The breeze is slightly chilly as I make my way deep into the grounds. I’ve come to believe that it never truly warms up here. The rain makes the lawns lush, though. Green and full and colorful. It’s viridem. And green means life.
The cobbled path turns to pebbles as I get further away from the house, and after a minute, I come to a literal fork in the road. The path splits into two. One leads toward a wooded area, and the other leads to a beautiful stone building on the edge of the horizon, shrouded in mist and weeping trees.
It’s small and mysterious, beautiful and ancient. And of course I have to get a closer look. Without a second thought, I head down that path.
The closer I get, the more my curiosity grows.
I can smell the moss as I approach, that musty, dank smell that comes with a closed room or a wet space. And with that dark scent comes a very oppressive feeling. I feel it weighing on my shoulders as I open the heavy door, as I stare at the word SAVAGE inscribed in the wood, as I take my first tentative step into a room that hasn’t seen human life in what looks like years.
But it has seen death.
I’m standing in a mausoleum.
Growing up in a funeral home, I’m well versed in death. I know what it looks like, what it smells like, even what it tastes like in the air.
I’m surrounded by it here.
The floor is stone, but since it is deprived of light, soft green moss grows in places, and is soft under my feet. The walls are thick blocks of stone, and have various alcoves, filled with the remains of Savage family members. They go back for generations, and it makes me wonder how long the Savages have lived at Whitley.
Nearest me, are Richard Savage I, my grandfather, and Richard Savage II, my uncle. When did he die? And next to him is Olivia.
Olivia.
I run my fingers along her name, tracing the letters cut in the stone, absorbing the coolness, the hardness.
What do I know about her, other than she must have been Dare’s mother?
Why is she significant in my memory?
Did Dare have her eyes, or her hair? Was she the only spot of brightness in his world? Does he miss her more than life itself?
I don’t know.
Trailing my fingers along the wall, I circle the room, eyeing my ancestors, marveling at the silence here.
It’s so loud that my ears ring with it.
The open door creates a sliver of light on the dark floor, and it’s while I’m focusing on the brightness that I first hear the whisper.
Calla.
I whip my head around, only to find nothing behind me.
Chills run down my spine, and goose-bumps form on my arms as I eye the empty room. The only people here are dead.
But… the whisper was crystal clear in the silence.
I’m hearing voices.
That fact terrifies me, but not as much as the familiarity in that whisper.
“Hello?” I call out, desperate for someone to be here, for someone real to have spoken. But no one answers.
Of course not.
I’m alone.
I lay my hand on the wall and try to draw in a deep breath. I can’t be crazy. It’s one of my worst fears, second only to losing my brother.
A movement catches my eye and I focus on it.
Carnation petals and stargazers, white and red, blow across the floor. Funeral flowers.
Startled, I turn toward them, bending to touch them. I run one between my fingers, its texture velvety smooth. It hadn’t been here a moment ago. None of them had, yet here they are, strewn across the floor.
They lead to a crypt in the wall.
Adair Phillip DuBray.
My heart pounds and pounds as I race to the plaque, as I trace the fresh letters with my fingertips. His middle name is the same as my father’s.
And this wasn’t here before.
What the hell?
I gulp, drawing in air, observing the fresh flowers in the vase beside his name.
There is no moss here, because this had been freshly carved, recently opened, and very recently sealed. But there’s no way Dare can be here, because I just saw him last night. He’s fine, he’s fine, he’s fine.
As my hands palm his name, as I reassure myself, pictures fill my head, images and smells.
The sea, a cliff, a car.
Blood, shrieking metal, the water.
Dare.
He’s bloody,
He’s bloody,
He’s bloody.