Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
TEMPERANCE
The sound of twigs snapping and leaves crunching put me on red alert. He was here. Somewhere in in these woods the shadow man was lurking, waiting. My breathing became labored as my heart rate spiked, alerting me to the threat that was near.
The cold penetrated my coat, quickly seeping through my skin down to my bones as I looked all around, trying desperately to make out the shadows dancing through the woods in the faint moonlight filtering through the trees.
A second later, he stepped into view, the man with no face, and I turned on my heels and ran. I ran so fast my lungs burned. I ran so hard my legs felt they’d give out. I ran like my life depended on it, because I knew to my soul that it did.
My lips parted, and I tried to scream, but no sound came out.
And just like that, the woods surrounding me disappeared. Everything fell away in the blink of an eye, and I suddenly found myself standing on the front stoop of my house.
The front door was partially open, the light from inside streaming out onto the porch in a long, straight line, like a path that would lead me to something terrible.
My stomach dropped and my hand shook uncontrollably as I slowly reach out to push the door the rest of the way open.
Everything about this was wrong. It was the dead of night.
The door shouldn’t be open, the lights shouldn’t be on.
When I left more than an hour ago, my parents had both been asleep.
Had they woken up and discovered me gone?
Were they frantic with worry? What was going on?
“Mom?” That one word came out broken, in a barely-there whisper. “Dad?”
I stepped over the threshold into the foyer. Every molecule, every cell in my body screamed for me not to go inside, but I had to find my parents.
“Mom? Are you awake?”
The floorboards creaked ominously beneath my feet as I slowly made my way deeper into the house.
I saw the first pool of blood just outside the family room, and when I reached the entry and turned to look inside, my lungs completely deflated and I had to brace against the frame as my knees almost gave out.
Blood coated the family room floor, so much blood it nearly covered every inch of the large rug. The walls were streaked with it, bloody handprints were smeared along the coffee table.
My parents stood near the far wall with their backs to me, but I could see bloodstains all over their night clothes.
“Mom? Dad?” My voice trembled as I watched them both turn in my direction.
It was as if I just stepped into a scene from a horror movie.
My parents were ghostly white, their eyes vacant and completely blank.
Ghastly knife wounds riddled both their bodies everywhere, yet they were still standing.
“Where were you?” my mother asked in a voice that I barely recognized. “Where were you Tempie?”
“You could have saved us,” my father spoke. “You could have saved us, but you weren’t here. You left us.”
“No,” I breathed, my eyes going wide and filling with tears. They took a step toward me and I automatically moved back. “Daddy, please.”
My mother’s cold, terrifying voice sent a chill down my spine. “You left us and look what happened.”
“Mommy.” I began to cry as my body went cold. “I’m so sorry.”
“This is all your fault,” Dad continued as they kept coming closer.
“All your fault,” Mom repeated.
“All your fault.”
Then she shrieked so loud my eardrums nearly burst. “All your fault!”
I shot up in bed, sucking in a painfully sharp gasp. My cheeks were soaked with tears, my body with sweat as I pulled in one breath after another, trying to get my lungs to function properly.
Pulling my knees to my chest, I wrapped my arms around my legs and curled into a tight ball, trembling and rocking back and forth and the dream left me and reality slowly crept back in. “It was just a dream.” I said in a shaky voice. “It was just a dream. Just a dream.”
The minutes ticked by one after another before I was finally able to release my legs and sit up straight.
That was the absolute worst of my recurring nightmares, and usually it stayed with me all day long after, making it nearly impossible for me to function at all.
But that wasn’t an option today. I wasn’t going to allow it.
These had been some of the best days I’d had in longer than I cared to admit.
Everything had changed once Hayes and I found our way back to each other.
He was busy with his case, but that didn’t mean he didn’t text and call with regularity, and every time my phone chimed, my body ignited with excitement.
I refused to allow a nightmare to ruin that for me.
Not anymore. Not now that I finally remembered what it was like to feel happy again.
