“What happened?” My mother wanted to know, but I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to answer her. They let me go, and the words left my mouth in fragmented sobs.
“Connor and I went to the island to—to look for Heather. We didn’t know that Matthew would…” I couldn’t continue. I fought to keep myself together and lifted my head to see Connor standing in the middle of it all, a look of complete hopelessness on his face.
Now, I knew what it looked like when he cried.
“Connor!” He turned his head in my direction at sound of his name and at the sight of me, started to walk the other way. “Connor, wait!” I leapt out of the ambulance and sprinted to him, leaving the safety of my parents’ arms behind.
“Please, Melissa, no more.” He shook his head, eyes red from weeping.
“How could we have known?” I tried to reason with him, but he refused to hear it.
“I just want to go home.” He said and turned away, but I reached for his hand to bring him back to me.
“It’s not your fault.” I told him, but he held up the hands still covered in blood.
“Then what is this? We did this. We let it happen. We were too busy trying to be heroes. My dad tried to be a hero and look where it got him!” I took a step back, shocked at the way that he’d raised his voice at me.
Nothing I’d ever done upset him so much.
“We’re not heroes. We never should have tried.” He stole away from me, but I called his name one last time.
“Connor, don’t leave.” I begged him, tears streaming down my cheeks; and he stood there and stared at me—as if he were looking at a stranger.
“I’m done.” And he was gone. I lifted my hands to my face, disintegrating at the crimson that clung to my fingers, and stepped towards the water’s edge.
“Tell her I tried.”
I collapsed, crying bitterly; and I hesitated before plunging my hands in the water. It stung like a thousand needles tearing through my skin at once; but I kept them in the water, rubbing them together until they were raw. But still, Matthew’s blood wouldn’t go away. “Please.” I wept. “Please.” I looked down at the water and found myself more desperate than I’d ever been. It was avoiding me, apparently repelled by my bloodstained hands. “Please.” I hung my head, forlorn. “Please, don’t do this to me!” I almost shouted the last words, angry and desperate and most of all…guilty.
He died for nothing, and all I did was watch.
“That’s somethin’ I’ve never seen before.” His voice. I’d never felt so relieved to hear it; but then, I thought of the water fleeing from my hands and knew that he was staring at a freak of nature. And I brought them to my lap and sobbed.
“I can’t—I can’t wash it off.” I expected him to leave me alone, but he knelt by the water with me.
“Shhh…it’s okay.” He reassured me, whispering. “I won’t tell anybody.” I lifted my head to meet Caleb’s eyes.
“How did you know?” He simply shrugged and flashed me another one of his charming smiles.
“It’s a small town. News travels fast.” The grin fell from his face when he saw my tears. “I’m sorry about your friend.” He unwrapped the red scarf from around his neck and dipped it in the water. “Here.” He gingerly took my left hand and cleaned the blood away from my fingers; and he moved on to the next, so careful, it bewildered me. He raised the scarf to my face, and I gazed at him in confusion.
“What are you doing?” I asked him.
“You wear them like scars.” I let him gently wipe the tears away from my face; and he set the scarf down in the snow when he was finished.
“Thank you…” I murmured, so low I was sure he hadn’t heard me.
“Anytime…” He replied as he leaned forward and placed his hand behind my head, pulling me in for a kiss. A surge of electricity ran through my body when our lips met, and I shivered in his arms.
There was something about him that felt so right, and I didn’t want to let it go.
“Melissa!” We parted when my mother’s voice reached our ears.
“I have to go.” I whispered, and he nodded his head.
“I’ll see you tomorrow.” He spoke as I rose to my feet; and I glanced back at him, a million questions running through my mind.
“How will you find me?” I wondered aloud, and he shrugged again.
“I’ll ask around.”
I fell to my knees and draped myself over the porcelain bowl as I lost everything that I had eaten, heaving and coughing violently. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Matthew’s mangled body, just lying there in the darkness. Someone knocked on the bathroom door, and I pushed back my dark brown hair away from my reddening eyes.
“Yes?” I cleared my throat, trying to pick myself up from the floor.
“Melissa…oh, honey.” My mother opened the door and sighed when she saw me, and she reached out her arms to help me up.
“I couldn’t save him.” I sobbed as she embraced me. “I couldn’t stop it.” She set her hands on my shoulders when she let go.
“Even if you never went to the island, he would have gone anyway. It was better that you were there. You made sure he didn’t die alone.” I wiped my tears away with the back of my hand, but they wouldn’t stop falling. “Come on, let’s get you upstairs.” She wrapped her arms around me and led me to the bottom of the staircase; and with trembling legs, I started to climb it, my mother following close behind. The rosy light of dawn spilled in through the windows, lighting my way; and when I finally stumbled through the doorway of my bedroom, I collapsed onto my bed and wept. “I’ll be right outside—for as long as you need me.” She whispered and closed the door behind her. Then I was alone. I lay on my back and stared up at the stars on my ceiling, wishing I could be taken up into the sky to join the real ones—and never come back. I turned my head to the window and watched as a wall of frost began to build against the glass; and I closed my eyes, feeling myself drift away. It wasn’t long before I sank into a deep sleep, and the stars lingered in my mind.
