Dark Secrets [COMPLETED]

Chapter 17: All That Remains

I should've known that my family wouldn't be pleased. They came outside at the first sign of red-and-blue lights to find me sitting on the steps, staring out at the police cruiser and ambulance that were driving through the opened gates.

"What's going on?" Mom demanded.

I brushed dirt off of my pants, unsure of what to say.

"You called the cops?!" Carlos exclaimed.

I nodded. "It has nothing to do with any of you," I assured them.

Robert in particular was furious. It was rare to get any kind of emotion out of the man, and apart from the time I'd accused him—rightfully, it turned out—of poisoning Evelyn Kendrick, this was the first time I'd seen him genuinely angry. "This has gone too far," he snarled. "First you pick around my family history and accuse my great-great-grandfather of murder, and now you call the police to my house over an argument?"

"I said it has nothing to do with you!" I repeated. "I found something in the woods—"

"Calista, you may have been a teenager when we first arrived here, but you're a grown woman now. I expected more maturity out of you."

"Oh, fuck you!" I snapped.

"Calista!" Mom exclaimed indignantly. "What is the matter with you?!"

I shook my head at her. "You wouldn't understand, Mom."

One of the police officers exited his cruiser and walked over to us, arguing on the stairs of the building. "Excuse me, is there a problem here?" He asked.

We turned to face him. He was a young-ish man with short brown hair.

Robert's rage vanished and he gave the officer a placid smile. "Everything is alright, sir," he began. "We are just dealing with a little family quarrel, that's all."

"No, it's not alright!" I exclaimed. "There are bodies in the woods!"

Everyone fell silent. "Bodies?" asked the officer. "What kind of bodies?"

All eyes were on me. I cleared my throat and continued. "I found two human bodies in the woods. One of them is mostly just a skeleton, but the other one still has skin and everything."

Mister Officer raised an eyebrow, but seemed to listen to me. "How did you find these bodies?"

"I was on a walk on my path in the woods and...I just saw a mound of dirt that looked strange. I'm a very paranoid person, as my family will tell you," I paused to nod my head to them, "and I decided to dig it up just to prove to myself that it was nothing serious. But then I found them..." I shivered, mostly from the night chill, but also from the memories.

Thankfully, Mister Officer took my recounting seriously, as he left to go talk to the EMTs by the ambulance. They were one man and one woman, and they both immediately went to the back of the truck and took out a stretcher and two black body bags. Mister Officer gestured for me to come over to them, and I obeyed.

"We'll need you to take us to where you found the bodies," he instructed.

I did as I was told, guiding them through the trees, past the dirt path and the birches. We ended up in the clearing in no time. The abandoned shovel was still on the ground, I didn't know whether to pick it up and return it back to the carriage house or not. My gut told me to leave it, which I did. Mister Officer and the EMTs crouched to look into the hole, and he shone his flashlight inside. They took one look at the decomposed body of Virginia Clement, looked at each other and nodded. They put on their rubber gloves and got to work.

There was no need to confirm pulse or respiration—they were long dead. Instead, they set down a body bag and unzipped it completely. With the utmost gingerly care, they lifted the body out of the hole and set her inside of the bag. They zipped it up and hoisted it onto the gurney. Then they moved to the next one. Meredith's body was trickier, since she was all bone at this point.

Mister Officer looked at me. "You can go back to your parents now. It's all taken care of."

I listened, not wanting to be out here for one second longer. When I emerged from the woods and made my way back to my family, they were still on the stairs, talking.

"This is a waste of the public's time," Robert was saying. "We do not have bodies in our woods. These are just stories made up by busybodies who despise me and mine."

"How do you know you don't?" I asked.

They looked at me silently, like they demanded an explanation. I continued. "Sometimes the people you trust the most turn out not to be the people they claim themselves to be."

I kept my expression stoic and just stared at Robert, daring him to recognize that I knew his secret. He didn't respond, just closing his mouth and reverting back to his usual stoic self. Something dark glinted in his eyes, reminding me of what I knew he was capable of. Perhaps I was making a mistake in provoking him like this, but I held my ground. I even stared down Carlos when he raised an eyebrow at the two of us.

Mom stared past us at the trees. Suddenly, her eyes widened and the colour drained from her face. "Oh my god..."

I turned around to look and saw the Mister Officer and the EMTs coming out of the trees. The bodybags were strapped to the gurneys. I looked back at Mom and Carlos, who both looked like their eyes were about to pop out of their skulls. In spite of the situation, I couldn't help but feel a kind of satisfaction. Finally, they believed me.

Mister Officer came over to us to talk to me. "We'll be in touch once we're able to identify the remains," he explained. "Unfortunately, the elements have had a bad impact on the bodies over the years, so it may take a while."

Once the gurneys were loaded into the back of the ambulance, everybody got back into their vehicles and drove off. I looked at Mom and Carlos, who were now looking at me, stunned. I had nothing to say, so I slid past them and into the house.

I decided to sleep in my own bedroom that night. I barely managed to strip off all my clothes before I collapsed onto my bed. I pulled my comforter around myself and, miraculously, I fell into a deep sleep.

For the first time in forever, no visions plagued me.

~

At the end of the week, I listened to Carlos and did what I should've done in the first place—I packed up my things and left Kendrick House.

My plan was to go visit my father, and see if I could talk him into letting me stay with him. It was time I talked to Dad face to face. If that didn't work out, I was going to check into a hotel in the meantime. Anywhere was better than here. I finally realized that.

On the day of, Carlos gave me a ride to the train station, more out of cordiality than anything else. He helped me pack up my suitcase and two duffel bags into the car. Mom came outside to say goodbye. She didn't give me a hug or anything, like usually would. She seemed distant. "So I guess this is goodbye," she murmured.

I nodded. "I'll tell Dad you say Hello."

I hated being so cold, but what else could I say? "You need to run away from this place as fast as you can?" That wasn't going to be likely after what she'd just experienced. I knew how earth-shattering that could be.

There was nothing else to say, so Carlos and I got in the car and left. The ride back to the station was silent, but this time, neither of us did anything to try and fill it.

We arrived just as the train pulled into the station. He helped me carry my stuff onto the platform before letting me go. "I can take care of it," I said. "Thank you."

He gave me a half-hearted hug. I closed my eyes and let it happen. "I'm sorry," he said.

"Me too," I murmured.

I went up to the conductor and fished my ticket out of my pocket. He punched it and nodded for me to board. I put one duffel bag around my shoulder, and rested the other on top of my pull-out suitcase. I gave Carlos one last smile before walking up the steps and boarding the train.

Once I was settled in my seat, with my bags put in the storage space above me, I watched the platform. Watching Carlos still standing on the platform looking at the train, I had a strange feeling of deja-vu.

The train jerked forward, and soon we were on our way back home.