Trapped (20 page)

“Luke, stop please! Let m
e help you. Let me help Natalie,” h
e said
calmly as he rested near the fireplace. Within a few
seconds the living room was brightened
with a warm fire, a li
ght wa
rm orange glow filled the room.

“Very ni
ce Luke, but please, just go back and be with
her
, keep her safe
. We have to
continue to
stay in touch with her, she shouldn’t be alone,
” h
e sighed.

“Of course I will help her Hayden
, s
he is my sister, but listen to me
you have to
keep
your ghost hunting friends away from me
!
” Luke
vanished from view than reappeared on the other
side of the fireplace, glaring at Hayden.

“Ok
Luke. I will keep the Seekers away fro
m you. Just please help Natalie
,
” Hayden was losing
his
patience. He would find a way with or without him if he had too.

“If you know her so well than where should she go? She’s at the beach
house
now and
she doesn’t know where to go next
,” L
uke didn’t know what to tell Natalie
when he returned to her.
Hayden thought the
beach
house would be the logical place,
was
n’t that the place she felt most at peace?

“Let’s get back to Natalie at the tent. I’ll talk to Clive, maybe he
might
know
what her next move should be
. I’ll meet you there,
” Luke left
and the fire went out.

As
Hayden raced back he ran
Luke’
s words through his head. He kept
trying
to think of w
here to send her. It had to be a place where
she is given
a feeling of peace and
happiness. Hayden really thought the beach
house
would have been perfect. There must be a missing piece to this puzzle
.

Luke stood outside the tent, waiting patiently for
Hayden
to arrive
.
He had a grin
o
n his face as Hayden approached
him. He was reminded in that moment just how young Luke had been
when he died.

“What took you so long, bro?” Luke joked.

“Stuck in traffic,
” Hayden grinned.

“Hayden?” C
arlos stepped out of the tent.

“
Hey, how is she?” Hayden asked.

“The same, nothing new, h
i Luke,
” Carlos looked skeptically at him. He still wasn’t sur
e if he could trust him to help, knowing the pain and confusion he must still be harboring.

“Carlos,
” Luke
nodded at him
. He could sense Carlos’ suspicions of him
.

“I wanted to thank you for being there with Natalie and John after my mother’s death. I know she’s strong but it was reassuring to know that someone was there to help her, you know with all the funeral stuff, so thanks,” Luke told him before vanishing. He
reappeared in the tent. He looked
down
at
his older sister, laying there lifeless. The thought of losing her too made him feel something he hadn’t felt since he saw his mother laying on the floor.
He knelt beside
her
. If he could have cried he would have. He could still feel the pain in his chest and the lump in h
is throat as though he still
live
d
.

“I’m going back to her Hayden. Can you tell me what I’m suppose
d
to tell her now
?”
Luke spoke quietly as he continued to stare at the body in front of him. Her eyes were closed like she was sleeping, but he wasn’t fooled. He knew that it would only be a matter
of time till her heart failed, till she wouldn’t ever be able to find
her way back. He could feel a sense of urgency, he just wished Hayden and Carlos would feel the same thing, instead of just sitting here waiting for her to somehow come back. He tried to control his anger. He found it strange that even in death he still felt such frustration.
‘,’
I suppose that’s a part that will linger u
ntil I move on to the next world,’ he thought
.

“Clive thinks maybe it might not be a
n actual place but maybe a time,
” Carlos replied, knowing n
ow that Luke needed her to live as much as he did.

