Vindicated

Chapter FOURTEEN



I sensed another presence in the dark as soon as I entered the world of the unreal. They shifted uneasily, their breath rapid and scared.

“Hello?” a voice cautiously called out. “Is someone there?”

I didn’t know what to answer. I knew I wasn’t supposed to be here. It seemed better that I didn’t say anything.

“I know you’re there,” they said in a shaky voice. “Do you know what’s going on? Where… where am I?”

A part of me wanted to reassure whoever it was in the dark, to tell them that everything was going to be alright. But that would be unfair. I knew nothing of the deeds of this man’s life, what his scrolls contained. He had a fifty-fifty chance of being pulled into the fiery depths in just moments.

“I…” they stuttered. “I think something happened to me. I… I remember a car swerving in front of us. And then…”

As the person struggled to remember their final moments of life, I felt the air shift around me, turning icily cold. With a muffled scream, that other person was plunged into the afterlife.

I waited. If a trial was just getting over, it might take a little bit before Cole could escape unnoticed.

He arrived quicker than I had expected. The air suddenly chilled again, and I felt his presence behind me, standing very close.

“That was a very brave and very stupid thing you did,” his voice saturated my ears.

“I couldn’t let them take him,” I breathed as I hugged my sides.

Even though I couldn’t see through the dark, I sensed the smile that spread on Cole’s perfect face. “You’ve grown, Jessica. You’re not afraid anymore.”

“I’m terrified,” I said as I furrowed my brow, turning in the dark to face him. “Every moment I’m scared that I’ll find that he’s gone, that I can never join him.”

“But you’re fighting now. You have learned to stand up for yourself finally.”

“Did they mean it?” I asked. “That they will give him a while longer?”

“Yes,” Cole said as he started pacing. “But a while is not a long while. You’ve got to figure this out faster.”

“Can’t you just tell me how to save him?” my voice came out desperate.

“You think I have all the answers,” Cole said coolly. “I know you have the ability to do it yourself. Jessica,” he paused. “I don’t know how you are going to save him. I do know that if they take him, it will be too late. He’s dead. Once the council claims the dead, the dead don’t get to go back. At least not permanently.

“And even if I did know what to tell you, I couldn’t,” Cole said, his voice lowering. “I would risk losing my position. As it is, it is already in danger. They watch me. My being here now is dangerous.”

I reached out through the dark, searching for Cole. My fingers only met the cool air. “You’ve grown too, Cole.” I couldn’t help but smile.

“Don’t mention it,” he said sarcastically. “There is something else you should know,” he moved on. “Alex’s mother.”

“Caroline?” I questioned. “What about her?”

“I can sense her. Her transition into my world becomes stronger by the hour. I felt her a few hours ago. She’ll be under my leadership soon if you do not intervene.”

“Where is she?” I asked, my voice coming out desperate sounding.

“She’s in a place that’s familiar to her. I can feel Alex’s presence all around her. I don’t recognize the place.”

“The rental house,” I breathed. My heart started hammering in my chest. “Thank you, Cole,” I said, again reaching out for him. “I have to get back. We have to help her.”

“Jessica,” he called as I started willing myself to wake up. I paused, turning in his general direction. “You can’t come back to this place. It’s too dangerous. For both of us.”

I nodded, figuring Cole would know I did. “Good-bye, Cole.”

“Good-bye, Jessica,” he breathed.

The air started to warm, my insides started shaking. And I opened my eyes to the pre-dawn lit ceiling.

“Alex!” I shouted, jumping out of bed, rushing for my closet.

Alex burst through the door, his front side covered in flour, panic in his eyes. “What’s wrong?”

I pulled off my sleeping shorts, not even thinking about Alex seeing me in only my underwear. Pulling on a pair of jeans, I then threw on a long sleeved t-shirt. “We need to get to the rental house. Now.”

“Why?” he asked, his brow furrowing.

“I just… have a feeling we should go over,” I lied. Again.

“What…” he shook his head. “What’s going on with you?”

“Please,” I said as I stepped out of the closet and held his eyes. “Just go get changed. Quickly.”

He looked at me a moment longer, the wheels in his head turning. “Okay,” he said as he shook his head and walked out the bedroom door.

I whirl winded around the bathroom, trying to tame my hair, brushing my teeth. By the time I walked back into the living room, Alex was dressed and waiting with the truck keys.

“Let’s go,” I said, having a hard time meeting his eyes. Not saying a word, he followed me out to the garage.

We drove in silence for a long while, tension hanging in the air. My fingers were knotted together tightly in my lap, my palms sweating.

