Chapter Five
The turnout at Tommy’s funeral was staggering, with a crowd that was eerily similar to their high school graduation.
Hundreds of people lined up to pay their respects; the same people who gave heartfelt interviews to the local news.
The same people who erected a shrine in his honor outside of Cool Flix, leaving floral arrangements, candles, balloons, stuffed animals, and notes of love and friendship.
The entire town mourned Tommy right alongside Dani.
She was surrounded by family and friends, and yet, she never felt more isolated and alone.
Dani and her family were seated at the funeral in a row near the front, a fact for which she was grateful.
She didn’t really care that everyone from her graduating class would all be whispering about her to her back; in fact, she preferred it.
She was used to high school gossip, but looking everyone in the eye would have been far too difficult.
From their seats, she had a clear, direct view of her dead boyfriend.
It was surreal to see Tommy lying in his casket, his face waxy and unrecognizable as the young man she loved.
The horrible gash on his neck had been expertly covered up with a collared shirt and tie, but his skin was plastic and pale, like a mannequin at the mall.
Dani couldn’t even cry; instead, she sat in a half-medicated daze throughout the entire funeral with her parents at her side, her expression as dead and emotionless as her heart.
Tommy’s parents wouldn’t even look at her.
Dani suspected that they didn’t care much for her the entire time she and Tommy were dating, but now?
Now she wouldn’t blame them for hating her.
Tommy had told her how his mother didn’t like it that they were spending so much time together before he was set to leave for college.
There would have been tension every time he came home to visit at the holidays and during spring and summer break when she and Tommy’s parents would be jockeying for his attention.
Now, because of her, he would never come home at all.
Even though his parents wouldn’t acknowledge her presence at the funeral, a pair of red-rimmed, shining eyes looked her way.
Melody.
Tommy’s little sister sat next to his parents, her gaze locked in on Dani with an accusatory death stare.
Melody was only eight years old, but she was smart as a whip and shared Tommy’s same sandy brown hair and piercing dark irises.
She acted like his little shadow anytime Dani visited their home, always hanging on Tommy and trying to get between them.
Melody wiped a tear from her soft, pink cheek as the funeral director began the service.
Dani flinched and held up a hand to wave, but Melody didn’t wave back.
Her cheeks flamed with shame as Dani glanced away from the grieving little girl toward the treeline surrounding the cemetery.
She took some comfort in the fact that her boyfriend was being laid to rest in a beautiful, peaceful location.
Tommy’s family was wealthy and had purchased a plot for everyone in the family at the prestigious funeral home.
They certainly didn’t expect for their eldest child to be the first to go in the ground.
The funeral director took to a podium next to Tommy’s casket.
Dani had never been to a funeral before and expected the place to be run by gaunt figures dressed in black with gnarled fingers and bloodless features.
Her favorite childhood films had reinforced the notion that only ghouls could work with the dead.
She was surprised to see a kindly looking middle-aged woman tap at the microphone and begin the eulogy of her dead boyfriend.
“Today we come together to honor the life of Thomas Harding, Jr.,” the woman said.
“Tommy, as he was fondly known by his family and friends, was a young, bright man who brought joy to everyone he knew. He was a son, a brother, and a friend to many. We welcome you all to come forward and share your words and memories of Tommy today.”
Seaside High’s basketball coach took the stand first. Dani tuned him out as he droned on and on about Tommy’s scores and stats.
She had only attended a few of his games, a fact that she was now ashamed of.
Sports weren’t her thing, but she should have gone to a few games to support him.
She gritted her teeth as the coach began to cry, bemoaning the fact that his would-be college had lost their best incoming player.
Teachers, students, cousins, aunts, and uncles all came forward to speak about her dead boyfriend, but no one mentioned the obvious.
No one wanted to say the awful truth out loud; that Tommy didn’t die by accident or because he was sick.
The truth was too terrible. Too painful.
She realized just how little she knew about him as they told stories about his childhood, about the things that he had done in life, and the goals that he had hoped to reach.
Dani sank deeper and deeper into her seat as she listened to his friends and family speak about how much they loved him.
He would have studied medicine alongside his basketball career, and maybe even become a surgeon.
Tommy was a good person who would have been a benefit to society, and just like that, he was gone.
While all of the thoughts and words about Tommy from loved ones were touching, it was his little sister who really brought down the house and made everyone cry.
His parents were so beside themselves that they could barely move from their seats, but not Melody.
Dani was impressed as the little girl walked up to the podium with the confidence of an adult.
The funeral director had to lower the microphone for her, but Melody made sure to speak up loud and clear.
“My brother was murdered,” she said.
The microphone crackled as the whine of feedback filled the air.
Her mother wailed and a collective gasp waved through the crowd.
Tommy’s little sister stood defiant behind the podium, saying the words that no one else dared to utter.
Her little features were screwed up, two piercing eyes fiercely set as she stared at Dani. Her gaze was accusatory. Angry.
“Tommy was a good big brother, and he died for nothing. Whoever is responsible has to pay.”
The crowd moaned in agreement. Dani’s cheeks grew hot as her blood boiled inside her veins. She was right. Deep in her heart, she knew that it was her fault that Tommy was dead.
Before Melody could say anything more, the funeral director sprang to action. She snatched the microphone from the stand and the little girl’s angry expression fell apart.
“We all miss him terribly,” the funeral director said. “Will someone please help our guest back to her seat?”
Tommy’s father broke away from his grieving wife and walked up to the podium. Little Melody lost her fiery will and disintegrated into a puddle of tears as her father scooped her up. He whisked her back to their seat, but not before shooting his own accusatory gaze at Dani.
Finally, after the last teary relative said their goodbyes, the funeral director began the burial process. Dani couldn’t bring herself to get up there and say anything, not with everyone looking on. Not with everyone knowing that she was the reason that their beloved son and friend was dead.
As they lowered the casket into the earth, Dani realized they might as well have been burying her soul along with him.
She couldn’t bear to watch. Her glazed expression settled on the treeline just at the edge of the funeral home as Tommy’s body went down, down, down.
She couldn’t be sure, but as she tried to focus on the funeral again, she caught the flicker of a figure moving among the trees. And then …
That smell.
Cheap pine and musk.
Sweat and venom.
Dani’s stomach clenched as she glanced toward the treeline again.
A burst of warm air blew through the cemetery, bringing with it that smell.
That awful, horrible death smell. Sweet and spicy and rotten.
The casket hit the bottom of the grave, six feet down where her boyfriend would rest forevermore.
Tommy’s mother wailed.
Dani stared into the forest again.
The figure was gone.