Rumored Nights

The wind lashed through Alice's hair, knotting it in the warmth of the spring sunlight falling on her face.

Her skin was already freckling from moments like this, only hearing the wind rushing by her ears with the windows down.

It was such a drastic difference from that one evening on a cold November night where nothing in her mind could recall the feeling of sun on her skin, the smell of freshly mown grass, or the taste of strawberry ice cream eaten straight out of the carton on a car hood.

That one evening had stained every day of the last six months, becoming a dark shadow in the back of her mind, driven there by the bright light turned all shades of red and yellow behind her closed eyes.

"Alice?" A familiar voice asked over the streaming air.

Her mother had the same pitch in her words when she'd come through the door after four hours of nonstop driving and speeding through the state of Illinois.

The tears had reached her before she'd arrived, and Alice's shirt became soaked with tears before she could outstretch her arms.

Her mother felt the cold hands of guilt still gripping at her for letting this monster into their lives, for not protecting her children or seeing it like a mother is supposed to.

Caroline followed behind, her sister in hard, hiccuping hysterics knowing if she had just spoken up he wouldn't have gone after her little sister.

Ryan held her close after realizing his suspicion was correct from the beginning and blamed himself for never pursuing it and letting his family fall apart once more.

The family hugged each other tightly for the longest time in silence, each faulting themselves, except for Alice.

There was only one person in this world that held the rightful blame; Luke, somewhere out there, was the cause for all of this.

William stood by awkwardly, watching the whole thing as he straddled the line of outsider and intruder.

He would've left them long ago to be a family in this terrible time if it hadn't been for Alice's hand gripping his, her tearing eyes meeting his surrounded by the people she loved.

She pulled herself out of these memories, reminding herself it was all in the past, her present filled with the smell of store bought gardens, cool breezes, and warm sunlight dappling through trees.

In this golden bubble there were no nightmares, horrors of dreams that awoke you with screams.

Dark moments staining her mind like ink blots came out in her sleep where she couldn't repress them like her consciousness did.

These night terrors, magnified by the walls of her house, haunted her till she could take no more.

The day was clear in her mind when she drew the line, putting her clothes into bags and saying her goodbyes.

Her mother, whose life was so full of crying and lawyers, only nodded knowingly, letting her daughter drive off with the one boy in the world she trusted her with.

Alice opened her eyes and pulled her head in as the car slowed to a stop at the red lighted intersection.

It was amusing to see William sitting there, one leg drawn up in waiting as he leaned back with a hand behind his head.

He looked over under her gaze with a questioning brow raise before he reached over and slipped his warm hand in her cold one, squeezing it reassuringly like he had the day he drove her to his apartment.

Where eight year old Alice wandered to her brother's room after terrors haunted her dreams, eighteen year old Alice crawled into William's bed in the middle of the night, the need for warmth and love near unbearable until he'd sleepily wrap his arms around her and draw her close.

An errant thought, freeing itself from the cage where Alice kept all thoughts of Luke, escaped and flitted through her mind.

He would never get a moment like that, being in the arms of someone who loves you as much as you love them, nor feel the beauty of a bright spring day not even Hollywood could recreate and feed off of.

The brief minutes spent in a stuffy courthouse reliving the moments that haunted her dreams were worth it, knowing he'd never again come into her life.

For all the pain Alice thought she'd suffered, she knew she'd been through worse.

Luke wasn't even worth medaling in her tragic moments list, Alice knowing worse pain than any of that.

She'd almost lost William, a painful jab in her heart if Alice thought about it, knowing what he was to her now.

And she'd lost her father, nothing in this world coming close to that, a daddy's little girl without the daddy.

Both of these loves in her life were coming together with each inch driven down the near empty road.

"Alice are you okay?" William asked, glancing from the road to her with a worried expression.

How many times had she been asked that...

Her friends faces flooded her mind, memories of their own creased eyebrows, worried eyes, curious questions.

