Invisible String

Chapter 44 - Cruel Summer

A week later, we took off in a beautiful, expensive town car that Royal Tribute supplied. Our first stop was going to be in New York, of course, about an hour away from his place. As soon as we left there, though, we were hitting the road to Boston. It was only four hours away, but we'd be there the next day. After that, we'd be going to Chicago, which we'd fly to, and from there, we'd tour the Midwest a bit, stopping in Minneapolis, MN, Des Moines, IA, and Kansas City, MO. Then we'd move down to the south, starting with Florida, moving on to Louisiana, Texas, over to Arizona. The last stops were on the West coast, starting up in Washington, then working our way down through Las Vegas, NV, and finishing up with three cities in California.

In each city we went to, Jaiden and I were allotted time to spend at least part of the day visiting tourist spots. Whether it be in the morning or in the afternoon. Since our first stop was in New York, we obviously didn't get time then, but everywhere else, we were given at least half a day, if not a full one.

The first of the readings was the hardest for me. It'd been a long time since I had done it, and while I was supposed to get some practice from James' class, we hadn't talked in weeks. The event was completely sold out, so I took two of my anxiety pills fifteen minutes before I stepped onto the stage.

Jaiden walked with me up to the stage, then let go of my hand slowly as I walked over to the chair in front of the microphone. I sat down, my hands feeling like lost pieces of flesh floating in space. I held up the book and smiled. The crowd clapped. They hadn't read the book or heard anything from it, so the night before, I spent three hours picking out the perfect passage.

"Thank you all for coming out today. I appreciate your support very much." They clapped, and I smiled, happy to have people who genuinely appreciated my work. "The passage I'm going to read is from the first chapter."

I smiled, cleared my throat, and read.

"I had never revisited the home that killed me. Instead, I wandered around the world, as far away as possible. So why was I returning now?

I stood on the dirt road leading up to the big, old white-bricked mansion. It was covered in vines that grew in clusters, like tumors plaguing the exterior. The windows were dark. All but one, that is. The same light that was always on—the main window in the middle of the house in the attic.

Voices drifted outside as I strolled towards the entrance, and they quieted with each step, eventually turning into faint whispers until there was only silence. I stood in the entryway of the dilapidated house, then walked in and observed the old, sinister carcass that remained.

Charred from the recent house fire, the house was hollow, without a furnishing in sight. I continued through the foyer, then turned towards what was once a large, beautiful common room. Now, it was full of dust and raw, angry emotion.

The room shifted from present-day to several pasts as I walked through different spirits, over to the one that had called me there. He sat at a piano that was no longer there in my time. His fingers rested on the old, ivory keys.

"What did you want, Matthias?" I asked, sitting beside him on the bench.

He turned to me. "Elizabeth, so glad you could make it."

"I didn't have much choice in the matter," I muttered, touching the keys gently.

He glared at my ghastly white hands and quickly slammed the fallboard on them. Lucky for me, the piece of wood fell through my hands, and I felt nothing."

I looked up at Jaiden, and he was smiling proudly at me. He ushered me to keep going, so I did. I read the whole first chapter, and as it was ending, I looked out at the crowd for the first time in a while. People were genuinely intrigued, and I pushed back a smile because it would have been highly inappropriate for the scene I was reading.