Dark Destiny (20 page)

Fuzzy images pitched and rolled around inside her head. Every time she tried to reflect back on her life, to make sense of her current predicament, she hit a wall. So much of her memory was littered with gaping holes, names without faces, ideas without origins, events without context.

There was a recurring feeling of water, of coldness, but it was fuzzy. The one thing she could see with clarity was her home, or part of it anyway. In her memory, she kept seeing the explosion that had apparently killed her. If only she could remember what she had been doing when it happened. Well, perhaps a visit there would help to bring back some of what she’d forgotten.

She turned onto the street she somehow knew was hers and her house rose within her sights. What lay before her did not match the image in her mind’s eye. At a base level, it was somewhat like her house. This building, however, was dilapidated, perhaps waiting to be demolished. It sat on a slant, leaning left on its crumbling foundation. Weather-worn wood peeked out from behind faded, peeling strips of paint. Warped windows in Dr. Seuss-like shapes held the slightest amount of remaining glass. Across the entrance was strung a criss-crossing web of yellow crime scene tape.

Sebastian told her she’d died just a few days ago but it looked like a bomb had leveled this house not a week, but decades before. The houses on either side were pristine, not a whiff of damage whatsoever.

The closer she got, the stranger things became. As she reached for the knob of the front door, a wave of ripples spread out into the air around her wrist. She fell backwards, tumbling part way down the steps and watched in stunned silence as the ripples encased the entire house in a transparent undulating dome. Climbing back to her feet, Sara slowly approached the threshold of the barrier and reached out her hand. On contact, another wave rolled across the bubble’s surface, sending a warm tickle up her arm. She dragged her fingers across its surface, playfully poking at the mysterious sphere.

What is this? A force field? A hallucination? How was it possible?

Maybe the answers were inside.

When she was confident the bubble wasn’t a threat, she pressed on, tearing through the crime scene tape and pushed the door open. It gave a haunting creak. A tapestry of cobwebs lined the ceiling from corner to corner. Wide streaks of black soot and tar covered sections of the walls. Rotting studs were visible through openings in the disintegrating drywall. A thick layer of dust covered everything from the windowsills to the furniture.

In the middle of the living room, a torn leather couch sat slumped, facing a broken television that must have been manufactured in the fifties. Dreary portraits featuring a slew of faces she didn’t recognize mocked her from behind films of dust.

Sara rubbed her eyes and ran her hands through her hair. “What
is
this?”

Past the living room, she came to the kitchen. The walls were dark and bent and squished like wet cardboard when she touched them. She went to the ancient refrigerator and jerked open the door. Glass jars filled with dry, dusty gunk lined the shelves, and its dark, rust-laden bottom half swarmed with a quivering mass of spiders. She closed the door again quickly.

The stairwell to the second floor was a minefield of missing boards and broken handrails. Step by cautious step, Sara made her way up them. Each time her foot touched down, haunting creaks echoed through the house. Planks of rotted wood fell away behind her, dropping into a seemingly endless abyss below. She quickened her pace but paused at the top of the stairs. She should have known in which direction her bedroom was, but here, in this haunted place, nothing seemed familiar.

She turned right and peeked into the first room. It was a skeleton of a bedroom with no mattress or blankets. Everything sat covered in dust and cobwebs. She tried the other direction down the hall. The hinges on the next door squeaked as she gingerly pushed the door open. Straight ahead of her a twisted brass bed frame lay under a broken window. There was no mattress, sheets or blanket, just a rusted husk shoved against the wall. A collection of destroyed photographs were pinned to the walls. Sitting next to the bed frame was a battered dresser missing half its drawers. In the corner stood the scorched remnants of a bureau. Moonlight shone through a massive hole in the ceiling, bathing everything in a soft blue.

None of it was right. This was not her room, not her house. The portraits on the walls were of strangers, not her family. As she turned to leave the haunted house behind, a sparkle of light caught the corner of her eye. She whipped her head around, eyes fixating on something she was certain hadn’t been there only a moment ago.

Resting atop the bureau in the corner, a snow globe shimmered under the radiance of the moon. Something about it seemed familiar. She plodded towards it, hands reaching out for the singular item that she recognized, if only vaguely. Staring into the globe, her mind wandered. A series of images slammed into her head, some jumbled, some clear. The fog obstructing her memory began to slip away.

“Brrrrrrroooowww!” A large, black cat pounced from out of nowhere onto the desk and swiped angrily at Sara’s face. She stumbled backwards and the back of her head slammed into the edge of the open door. Her vision blurred, and her head swam.

The cat tilted its head and glared at her with piercing, golden slits. Between hisses and snarls, it swiped at a book that fell over and knocked the snow globe off the dresser. Still dazed, Sara watched as the orb bounced off the floor and rolled into the shadows. The feline followed closely behind, and as soon as it hit the shadows, there was a brief flickering light. Sara only had time to blink. The next instant, both the globe and the cat had vanished from view.

“What is going on?” Sara whispered to herself. There were supposed to be answers here, but what she’d found only led her to much more confusing questions.

From outside the room, a voice she recognized answered her.

“I was kind of hoping you could tell me.” There was palpable relief in Sebastian’s voice. He came into the bedroom. “Are you okay?” he asked, putting his arms around her.

“I don’t know. Everything seems so off.”

He nodded intently. “That’s for sure. You lived here?”

Sara sighed heavily. “I feel like there’s a black hole where my memory should be. I remember you, us. But any details about anything else, they just aren’t there.”

She gestured at the wrecked room. “None of this registers. It’s like I’ve never been here before.

