Hers

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

That night, I slept peacefully.  There were no shadows, no daunting nightmares, no interruptions upon waking.  It was like I was suddenly cast back into the life I once had.  Bills were sitting on the table, waiting to be paid.  The summer heat was making my house a living hell.  The silence was everywhere, pressing against me, making me wonder if I had made the right choices in life.

I could leave.  Start over somewhere new, maybe go back to school.  My parents hadn’t left much money but it was enough to get out of dodge.  If I chose to sell the house I could use that to buy a new place somewhere far away.

I looked over to the picture of my parents sitting on the mantle.  I thought of their graves sitting in the cemetery and the diner we used to go to.  This was our home.  This town was where they wanted me to be.  I couldn’t leave that behind.  I couldn’t leave them behind.  Who would leave flowers on their graves?   Who would watch over the home they built for me?

Sighing, I admitted to myself the truth I had known all along.  I was doomed to remain here.  I would be forever stuck in this hell hole of a town.

No, I thought.  I should be grateful.  I’m away from Ace.  I don’t have to worry about being damned to hell.  I just need to gain some sense of normalcy.

Normalcy.

What was normal now?

Well, what was normal before?

The diner.  This house.  All those things had been tainted by Ace.  He had infiltrated and tainted everything I once knew.  Now the whole town had his name etched into it.

I needed to try.

I promenaded into my bedroom and picked up the landline.  With the numbers punched in, I waited for someone to pick up.

“Jaison’s, what can I get you?”  Jeff’s voice poured through the phone.

“Jeff?  It’s Lilly,” I started.

“Lilly, it’s been a while.  How are you?”

Shitty.

“I’ve been great.  Listen, is Harold there?”

“Yeah, he’s here,” Jeff answered.  “You wanna talk to him?”

I took a breath, unsure if I was relieved or troubled by Harold’s presence.  “Yeah, let me talk to him.”

I could hear the hand off.  Harold asked who it was and Jeff obviously told him.  The words after that were muffled.  I could picture Jeff burying the phone’s speaker into his shirt to block Harold’s curses.

“Hello?”  Harold bit through the phone.

“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

“Excuse me?”  He asked, the smile on his face evident by his voice.

“We have some things we need to discuss,” I responded.  “I will be at the diner in fifteen minutes, understand?”

“What makes you thi-“

“I asked if you understood.  That warrants a yes or a no, not some snarky response.”

There was a pause.  “Fine, Miss. Owens.  Fifteen minutes.”

Just like that the call ended.  I got ready and left the house.

Outside, the woods were alive, buzzing with insects and birds.  I felt relaxed for the first time in a while.  I wasn’t worried about eyes watching me or shadows coming to steal me away.  Letting the humid summer heat fill my lungs, I imagined my troubles floating off my shoulder like a balloon into the sky and for a moment, it worked.  I was carefree, relaxed, at peace with the world around me.  That is until I heard the rustling of leaves and my name reverberating through the air.