The Valley

by Annie Graefnitz

  “Where’s Will?”

  “Honey,” Dorothy said with a slight croak in her voice. She looked up at me from the table. She drew in a long deep breath. “Something’s happened.” It was obviously hard for her to continue. “Will-” she tried, but the words would not come out. She looked down at the table.

  I froze. “Will what?”

  I couldn’t understand why she was stuttering, other than asking him for help last night, she never spoke a nice word to him.

  “WHAT?” I grabbed her hand, forcing her to look at me. A single tear streaked down her cheek.

  Her tear caught me off guard. I’d never in my life seen this woman cry, not even when my grandfather died. She had figured out a way to turn his funeral into a celebration of him because he’d want that. She was a very strong woman and she tried very hard to make me one too.

  “He’s gone, Cami.”

  I sat staring at her, waiting for her to continue. He’s gone to the store, he’s gone mad, he’s gone to find Avedis, he’s gone…somewhere. My mother crouched down and hugged me.

  “I am so sorry,” her soft voice said.

  “But, where’d he go?” I whined in a watery voice.

  Dorothy wrung her hands trying to figure out how to spare me the ugly details. “He thought you were dead, Cami. He thought that Avedis had taken you from us.”

  Tilly took over when my grandmother choked up. “He would not leave you until one of his own made it safely out of the house. The big one, Kazi? He swore to Will he would keep you safe from the vampires. And only after that promise, did he leave. He left to hunt Avedis. Many of his friends, your friends, followed him. They came back; he did not. They could not find him.”

  “Oh, God!” I whispered. A lump formed in my throat and was growing larger by the second. I was about to choke. I did this. I forced him to help me and now he was gone. If I had just done what Dorothy told me to do instead of trying to save the world, he would still be here and he’d be with me.

  My grandmother and the other guests apologized repeatedly over the next few minutes as we sat there, as if it were their faults.

  Irelynn sniffled next to me.

  “You knew?”

  She closed her eyes and the mascara ran down her face. “Yes.”

  The room around me began to slowly spin as everyone eyes darted from the floor to me and then back to the floor again. I stood from my seat and made my way to the stairs and up to my room again to get away from the suffocating silence that invaded the kitchen.

  I sat on the edge of my bed for hours in a daze. My mind was completely blank and the only thing I could do was stare at the floor and breathe through the hollowness forming where my heart used to be. I finally collapsed backward and curled into a ball and began sobbing. The images of the past few months flooded back to me. His face, his voice, his touch, repeated over and over until I put my hands over my ears to try and block out the memories. As quickly as he had exploded into my life and turned it upside down, he was just as quickly, gone.

  Irelynn came to visit me at some point during the day, but I was barely conscious enough to hear anything she was saying. From what I could gather, everyone at school believed that I had contracted some strange disease and that’s why I was out. She was now grounded until graduation for lying to her parents and Tilly, but we both knew that wouldn’t last. She and Shawn lay in my bed and napped while I did, finally leaving when it was dark outside and Jillian brought dinner in.

  She sat with me while I ate and told me how sorry she was that she never knew Will, and wondered why I hadn’t written to her about him.

  “Mom,” I mumbled through the arm that my face was buried in. “Please, I can’t talk about him now.”

  Her hand grazed my arm and stroked my hair. “I’m sorry, honey. When you’re ready, we’ll talk about him okay? Not until you’re ready. Obviously there are some things your father and I need to discuss with you. I really wish it was under different circumstances.”

  Obviously. I didn’t want to even think about anything else. I wanted to disappear, disappear and go back in time. Maybe to a time where I never met Will. If I had just told Dorothy ‘no’ that day at the Inn, I would have never caught sight of Will. He would have become friends with other people in town and left me alone. He’d be alive.

  An overwhelming exhaustion took control of my body and mind. I wasn’t able to cry any more. My eyes were already swollen from the intense tears. I closed my eyes for the last time that night.

