The Key to Anchor Lake ✓

45 : Blaire

B L A I R E

•

I hear my name and then footsteps, fast, and I don't want to open my eyes and see Jacob so I keep them shut, until I hear my name again, yelled across the gravestones, and I realise it's my aunt's voice. She's running over to me, hair flying behind her, a look of abject horror on her face until she notices that I'm looking back at her.

Her run slows. She drops to her knees beside me and sees my red eyes, my wet cheeks, the air of hopelessness around me, and she gathers me into her arms, holding my head against the curve of her neck. Did I call her? I don't remember calling her. I can't have called her because phone seems to have died at some point.

"What're you doing here?" I ask when I get out my momentary shock.

"You scared me," Elizabeth says. "I went to the shop and I saw Sukie, and she said you left her house hours ago. She told me what that bastard Hill child said and I got worried. I've looked everywhere for you."

"You've been looking for me?"

She sits back on her haunches and drops her hand to mine. "Everywhere. Poor Sukie, she was so worried when I said you weren't with me but I told her to relax and go home."

"How long have I been here?"

"I don't know." She shrugs. "But Sukie said you left hers at two. It's after five now."

"Oh, god. I'm so sorry. I didn't realise. I lost track of time."

"It's okay, Blaire, it's okay," she says, her voice a soothing river. "You know, when you weren't at home or by the lake or in the library, I had a feeling you'd be here." Her eyes drift from my face to the stone behind me, the one that marks her daughter's grave. "I'm drawn out here too."

"I wasn't even thinking," I say. "I just kept walking. It's like my feet knew where to go." Sitting up straighter, I glance at the roses behind me. "You came out here?"

"Mmm. It's been hard to stay away recently," she says with a quiet hum. "I used to come out here all the time. There would be weeks that I sat here every single day, hours at a time, back when it was all too fresh. When I would wake up, waiting to hear Fee's laughter, or her footsteps, and it was silent instead."

"I'm so sorry, Elizabeth."

She gives me a tender smile and shifts so she's sitting next to me, one shoulder resting against the grave, its inscription readable between us. "I stopped coming for a long time, when I shut myself away. I just wanted to disappear. I didn't want anyone to know who I was anymore."

"I told the others," I whisper, dread creeping over me. "I didn't want to. I wasn't going to. But then Jacob turned up and he knew, he figured it all out, and I had to tell the truth, not his twisted version. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. He was saying all these awful things and I—"

"Blaire." She takes my hand in both of hers, our fingers linked over Fee's grave. "I understand. It's okay." She squeezes, so gently. "Sukie told me what happened. There's only so long I can hide away. It has been twenty-five years, after all, and I don't own this town's history. I'm just a single story."

"Do you believe our family's cursed?"

There's a moment of quiet as she ponders the question, a moment that stretches so long before she says, "No. We are unlucky. Fortune is certainly not our friend. But no matter how many of us have been taken, that doesn't make one ounce of difference to our chances. Do you hear me Blaire?"

"Mmm."

"We've lost a lot. But that doesn't mean we are lost."

I look up at her. She gingerly shifts closer, close enough to put her arm around my shoulders and let me sink against her.