“Is there something you want to tell me?” Alex finally asked. He kept his eyes fixed on the road ahead of him, his left hand gripping the top of the steering wheel just a little too tightly. The veins in his forearm bulged out.

I just shook my head and stared out the passenger window. Through the reflection in the glass I saw his jaw tighten.

As soon as we pulled into the driveway of the house, I jumped out of the truck, before Alex had even put it into park. Not seeing Caroline at the front steps, I practically ran around the back of the house. I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and started dialing 911.

And there she was, passed out on the back step of the house. We had only brought her here once to see all the improvements Alex had made but apparently she had a good memory. I wondered how long she had been lying there, unable to get through the locked door.

“Caroline?!” Alex shouted as he followed me. Moving faster than me, he was suddenly by her side, rolling her onto her back, and pressing two fingers to the side of her neck.

“She’s still alive,” he said, followed by a curse under his breath. “She reeks of alcohol and I don’t even want to know what else. Call an ambulance.”

I simply pressed send.

In less than five minutes we heard the sirens wailing and the saw the lights flashing in the early morning air. A man and a woman loaded her up and less than seven minutes since I made the call, Alex and I were headed to the hospital.

“How did you know?” Alex asked very quietly. His entire frame was rigid.

“I just had a feeling,” I lied, hating myself.

“How did you know, Jessica?!” he half shouted.

I glanced at him, seeing his cold, hard eyes turn on me. “I had a dream about it, okay?” I said defensively.

Alex glanced at me from the road for a moment, gauging what I had said. Finally his expression softened, he let out the breath he had been holding.

“I’m sorry I yelled,” he said, his voice still tight. Given my past experience with dreams, it was understandable that he believed me. “It’s just everything about Caroline gets me so freaked out. Sometimes I think it was a mistake bringing her back here.”

“No, it wasn’t,” I said firmly. “She needs you. And you should be able to need your own mother.”

He reached across the seat and took my hand in his. He glanced down at the ring on my finger for a moment, a small smile cracking on his lips.

“Moving on,” he said quietly as he looked back at the road, his smile quickly fading. I didn’t have the will-power to ask what he was referring to in this instance.

By the time we arrived in the emergency room at St. Joseph’s hospital, Caroline had already been taken to a room and was receiving treatment. There was nothing Alex and I could do but sit in the waiting room and fill out paperwork.

“I don’t even know half this information,” Alex sighed as he worked his way down the page.

“Just do what you can,” I said quietly as I tried not to meet the eyes of every staring person in the room. People always stared. I didn’t know why I had expected that to stop. Their eyes would linger on my skin, on my too bright eyes. They didn’t seem to be able to help it.

Alex stood back up, walking to the reception counter. “I’m sorry,” he said as he handed the paperwork back to her on the clipboard. “That was all I knew. Any of the billing can come to me.”

After getting more paperwork handed to him, Alex sat back down next to me.

“At least we found her,” I said quietly. I leaned forward, resting my elbows on my knees, letting my hair fall around my face. I hated feeling like I had to hide. But I didn’t want all their eyes on me. “She’ll be at the wedding now, as long as she’s okay.”

“Well, I don’t want to get any of my expectations up,” Alex said as he continued to work on the forms. “Like I said, she’s going straight to rehab this time.”

My phone vibrated in my pocket. Pulling it out, I found a text from my dad.

Is there anything you need us to help with? Our flight leaves tomorrow morning.

And then it hit me. I’d been so distracted the last week that the days had been slipping by without my even noticing them.

The wedding was only three days away now.

While my heart suddenly started beating faster in excitement and anticipation, my stomach sank, fear for losing Alex taking over. I didn’t have much guaranteed time after the wedding.

Nope, I texted back. We’ve got pretty much everything done. Just show up.

I can’t believe my little Jessica is getting married. Love you.

Love you too, Dad.

Alex walked up to the counter and handed the woman the rest of the paperwork. Sinking back into his chair, he rubbed his hands over his eyes with a sigh. “I can’t wait to get to the beach and unwind.”

I rubbed circles into his back as he leaned forward. “Just the two of us,” I said with a smile.

“Just the two of us,” he said as he reached a hand over and rested it on my knee. His hand was stiff though. Alex was still mad.

We sat there for nearly an hour before a nurse came to get us. My stomach twisted as I remembered Sal lying in one of these beds, of finding a feather tangled in her blankets, of waking in a hospital bed myself, and knowing that I had to get out of there as soon as possible. It seemed I was visiting this hospital all too often the last seven months.

