Masks

Chapter 16

I found myself in my car the next day with sunlight streaming through the windows and my mask lying on the passenger's seat. I tried to check the time on my phone to find the battery was dead and tossed it aside. My muscles felt stiff as I moved and the memories of the day before were foggy after the hotel... and what I could remember I didn't want to believe. Just thinking about what I did made me feel sick.

"Are they even alive? ...Where was Dillan? Or Tim- did I kill him too or... did that other proxy? Shit, I was going to meet Zac... where the hell am I?" I looked around to see I was parked in a gravel parking lot in front of a circle of trees with a simple, well-maintained path leading to a cemetery just behind the thin tree line. "Why here? This has to be a setup... I should leave."

Despite that logical thought I still got out of the car and began walking on the path, the border of pines quickly giving way to a clearing filled with gravestones. Some still had colorful flowers left on them while others looked like they'd been neglected for years. I scanned the names before locating three familiar names side by side near the back. They weren't too fancy, just plain headstones with names and dates... but they were all I had left of my parents and sister. My mother's stone still had a broken flower holder from when my aunt would come and leave flowers, though given its cracked state I doubted she'd been around for years, while my father's stone was completely barren and lacked any decor or hint of someone missing him.

"I never even came to see them... how many years have they been gone now?" I turned to face the oldest headstone of the three and knelt down in front of it to stare at the weathered name. "Last time I saw Faith... she was... where? The house packing? The forest in the backyard? ... Why do I remember her screaming my name? I got in so much trouble for running away to see her that night after the funeral... don't even know how I managed to get here from home."

I reached out and traced a crack in the headstone, guilt choking me despite her disappearance- to my knowledge- not being my fault. "They never even found a body. She could still be alive somewhere hypothetically but... she isn't. I know she died the day she went missing."

I continued to stare at her name as I thought back to that day we'd been moving out. It wasn't anything special, just my parents moving to their own separate places and us helping.

"Do you have everything you're bringing to your mom's ready to go? She's about to leave." I looked up as my father stepped through the front door.

"Yeah."

"Faith?" He glanced over at my little sister as she came down the hall dragging a box that was almost taller than her. He sighed. "Here, I'll take that, go find something easier to carry."

"Okay." Faith smiled up at him and watched him leave with the box before running back to her bedroom.

I stayed put and stared after her for a moment before following after her and stopping outside her doorway. Faith dropped one of her stuffed animals into a new box and looked up at me, her bright innocent gaze darkening upon seeing me.

"They hate each other." She sat down on the bare mattress and pouted. "I want to stay here! I like it here. I won't see my friend if we go."

"What friend?" I scowled and leaned against the doorframe. "We live in the middle of nowhere."

"You met him before, remember?" A giggle escaped her. "He's going to say bye later."

I couldn't think of anyone she could've been talking about. She wasn't in kindergarten yet so there wasn't anyone she'd know from school. "Uh huh."