The Ghost's Diary 👻 ✓

56. Through Centuries

My breath stutters, as if a wave has washed me onto the shore. The same greyish yellow light from Meredith's last memory streams, while my body feel like it's still submerged in water.
Pulling my legs downward, the blanket cascades to the floor. I wipe myself of the sweat.

Sight comes in intervals, and everythings seems... normal. Me breathing my lungs out on the bed near the window. The study table on the left. The orangish brown bathroom door and dressing table in front of me.

My shirt seems battered by sweat and wrinkles-- by the view the dressing table mirror is giving me.

Am I back?

The grandfather clocks strikes seven times.

I went to bed at seven... and now I've awoken on seven again.

I've been out for quite some time...

Not having Kathy or Henry answer any of my thoughts is proof I'm back.
Strangely, my back feels like it's been paddled on-- despite sleeping on royal-like sheets.

Something flutters from my right and it makes my head jerk towards it. The journal is spiraling its pages again.

If I've 'tolled through East of Eden', then do I still have to find the fifth memory?

With question plaguing my mind, I stagger towards the journal.

Only a few words glint upon its pages.

"Maybe, we can talk after you take a shower, Lindsey. You look... pummeled to say the least."

I palm my forehead so hard, that I'm sure even the birds sitting in the gardens may have heard me.

"So... so just that? I've seen East of Eden. What about the fifth memory?"

"The hint for the fifth memory is not ours to give, Lindsey. The hint will reveal itself to you."

A hand wraps around my waist, while the other scratches my forehead.
Mum's ballet shoes are still where I left them last night. Near the table and at my feet.

I push the talcum-powder pink shoes away with a soft swish of my foot. Its silk caresses my skin, before pulling away.

The hand that was on my forehead now abrades my lower lips-- their dried up skin withers within my grasp.

Giving a slight shake, I turn my back at the journal and sit on the table-- near it. My feet use the handles of the drawers to support them.

Let my family live-- even under the cruelty of the cold ground.

A constricting feeling plummets in my chest-- remembering Meredith sitting next to four graves. Then an images slices through-- of Arsenio being shattered into a million shards before turning into dead leaves.
My thumb scratches my lip again, before plummeting down.

Dannoso, Marietta, Cruento, Dannato and Arsenio.

The chain of five deaths start with the devil and end with it.

I am not the only devil.

Meredith voice blares in my ears.

Blinking my eyes, I count my own family passings through my eyes.

Percival, Estelle, Isabelle, Henry, Dad, Mum, Kathy.

A ray of hope pierces through me. It's sharp, but gentle like a twirling ballerina.

Five people of East of Eden died, while there are seven of those of Edenfield.

That means that there won't be any more deaths!