"I finally got up the nerve right before I went to my symposium. I couldn’t wait. There was a visiting professor from Vassar, and Seattle University which of course I would have died to go to either.” She grinned at herself, “I hadn’t even told my parents yet that I was getting out of here for college. I knew I would have to. It would be too hard to stay close to home and have him around.
I broke up with him right before I left for this camp. It was a big step, and I remember feeling so grown up, so in control of my own future. No longer worrying about what he would say, or what he would do.” She looked at me square in the face, “Never thought it would end up the way it did. Even when he stormed into my room, I never thought he would actually do it. I saw the knife and I remember thinking to myself, ‘what is he doing with that?’" She laughed again, “But he answered that question soon enough,” she looked down at her torso.
All the wounds appeared, red and bloody like it had just happened, “He hit every artery. He skillfully made sure that I would never leave that room alive.”
My eyes bulged from their sockets, frantically trying to figure out how to help, but logically knowing it wasn’t possible. “I – I,”
She interrupted me, “You know we met in a science class? He was a senior, and I was a sophomore.” She smiled but no humor was present, “You know which class it was?”
I shook my head.
“Human anatomy. Ironic, huh?” She looked down and the wounds faded.
“Karson, I am so so sorry. I really am.”
“You know, you are the first person I have ever been able to tell my side to? After it happened, I tried to talk to my mom. I tried to get through to my dad, tell them to move on, that it was ok. But it didn’t work.”
A thought came to me. “I could try. I mean, I don’t know if they will talk to me, but I could try and get through to them, maybe give them a message for you?”
“They’re both dead.” She shook her head with frustration, “They couldn’t get past it. It destroyed them. Mom killed herself, overdosed on way too many pills, and dad drowned fishing.” She crossed her arms looking off into the distance, “Dad taught me how to swim.” She looked down at the rocks on the roof. “That left my brother. He’s still around but is in prison for driving drunk too many times. He didn’t even drink before I died.”
I swallowed hard. The tragedy of this situation went so far beyond just the two people. It destroyed an entire family. “Karson, what can I do to help you?”
She smiled looking down at my hands, “You need to get inside, it is too cold out here for you.” She walked to the small door, “Come on, before you catch a cold.” She walked through the door and I followed. It slammed shut behind me and I turned to look. She was gone.
I retraced our trek up to the roof and remembered I’d left all my things in class. I hurried, not sure what time it even was.
The classroom was empty, and my stuff sat on my desk, sad and alone. I gathered my things and quickly made my way out of the building.
I worked through the entire conversation in my mind. It was nothing but tragic. She had grand plans of going away to college, changing her life while changing her zip code, and instead she was trapped here because of a mean violent boyfriend. Ex-boyfriend.
Tyler scared me again by grabbing me from behind. “Holy crap you are freezing. Your fingers are like blue!” He jumped back after touching my icy hands.
My heartbeat started to normalize. “You scared the holy bejesus out of me.”
“Well, maybe that’s a good thing. You obviously needed a little blood flow to start up again, Jesus babe you are an absolute popsicle.” His face shifted as it clicked, “What happened?” He lowered his voice, looking around. He knew already it was supernatural.
I smiled at his cuteness. His eyes searched around us like Casper would be hanging out over my shoulder. “I’m fine, really. I just spent some time with a friend,” I watched the people filter past us. “More importantly, how are YOU? Did you talk to your mom?”
His face fell a little, “Yeah, but she isn’t finding anything. It has to be there, right?”
“I assume so, it didn’t sound like he was lying.”
He nodded solemnly. “Yeah, I think I’m going to have to go check for myself.”
“Do you have time with baseball?”
He shrugged, “I’ll figure it out. It’ll only take a day. If I leave here early, I can get over there and back in one day, it will be a long one, but I think I can do it.”
“You shouldn’t do that type of drive by yourself; I mean you could fall asleep; you could get in an accident.” I knew my mind was on hyper mode with the conversation with Karson.
“You wanna go?” He didn’t look at me now, he simply stared at the ground as we walked on. “I mean it could help things if I need to reach out to Gramps.”
How
