Green Hearts

Chapter 33

"Am I being abducted?"

"You followed out of your own will, that's hardly abduction or how it works"

"My will is buried deep with the carcass of an Egyptian pharaoh"

His eyes pull off the road and glaze over my frame before turning away "You literally have to be the weirdest person I know"

I glare at him but he laughs it off

"Where are we going?" I ask him. My mind can't seem to recognize the road we have been driving through for the past hour

We've long passed houses and human beings. Now there are just trees and trees on either side of the road that makes it seem like we're driving into the set of a horror movie

"Are you taking me to be murdered?" I suddenly ask him, turning to scrutinize his face closely

What expression do people have on their faces before they kill people and hide their bodies in suitcases and leave them on the side of the road?

"We sleep together. If I'd wanted to kill you, would you still be here?" He asks with a smug like that I want to slap off his face

"Good point" I consider "But maybe you want a clean getaway so you are bringing me all the way here" I retort

"Hmm, sounds like a plan" he seems to consider it and I punch his arm. His laughter fills the car "You're the one who mentioned it"

The car soon falls into another fit of silence and I go back to admiring the road out of the window

"We're almost there if it makes you feel any better" he says as we make it out of the thick forest and I begin to see homes again but slightly different from what I'm used to

The houses here are small are scattered all around like we have entered into another country, different from the apartments I'm used to seeing

"Where are we?" I turn to ask him

"My parent's hometown" he says and I stare him incredulously for several reasons

"I thought your parents are dead. How are we going to meet them?" I blurt out and quickly cover my mouth when I realized what I said "I'm so sorry"

He laughs a bit "Don't worry about it"

We drive further into the town and finally come to a place. It's dreadfully obvious what this place is since it's inscribed in bold letter on the iron gates

A cemetery

Okay, that makes half the amount of sense I need to understand what is going on

Questions, questions

One. Why is he bringing me to meet his parents?

Two. How does he know where his parents are buried if they died before he knew them?

"You coming?" Jace's voice breaks through my thoughts and I notice that he's already gotten out of the car and was watching my confused demeanor with an amused smile

I flip off his amusement and step out of the car. He locks it behind me as I take a step further to get a closer look of the place through the low fence

Suddenly, my phone begins ringing and cuts through the deathly silence of this place

I take it out of my pocket and grin when I see the caller ID

"Hi dad" I press my phone to my ear and turn to look at Jace who is already watching me

"Hey pumpkin" Bruce's voice says. I hear chopping in the background and I already know who before he speaks up

"Hi baby" Jack's voice sounds a bit far off and I conclude that he's probably cooking

"We're just calling to check up on you since you can't be a normal child like others and call your parents" I can hear the sarcasm in his voice and I laugh

"I'll try my best in my next life to be a normal child dad" I say

"As expected" he concludes with a short laugh "Where are you, pumpkin? It's dreadfully quiet which isn't normal if you're to be with Muna, meaning you're not"

I laugh at his spot-on intuition "That's because I'm not". I decide not to let out anymore information since it's not my place to share

"Just stay safe, okay? Where's Jace? Is that who you're with?" I roll my eyes

How typical? I thought we called to talk about me

I hand the phone to Jace and walk off

"Hi Bruce" I hear him say behind me as I approach the gate and try to push it open but it doesn't budge

Then I try to kick it with my feet, but it still doesn't move an inch

Then I knock, which I probably should have done at first and that is when I see someone appear out of nowhere

"Jesus Christ!" I yelp and jump away from the sudden image by the gate. He looks young, about my age even and looks like he'd been visiting here

"Why are you screaming?" He asks me and I point an accusing finger at him

"How did you just appear like that?" I ask him, still wide eyed with a frantic beating heart when I feel Jace's arm around me

Instinctively, I shrug it off even though I know he's just trying to put me at ease

My eyes widen all over again when I remember that my dads could have heard me scream. I turn to stare at him in question and he shakes his head while handing me my phone that had no ongoing call

Thank the seven seas! That could have been a mess

Now back to this ghost

I turn back to the dude behind the gate but now he is holding the gate open for us

"How did you appear like that?" I ask him again, eyeing him suspiciously and wondering if I should take a step back and run away

"I didn't appear" he says calmly "You just didn't notice me coming from the side of the fence. I'd been walking along there when I heard you at the gate"

Ohhhhhh

"That makes sense" I nod and join Jace who's already stepped through the gates of Madagascar

He's probably been here a lot, I guess

"So you work here?" I ask the dude that opened the gate

"Yeah"

"But you're so young. I thought you'd been visiting cause" I take a closer to look at his face "you look like many shades of sad"

"Autumn!" I hear Jace groan and pull me away from the dude

"What?" I ask in innocence

"It's fine" the dude says to Jace "You see, working in a graveyard can be sort of dark, maybe even a little depressing..."

"You don't say" I cut him off and I see Jace roll his eyes from beside me

"We'll be off now" Jace tells the dude and he nods

"Know your way around?" He asks him

"Yeah, thanks" and then he begins to pull me along with him as we walk further into the cemetery

Well, this could be an adventurous tale for the later generation