Hung Noose

Chapter 1

                                                                             Chapter One

As I walked through the gates that led to Mt. Vernon Christian Cemetery, my gray eyes looked about the graves. When I moved to Mt. Vernon, there were only eighteen graves. Seven years later there were fifty-six. Two freshly brown piles of dirt rest in mounds just slightly higher than the green grass. In front of the mounds, two gray tombstones with gold plates marked the graves of Jennifer Lee Dawson and Lane Mark Reynolds. I walked through the gates, shutting them behind me with a slight squeak. My camera strap latched around my neck and the actual camera pounded on my stomach as my gray converse shoes hit the insignificant amount of mud from a light sprinkle of rain that had hit earlier.

    I gently tore the camera lens cover off of the camera and pressed the tiny silver "On" button. It came on with a little melody. I walked over to the grave of Jennifer Dawson and clawed a cross in the limp dirt and then did the same to Lane’s grave. I squatted down as much as I could in my black skinny jeans and snapped a close up picture of Ms. Dawn’s cross in the dirt. Taking pictures of random things was my specialty. I stood up, allowing my blood to resume flowing through my legs, and walked over to a stone angel only a few feet from the two new graves.

    I had always loved that angel. It was one of my favorite objects to take pictures of. It was the grave of Meredith Lowell. She was tortured to extremes and then murdered. In honor of her death, they gave a beautiful grave marker as a gift. Sadly, that’s all they did for her. I snapped a few pictures of the statue when droplets of rain began littering itself all over my beloved camera. I scowled at the tiny droplets of rain that passed my eyes. I threw the hood of my black hoodie over my mid-back length long bright golden hair and walked back through the gate to my black dodge charger. By the time I made the long walk to my car, the rain had started pounding the ground like, as they say, cats and dogs.

    I drove for about five minutes before I ended up in front of my house. It was a single story and small. It has two bedrooms, a living room, and a bathroom. In the front, the house was white with many colorful flowers. Different colors of roses were bloomed up the wall; Morning glories entwined themselves up to the window. These were all my handy work. My mother would never make something so beautiful and peaceful happen at this house.

    I turned the key to turn off my car and my windshield wipers stood up straight. “Stupid car,” I muttered under my breath as I exited my car and headed for the door to the house. I turned the golden knob only to find out it was locked. I flipped through my keys to find a bright silver one that led to the house. I unlocked the door and turned the knob and walked in to find all of the lights off and my little brother, Noah, sitting in front of the television watching Sponge Bob Square Pants.

    “Hey, Noah. Are you a vampire or something?” I said as I walked near the TV with a smile on my plush lips.

“Sissy! You’re back,” he screamed happily.

“I told you I’d only be gone for about an hour,” I said as he stood up and charged over to me only to wrap his arms around my waist. He was only six years old, of course he’d be shorter than a sixteen year old.

“Where’d you go, sissy?” he said lifting his longing sky blue eyes to look at me. I rested my hand on his blond hair.

“I went to my special spot.”

“Can I come next time?”

“We’ll see.” He smiled a grin that didn’t have any teeth in the front. “What do you want for dinner?”

“Macaroni and Cheese,” he said releasing me and walking to the kitchen.

“Noah, we had that last night, the night before that, and the night before that. Let’s have something else,” I replied.

“But… Macaroni and cheese is good,” he said and attempting his best puppy dog face.

“We’re out of Macaroni and cheese. How about Ravioli’s?” He nodded his head vigorously as I pulled out the can from one of the brown cabinets .

“Will you make it on the stove? It tastes better like that.” I nodded my head and pulled out a pan and a wooden spoon.

“It’ll take about five minutes, so go watch your show until then.”

“Ookaaaayy.”

    I cooked the ravioli’s and poured them into two yellow bowls and called Noah into the kitchen to eat. By the time we finished it was eight o’clock. “Noah, brush your teeth and put on some P.Js and get to bed,” I said picking up the dishes and taking them to the sink. He stood up and went to the bathroom to brush his teeth without argument. After he was changed and his teeth were brushed he came and asked me to tell him a story. The stories I usually told were made up and had absolutely no point in them whatsoever.

    I followed him into our room. In the room, a bunk bed sat in the corner. On his bunk, the bottom one, Dinosaurs littered the sheets and on the covers stripes lay in a neat order.  He crawled into his bed and I sat next to the dresser on the floor. After I told him stories, I always hummed if his eyes were drooping in a sleepy manner. His eyes closed gently after I finished the story so I began to hum to him. In the next five he was fast asleep.

    I pulled my camera out of my hoodie sweatshirt pocket and tucked it safely in my half of the dresser and headed back to the dishes in the sink. It was about time to wash them. I paraded into the kitchen and unloaded the dishes out of the sink and put them off to the side on the counter. I turned the sink on and put in a stop to stop the drain. My hand reached and pulled out a bottle of blue dawn. When I finished with the dishes, that were now dry and clean, I went to the living room and turned off the TV that Noah had left on. As I was doing that, my mother walked in. She had dark brown hair and golden-brown eyes. She wore a purple sweater and a pair of dark blue jeans and black heels.

    “Welcome home, Mother,” I said quietly, but loud enough for her to hear.

“Kate, is Noah in bed?” she said in a silvery voice. I nodded my head. “Good.” We just stood there staring at each other not really knowing what to say.

“Well,” I said breaking the uncomfortable silence, “I’m going to bed. Good night.” My mother just stood there and watched me turn into my room and then went to her own room straight across.