by Manuel Tiger
“And look here,” she said handing me several more newspapers. “There’s mentions of werewolf or dog man sightings and that of even vampires.”
“Vampires?” I snorted. “Helen, all this is fanciful creations from bored minds, nothing more.”
“Believe what you want Henry,” she said with a laugh. “But until you lived around here long enough? You’ll start noticing what the others have noticed.”
“Which is?”
“That Heaven Falls is not as it looks on the surface.”
About four weeks later Helen’s articles had become a popular feature in the Gazette. After the first article had ran she had received countless emails and letters from residents and some from those that had once lived in Heaven Falls recounting their own experiences, their own brushes with the supernatural. Some would have made for some pretty good horror movie material, if you believed in the supernatural that is. But I was soon to discover not to mock so lightly these experiences as I would soon have one of my own.
It was evening and I was standing outside waiting for Daman to pick me up when I heard the sounds of scuffling coming from the alley between the Gazette building and the building next door.
I cautiously walked toward the mouth of the alley and saw Helen fighting off a man of towering height that had her by the neck.
“Retract the story bitch!” he said in what was nearly an animal-like growl. “You know better! You fucking know better!” he shouted at her.
Though his voice was raised it seemed contained within the alley, not echoing out of it and onto the sidewalk and street.
“Let me go! I don’t even know who you are! You fucker! Let me go!” Helen coughed out. “Let me go!”
“Hey!” I shouted just as Daman pulled up. “Daman!” I shouted over my shoulder before running into the alley. “Let her go!” I said not even thinking and leaping at the man. It was like I landed on one of the oak trees around here – he barely even noticed me and kept shaking Helen around. “Let her go!” I shouted as he reached over and grabbed me by the back of my shirt, flinging me to the ground.
I landed hard, the wind knocked out of me as Daman ran by in a blur.
“Hey!” he shouted as he struck with a hard right blow to the man’s head. It staggered him and he released Helen who fell to the ground gasping and sobbing.
I quickly got up and hurried over to her. “Are you alright?”
“I’m f-fine,” she choked out as she rubbed her throat. “He just…he just appeared out of the shadows when I was throwing some trash out.”
We both looked up to see Daman slam him up against the alley wall with such an impact it sounded like some bricks broke.
“You know better than to be here in the town!” Daman growled. He had the man lifted about two inches off the ground. “Much less attack those that have not provoked you!”
I never knew he was that strong!
“Salvadori,” the man laughed then fixed his blazing amber eyes on me. “And your mate!” he laughed as Daman tightened his hold around his neck. “The scent of you is all over him! Wonder if he tastes as good as he looks?”
Daman drew back his fist and slammed it into the man’s face. I brought a hand to my mouth for the impact had echoed throughout the alley. When Daman brought his fist back I expected to see the man’s face a bloody ruin, a mess of flesh, but it wasn’t.
It was like the punch had no effect on him.
“Protective of him are you?” the man chortled. “Can’t always protect him Salvadori! There are worse things now here or should I say returning?”
Daman’s eyes narrowed as he let out a rage filled yell and threw the man halfway down the alley.
“Get out of here! Don’t show your face in this town again!” Daman yelled at him.
The man got to his feet, dusted himself off and grinned. Blood stained his lips as he pointed a finger at Helen then at me.
“You can’t be everywhere all the time Salvadori!” the man spat.
Daman picked up a trash can lid and just as he went to throw it at the man, the man was simply gone.
Just like that. Like he had not even been there and I had not taken my eyes off of him once!
“What…,” I said running over to Daman and taking the hand he used to throw the punch. The skin wasn’t broken, not even bruising forming on his knuckles. “Are you okay?” I asked as he dropped the lid and wiped the back of his other hand across his nose.
“Are you?” he said turning to face me, cupping my face with one hand while looking me over.
“Maybe just bruised from landing on my chest,” I said brushing off his hand. “Helen?” I said turning to help her up.
“I’m fine,” she repeated. “Just a little shaken up by it,” she said rubbing her neck. “He just literally came out of the shadows and started asking me why I was writing those articles. It was so odd.”
“Everyone is a critic,” Daman said looking in both directions of the alley. “Henry, get in the car. I’m going to walk Helen to hers.”
“Thank you,” Helen said retrieving her purse. “Both of you, really. Not sure what would have happened to me had you two not shown up.”
I merely nodded, recalling the words that that man had said to Daman as I headed to the car and he escorted Helen to hers. I watched as he leaned down to speak to her when she lowered her window. I climbed into the car and took off my glasses, checking them over but the words the stranger had spoken continued to play in my head on repeat.
“New mate?” I said softly. I then sniffed myself, but all I smelled was my cologne and the slice of pizza I had had at lunch.
Daman climbed in and I looked over at him, noticing the hard set to his jaw as he sat there gripping the steering wheel in his hands.
“Daman?” I said reaching over and he jerked his head to look at me.
“He’s right,” he said in a tone of anger. “I can’t be everywhere all the time to keep you safe.”