Over time they'd realized what had happened, accepting it like they accepted Alice, without a single hesitation.

Hours before she sat in the car with William they had held each other close, Alice, Melanie, and Jesse all in royal blue graduation gowns, Skye and Max having that to look forward to next year, still holding close Sisky and Liz, a hodge podged group of friends spread through ages but not through love.

Mike had burst through their moment to give Melanie a congratulatory kiss with his three other bandmates oohing and ahhing behind them.

A flicker of a smile briefly crossed her lips, remembering how they only got worse when William joined them and followed suit.

It had taken months for her to give into him, letting what should've happened from the beginning happen, finally starting a relationship with William that hopefully, would never end.

He would be by her side in the fall when she started college, unable to leave her without worrying, and she would follow him wherever she had to, vowing to never make such a stupid mistake like letting him walk away from her happen again.

The future was wide and filled with the promise of happiness, but Alice couldn't ignore the past.

She had abandoned her family at the graduation party and left with William, a mission in mind.

Joining the royal blue gown in the backseat were her high heels, leaving Alice barefoot in her crumpling fine clothes, the flowers resting in her lap next to her intertwined hand.

The afternoon sun still shone golden, the bright blue sky it was in dappled with cottonball clouds.

"Alice we're here." He announced softly, pulling the key out from the ignition.

She unbuckled her seatbelt and got out, letting go of his hand to cradle the flowers.

William slipped his arm around her waist, holding her close as they walked past the shining stones, reflecting the sun in white and chasing off the despair.

Despite the decade that had passed since she'd been there last, Alice found her way to her destination.

Edward Johnathan Hale
Beloved Husband and Father
"Perhaps the world is not made. Perhaps nothing is made. Perhaps it simply is, has been, will always be there."

William read these words over Alice's shoulder as she stood unmoving in front of him, taking in the moment with numb reminiscing.

For so many years she could never bring herself to go to his grave, knowing it would make it all too real and final.

With all that had happened though, coming to where her father was buried was the closure she needed to bury her demons and start the new chapter of her life.

Setting the roses her mother had handed her after she walked across the stage onto the dry grass, Alice placed her hand to her lips, pressing it back to the warm granite.

The sun was now lower in the sky, beginning to set around them when Alice finally turned back to William.

"Thank you," She whispered, leaning up to gently kiss his jaw.

"For what?" He asked softly, suddenly confused.

Alice smiled, leaning into William as he automatically put his arms around her.

"For being my best friend before everything else." Alice replied lightly, staring off at the blue sky just beginning to hint at the golds of sunset.

William turned her head to raise her gaze to meet his, letting the same hand graze along her jaw to brush away the hair falling into her eyes.

"It's because I love you." He answered simply, leaning in to touch his lips to hers.

In that instant the sprinklers came on.

Reflecting in rainbows across the grass and grave stones, the thousands of water droplets scattering through the lawn drenched them both in a matter of seconds.

It was a little against the somber atmosphere for them to link hands and run through the rows of death markers under showers of water, laughing, but somehow Alice could feel the spirits around them suddenly uplift at a glimpse of happiness.

A true celebration of life despite being surrounded by death.

They ran past the shades of stone till they reached the car, each getting into their respective seat, quickly soaking it with the water on their bodies.

As William turned the key in the ignition, he looked over at Alice, never being able to tear his eyes away for too long.

Her hair hung in damp strands, now in limp waves instead of styled for her graduation earlier.

The fine dress she had worn in dark blue to match her gown and now turned near black, saturated even more by her dripping hair.

What caught him the most however was her eyes, shining bright with happiness and framed by her hair, glowing gold caught in the rays of light through the drops still lingering.

William couldn't hold himself back from leaning across and pressing his lips to hers, knowing he would never get tired of feeling hers against his.

A breathless smile graced her lips as William began driving back the way they came.

As they drove off toward the sunset, Alice linked hands with William, feeling that while this was no moment from a classic romance, it was still a happy ending, in progress at least.