Wicked

Chapter Twenty-Nine

November fourteenth. The day the whole town was filled with melancholy. You could practically smell the despair oozing from everyone. Even the Earth knew what today was: the sky was infused with a glum grey aura and smoke colored clouds. As I walked towards the car, it felt like an old black and white film.

Today was Rachel Radley's funeral and all of Salem was in mourning. It was a Friday, but school was canceled due to Rachel being a student. I think this was the school's way of paying its respect. Honestly, it was pretty noble of the school. I felt it in my chest that I needed to go. It wasn't because the whole town would be there. I needed to be there.

I needed to go and get closure. Her death was haunting me. Every night I dreamt about her and every night she screamed, wailing for me to save her. And every night I failed and she died. The past week I had maybe slept two hours each night. To say the least, my brain was fried. If I didn't get a decent night to rest I was going to need my own funeral.

Before sliding into Erik's car, I locked gaze with Addie. She had tears in her eyes, but she still looked flawless. She wore an A-line black chiffon dress with a bateau cut, which she paired with pearl earrings and a matching pearl choker that fit her and the dress perfectly. She wore a chestnut brown wig that was in a tendril twist bun. She looked class like a Kennedy.

"We'll meet you there?" My mom called right before she hopped into the passenger seat of Gran's car. I nodded. She didn't like wearing black, even to funerals, so she was wearing a grey v-neck dress with a wrap skirt. She was a New York dream with her hair in curls, laying on her shoulders.

"Yeah, see you there." My window was rolled down, so I yelled out, responding to her. We nodded and then Erik backed out of the driveway. I rolled the window up, then smoothed out my own dress skirt. Dressing up always made me feel self-conscious. It was as if there was no way to win: you were either over or underdressed.

"I love your dress," Addie told me, sensing my discomfort. It was a simple halter top that crossed in the back in an ebony chiffon. It clung to my body a little too well for my liking. It stopped a little above my knees, which showed my never-ending legs, drawing too much attention. Of course, I wore the amulet. Thankfully, the halter cut hid it mostly. Still, you could see the chain and knew I was wearing some sort of necklace.

Ever since my Gran warned me about the amulet I was even more paranoid about it. Ivelyn was always asking about it, she was more susceptible to the necklace's power than most. Kate and I talked about it and decided it was due to her ambition for power. It made sense to me. It didn't seem to have any effect on Erik and Addie, so I had been spending more time around them. Being in their company let my guard down a little.

"This feels weird, right?" It felt wrong going to a funeral for a seventeen-year-old. It didn't seem real and I hadn't even known Rachel.

However, her death was an obvious stain on the town. It was kickstarting things that we didn't even realize at the moment, riding along in Erik's car some eighties band playing in the background. We were blind to what was going to happen in the following moments. Not even I, who saw visions of the future, could foresee what we about to stumble upon. That was what made it so frightening.

~~~

The rest of the car ride was smothered in small talk. Mostly from Addie who was having a major babble-fit as Erik called it. We tried to talk about school, but then Rachel was brought up. We tried to talk about things outside of school, which also seemed to fall right back to talking about Rachel. It was a no-win situation. Erik pulled up to the only funeral home in town: the parking lot filled, cars spilling out onto the street.

I spied my Gran's car, somehow she managed to park in the front row. Her and my mom walked inside the funeral home. Dara was getting a ride from Vayne, but they had left before us and still weren't here. I was guessing they weren't showing up. It wouldn't surprise me if they ditched the funeral -- it was Dara after all.