Part 8 (2/2)
”Look at me!”
Losing her balance on her last swing, Jill fell to the ground. She pounded her hand on the ground and cried into the gra.s.s.
A s.h.i.+mmering glow illuminated the ground near her head. Looking up through teary eyes, Jill saw the young girl standing over her.
”Help me,” Jill sobbed.
The little girl simply shook her head.
Angrily, Jill climbed to her knees so she was eye level with the girl. ”She's my best friend. You can't have her. I won't let her be dead!”
The little girl shook her head again, an action that was mirrored by the other approaching apparitions.
”d.a.m.n you! She can't be dead! You brought me here to see this. Why would you do that if I can't do anything to save her?”
The little girl merely shook her head again.
Jill felt the panic well inside her. She stood and turned back to Whitney, who had nearly reached the gate of the cemetery. Jill didn't know what would happen if she let Whitney leave through the gate but her mind screamed that she needed to stop her.
”Whitney! Whitney!” Jill screamed into the night air. She waved her hands over her head. ”I'm right here-look at me!”
Jill hurried to catch up but the little girl appeared before her, blocking her way. Beyond the girl, Jill could see Whitney getting closer to the exit.
”Get out of my way,” Jill demanded angrily.
The little girl shook her head, her eyes pleading even as her mouth moved wordlessly.
”I don't understand what you're saying,” Jill cried in frustration. ”Don't you get it? I don't know what you're saying!”
The little girl pointed toward Whitney and the gate.
Jill followed the girl's gesture and saw Whitney paused by the closed doorway.
Goodbye, Whitney said softly, her words carrying through the graveyard.
As Jill watched, a second ghostly figure phased through the wrought-iron fence. The translucent figure of Jake stepped to Whitney, pulling her in close. Whitney laid her head on Jake's chest and cried heavily. Jake held her for a long moment before they turned and walked through the closed gate together.
”I... I don't understand,” Jill said quietly.
The little girl reached toward her. When her spectral hand touched Jill's skin, her flesh exploded with a deep-freezing cold.
Remember, the little girl whispered, her words suddenly audible as she spoke.
Chapter Three.
Jake and Jill walked toward the jeep, trailing behind Whitney and her boyfriend. As Brent reached the door, he tripped on his own feet and nearly fell to the concrete, catching himself at the last minute on the jeep's door handle. Whitney and Brent exploded with laughter as they climbed into the front two seats of the car.
Jake slipped his hand in Jill's and felt her sweaty palms. ”You don't have to do this, you know?”
”Yes, I do,” she replied. ”I'm going to make sure that a.s.shole loses.”
The pair climbed into the back of the open-topped jeep as Brent started the engine and pulled out of the parking lot.
Brent and Whitney lost themselves in mindless conversation, leaving the rear of the jeep in a dreadful silence. Despite her bravado, Jill was petrified of spending the night in Creepy Cemetery. She didn't put stock into the rumors of the cemetery being haunted, but the ambiance of the graveyard was enough to put her ill at ease.
Jill a.s.sociated the graveyard with a morose sense of sadness; knowing that those buried within had been forgotten not just by the city, which refused upkeep on the cemetery, but even by the families of those who had pa.s.sed. In all her months of driving by, she had never seen a single wreath or flower set in honor of those within.
”You're drifting,” Jake said suddenly, drawing Jill from her morbid introspection.
She looked up to see Brent turn the jeep back into their lane.
”Thanks,” Brent called back over his shoulder before returning to his conversation.
”Are you sure you're okay to drive?” Jill asked, realizing that was a question better posed at the beginning of their trip.
”It's only a couple blocks and we're already halfway there,” Brent replied. ”I'm fine.”
”He's fine,” Whitney echoed.
Jill looked over to Jake and met his soft gaze. She drew confidence from his chocolate eyes and the gentle upturn at the corners of his mouth.
”Don't worry,” Jake said. ”If you get too freaked out, you have your cell phone. Call me and I'll come pick you up.”
He leaned in closer, whispering so that only Jill could hear. ”If we're really careful, we could even drop you back off before sunrise and just lie to these two idiots.”
Jill smiled and laughed softly to herself. As much as she had always loathed the idea of dating a fraternity guy, Jake had a maturity that broke through her preconceived notions.
She leaned in and kissed him firmly on the lips. He leaned into her embrace and, for a moment, they lost themselves in one another. As they separated, Jake's smile grew wider.
”What was that for?”
”For being such an amazing boy...,” Jill began. A splash of headlights broke her train of thought. She looked up and stared into the approaching headlights of a truck.
”Look out!” she screamed.
Brent's head snapped up from where it had been drooping. Seeing the headlights, he jerked the steering wheel to the side but grossly overcorrected. The jeep swerved back through their lane and onto the sidewalk in front of the cemetery.
Jake's hand fell protectively across Jill's chest a second before the jeep struck a lamppost. Colliding at nearly fifty miles an hour, the jeep spun. Momentum carried the jeep over on its side, where it rolled across the gra.s.sy embankment.
Jill felt herself lift from the seat as she was thrown through the open roof of the jeep. She struck the concrete first against her shoulder, which gave way with a sickening crack. Her head followed suit, striking the hard ground.
Her world exploded into a rainbow of colors. She could hear the snapping of bones as she rolled limply away from the wreck-but her mind no longer a.s.sociated the ruin with her own body.
She bounced across the ground before coming to rest against a rusted iron fence. Her right arm was twisted awkwardly behind her and a red haze covered half of her vision. Each breath through her broken ribs felt like a hot knife being pulled across her chest.
<script>