“He’s gone
,” Hayden shouted as he looked around
the tent
frantically
.
He’s
his
only
link to Natalie.

~~~

“Natalie!
Where are you?
”
Luke shouted as he raced through
the beach house. As soon as he slowed his
frenzied
pace he realized she ha
s
left
this place
. He had to quiet his emotions and
wait for her trail of sorrow to appear before him
.
He closed his eyes and waited for the path to reveal itself.
When he opened his eyes
and the revelation
of where she went
surrounded him, he couldn’t understand it. He is shocked by her choice.

He couldn’t believe
she would have
chosen to
come here. He looked through the rooms of the house he had ha
d so many terrible nightmares
in. The livi
n
g room he had killed the bat in, the bathroom Natalie had almost died in.
The front door John had walked out of
, leaving us
all
behind
. He hadn’t realized until now just how much that had hurt
him
. The loss of his
older brother hurt
worse than all the times his father had walked out
on him
. Luke understood
eventually that
she wasn’t actually in the house.
He
appeared beside
her, watching
the
fast running
river.

“I’ve been
waiting for Adam. I don’t think he is coming
though
,
”
I tried not t
o laugh at my own pathetic last grasp
at finding my happiness and my way home
.
I
t i
s strange but I felt like that sad, despondent
little girl again
that wanted
so badly to take her
last
swim in a freezing river on Christmas morning
. I sh
ould
have known that thi
s
is
definitely
not my place of peace
or love
.

“Just thought I would try,
” I shrugged as I reached for Luke’s
outstretched
hand.

“Natalie, have you thought that maybe it’s not an actual place but something else. Maybe it’s a time
that
you
felt happiest
. I can’t imagine it
could have been
during our childhood though,
” Luke
explained. He
needed her to come back
soon, he wouldn’t lose her too
. He didn’t
want to think of what
would happen to her if her body died while she was here. Would she stay in this strange realm or wou
ld she be taken to the other side immediately?
He hoped the later would be true because being trapped in all these memories seemed like hell to him.

“
Do you think it might be j
ust a fleeting moment of happiness or an extended period of time
when I felt happy
? Maybe l
ike
the time
we decorated the Christmas tree
with popcorn?” I laughed, trying to make Luke smile. The odd look on h
is face frightened
me.

“Possibly,” he finally smiled.
We stood side by side as w
e look
ed through the window at
three
kids dressed in
sweaters,
ha
ts and mitts inside their house,
decorating a
Christmas
tree with popcorn on a string.
We were laughing. I didn’t remember that. I laughed out
loud and glanced at Luke. He looked
surprised too
, but he smiled, which I so desperately needed to see
.

~~~

A stran
ge gargled sound emerged from her
mouth. Hayden glan
ced at Carlos the
n knelt over her quickly
.

“Natali
e, are you ok?” Hayden asked her, holding her head up
.

“I think she tried to laugh,
” Carlos smiled.
Hayden shook his head and listened to her faint breathing.

“I
would love to believe
that’s true,
” Hay
den replied as he reached for her cold
hand and held it
gently
.

~~~

“Luke, I think your right. I have to find times that have made me happy. I
t’s strange but I
think
I heard Hayden again
.
Thank
you
for staying with me
. Try to
keep
up will you!” I shouted as I ran
off to the next happy m
oment that popped into my head.

“Y
ou are picking the worst places,
” Luke complained. We were back at the white farm house that gave us so many horrible
,
sad memories but I
felt like I
had to relive a
happy moment here. There we were
the three of us again. John
just finished mowing a maze in the tall grass growing in our front yard.

“How can this be a happy m
oment for you? You had
a bad day
at school and in the end Travis made John come out he
re and mow it all down,” Luke felt
frustrat
ed by this, it seemed
like a waste of time
to him
.

“I know Luke but try and remember how
it felt to be in that maze. It
almost
seemed
like it transported us to another place and time. I felt freedom Luke, didn’t you?” I
aske
d as we raced through the maze.

While
I ran I be
gan to remember back to that time
, I believe a particular event
leading up to that day resulted in
my
breakdown at school. As I
ran
in
that maze with Luke I saw
our
s
chool bus rolling to a stop
.
Luke, John and I stepped off and began to make our way up the driveway when almost simultaneously the
three of us began to slow our s
teps. The voices were loud and the banging could be h
eard all around us, as if it is carried
in the wind, I remember thinking.

“You stupid woman, how could you do such a moronic thing as invite a priest into our house. Do you really want to tell everybody our problems? That secrecy bit is a lie, people will talk
. Don’t you ever do this
again! This is not your l
ife alone, you share it with me
and I say who enters this hou
se. Do you understand?” he rag
ed. Then it happened, the hit that we knew would follow the rant. Not only did he throw the lamp
into the television, holes
were
punched in
to
the living room wall and broken beer bottles
had been
scatt
ered across the entry way. Our
mother now knelt sobbing with a purple cheek
on the floor. Our father grabbed his keys and a
s he head
ed to his truck
.