The memory of Thalia and me running down the pier on one of our many vacations when we were kids, thinking up stories of the boats we could see down in the marina, entered my mind. My heart clenched painfully as those much happier memories erupted, remembering my family and how it used to be.
Happy.
Complete.
But today I didn't want to dwell on the past. Today I wanted to look at the future, and, ignoring everything else surrounding me right now, I went down the stairs and exited The Lighthouse B&B and stepped into a fog thinner than the one last night.
But the sound of those church bells still followed even when I started walking farther away, blocking my mind from descending into madness. From thinking ofhim.
6
KAIRA
As I walkeddown the path from The Lighthouse B&B and toward the road, I realized the town wasn't as sleepy as I initially thought it to be. People walked down the street, cars passed, and each person I passed looked at me as if I was the strangest sight they had ever seen. But Mrs. Sarrendon had warned me the town didn't get that many visitors, especially during this period of the year, and with it being so small most people knew each other.
I was a stranger, obviously, and I understood the weird glances every time I greeted one of them. Even the kids avoided me, crossing to the other side of the road when they saw me.
Ever since I was a child my mom warned me about dangers the lurking around corners, that sometimes monsters didn't have to have horns and bright red eyes but could look like a friendly person just passing by. I guess I was happy these children were cautious about monsters wearing friendly faces.
Pulling out my phone, I tried to ignore the occasional glances thrown my way and the wary looks on their faces when they saw me, and checked that I was on the right path toward the cafe. My neck prickled with awareness, as if someone was watching me, but when I turned around there was nothing but the fog that seemed to be getting thicker with each passing moment, and acouple I had just passed, walking hand in hand away from me and minding their business.
Chills passed over my skin as the church bells sounded somewhere in the distance again. Nausea swirled in my gut, making me lose my balance. Being here, in this town, made the awareness of something else, something I couldn't explain, lick over my skin, forcing me to think about things that made no logical sense.
I tried not to think of it or the strangeness of the appearance of the presence in my dreams this time around, but as I walked farther, tracking the path on the app on my phone, I couldn't stop myself from combing through the memory of the dream. A dream that felt too real. A dream I've stopped calling a nightmare that left me more shaken than my mother's journals. Seeing him so many times, so many nights in a row, couldn't be a coincidence, not that I believed in them anyway.
My hand shook as I looked down at my phone, my gut clenching painfully just like that night the accident happened, and like an accident happening in slow motion in front of my eyes, a voice I have never heard before came from my right—right where the ocean was. Right where the fog was coming from.
"Home." the hissing sound came through the fog, flickering through my ears, making the blood freeze in my veins.
I stopped in my steps, unable to move. Barely able to breathe as time seemed to slow down and my entire body turned into stone on the pathway.
"Come home," came this time, and like a fool in one of the horror movies I have often laughed at, I looked to my right, unable to stop myself even if I wanted to. "You need to come home." The thick fog started clearing, revealing a barrier going down the length of the road, with a lone crow sitting atop it, staring at me.
Fucking staring.
My eyes widened as its beak opened, releasing a caw that chilled the blood in my body even further, before tilting its head.
"Hello, Kore." My lips drifted open, but no sound came as I tried to say something. Anything at all, but my throat closed, allowing only for air to pass. "We will meet you soon."
"Ma'am," came from my left, making me jump in my spot and as I turned around, I saw a guy, not much older than me, standing much too close with concern written all over his face. "I'm sorry for scaring you. Are you okay?"
Was I? Was I really okay?
I looked back across the road to see if the crow was still there, if I was actually losing my fucking mind, but the ominous creature was gone. Nothing but thick fog greeted my eyes, and nothing but the sound of a car horn honking met my ears.
"Do you need help? You seem pale."
My hand pressed against my frozen cheek and my heart thundered in my chest, slamming against my rib cage as I tried to understand what just happened. What did I just see? And most of all—what did I just hear?
The stranger in my dream called me Kore. This… thing, or whatever it was, called me Kore. The back of my head hurt as if something tried pushing through. Something I couldn't put my finger on, pressing against the invisible barriers I didn't even know existed.
Not until now.
"Do you need me to call someone for you?"
"I'm fine," I blurted out with more conviction than I actually felt, noticing the trembling in my hands as I looked up at the stranger again. "I'm sorry, I must have been deep in my thoughts." Or deep in my hallucinations. Maybe it was the lack of sleep? Maybe it was the creepy feeling flickering through mychest ever since I came to this town, which didn't surprise me—much.
With all this fog, the cryptic journals my mom left behind, and the thousand questions I had, I'd be surprised if nothing felt creepy. There were too many things happening at the same time, and I remembered what Ingrid had said yesterday when I landed in Portland—our minds can sometimes play tricks on us, especially when grief is the only thing they have known for a while.