“Daman, he was just some loon. His words were meaningless.”
“No, they weren’t Henry,” he said reaching out and cupping my cheek. “There’s something you need to know.”
“Is this about what else he said?”
“What else he said?” Daman repeated, confusion on his beautiful face.
I looked away and down at my hands.
“He said your new mate? Not that I ever heard such a term used as that for a couple but,” I looked back at him. “Did he know your ex before me?”
Daman cracked his jaw and dropped his hand away.
“I haven’t told you about my ex, about myself,” he said starting up the car. “But I think it’s time. Especially if I plan on making you permanently part of my life Henry.”
“I thought I already was?”
He looked at me and offered a half smile. “Now it’s my turn to use your words on you.”
“Which are?”
“If you wish to be with me after you know my story.”
“What are you talking about?”
“It is better I take you to a certain place and tell you, Henry.”
I sat there confused and frightened, but said nothing more as I simply stared forward, the town falling behind, becoming a blur.
We did not take the road toward River Haven. Instead he took the north road which took me back through the section I had driven through the first day I arrived in Heaven Falls.
My phone chimed and I brought it out of my messenger bag.
“Who is it?” he asked keeping his eyes forward.
“It’s Anna,” I said. “I can reply back to her later.”
“No,” he said. “Tell her to meet us at Paradise Hill Cemetery.”
“The old cemetery on Redwood Road? We’re going to a cemetery for what you have to tell me?”
“Please Henry,” he looked at me and reached out to cup my cheek. “Just tell her to meet us there.”
I sighed and nodded, becoming only further confused by this strange turn of events.
I texted back saying that Daman wanted her to meet us at the cemetery. She replied back with a simple “Ok”.
“What’s going on Daman?” I asked turning to face him in the seat. “What is so important that you’re taking me to a cemetery to tell me whatever it is you’re going to tell me? And involve Anna?”
“It’s time you knew the truth about me, about Heaven Falls,” he said staring forward. “And I hope that once you know both? You can still look at me with love in your eyes and not fear.”
I stared at him and said nothing as I turned around in my seat and stared out the window while the night around us seemed to surround us, to close in.
Paradise Hill Cemetery was the oldest cemetery in the county, or one of the oldest. It was the final resting place of many of the original founding families of Heaven Falls and the last occupants to have been buried there was shortly after the Civil War.
I had discovered this information when I was helping Helen write one of her articles. Aside from the historical footnote, the place was also known for its numerous ghost sightings reported through the years. As Daman drove along that darkened road with the river to our left and the forest of twisting thick trees to our right, I could for a moment believe in such stories.
Soon the familiar gray stone wall I had read about appeared, winking in and out where the trees did not grow closely together. Then I felt the car slowing and looked ahead to see the entrance to the cemetery appear. Daman whipped in, kicking up gravel and dust as he drove along the meandering road that took us between row after row of old tombstones before arriving at what I imagined the cemetery took its name from – a hill that rose in the middle of the cemetery.
I noticed this section had more family crypts than that tombstones, all well cared for by the looks of things as there were recent floral arrangements on some of the crypt doors.
“I’m glad that they still maintain this cemetery,” he said shutting the car off. I merely nodded my head and got out when he did.
I looked around and lifted my arm to adjust my glasses when I winced and cried out, feeling a tenderness on my side.
“Henry?” Daman said coming over to me at once. “Are you okay?” he asked untucking my shirt and lifting it up to check my side. “Just a bruise. We’ll ice it when we get home.”
“I’m not worried about that,” I said facing him. “I want to know why you brought me out here and not to River Haven. Why you had to bring me out here to a fucking cemetery in order tell me whatever it is that you deem so damn important!” I said keeping my voice as level as I could without shouting. “Why?”
He reached up and cupped my face in his hands and just stared into my eyes.
“What?” I asked.
“Even after what I reveal to you could end things between us? I will still love you, Henry.”
My hand shot up and gripped his as my other attached itself to his shirt. “Don’t say that,” I whispered. “Nothing could ever change how I feel about you Daman!”
There came a flicker of a smile across his lips as he dropped his hand away and took hold of mine, bringing it up to kiss each finger.
“Come along then,” he said. “It’s better to show you then tell you afterwards.”
“Where are we going?” I asked stepping closer to him, pressing against him as he led me toward the direction of the crypts. I could see familiar names written in stone on the front of them that tied back to living people in Heaven Falls. Then we were moving between them, heading deeper into the cemetery till we arrived at one crypt in particular set amid several towering oak trees.
It looked much like a smaller version of a Greek temple and the name Salvadori was chiseled neatly into the portico.
“Your family crypt?”
He nodded and led me up the steps and toward the wrought iron gate that was chained and locked. He reached up and felt around near the face of a cherub blowing a horn. When he brought his hand down he was holding a key in it that he inserted into the lock. He released my hand to catch the chain and set it aside on a stone flower planter that had dead flowers in it.
Without saying another word he opened the gate and set the lock into a small alcove by the entrance. He looked at me and then started down the steps into the darkness.