  We were in the boat again. It was rocking gently with the waves. I was lying in his arms, listening to one of his stories and watching the beautiful sunset. He loved to talk. I used to think he just liked the sound of his own voice, I know I did and I loved to listen but this time I couldn’t hear what he was jabbering about. His voice was low and soothing. And then he was gone, leaving me to float in the alone. The sky quickly began to cloud up and thunder roared in the distance. Please come back. I need you.

  “I love you.” I said aloud waking myself for a moment.

  14

  The rumors had run wild around the school the following week just as Irelynn said, but it wasn’t the absurdity in them that made it easy for me to ignore. I simply did not care. Even when a few freshmen girls that I didn’t know (and I guessed by their total disregard that they didn’t know me either) pushed past me in the restroom, boasting about how they knew the truth about what had happened and were going to charge people for the correct information. I wondered which truth they chose to profit from. Was it the one where I’d contracted some bizarre disease or the one where I’d become so overwhelmed by being dumped that I had a mental melt down.

  By the next month, the entire event was completely forgotten by the majority of the student body. The only person that loved dredging it up every time I came near was Kelsey. She took full advantage of any opportunity to harass me. I guess she felt that she’d found my weak point, as bullies often do, and milked it for everything it was worth.

  “So I guess the rumors are true,” she hissed over her shoulder.

  English class was right before lunch, which was a good thing, because after spending fifty-five minutes each day with this girl’s noxious mouth in front me was enough to send me straight over the edge most days. Before the Costa Rica trip, I’d been able to put up with her gossipy conversations with the students around us because I wasn’t the topic of choice. The buzz around me outside of this class was almost non-existent, but because I was directly in her crosshairs; she didn’t need to find any new subjects.

  “Guess so,” I mumbled.

  “So you’re admitting that you’re a freak. You did try to stake yourself because Will dumped you.” She swiveled sideways in her chair, resting her arm on my desk. Well, that was a new one; I had to give her that. She’d upped the ante from me swallowing a bunch of pills to me staking myself.

  “Miss Sharp, unless you are ready to hand in your final assignment, I suggest you turn around. Now.” I didn’t need anyone to intercede on my behalf; I could fight my own battles. But in this case, I found myself once again, not caring. I didn’t hear most of the words that dripped from her mouth anyway.

  She continued to stare at me with her thin lips spread across her face, curling up at the corners. “I’m only trying to help Cami, Mr. Reynolds. I’m afraid she won’t finish the assignment in time. I wouldn’t want to her to fail or anything.”

  “Of course you wouldn’t, Kelsey. But I’m sure Miss Fisher can manage on her own.”

  Her smile faded. Freak, she mouthed silently as she turned back around.

  The looming deadline of this project did little to encourage me to finish, or even start for that matter. In fact, the closer it got, the more resistant to even attempt it I became. It seemed so trivial to the point of frustration for me. Why was I wasting my time with this? How could it possible help me in the future? I was pretty sure that “reworking a piece of classic literature” would not be on my resume, nor would it help me
in my future career.

  After learning of what really happened to my grandfather, I had finally decided what I was going to do after high school. Starving artist - out. Old freaky vampire hunter - in. The first chance I had after graduation; I would be off to find Kazi and the group. Whether Ava liked it or not, she was going to teach me to fight and the next time I was face to face with Avedis, I would not be the stammering idiot I was before.

  Everything about him enraged me. He’d managed to escape without any punishment for killing my grandfather or Will, something I promised myself to rectify.

  I didn’t want to join any of the crusading that was taking place among those that wanted change in the vampire community. To be honest, I didn’t see that they even stood a chance against the majority of vampires that followed Avedis. It was their belief that the sole purpose of a human was to satiate their appetites and the means of accomplishing that did not matter.

  The politics would be left to the rest of the enlightened world to sort out. I only had one objective.

