you hiding behind my office door waiting to scare me…” his
voice trailed off as a tear rolled down his cheek. He couldn’t go on any more
with his thoughts, not because it was painful, but because he seen what looked
like teenagers emerging from one of the small mausoleum-like structure not far
from where he stood.
Five of them doubling over in laughter, smoke pouring out of
the building as if it were on fire – though he knew there would be no flames.
He narrowed his eyes, anger flooding through him as they trampled through the
world of the resting dead as if nothing but weeds and grass were under their
feet. He didn’t take his eyes away from them, silently cursing each one of them
in his mind for being so disrespectful. One of the faces locked with his, he
stared at her as if daggers could shoot through his eyes and into hers, hoping
maybe if she could take the hint she would stop the others. A few moments
passed between them, but instead of the apologetic look he was expecting, she
stuck her tongue out and flicked her middle finger towards him. Instead of
giving her the shocked face he assumed she wanted, he continued to stare –
almost emotionless at them until they disappeared from his sight.
---
Chloe laughed and continued to walk with her friends out of
the graveyard. Her green eyes were bloodshot as her dyed bleach blonde hair fell
in a frizzy kind of way around her face. “Did you flip off that guy?!” Denise
said loudly as they rounded the corner of the sidewalk. Chloe laughed, “Yeah,
oh my god did you see his face. Such a creeper.” Denise laughed along with her,
both of them following behind the three men they were with. Chloe stumbled a
little as her red high heel shoe caught the corner of the sidewalk she was
walking down. “Shit.” She managed to say before one of the men yanked her back
up before her face made contact with the curb. “Fuck! Watch where you are
walking, clumsy bitch.” Chloe laughed
his comment off and shot her brown haired friend Denise a look, but Denise didn’t notice as she stared at the
tallest of the men they had met at the bar the night before.
Chloe remembered most of the night before thought parts of
it were a little fuzzy. They had been drinking a lot before they crashed in the
stone building in the middle of the graveyard and the pot this morning didn’t
help. She coughed and rubbed her mouth with the back of the sleeve of the
jacket she had borrowed from the guy with sandy blonde hair. They walked a few
blocks before stopping at the car the men had driven to get to the bar, “Shotgun!”
The blonde said with a laugh as the tallest one got into the driver’s seat. The
third guy looked a little agitated as he forced a smile towards the girls
before sliding into the back.
The drive angled the mirror
towards them and said, “So where to?” The girl’s gave them their addresses and
before long they were both safe and sound at home.
---
Chloe showered and quickly put on her best modest outfit,
she had a lunch party with her parents that she had to get to that her mom
would kill her if she was late. She ran down the stairs of the large, empty
mansion taking them two by two, large expensive art hung on the walls as she
tried to get her earrings in her ears. She looked at the mirror that was in the
entryway and put some Visine in her still-red eyes. Suddenly the doorbell rang.
Chloe’s glanced towards the maid dusting in her parent’s
living room, but knew she was too close to the door for her to get it. Chloe
sighed obnoxiously and grabbed her name brand purse from the side table in the
hallways and opened the door. Her stomach felt like it was in her throat. It
was him, the man from the graveyard. The look of horror must have been evident
on her face as the man interrupted the moment of silence between them, “Hello
Miss Ramsey.” Chloe shifted uncomfortably, unable to find the right words to
say to the stranger on the doorstep. “H-hello?” She managed. “I saw you and
your friend’s at the cemetery this morning.” Chloe’s face suddenly reddened
with anger and her words found her, “What the fuck is it to you old man?” She
said loudly, glad her parents weren’t home. She was supposed to be studying
with Denise, not using fake I.D.s to get into clubs. “Are you some kind of
stalker, cause I’ll call the fucking police right now.”
He didn’t flinch at the harshness
of her tone, “No need for that Miss Ramsey, I was just curious if you found a
daisy necklace while you were there. It’s been lost and I’d really like to have
it again. Sentimental reasons.” Chloe narrowed her eyes and pushed passed him closing
the door behind her, she wasn’t afraid of him, “You think I stole your shitty
necklace? No way. Get away from me.” She walked down the stairs to the sidewalk
and lifted her hand for a cab. One stopped almost immediately, as she got in
she started to give the man a dirty glance, but he had obviously moved on. “Good
riddance.” She said under her breath.
---
Chloe had lunch with her parents and their friends at the
top of a high rise overlooking the entire city. She laughed at all the right
times, and said all the right things. It was easy when she had grown up around
all of this since she was born. Fancy parties, fast cars, name brand clothing.
She enjoyed every bit of it. The lunch went a little long for her tastes, but then
she was back home again finishing up her homework for class on Monday. Life was
good. She crawled into bed a few hours later, tired from her eventful weekend
partying. It wasn’t long before sleep took her.
---
Running… running… she was being chased by something, was she
in the woods, a city? She couldn’t tell. Her mind raced. What was chasing her?
Suddenly she was on the ground, something on her back, she thrashed about many
moments until…she couldn’t breathe. It had her by the neck laughing… choking
her. She tried to scream out, she tried to get someone’s attention but no one
heard her, no one looked at her. Couldn’t they see she was being attacked? This
had to be a dream, she tried to wake herself, but to no avail, the world went
black.