“Daman?” I said as there came the familiar sound of him opening his lighter and stroking the wheel. A jet of flame appeared as I hurried down the steps. “Daman?”
He lit a small burner that was held in stone hands to the side of the steps. Whatever the grainy substance was in the burner it caught quickly and washed the crypt in flickering light.
“My family,” he said gesturing to a wall on our right hand side. “Go on, read the names.” He stepped back and leaned against the opposite wall folding his arms across his chest. I looked at him and he nodded his head.
I approached the first one vault. “Alessandro Raphael Salvadori,” I read aloud. “Born in eighteen-o-five, Rome, Italy. Died in eighteen sixty-three, Heaven Falls, Virginia.”
“My father.”
I looked at him half expecting him to tell me he was joking.
He didn’t.
I swallowed and moved onto the next one. “Elyse Delacroix – Salvadori. Born in eighteen-o-eight, Saint-Malo, France. Died eighteen sixty-three, Heaven Falls, Virginia.”
“My mother,” he said behind me. “She was born in France but raised in Rome where she met my father.”
“I…,” I started.
“Keep going.” His voice was cold, a tone I had never heard before.
I nodded, swallowing the questions that were rising. “Alessandro-Matteo Salvadori. Born in Rome in the year eighteen twenty-three. Died eighteen sixty-three, Heaven Falls, Virginia.”
“My oldest brother,” he announced. “Below him resides his wife Mary and two of their children.”
I looked down to see this was true.
“Keep going,” he ordered.
“Antonio Christian Salvadori. Born in Heaven Falls, Virginia in the year eighteen twenty-five. Died eighteen sixty-three, Heaven Falls…,” I trialed off.
“My little brother. His wife Laura is in the vault beneath. No children.”
I felt a creeping dread settle over me but I continued down the row of vaults. “G-Gisele Elyse Salvadori. Born in eighteen thirty, Heaven Falls. Died in eighteen sixty-three, Heaven…,” I trailed off as my eyes came to rest on the final vault.
“My little sister, never married. But my father was arranging a marriage for her but there was a lack of men at the time. I’m sure you can guess why by the year in which they all died.”
“T-The Civil War,” I said as my eyes moved to the last vault in the row. I approached it and stared, shaking my head.
“Read it.”
“Daman, no…”
“Read it.”
I licked my lips and read aloud the name chiseled there. “D-Damiano Nicholas Salvadori. Born eighteen twenty-eight, Rome, Italy. D-Died eighteen sixty-three. Heaven Falls, Virginia.”
I spun around to be greeted by Daman’s stone cold face, his eyes glittering in the light of the fire. He didn’t even look alive in that moment.
“Y-Your middle name is Nicholas?” I said hoping to ease the sudden dread that filled the crypt.
“Is that all you’re taking from that inscription?”
“That you were born here and not in Italy as you said?” I half smiling.
“Henry,” he said with that same cold tone.
“Daman, if you’re telling me to believe that you are…that you’re…”
“What?” he asked stepping forward. I had never seen his face so remote, so cold. “What am I’m telling you Henry?”
“You were named after an ancestor that died during the Civil War, that these are your ancestors! These can’t be your parents! It’s…it’s not possible!”
“Oh, but it is Henry. It is very all true what you see here,” he said resting his gaze on the vaults behind me.
“If this is some joke Daman? I do
n’t find it very funny!” I said moving around him. “I’m going back to the car!” but I never got far for he spun around and latched onto my arm with a grip that had me crying out at once and falling to my knees in front of him. “Daman! You’re…you’re hurting me!”
“You see how strong my grip is Henry? How with just another squeeze I could so easily break your arm if I wanted to!”
“You wouldn’t though,” I whispered feeling tears coming to my eyes.
“No, I would never hurt you,” he said pulling me up. “Could never hurt you,” he said cupping my face. “But you need to know the truth about me.”
“If you’re asking me to believe that what that inscription says? On your,” I could even bring myself to say the word but I somehow managed to. “Y-Your v-vault? That means…that means you are one hundred and seventy-seven years old!”
“But stuck forever at the age of thirty-five.”
I stared at him, trying to make sense of all this, but failing. “Why are you doing this?” I asked. “Why are you acting this way? Bringing me here? Why did you bring me here Daman? Why!”
“For I want you to know the truth Henry! I want you to realize that the world you dwell in? There are very vicious and cold bloodied things that dwell in it!”
“You’re telling me this after what I told you about my life?” I shoved him in the chest suddenly wanting distance between the two of us.
“Humans are terrible creatures Henry, but there are worse things than them that dwell in this world! Far crueler and sicker things with no heart at all! That wish to do nothing more than to spread suffering and pain! To cause it!”
“Then you are doing just fine!” I shouted at him as tears now began running down my cheeks.
“Henry,” he approached me but I slapped at his reaching hands shocking him. “Henry!”
I kept stepping back till I was up against the opposite wall of the crypt. “Just get it out Daman! Tell me what you fucking are!”