IV (ON HOLD)

Chapter One

We were in our favorite spot, the abandoned farmhouse over on Tacet Street. The air was thick and muggy and the overgrown grass was wet from fresh rain. We lit the space with candles enclosed in an assortment of empty glass jars. Getting the candles and jars was easy for most of us, we are expected to handle empty spaghetti sauce and jelly jars, and candles are easy to swipe while "tidying" the house. The lights, however, were more difficult to obtain. None of us were eighteen so buying lighters was out of the question, and matches were controlled by the men of the house. So, we were forced to adapt. I flirted with the deli boy and swiped his lighter when we met during his smoke breaks. Daphne established an underground barter system throughout the three high schools in the area and managed to establish an impressive lighter collection. Rue blackmailed her brothers for their excess matches. And Sweet Pea, Sweet Pea had it the hardest, she had to dig up her old clothes and dress up as Peter. Her father wanted a son so bad that he would give almost anything to Peter. We hid all the materials in the farmhouse

               Our parents didn't want us talking to each other. My parents thought Sweet Pea was improper, Daphne was poor, and Rue was snobbish. The school wasn't keen on us being together either. We were labeled "trouble-makers" even though we were never the ones looking for trouble. So we created cues. If someone wanted to meet they tied a black string to their left wrist. After lunch, the rest of us would respond by also tying a black string to our left wrists. If you couldn't make it, you would tie a white string on your right wrist. The process would repeat until everyone had a black string on their right wrist. It was tedious but effective and we usually met at least once a week.

            We created rules. We always met at the farmhouse at midnight and we always met together. If one of us couldn't make it we didn't go. As for what we discussed, usually we just talked, what would we do with a million dollars, were we ever going to get married, have kids, stuff like that. But the night the idea came up was different, much different. That night Sweet Pea was by almost an hour late. Me, Daphne and Rue were going out of our minds.

            "Where is she?" said Daphne. She was pacing back in forth, playing with a stainless steel zippo lighter.

            "She's never been this late," said Rue.

            "Maybe we should go find her?" I suggested. I was starting to tear at the skin around my fingernails a bad habit my parents detested.

            "What if something happened to her?" Daphne's face went pale and blotchy.

            "We have to go" said Rue. We nodded in agreement. One by one we began blowing out the candles and storing them in the dilapidated cabinets. That's when we saw her. The dim lighting of the room made it hard to take in everything at once. She was wearing a pair of unflattering jeans and a stripped polo that looked much too small for her. But most disturbing was the purple ring that circled her right eye, the bloody split in her bottom lip and the pile of hair she was gripping tightly in her fist.

            "Sweet..." she held up her hand to stop me and stepped further into the light. Her cheeks were wet with tears, her face red and puffy.

            "I don't want to talk about it" she said. "Let's just pretend..." Daphne was the first to speak.

            "Of course," she smiled and lobbed a pack of matches to Sweet Pea. "We have to relight our candles, since someone was late." She winked and nodded. Rue joined in.

            "Oh and here's your clothes, hurry up and change already" she laughed. Sweet Pea looked like she might collapse. I placed my hand on her shoulder and squeezed tightly. She smiled and took the clothes from Rue and went into one of the back stalls. Minutes later she was back, looking like her usual self minus six inches of hair.

            I don't know when it happened or who exactly brought it up. But I do remember it being a joke.

            "We should run away" I can't remember who this was.

            "Yeah, no one would miss me." This was Daphne.

            "I doubt they'd even hold formal burials for us" I added.

            "Mine would but it would be about them" murmured Rue.

            "Where would we go?" someone asked.

            "We could live here" suggested Rue.

            "No someone would notice, we'd have to leave town" replied Daphne.

            "We can't drive and hitchhiking is too suspicious here, everyone is too connected. We'd have to stay close, hide inside town, change our appearance maybe" said Sweet Pea.

            "So we'd have to stay here. But where can we go that's in town but secluded enough where no one would find us?"

            Then it hit us, the Mausoleum. And just like that what started out as a joke became much more.