We were led into a room with a doctor in a while lab coat fussing over Caroline’s still form.

“You must be her family,” the doctor said as he stepped away from her and shook each of our hands. “I’m Dr. Scoresby.”

“Alex Wright, and soon to be Mrs. Wright, Jessica,” Alex introduced. I couldn’t help but smile. Maybe he wasn’t too mad at me after all.

Dr. Scoresby nodded. “We’re flushing Caroline’s system out right now. She had a dangerous mix of methamphetamines in her system, as well as extreme amounts of alcohol. She would have been dead within a few hours, maybe less, if you hadn’t found her when you did.”

Alex just stared at his mother’s body. “Is she going to be okay?” I asked when Alex didn’t say anything.

“It’s going to take a while to flush everything out of her system,” the doctor said, turning his eyes on me. He stared for a second, as if he was actually looking at me for the first time. “Uh,” he stuttered. “I’m going to recommend that she stay in hospital care for a few days. And if I may be frank, I suggest we immediately release her to rehab.”

“That’s the plan,” Alex suddenly said, his eyes hardening as he continued to look at his mother.

“Is there any chance,” I piped up “that she could be released by Saturday. Just for a few hours. That’s the day of the wedding.”

A small smile crossed his face for a moment. “Congratulations,” he said. His smile then faded just as quickly. “We will see how treatment goes. She will need to be watched very closely. Drug addicts will do anything to get to their next fix. It might not be very enjoyable for the two of you to have to make sure she doesn’t abscond during your wedding.”

“We’ll make it work,” I said as I slid my hand into Alex’s, giving it a tight squeeze. His fingers just hung loose.

“Well, we’ll see how things go,” the doctor said. “Right now we can just wait while her system flushes out. I don’t think she’ll wake up for a while. A nurse will be in soon to look after your mother. If you’ll excuse me.”

He offered one more smile before he let himself out of the door.

Pulling away from my hand, Alex walked to the side of the bed. Looking down at her, I saw his eyes harden, his jaw tighten.

“I’m so sick of her always screwing things up,” he said through clenched teeth. “I don’t know why I keep expecting her to change. To be a decent person.”

I swallowed hard, stuffing my hands into my pockets, not knowing what to say. He was right though. She wasn’t a decent person. She was trying to kill herself with the life she was leading.

“Do you still want her to come?” I asked.

“To the wedding?” he asked, looking at me. I hated how sad his eyes looked. I nodded. His eyes dropped back down to her still form. “I don’t know. Maybe not. She might not even be able to come.”

I came to his side, sliding my hand into his again. He loosely curled his fingers around mine. “Give her one more chance,” I said quietly as I looked down at her. She was so scary looking. “If she can, let her come to the wedding. If she cares enough to behave for a few hours and goes to rehab without issues, maybe she can change. If that doesn’t happen, if she continues her drama, be done. No one can blame you. She abandoned you all your life. She can’t expect you to keep swooping in and saving her at the last minute.”

“That’s the thing,” he said, his voice hinting at cracking. “She doesn’t want to be saved. She doesn’t want me saving her. She’s already told me that herself.”

“One more chance,” I said, leaning my head against his shoulder.

I felt him nod, giving my hand a tight squeeze. Finally. “One more chance. But I’m not waiting around the next few days, holding my breath.”

Just then the door opened again, a young looking nurse with slanted eyes and straight black hair walking in.

“I’m Caroline’s nurse until she’s transferred to her long term room,” she said quietly. “I’m just going to take her vitals and draw another blood test.”

Alex nodded, stepping out of the way as she started to work. “We’re not staying actually,” Alex said as he cleared his throat. I could tell how hard this was for him. “She’s going to need to be watched closely. I’d say she’s a flight risk. Have them give me a call when they know more.”

“I will let them know,” she said, giving Alex a sad smile.

Alex nodded, and grasping my hand tighter, turned and we walked out of the room. Just as we were about to walk out of the sliding glass doors, Alex’s phone rang. He answered it with a curt sounding “Hello?”

I felt like there was a rock in the pit of my stomach. It was supposed to be filled with happy butterflies just days before my wedding. Instead I was terrified of my fiancé being pulled into the world of the dead, my soon to be mother-in-law was strung out and nearly dead, and everything just felt wrong. This wasn’t how things were supposed to be.

“That was the tux shop. My suit is ready,” Alex said as he slid his phone into his pocket. “Want to come with me to pick it up right now?”

“Sure,” I said, my mood instantly brightened. This was more like it.





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