In Another Life

123

"Did you hear that? BRO, did you hear that?" Corey asked, bouncing up and down again. He was about three feet away from me, standing off to the side of an older grave with Denise. "I did, and I didn't like it one bit," she said, her voice shaking. "What did you hear?" Colby asked. "It sounded like a voice. I couldn't make out what it was saying, but it sounded like a voice in the trees." We all looked towards the trees, and I felt that familiar shiver go up my spine. I pulled Colby's jacket tighter over my chest, and stepped closer to him. I loved this stuff but I wasn't stupid either. Anything could happen, and anyone could be in those woods watching us. "It's probably just your imagination. When you're scared, things can look and sound different," Colby said, trying to comfort Corey. Corey shook his head vehemently. "No bro, that's not it. Neece heard it too, didn't you?" He looked at Denise, his eyes wide. She glanced from him to Colby and nodded, a slow jerk of her head. "Yeah, I heard it. I heard something. I don't know what it was, but it did sound like a voice." Colby reached his hand up to his hair, and started running his fingers down the sides, like he was fixing it. I was coming to realize that this was also a habit that he had, besides twisting his rings, or his earring. "Okay. So, even if there is someone out there, we have our entire group here. We have our cellphone, so that we can call 911 if we need too. If we get even a clue that someone is ACTUALLY out there, we'll leave. Okay?" he asked calmly, but I could see the uncertainty in his eyes. Denise and Corey looked at each other for a second, before looking back at Colby. "Yeah, I guess. But you have to promise. You and Sam. If we really KNOW that we hear something or one of us sees something that isn't right, it's time to go. This just feels...wrong. It's like death is in the air or something," Corey replied, his voice shaking a little.  "Well, we ARE in a cemetery," Jake replied, looking at Corey like he was dumb. "There's death all around us." "Shut up, Jake," Corey said, looking around him, his eyes wide and frightened. They were all starting to make me feel unnecessarily afraid. "Come on, let's see if we can find Gracie's grave, then we'll go," Sam replied, taking the camera from Colby. Speaking of, Colby hadn't so much as looked at me, since he started filming. My brain started overthinking again, wondering if he was just that determined to treat me as any other fan, or if he was just too involved with filming to actually pay attention to me. I scoffed at how desperate and annoying I sounded even to myself. This was getting out of hand and I hated it. I hated being that needy little girl that just wanted tone iota of attention from the guy she liked. Like, he could wink at me, and that would keep me hanging around until he decided to do it again. I was in over my head, drowning, until Colby was literally the only thing that mattered. I shook my head at myself, and pointed my flashlight at a random grave that I was walking past, that happened to have a statue. "Gracelyn 'Gracie' Bartow," I read aloud. I let my flashlight trail up from the base of the statue, roaming over the worn white granite. It was a little girl. The statue was a little girl, standing straight, looking down at her grave, with her hands pressed together in prayer. I shivered again, and pulled Colby's jacket down over my fingertips. It was then that I noticed the random objects laid around and on top of the grave, closer to the statue. Cards, flowers, little dolls and random toys, an old silver mirror, with a matching hair brush. Looked like those had been here for forever, while some of the other things looked fairly new. I jerked my head up, and moved my flashlight quickly, letting the light illuminate the area behind the statue. I could have sworn I heard a little girl's hum. Almost a word but too ethereal to form. "G-guys," I stuttered out, keeping my eyes on the area behind the statue to see if anyone was there that wasn't supposed to be. When no one answered me, I glanced around quickly. No one was here. They had walked off somewhere else, or maybe I had walked off and they hadn't noticed because they were too busy being scared and filming. "Guys!" I said a little louder, searching for their lights, hoping that I would see one soon. My pulse sped up, my heart starting to slam in my chest. My palms were sweaty almost making me lose my grip on my flashlight. "COLBY" I yelled, wincing as my voice disturbed the dead's peace. "Terra? Where are you?" I heard him call out to me, and breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh thank God," I whispered, slightly berating myself for getting so upset that quickly. "Over here. I think I found Gracie!" I yelled back. I pointed my light in the direction of his voice, eager to get them in my sight. "Stay there, we're coming," he yelled back. Soon enough, I saw a couple of bouncing lights headed towards me. I heard another whisper, but I kept my light trained on them. I didn't want to look around, frightened by what I might see. I might be brave, but there was no way that I could handle this alone. The wind picked up and started howling through the trees again, whipping my hair into my face. "Where the fuck did you go? Why'd you just go off on your own like that? I was worried! We were all looking for you! Why didn't you answer us?" Colby started berating me, like I was a child and I automatically got my defenses up.