Edge of Blackest Night

Days seemed to pass in a flurry of noises and people. Riley was healing more and more every day, to keep herself occupied she busied herself with her manuscript. Unfortunately, while Riley grew stronger Grandma grew weaker. Her skin was fading, her breathing was constantly erratic, and she seemed to sleep more and eat less.

There had been no signs of the killer, no evidence left behind. The stream of cops through the house died down to a trickle. Deputy Sinclair and old man Rawlins still hung about. Rawlins stayed cause he decided we needed him. As for Sinclair, Dad thought an extra gun around the house would be wise.

Joshua would patrol the land during the day and go home at night, sometimes Dad would force him to stay the night on our couch, poor soul.

But the upside of this nightmare were the Pinches. I didn’t realize how close Mr. Pinch and Dad had gotten close. Whenever I would over hear their conversations it would always be about Lucy Turner and finding her killer. God forbid traumatizing Riley and I over such details, but he was more than willing to let it all hang loose with Teddy. I tried at breakfast, lunch, dinner, and in passing to get Dad to spill about the Black Marsh Case, but he was tight lipped. He would say with a fatherly concern, “My boys and I are handling this, there’s no need for you to concern yourself.”

Robert and I got close. I felt almost bad to dating him. Rebound. It always came to mind whenever he would hold me or kiss me. We had conversations about my Ex, especially with his surprise visit. I thought it was only fair. I dated Bradley for three years and he was supposed to be my future husband. Robert reacted the way I thought. Livid. Furious. Actually quite frightening, but it wasn’t for the reason I thought. I thought he would focus all that emotion on me. That he would point his finger at the door and tell me to get my Lilly white ass out of his house and life; however, he started raving about what a bastard Bradley was. How if he ever showed up again to call him and he would deal with Bradley.

It was exciting to think he cared enough to skip over the fact that he was a rebound. It was also a little creepy how he made it sound like he and I were going to stay together for a long time if not forever, the gleam in his eye’s was something I wasn’t ready for. The whole conversation was overwhelming. My life was starting to feel claustrophobic. I needed space from a relationship that I wasn’t sure about, a house that had happy memories yet threatened to pull me back into a depression I barely survived before, and a family that was trying to heal wounds yet in the same process made more.

Deciding to clear my mind, and needing new inspiration for my third picture, I left the house. It was midday, the hottest sweat inducing hour of the day. Lucky for me there was a slight breeze underneath the Oak tree. I was leaning against. I took a break, trying to pick out the best way to capture the gully I was overlooking but also a rusted skeleton of a school bus that became a permanent fixture after it went over the cliff.

It was a perfect picture for Mr. Carmichael. While nature is beautiful it is also destructive and powerful. The currents rushing between the two banks were and are still too powerful to remove the bus. While the bus may be an eye sore, it is a constant reminder of how as much as we wish to think we have complete and utter control over nature and life its self, we don’t. Chaos is the natural order of things and nature will strive to keep that balance.

It was quite sad, how the death of Lucy has made me realize how much smaller I am to the world around me and how things are constantly changing. Take for instant I am trying to decide if I should add in some of the items that drift down the current. There was a couch cushion, a red shoe, and what looked to be a wrapper for take-out from Panda Express. As much as I wanted the picture to be natural, those would just degrade the view. But I should add something.

As I watched the current continue to carry its treasures downstream. My eyes and curiosity caught a fallen tree bobbing up and down in the water. I quickly started to draw it into my picture. It was huge with gnarly roots, bare of dirt, twisting in every direction. The limbs were covered with dead leaves and weeds. It was strange the tree looked to carry a grotesques pale fruit with five projections. It was nestled in-between two branches and seemed to jerk about as the tree got caught on the bank and no longer moved. The current washed over it ruthlessly, twisting the limbs. Suddenly I dropped my pencil and really looked at my picture, twisted in the limbs was a girl in a white dress. The barb wire gleamed in the sunlight like jewels.

I looked back up at the gully hoping my imagination had got the better of me but it didn’t. Without thinking I ran down to the bank, being mindful not to trip and end up like Riley. I didn’t realize it until I was at the bank that tears were coursing down my face and the annoying noise that echoed through the air were of my sobs.

The tree had drifted to the bank and the girl was half on the dirt and half in the water, but looked to be stuck. The current was pushing her towards me. I quickly got my phone out. It had service.

“Dad! I’m down at the gully on the north end by the service road and I was drawing…” I paused to steel my stomach and glanced down at the girl and screamed bloody murder, dropping my phone in the water.

Help! The girls mouth opened. Not a sound came out but her lips formed the words, she blinked her eyes and reached her hand at me. Without hesitating I lunged to help her, trying to be gentle and not tug her to hard. She was alive…alive and bleeding. The barb wire was opening wounds in her neck, wrists, and ankles. She was alive but barely. We needed help. If she survived this…who knows what would come to light. Maybe the killer would be caught.