He studied her expression as she stepped away from him and stared at the corner where the snow globe had been just moments before.

“How am I here? How is this possible?” She paused briefly and squeezed his hands. “What did you do?”

It was a fair question for certain. Honesty was indeed the best policy, but this was not the place. They needed to be somewhere she could feel safe before he answered all her questions. At some point, he would have to come back here and properly investigate this place. No person could have lived here. This place was completely uninhabitable. As for Sara, he did owe her the truth.

“It’s a long story. One that I would be happy to share.”

She snuggled into his chest.

“I’ve been so lost without you,” he murmured.

“I’m here now.” A deep rumbling erupted from Sara’s stomach. “And I’m
really
hungry.”

“Okay, let’s get out of here. Hang on tight.” Sebastian swept her off her feet and
blinked
.

Tuesday, 11:46 pm

“Oh, my God,” Sara mumbled as he set her down on the wet grass. She swayed slightly, reaching out to grab anything she could for support. “I think I’m going to throw up,” she groaned, closing her eyes.

Sebastian took her hand and put his arm around her.

“Oh. My bad. I totally forgot about that. Give it a couple of seconds. It’ll pass. Take a deep breath,” he said, rubbing her back.

Sara straightened and surveyed the grass field and dense tree line in the distance. She narrowed her eyes, clearly puzzled. “How did we get
here
?”

Sebastian had
blinked
them to Druid Park, one of his favorite parts of Baltimore growing up. It boasted a swimming pool, greenhouse, lake, and a baseball field, but it also housed a local cemetery, an addition Sebastian had always found intriguing.

“I’ll explain that too. Come on, there’s a place around the corner from here where we can get some food. I figured it would be a good place for us to relax and talk a bit.”

Gothic street lamps illuminated the area, and a small fog rose to ankle level. A light drizzle fell around them, giving everything a haze. Sebastian took off his jacket and used it as a makeshift umbrella to cover them both. They huddled together under it and hurried toward the diner. A crack of thunder boomed close by, and they ducked inside just before the downpour began. Rain fell hard, battering the large windows of the restaurant.

They made their way to the back and sat down across from each other at a booth next to a large window. It was farthest from the door. The diner itself was almost completely deserted, except for the staff. An elderly couple occupied a table at the opposite end of the room. A waitress came right over with two glasses of water and took their order, scribbling ferociously on her notepad. Chunky Monkey ice cream for Sebastian, a small cup of coffee for Sara.

As soon as the waitress wandered off, Sara looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “Chunky Monkey?”

“What? It’s awesome. You should try it.”

Sara winced playfully. “I’ll stick with coffee.”

As soon as the waitress was out of earshot, he told her everything. From her giving him the Book in his room, to the entire ordeal of what had happened with Jared, to her funeral. Sara listened to the entire story, nodding after each part of the story was revealed.

“Wow,” Sara said.

“Yeah, I can imagine it’s a lot to take in.”

“Let me get this straight. You’re
Death
?” she asked.

“Yes, but I don’t know
all
the specifics of it yet. It’s how I was able to . . .” He stopped and gestured toward her. “You know.”

“Bring me back from the dead.”

“Yeah.”

“I believe you.”

Sebastian blinked. “You do?”

“Yes,” Sara replied. “I don’t know how to explain it. A part of me feels some sort of connection to Heaven, or wherever I was. It feels like there’s something out there, calling to me. But I don’t know what. My memory is all fogged up.”

“How
is
your memory anyway? Anything coming back to you?”

“Bits and pieces,” Sara answered, tapping her finger on the table. “I remember being in your room. And, I
—
,” she paused. “I remember handing you the book.”

He inched forward, seemingly more interested than he was letting on. “Do you remember where you got it from?”

“No.” She spoke softly. “Honestly? I hardly remember anything about the last couple of months.”

“Anything?”

“Well, I remember
us
. Jared. Hope. Parts of the school. But other details of my life are blocked out. Other parts of my life aren’t even there. Like my parents, or my childhood for example. All of that is gone.”

Sebastian leaned back in his chair, thinking.
Well, this is a little disappointing.

He hadn’t wanted to bring it up, but in the back of his mind he was obsessing over the situation. His girlfriend had given him a living book or instruction manual on how to be Death, then later that night, she’d died in one of the most bizarre ways possible. And now with her back from the dead, she didn’t remember how it came about in the first place. The only thing he could do was wait it out and pray her memory would return soon. Hopefully.

Outside the window, the rain let up a bit.

The waitress returned with the bowl of ice cream and Sara’s coffee. She placed both items on the table. “Can I get you two anything else?”

“Hmm, actually, I am kind of hungry,” Sara answered, grabbing the menu, and scanning it quickly. “Can I get a house salad?”

A salad? Interesting.

In all of the months they had been together, Sara had never ordered a salad. She was always more of a steak and burgers kind of girl. It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, just different. Maybe her time in the light had helped her develop better eating habits? Not that she needed them. She was perfect.

Scribbling on her notepad once again, the waitress answered, “Of course, sweetie.”

Once the waitress walked away, Sebastian took another mouthful of the multi-colored ice cream. Even though she had rejected it earlier, he offered her a spoonful once again. From the large mountain of ice cream on the spoon, two drips fell. “You suuuure? It’s really good. It’s got banana, fudge chunks, and walnuts!”

Waving her hand subtly, she smiled. “No, no. I’m good, thank you.”

Sara’s soft face had a touch of sadness to it. She shifted her gaze and stared out the window. Red and green neon lights reflected off the puddles on the streets. In the reflection, something stirred. It was gone so quick, she was not even sure it had been there.