Holy War: Two Worlds and an In- Between

Chapter 3: Tale as Old as Time

That night, I had a dream.

"Grandma," my small hand squeezed her larger one.

Looking down at me was the face of a much younger woman. Her face was perfectly shaped giving her a sharp jawline. Her dark skin was smooth, and her dark brown eyes glimmered like littoral stars in the sky.

"Yes," she replied, her voice was silky and full of adoration.

"I know that you can have red roses, and you can have white roses, but why do you have black roses? Aren't they dead?" I queried the unfamiliar woman.

Her eyes found their way back out into the rose garden. Instead of there being a row of flowers in a pattern of red white, red white, there was a divide parted by black roses between the red and white ones. The black roses were silky smooth and healthy. I'd never seen roses that looked so alive.

"They aren't dead darling," she smiled, she never let her eyes stray away from the garden for a moment.

"Then what are they?" I asked impatiently.

She continued to smile into the garden. I took a moment to look at her long flowing white dress and her straight dark hair. Her body was full and curvy.

I looked to myself and saw that I was small, just a child. My legs were short and my hands struggled to meet my grandma's due to my short arms. I too wore a white flowy dress. My hair was, however a wild mess.

She turned away from her garden for the first time since we spoke and looked down at me. Her smile fell away but her features were still strong.

She let go of my hand and released the key into my small palm. I could see worry and pain her eyes as she spoke.

She knelt down and softly whispered into my ear, "It's the in between."

***

"You have to tell me, Liv," I insisted.

We swung back and forth as we sat on the bench held up by two chains. Scarlett was with Michael sitting under a tree with a book in her hands. Olivia and I sat on the bench staring off into the rose garden.

"Honestly, it's nothing just a bunch of messed up rumors," she assured me.

I crossed my arms over my chest and shook my head, "No, not good enough. I need answers."

She sighed. I could see that she would have preferred to keep the words of town folk to herself, but the effort would have been made in vain. I needed to know.

"Do you really want to know?" She asked, uncertainty wavering in her voice.

I nodded.

"Fine, one day in town, it was storming. I was just a little girl when I first heard about this so the story is a bit foggy, ya know? Anyways, this house was empty. No furniture, no garden some floorboards were even missing.

"One day, in the middle of the night, lights turned on in the house. Everyone was confused because there couldn't possibly be lights coming from that house. There was no electricity, no water, no nothing. When the police came to investigate, your grandma came outside in this big wet poofy dress. There was someone with her though. They never showed their faces. The person was so odd... I can't even explain it. At least that's what I heard."

Michael screeched as Scarlett lunged at him. They ran around for a bit before falling over and rolling around in the grass.

She sighed heavily then said, "Then people said that at night, they could hear a baby crying, but no one ever saw a baby."

"Could it have been my mom?" I asked. I didn't realize that I was holding my breath until I spoke.

She shook her head, "No."

"Why not?"

"Because," she began, she pulled her hair over to the other side of her shoulder, "when the 'baby' was around I was only a year old, so unless your mom is seventeen I don't see how it's possible."

We sat in silence for a moment watching the sun fall behind the trees. Mike and Scarlett had enough of their fun and went inside but not before Scarlett told us about the snacks in the kitchen.

"Unless," Olivia added.

"Unless what?" I asked impatiently.

"Unless it was you," she said. Her eyes met mine before I shook my head.

"I'm not seventeen either," I reminded her pinching the bridge of my nose and throwing my head back.

"We don't know that the baby would even be that old now. It could be sixteen just like you," she said.

I could see that she was looking for a rational explanation but that just wasn't it. I couldn't have possibly been there without my mom and I wasn't born in England.

I ignored her theory and exhaled loudly. I knew that she was feeling just as frustrated as I was.

"What's up with Jack?" I changed the subject. She seemed to stiffen up a bit.

"He's going through a bit of a rough time," she responded.

"Why so vague?" I asked picking my head up.

"It's a weird situation," she explained.

"Does it have anything to do with what Lisa said about grandma?"

"Something like that."

"Well, then what?"

She sighed then looked to me, "Do you really wanna know?"

"I do," I confirmed. Her raised brows fell and her lips collapsed into a frown.

"Jack and Liza are dating. Well, were dating. After Liza was so rude to you he tried to tell her to back off. Well, long story short, Liza thinks that Jack has a crush on you, and that's why he defended you, so now they're avoiding each other," she blurted out.

I took a moment process what I had just heard. I was flattered that Jack would defend me but not when it came at the cost of his relationship. It felt like such a random thing to break up over.

"Wow," I commented.

"That isn't all," she said. "He's been having dreams. Well, he thinks that they aren't dreams. They include people dying and coming back to life and something about an in between."

We sat there for a while, neither of us saying a word. The night got darker and Olivia had to go back home. She said goodbye to everyone then left.