I awoke to the smell of chocolate and brown sugar; and as I sat up in my bed, I smiled sadly to myself.
Cookies. But this time, there was no Connor to share them with; and the memories of everything that happened in the last twenty-four hours came rushing back to me.
I had lost Matthew and Connor in one night—and seen the personification of darkness.
I slid off the side of the bed and slipped on my floral robe over my pajamas before slowly making my way down the steps.
“Are you a fishing kind of man?” I heard my father’s voice carry up into the rafters from the living room, and I paused in the middle of the stairs to listen.
“I’d like to think so.” The voice of a young man answered nervously; and I leaned against the wall, straining to recognize it. The wooden steps creaked underneath my feet, and both my father and the visitor turned their heads my way.
“Melissa.” Caleb stood at the sight of me, and I smiled weakly.
“Hi.” I finished the remaining steps, and my father hurried to meet me at the bottom. “What time is it?”
“Just after two.” He responded. “Some people from church dropped a few cards by this morning.” I passed the coffee table to find a seat on the couch and saw that it was covered in envelopes.
“I thought the news didn’t release kids’ names…” I looked up from the pile of cards in confusion, and he sighed deeply.
“This town’s too small for secrets.” Maybe it was, but something told me that it wasn’t.
“If you are just tuning in, we have been following a breaking news story of a teenaged boy being mauled to death last night while he and his friends camped on Cedar Crest Island. Little to no information has been provided detailing just what kind of animal attack it may have been, but authorities are requesting that you be on alert for coyotes in the area.”
It was only when I heard those words that I realized that the television was on; and shaking his head, my fat
her reached for the remote sitting on the kitchen counter.
“That’s enough of that.”
“Wait,” I turned around to face him, “could you leave it on?” I asked, and he set it down silently. Caleb sat down beside me, and I grinned a little to myself. “I didn’t think you were serious.”
“What—me?” He made a face. “I’m always serious.” I wanted to laugh, but it hurt too much.
“Cookies are ready.” My mother came striding in from the kitchen, holding the crystal platter she used for them. “Here you are, honey.” She bent down to leave them on the table before kissing my forehead.
“Thanks, Mom.” I said as I watched her return to the other room, but my heart sank as I reached for one.
It wasn’t as simple as Connor helping me with my Chemistry homework, and I didn’t think it would be again.
I bit into one anyway, searching for a sliver of solace; but the warm chocolate coated my mouth and clumped in my throat. And it ached as I fought to swallow it.
“Regarding the discovery in Kellyville earlier this week, we have now learned that the kidnapping victim, now identified as sixteen-year-old Adrienne Shelley, was found near the site of what used to be Crybaby Bridge, a place additionally infamous for the prank of a young couple claiming to have found its namesake in 1993—”
I looked up when the room fell unusually silent and saw that the screen was dark, reduced to a mirror that reflected my face back to my eyes in black.
“Nathaniel,” my mother spoke as she placed the remote back on the counter, “why don’t you and Caleb go check on the horses?”
“Are you sure?” He almost seemed to hesitate before making his way to the door, and Caleb looked back at me in concern as he followed him.
“Yeah, we’ll be fine, here. They could use the company.” My mother shrugged, nonchalant; but something about the way she spoke didn’t seem right.
“Okay. But if you need anything, you know where to find us.” My father’s eyes flew to me for a moment, and then he and Caleb disappeared into the grayness waiting outside. For minutes, it was quiet; and I sat in apprehension of what would break the silence.
My mother—was that who she was? I wasn’t sure if I knew anything anymore. But she had known about the bridge, and that was enough to terrify me.
She stepped around the couch to sit next to me and folded her hands in her lap, keeping her eyes on her fingers.
“It found you, didn’t it?” The words stopped my heart in my chest.
“How did you—” I whispered the beginning of a question, but it was one I wouldn’t have a chance to finish.
“I knew it’d be best if you heard it from me.” She started. “I’d just hoped it wouldn’t have had to happen this way.” Goosebumps prickled over my skin, and I ran the palms of my hands over my arms in an attempt to chase them away.
“Happen what way?”
“I was never very adventurous. I—I just went along with your father. He loved that sort of thing. It was raining that night, and I remember thinking of how strange it was that it wasn’t snowing. I’d heard all the stories, but I didn’t,” she paused to clear her throat, raking her fingers unsteadily through her hair, “I didn’t think that they were true.” I stared at her, unsure of what she was saying. “We were only there for a couple minutes before I saw her. She was surrounded in this bright blue light, almost rippling like she was made of water. She was crying, saying something about her baby. At first, I thought that she was looking for it—all of the legends describe the ghost of a woman searching for her child—but she wasn’t.” My mother took in a deep breath and finally set her eyes on me. “She wanted me to take her.” I blinked.
“Her…” The revelation came slowly, in part by my reluctance to accept what she was telling me. Of a story told a thousand times and never considered to be truly real. Of what she’d seen that night that had convinced her otherwise.
And what that meant for me.
