Brave Grave

Chapter twenty-four

The disappearing sun danced along the horizon until it was no longer visible to the eyes of the little kids playing in the dirt outside, of the adults who were on their way home from work after a long tiring day, to the elderly women who sit outside of their porches to take in the beauty of it all. Pink and purple ripple the sky into a perfectly mixed hue. Birds glide softly through the air as their wings spread majestically also catching their eye.

Sometimes, Cedarmills could be beautiful in its own way despite all of the evil things that take place and have taken place in the past. The beautiful sunsets and rows of cotton seem to make up for it all even though the thought still lingers.

Across the street from the Thompson family was the Talbert family who recently moved into the neighborhood. They moved from Michigan for their own safety. People kept breaking into their home and threatening them to move away. If they didn't then they would pay the price and so they decided to be rational and move where they felt safe. For some reason, out of the whole entire world, they picked Cedarmills to move to. Guessing it was the sunsets, birds scraping the sky and the rows of cotton that drew them in.

Elizabeth and Westley Talbert married when they were only eighteen years old. They eloped immediately after they graduated high school with the class of 1983. Their lives set sail from then on. Elizabeth went to college to get a degree in business and Westley wrote books for a living and have had quite many of his works published.  After three years into marriage, their first born Jane was conceived.

Another thirteen years later, their second daughter Sam came along. Elizabeth gave up on trying for a boy so she got her tubes tied after she had Sam. She was very fertile and couldn't afford to have another child since she was a waitress and barely made ends meet. The college degree she was hoping for never seemed worked out whenever Jane was born. It was too much for her and Westley to deal with especially being first time parents.

She went back to college a second time (just so she could say she tried) after she found a daycare to put Jane in. It was only a matter of time when she found out that Jane was being abused by the daycare teachers. The amount of bruises and scratches found on Jane were unbelievable. Elizabeth took her out of the daycare immediately and decided to keep Jane herself at home. Trusting someone again with her child was out of the question so she dropped out once again. They pressed charges on the daycare and it was shutdown not long after.

Jane and Sam grew up as happy kids despite all of their parents troubles. In the present day, Jane is now married with a baby on the way with a husband who worships the ground she walks on.  Sam is still living at home since she is only fourteen years old. She is lonely as can be since they moved away. She was afraid she would never make friends again. She didn't really know how to anymore. Of course, Elizabeth and Westley told her she would love their new home, but they were wrong. She hated it. She hated everything about this place. From the stupid stores, the stupid kids playing on the playground, the stupid people who lived across the street. She just wanted to go back home where Sarah, Beth, and Gina were. Where her dog Jo was buried in the backyard under her favorite tree. Where Jason Gibbs was. That was home. Cedarmills was just a place.

**

"Don't wander out of the neighborhood. It's Halloween and there are creeps out there."

"Trust me, I won't go far." Sam says to her mother while grabbing her iPod off of the couch. She sticks the earbuds in at full blast and shuts the door behind her as the wind kissed her sun kissed face. She began to dribble her soccer ball in between her feet and kicked it. She chased the ball into the road and stopped at the skirt of grass that led into the yard across from her house.