Climbing from my bed, I took a second to make sure my knees were steady before moving into the bathroom and turning on the shower, and as I waited for the water to heat, I looked at my pale reflection in the mirror and proceeded with my pep talk.
“You can get past this, Tempie. It was just a nightmare. It wasn’t real. You’re going to be okay.”
And as I climbed into the shower and tried my hardest to scrub those horrid images from my mind, I told myself that everything was going to be okay.
Hopefully I’d come to believe it.
I wound my way through the headstones, mindful of where I stepped as I made my way to where my family laid. This marked my third visit to this cemetery, the only other two being when I put my loved ones to rest.
“Hey, Aunt Reenie,” I spoke softly, crouching down to place my fingers on the cold granite marker.
“I know I haven’t come to visit you, and I’m sorry about that.
” I sniffled and rubbed my glove-covered hand beneath my nose.
“You probably already know this, but I’ve decided to stay.
I’m home again, Reenie, and this time I’m not leaving.
” A little smile tugged at my lips, and I gave my head a shake as I recalled all the times she needled me about needing to come back home.
“I’m sure you’re happy. At least I hope you are.
” I pulled in a deep breath before adding, “I’m taking real good care of Stargazer and Cat for you.
I’m sure Cat would disagree if she could talk, but she gets her food every day, so I don’t know what she’s always complaining about.
She’s a pain in the ass, but I think I’m actually starting to like her. ”
Lifting my hand, I placed a kiss to the tips of my fingers before pressing them to the stone once again. “I miss you so much, but I know you’re better off now. And you’re with Mom and Dad. I hope you guys are having fun.”
I had no doubt they were. I could still remember how often the three of them laughed and joked around together. Mom and Reenie were as close as two sisters could possibly be, and I knew they were happy to finally be together again.
Standing from my crouch, I moved to the single marker a few feet away that was for both my parents, and lowered to sit on the cold, hard ground.
This one was going to be much harder, and no matter how I tried to psyche myself up for this, I wasn’t sure I’d ever feel completely ready to put a voice to the pain I’d been feeling for so long.
“Hey, guys,” I whispered, pressing my hand against the stone.
“It’s been a while.” My nose began to sting and tears welled in my eyes.
“I’m sorry about that. I’m sorry about a lot of things, honestly.
I’m sorry for every time I acted like a little brat and gave you attitude.
I’m sorry for that time I tried to give all my Barbies a haircut and ended up making them look like escapees from a mental institution.
” A single tear broke free and slipped down my cheek as I continued.
“Mom, I’m sorry for taking your favorite pair of jeans without asking when I was sixteen, then getting that big stain on the left thigh that you could never get out.
And Daddy, I’m sorry for trying to wash your truck with a steel wool scrubber. ”
I stopped on that one, unable to hold back my laughter as I thought back to that day.
I’d been seven at the time, and Dad had just gotten a brand new truck.
He’d been so damn proud of it. I wanted to do something special for him, so I decided to go out and wash his new baby.
Like, I said, I was only seven so how was I supposed to know.
Fortunately, I’d been caught before I could get past the driver side door, but the damage there had already been done.
.. and it was immense. I remembered Dad’s face turning so red I thought his head was going to pop, but before he could rage, Mom came out of the house, saw what I’d done, and promptly burst into hysterical laughter.
My mom’s laugh had always done wonders to calm my father’s anger, and by the time she was finished, I’d barely gotten into any trouble at all.
The lightness of that memory faded, and my smile fell as I confessed in a quiet voice, “But mostly I’m so, so very sorry that I wasn’t there that night.
I’m sorry I couldn’t do something to help.
” The tears started anew, falling faster and harder as a painful lump formed in my throat.
The cold of the stone seeped through my glove and sank into my palm as I pushed harder against it.
“I hope you both know how much I love you, how proud I am to have been your daughter. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think of you guys and miss you like crazy. ”
I gave their stone a kiss the same as I had Reenie’s. “I love you all so much. Take care of each other, okay? And I promise I’ll come to visit more often.”