Mission 101 Heart Captured

[33] - Grave Hopping

♠ ♦ Brooklyn's P.O.V ♦ ♠

Guilt.

Pain.

Regret.

Maybe I shouldn't have gone to that party. Maybe I should have just stayed at home and not have done anything that night but binge-watch. Maybe I should've just let Ian get the majority of the damage caused by the electricity pole. Maybe I should've pulled over the car sooner. Maybe then I'd have remembered to visit Alyssa on her actual birthday.

Maybe just maybe I should've just died.

Then I could have been with Alyssa and Amber and John.

Maybe I could've been with my three best friends.

So many maybes and could haves and ways that that Friday night could've turned out different.

I could tell that Alyssa was angry when I went to visit her. I had been released the day before and l decided that I had to go and face her sooner or later. The aura around her grave made me want to run and hide while crying enough tears to make the Mississippi River over flow. I tentatively moved towards her grave trying not to let my fear consume my mind. She was cruel when she lived and she is ten times worse from the grave. The graveyard was daunting and the cold late December air enveloped itself around my still frail body from the coma.

No matter what the time happened to be, the graveyard was always dark, covered in its gloomy atmosphere, almost as though sunlight couldn't reach pass through the mist that was always surrounding the graves. Honestly, the entire atmosphere of the graveyard creeped me out, every single time I visited.

Even though it was only the afternoon, it might as well have been midnight considering the darkness surrounding me. Despite the fact that graveyards symbolized death, everything looked alive, dead trees reaching their gnarled branches out to me, graves looming closer with every step I took, and even though I visited the same graveyard every year, fear clambered onto me as I made my way towards the graves of my loved ones.

As I passed by yet another dead tree, the deafening silence around me was pierced, suddenly and without warning, by the shriek of a black crow, its caws echoing as though taunting my fears. Death welcomed me into its lair, and tombstones of withering cement seemed to follow my every movement. Some were withered and old, unkempt over the course of many years, and others were smooth marble with fresh carvings and vibrant floral tributes.

Every last inch of the graveyard stank of rotting plants and moss that crawled over the tombstones. Throughout the graveyard, I couldn't quite see straight because of the thick mist that enveloped everything, and I couldn't but stumble every once in a while no thanks to the jagged rocks protruding from the dry soil. With every step, I clenched the two bouquets in my hands harder, ignoring the gloominess of the graveyard as I made my way through the darkness. The gifts rattled around in my handbag making noise that sounded harmonious with the branches and dead leaves that crushed underneath my black snow boots.

I had no choice but to endure since I needed to visit both of my sisters. With every step I took, memories flooded my mind, returning my pain back to me, and emotion coursed through me as I embraced the memories of both Amber and Alyssa. Her grave was hidden behind two big iron gates that separated the graveyard in half; only people who were willing to pay big money could get their family, friends and loved ones buried on the fancy side of the graveyard. The large and rusty gates groaned in agony as they scraped the snow that covered the ground like icing on a cake.

Her grave stood in front of me looming over the rest, as it sat on thee top of a hill, the same way a queen towered over unworthy subjects. I took a deep breath and kneeled down in the snow not caring if I was going to get freezing cold in around 30 seconds.