Dark Possession 'Cailyn's Chronicles' Book Three

Chapter Ten A Dreamy Funeral

My mind was blank. I still couldn’t get my thoughts straight. They say there are seven stages of grief: shock, denial, anger, guilt, depression, acceptance, and returning to life. I think I was feeling all of the first five stages at once.

They found her body the next day at the base of the rocky Chamberlain waterfalls. There was always cyclists or hikers who passed by the falls during their trips through the woods. I assumed Darius left her body there at the base on the rocks knowing she would be found. She slipped and fell from getting lost was the story, which would explain away the injuries she had. The waterfall’s bottom was particularly rocky, with sharp jutting out edges and blunt stone.

Her parents were the ones to call me and my father to ‘break the news’. They were beyond devastated. Even though I already knew and felt guilty as if I was the one who killed her. Wasn’t it partly my fault because of what I might be and who I associated with? I was able to play my role of shocked and upset; all it did was made me angrier. I don’t think I have stopped crying for more than an hour two since we found her at the stream when I wasn’t sleeping, that is when I was able to sleep.

Beth, Josh, and Talbot were told the truth obviously. Ayden had to sedate me from how hysterical I had been when he brought me out of the woods. He didn’t want my father to suspect anything weird going on. I had to play a role. This time I hated having to lie and pretend. This time was different; a friend of mine had died.

Beth was just as upset as I was when we told her. We cried hugging each other for hours. Josh and Ayden had stood by looking lost and unable to find a way to comfort us. Josh had a tear or two roll down his cheek. We all had known each other from childhood. How do you say good bye to someone you’ve known for so long? Someone who had died a tragic violent death at the hands of supernatural beings. Someone who had no idea why or what was happening to them and was an innocent in these schemes.

There was no comforting me for the time being. Ayden and Darius tried even Talbot stood by to try and help ease the pain. I had been pretty difficult to be around the last few days. My dad was even avoiding me when I had that saddened look in my face.

Vengeance also simmered in the pit of my stomach. Never in my life had I felt such violent waves of emotion and hate for someone, wanting to hurt them back. Those twins were going to pay for what they did to Jen. What they were doing to me and trying to do to everyone that I loved. Maybe I didn’t know how or when yet but they would.

I walked with the procession starring ahead, following the casket but not really seeing it. Beth and Josh behind me, Ayden and Darius on either side of me like pillars to lean against in case I fell. Neither tried to hold my hand, or wrap an arm around me, they knew I would just reject the gesture. My hands were firmly at my sides, afraid to do or say anything as I might lose my control. I wore a plain black dress. There was nothing about this that made me feel like dressing up. Talbot was next to Darius and my father on the other side of Ayden.

Jen’s family was in the front walking alongside the casket as we made our way through the cemetery to the family plot they owned. All of us friends and extended family followed from behind. Jen’s mother had asked me to give a eulogy and I gracefully declined. I could not, not with the truth of how she died in my mind. Beth offered to that when I declined. She would be better at this than I was.

The worry and desperate desire to ease my pain was rolling off of both Ayden and Darius in strong waves. But I ignored that too. I wanted to be numb or I would never get through today, the funeral.

The crowd came to a stop as the casket was laid down, over the hole in the earth that was dug for it. There was a large bushel of sunflowers and daisy’s at the head of the casket, Jen’s favorite. The casket itself was a deep mahogany color and there was a wreath on an easel with her photo blown up in the center smiling out at the crowd. A podium for the pastor was next to that off to the side an angle instead of centered.