Walk Through Thorns

Chapter 19

Chapter 19

While Auntie slept, I stepped out onto the front porch. The moon had come out, casting its twilight glare over the old trees. The garden seemed serene in the moonlight. Neither awake, nor dead. This was an ageless hour, when the shadows could come alive.

"Where are you?" I said aloud, into the darkness.

The ghost hadn't appeared to me in a while. I hadn't realized it before, but now I thought it was trying to tell me something. If it came from somewhere else, somewhere beyond, perhaps it couldn't use words. But what was it trying to say?

Where was it now?

I woke up to Avery stomping into my room and dropping into the chair by my desk. Auntie waved from the door. There was a lot of light trying to sneak past the curtain, it must have been mid-day. I sat up with a heavy fog in my brain and mumbled out some noises.

Auntie said, "Sorry, I let your friend in. It's lunch time, but I thought some news from school would be good for you." She flashed a smile and then disappeared.

Avery waited until we heard Auntie clunking down the old stairs, only then did her fake smile disappear. I pulled my sheet up to my chin.

"You got Mr. Feral fired," she said.

"How?" I asked.

"You told the police he was writing adventures for us?" Avery asked, "Are you crazy? They probably think he is some sort of sexual predator."

"They were accusing me of being a satanist!" I said.

Avery slapped her forehead. "What do you think they're going to call him? Did you know Greta's dad was on the news with her sketchbook?"

"Oh no."

"Yeah," Avery said, "He's parading around her sketches of her character likes it's proof of some evil that took over his innocent child. That's going to come back on all of us."

"That's not fair," I said, "She loves her sketchbook."

"He burned it," Avery said, turning away. "Held a lighter to it in front of the reporters."

But, Greta never showed me her drawing of my character. That wasn't right. I'd never get to see it now.

"Where is she though?" I asked.

Avery sat back. Concern coming over her. "This is your fault."

I nodded with tears. Avery left without another word.

I went for a bike ride in the evening. Really, it was just to get out of the house and clear my head. Maybe the ghost would show up again.

Past midnight, the school's windows were dark like lifeless eyes. It loomed over the neighborhood, like an old cathedral, neither holy or beautiful. The football field was lit only by dim moonlight, the forest beyond shadowy and still.

I dropped my bike in the parking lot and walked out into the field. It was so quiet. Not even crickets were awake at this hour. The only movement at all was overhead, the clouds drifting, slow, relentless.

Greta's fate was eating me inside, chewing through my roots. She might already be dead, and it would all be for nothing. Worse, the cult could have her somewhere. I'd help her, if only I knew how.

A pickup truck rolled into the parking lot. I was worried for a moment until Howard got out. He waved to me, then lit a cigarette and leaned up against the front bumper.

As I got into speaking distance I said, "You're up late."

"I'm three times your age," he said, "I get to stay up as late as I want."