“She asked me to keep her safe—begged me to maintain her ignorance of magic and the supernatural—even the Cherokee folk tales my grandfather would share with me when I was a child.” The hint of a smile found its way into the corners of her lips, and I recognized it as the one she wore in the late afternoons at Moonwater Ranch—the only place she could speak his words into life. “Your father called for me; but when I turned back around, she was gone. And I was left with this beautiful baby girl.” Tears gathered in her eyes as she gazed at me; and all of a sudden, I couldn’t breathe.
“What day did you find her?” I didn’t have to ask to know the answer. She wiped the tears away with her thumbs, two glistening trails on her cheeks the sole evidence that they existed.
“December 29th, 1993.”
“You’re saying I’m the baby—of Crybaby Bridge.” Even the words that left my lips seemed foreign—syllables of a language I could speak but couldn’t dream of understanding.
But if they were true—if my mother wasn’t mistaken, it would change everything.
“How is that even remotely possible?”
“You went to see it—the night your classmate Adrienne went missing.” She leaned forward. “Did you notice anything unsettling or—or strange?” She sighed again when I shook my head. But something in me gave me pause. And I remembered the word scrawled into the rusted metal and the storm that followed on the heels of my voice. “What is it?”
“I…” I couldn’t tell her. “I saw something…on the island. I was alone.” In the quiet between my words, I found myself there again. Staring up at the tree that pulled me towards it with whispers, peering into the shadows and seeing the perversion of a human face, holding Matthew’s bloodied hands as snowflakes collected on my eyelashes. “But I think Matthew saw it too.” She drew back at first, unable to conceal the horror underneath her reserved expression. “He said ‘he’ was looking for me. Do you know who that is?”
“She never told me. She just asked to keep her—keep you—away from the darkness.” She frowned. “But it looks like I couldn’t even do that right.”
“Mom…” She lifted her eyes from her hands when I grasped them tightly. “Do you remember what you told me when I was younger?” She didn’t reply—but allowed herself to smile sadly in the moment. “I’m a Moonwater. And the moon only ever shines in the darkness.”
Chapter Nine
Daffodils
Tck. Tck. Tck.
My eyes fluttered open at the sound, and I buried my face in my pillow to go back to sleep.
Tck. Tck. Tck.
I sat up, yawning, and moved my hair out of my face before glancing at the clock.
7:37 am.
The sun had barely found its way into the sky, burning brightly over the horizon; and all I wanted to do was close my eyes. But whatever it was that waited outside my window wouldn’t let me.
Tck…tck.
I sighed, wishing I could have stayed where I was; but my curiosity bested me, and I couldn’t help but wonder what was tapping against the glass. Reluctantly, I rose to my feet and stepped towards the window, rubbing my eyes before setting them on the sky. Outside, the rose and lavender clouds vanished in the light of the morning sun; and a few beams of citrine light fell on the rooftops that filled the horizon.
Tck!
I jumped back, blinking as something suddenly hit the windowpane; and I hastily stepped forward once again to gaze down at the street below. And then I smiled.
“What are you doing?” I whispered, leaning out to stare at him in disbelief.
“Throwin’ wood chips at your window.” He shrugged as he swung his arm to hurl another; and I glanced up as it sailed over my head, closing my fingers around it before it could fly any farther. “Nice catch.”
“What are you really doing here?” I asked him and let the little piece of wood tumble from my hand and settle at his feet.
“Why don’t you come down here and figure it out?” He taunted me, but the smile fell from my face when I remembered what day
it was.
“I can’t.” I frowned, slowly closing the window. “I have to go to a funeral today.”
“Wait! Wait.” He called out to me; and regretfully, I paused to listen. “I know.” It was quiet for a moment as he lowered his eyes. I struggled to retain a single breath as my eyes burned, but there were no tears left for me to cry. And then he raised them, breaking the silence. “But can I show you somethin’?”
“Sure.” I sighed and shut the window, slipping on my robe before hurrying downstairs. I stopped in front of the door and ran my fingers over my hair to fix it. Turning the handle, I pulled it open and found Caleb standing on the other side.
“I remembered seein’ it that night, but I didn’t realize what it was ‘til now.” He rushed inside, shivering as he held his arms.
“Seeing what?” I asked him as I closed the door. He turned to face me as he pushed his hood from his head, suddenly serious.
“Where I found you, there were trees.” He breathed. “The first time I saw it, I thought it was it was just one; but it was all of them.” I stole a step back, afraid of what he saying.
“I don’t follow.” I shook my head, but he continued.
“Letters—three letters every time. And then what they were sayin’ about the girl that was found on the news…” And then, I did. The word that had been carved into Adrienne’s skin again and again had become Cedar Crest’s latest mystery, one that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be solved. “It’s a name.”
“A name?” I had to repeat it to make sure I had heard him correctly. He nodded in response and reached into his pocket to retrieve a folded up piece of paper.
“It’s old—not a lot of people use it now, but I wanted to tell you right away.” I hesitated as he handed it to me, terrified of what I would find; but still, I opened it—and immediately understood. “It means ‘water’.”
Everything came rushing at me all at once: the bridge, the rain, April Lawson, Heather, Matthew…
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