  The paper underneath my pencil tore where the tiny circle I had been retracing over and over again finally wore out. The bell rang, saving me from any more taunting for the hour.

  It was the perfect time for lunch and the obtuse chatter of my friends to distract me. To my surprise, when I found Shawn and Irelynn already bickering at the table, Tyson was seated next to Irelynn. I shot her a confused look, to which she answered with a quick shrug.

  “So you scrape the P.B. from my sandwich with a spoon while I’m getting a soda? Here’s a thought lady, buy a lunch!”

  I slid my bag off my shoulder and sat beside Shawn while he continued to seethe. “She’s got a serious problem, Cams. Maybe some kind of disorder or something, this is the second time she’s hijacked my peanut butter.”

  I agreed. “That’s not a very nutritious lunch.”

  Irelynn stuck the plastic spoon full of peanut butter in her mouth as if she were handling a lollypop. “I’m low on cash this week, leave me alone. Juanita had to cut my hours at the store, so I’m down to like five hours a week. It’s ridiculous.”

  “I’m sure it’s not her fault.”

  “No,” she said, sounding almost sorry for her complaint. “But she did tell me something interesting, I totally forgot to tell you guys. John is supposed to be coming back and he’s bringing someone with him.”

  “Really?” I hadn’t thought about John since that day when he stumbled into the camp covered in blood. I’d been so wrapped up in my own grief that I didn’t even think to ask how he was doing. He had just found out that not only was his son alive, but that he was a vampire, only to lose his nephew. If he would even want to see me when he returned, I would have to apologize to him, for everything.

  “Yep. I think she said a boy. Didn’t you say he has a long lost son or something?”

  My heart fell to my toes – a mixture of excitement and fear at the thought of seeing him again. Was he angry with me as well for taking Will away from him, too? “Yes he does. His name is Jack.” I was barely able to say his name without choking.

  Anna appeared next me and sat giving a quick nervous glance around the table. “Do you need help in Lit, Cami? I mean you’ve obviously been through a lot lately and I’m already done with mine. I don’t mind helping, really.”

  It seemed like she was offering more than assistance in class; an apology maybe? Perhaps she’d been a part of Kelsey’s entourage too long and the guilt was getting to her.

  “Um, thanks, but no. I’m fine; I’ll just do something easy like Romeo and Juliet.”

  “So predictable,” Kelsey interrupted. “Anna, are you coming?”

  Anna grabbed her lunch and started to get up, but then she stopped and sat back down. “No,” she replied. “I’m good here.”

  Kelsey growled and stalked away to her table of pushovers.

  “I’d like to flick her in the forehead.” Irelynn mumbled.

  Shawn instantly perked up. “Sweet! Girl fight.” He exchanged a high-five with Tyson.

  “You guys are so stupid,” she said in disgust. “Anna, when did you grow a backbone?”

  Anna grinned, and took a drink from her chocolate milk. “I’m not sure, really. It’s just very tiring trying to keep someone up all the time you know.”

  Yes, they did know. And they probably were just as sick of trying to pull me out of my glum moods.

  “And besides, she cannot find one person she doesn’t have a nasty comment for. It really gets old,” Anna finished.

  Irelynn agreed.

  Shawn snorted into his soda can. “Don’t be so pious. You make fun of people all the time.”

  “Like who?”

  “Me.”

  “You don’t count, you’re crazy obsessed with the dumbest things.”

  “Hey, just because I happen to enjoy the straightness of various office supplies doesn’t make me crazy.”

  Anna stopped chewing her granola bar. “Office supplies?”

  “Ya, it’s like his head’s so messy, the idea of office supplies keeps it in order.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with that,” Anna said, defending him.

  “Well no, but I don’t know how that’s going to work with the whole rock star image.”

  “Hey!” Shawn shouted catching the attention from the surrounding the tables. “Rock stars can like office supplies too.”

  “You’re a spaz, and no they cannot,” she snapped back.