When she awoke, she looked around her as a few girls
laughed, “You fell asleep again Kara!” One of them said. Chloe looked at her
confused, “My name isn’t Kara?” She said quietly, but the voice that came out
wasn’t her own. She tried to sit up, but the seatbelt locked up on her not
allowing her to go too far. She had to sit up to look out the window, it was
that moment she realized she wasn’t twenty anymore. She looked down to find
herself in some kind of camper garb, her hands much smaller than they had been
when she went to sleep, her feet unable to touch the floorboard. She looked
around frantically as the girls in the van started chanting some kind of road
trip song. “Where am I?” She announced loudly, but it was as if none of the
girls could hear her. She touched the seatbelt strap with her hand and released
the lock. She looked out the window; the countryside was all she could see. She
leaned over, the van full of girls chanting away, two adult women in the driver
and passenger seat, singing away.
Chloe shifted uncomfortably and pushed the glasses up on her
nose. Since when did she wear glasses? Her hearth thumped in her chest loudly
as the chanting girl’s made for eerie background noise. Seconds… minutes… hours
past the sky began to darken and many of the other girls were starting to fall
asleep, but Chloe couldn’t close her eyes. A feeling of dread overwhelmed her
as she watched the sun go down. “Kara, it’s okay to sleep, we’ll be there in a
few hours.” One of the women said, “We’ll wake you we promise.” She giggles
with the other woman, “Goodnight Kare-Bear.” Said the other, her eyes staring
into Chloe’s in such a gentle and loving way. Mommy I love you. A voice whispered in her mind.
Then the sound of metal on metal clashed into her ears. The
world swirled into a multitude of colors Chloe couldn’t even begin to describe.
Her head hit the car door as airbags began popping out of every direction as th
overhead lights came on. Then the loud sound of splashing water came. Chloe…Kara
looked around her desperately her vision blurry as blood dripped from her
temple from the impact of the door. Half of the van was crushed into itself,
the girl’s Kara’s friend’s on the left side had their eyes closed, most of
their limbs mangled. The girl’s on the right were screaming. The driver was missing
most of the left side of her body and her brain was oozing out as her neck fell
limb in an unnatural way. The woman in the passenger seat was unconscious, but
not near as injured. Chloe… Kara wiped the blood away from her temple as her
vision refocused on the true darkness of it all.
She didn’t even realize she was in water until her ears
began to pop and her shoes began to moisten. She looked down at the water
pooling beneath her and then more panic set in She undid her seatbelt and
screamed, “It’s filling up with water!” She exclaimed to her still screaming
friends. She tried the automatic window
switch on her door, but it wouldn’t budge, the water rising. Next she tried the
door. After manually unlocking it she pulled the handle and tried to push open
the door, but the weight of the water was too much for her tiny body. She
looked around for something, anything to break the window, to open the door.
The water was to her middle now as the blood of her friends,
the blood of her mother, began swirling towards her. Tears ran down her face as
she began to cry out for help from someone, anyone. The girls that were still
conscious cried out with her as the water and blood kept coming. Her cheek was
pressed against the ceiling of the van as she struggled to get any little gasp
of air left within the vehicle before it was completely consumed by water. She
opened her eyes under the barely lit water as she held her breath. Tears mixed
with water mixed with blood. Her lungs began to ache and crush in on themselves,
her eyes widened as slowly had to let the air out of her body instinctually to
keep herself alive just a little longer. But it was too late.
The last bit of air left her lungs, she held on without anything
a second or two more staring into the faces of the girls she had called her
friends for much of her young life. Then she gasped for breath and in came the
water, the tears the blood. Her body coughed, and out they came again only to
have them intake again. She choked in and out for a few moments the world
growing fuzzier and darker around her, her eyes bloodshot as tears, blood, and
water flowed out of them. She grabbed her throat as she convulsed under the
darkness, and in her tiny hand she grasped a small daisy-shaped necklace. I love you Daddy. The voice whispered in
her ear, and then she was gone.
---
It was Sunday morning, Chloe walked into the cemetery,
necklace gripped tightly in her hand making a daisy indention on her palm.
There he was sitting and leaning against a gravestone. Her stomach turned
uncomfortably as she approached him quietly, “I found it.” She said, much less
arrogantly then she would have before. The man looked up at her, his mouth
formed a soft tilt upwards. “Did you now?” He said holding his hand out.
Chloe put the necklace in his palm and he brought it to his
face. He looked at it for a moment before pressing it tightly to his lips, “Yes,
this is it.” He said quietly. Chloe gave a sigh of relief hoping that with the
guilt she had been feeling lifted, perhaps her dreams would subside and she could
move on with her life. He put the necklace in his shirt pocket and looked up at
her with kind eyes, “Thank you.” He said quietly. Chloe looked away humbly but
by the time she focused her attention back on him, he was gone and a gravestone
left in his place. She read it silently, “James
Winfrey; devoted in life and death to his wife and daughter. - January 19, 1975
– October 7, 2015.”
-A
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