  “Me?” He bellowed jumping to his feet and then stalking off through the cafeteria. “Elvis lives in Irelynn’s basement everyone!” He shouted at the top of his lungs, throwing his arms in the air.

  Irelynn’s eyes widen and she looked around at the people watching him exit the cafeteria.

  “He does live,” she shouted after him. “In my heart!”

  For the first time in a month, I laughed, causing the rest of them to stop what they were doing and stare at me. In the distance I heard Shawn proving Irelynn’s observation.

  “Hey, cool pen!”

  Tyson watched him go and then turned to Irelynn. “I don’t know why you guys don’t just kiss and get it over with.”

  And with that simple, yet honest comment, everything was back to normal. Irelynn spent the rest of the lunch hour chastising Tyson for such a ridiculous comment and asking me for support in backing her up that Shawn is like an annoying little brother so just the idea of his lips touching hers was completely appalling. She argued so defensively that it did make me wonder.

  After lunch I decided that I should take the free study hour to actually begin the project everyone but me seemed to be so concerned with. But I couldn’t do it in a classroom, there was too much to distract me, so I decided to take advantage of the lack of significant snowfall thus far this season and sneak out the back entrance to school and make my way to the nearby park. I did my best thinking away from curious eyes.

  Jack was coming back with his father, but I didn’t understand why. Why either of them would come back here was a little hard to understand. The valley is such a small place and as hard as they might try, there would be no avoiding me. So I guess it was good that I had a plan in place.

  “Only a few more months,” I thought out loud, trying to get at least somewhat excited about the idea of getting OUT of this town. Then I’d be off to Europe. That was the last place that Avedis had been spotted and definitely where my future trainers would be, and I couldn’t be more ready. I desperately needed a change. It was still very painful to be here. Every inch of this tiny town had a memory.

  It was good to finally have my parents home though. Their presence over the past weeks had been a great comfort, although they didn’t seem to think so. I’m fine was my phrase of choice lately. They tried numerous times to engage me in conversation about what happened and how Will’s death changed me, but I just couldn’t to it. Even thinking of him caused the pit in my stomach expand. I missed him.

  How many times could one person break m
y heart?

  Focus! So far, being alone wasn’t helping me a get the report done. I sat down at a picnic table and pulled my notebook from my bag and began to write all of my thoughts of Romeo and Juliet.

  A popular thought on this story is that the idea of such a young couple falling that madly in love was absurd. Too many times I’ve heard the phrase, “too young to know what love is.” How wrong could they have been to want to spend every waking moment together? Maybe in my retelling of this tragedy, I will save the couple and they would grow old together.

  Juliet actually wakes up and Romeo doesn’t kill himself and they run away together, but it’s not happily ever after.

  The more I stewed on the thought of them growing old together, the bigger tragedy followed. Reality soon sets in as they try to live and grow into adults as everyone does. He gets a low paying job because he has been black balled by Juliet’s father and cannot afford to support the lifestyle she is accustomed to. But she doesn’t actually want that lifestyle; he’s just too stubborn to let it go. They begin to resent each other as they age and eventually die elderly, lonely, and hating each other. Therefore the tragedy, in my opinion, was life, not death.

  I looked down at my scribbles and tried to make sense of them. It was a start, I supposed, and instead of recreating a particular scene from the play, I would add my own ending. I didn’t want it to be whiney because of what I had been through. But I did want it to me more modern and accurate.

  I zipped my jacket a little more as the wind ripped through it. It was really stupid for me to come here with nothing more than a jacket. Just because there wasn’t two feet of snow yet, there soon would be, and the biting wind reminded me of that. The park had been abandoned in past weeks because of the impending winter and thus my new wonderland. And while most of the kids in school were already on to the next gossip, many adults in town still hovered over me like vultures. I could come here and be alone. Here there were no questions, no scrutinizing eyes, just me.