Chapter Ten: Memorial

I got out of the car. Around the edge of the road people stood and watched, as Susie and Brian followed me out and went over to another vehicle. Brian lifted Dan out of another car with difficulty and placed him a wheelchair. Perhaps it would be correct to say that this was the inert shell of Dan, there didn't appear to be anything going on inside. He had never moved once during the cremation service and his eyes didn't move now either. He looked at a point on the ground about three feet in front of him and the only movement he gave was the occasional blink. It was as if all life had left him.

Susie had insisted he was here, even though he was going straight back to the hospital in Carlisle after the service. The small group of us who had been at the Crematorium included Lesley, David and Tom Barrington, Gem and her Mum Janet, Roger who'd taken the service, the Taylor family and myself. Brian pushed the wheelchair forward and we followed behind into the church grounds. Just as I turned into the path, I noticed, stood across the road from us, were Jake, Mom, Dad holding Ben and Jane. Jane's face was a mask of horror and Dad placed his hand gently on her shoulder. Mom seemed to know this was a cue and pulled Jane to her. I could see the pain in her eyes. She wanted Dan; but this time it was not about killing him, she wanted to be with him. Yet another example of the cruelty of this life that we led - no one could be there for anyone. My eyes found Jake's and they gave me what I needed, his love to get through this.

The church was packed and adorned in a sickening sea of black and purple. The whole thing looked like a gigantic bruise. Mingled in with the Christmas decorations were incongruous strands of silver foil bats and yard after yard of black tinsel. This was Gem's idea of a memorial service for Jess turning her father's church into some gothic crypt. We sat in the pew we'd last sat in on Christmas Eve. Dan was at the end of the row, sat in the wheelchair in the aisle and I was sat furthest away from him, next to Tom.

Even if Gem had tacked on Mary as an afterthought, her Dad certainly did not and Roger Gisborne was noticeably affected by the death of someone he'd known very well. Mary had been a lifelong member of the church, she had taken a full part in everything they did and Roger spoke fulsomely in praise of her, his voice cracking as the grief broke through.

Gem led the tributes to Jess, along with the other members of the Grasmere Coven. They were dressed in black and purple, all covering their tear-reddened eyes with lashing of black eyeliner and all making me unable to look at them. I felt angry. This was nothing Jess was; this was a facsimile of her. I could only imagine the fury that would come from her if she could see this travesty to her memory. Somewhere inside me, under the onslaught of parody vampirism the real vampire arose. A vampire that was hurt, angry and wanted to lash out at this group of silly girls stood on the chancel steps. I would show them what being a real vampire was all about and it wasn't dressing up in long black clothes and flouncing about like some pathetic rag doll. My phone vibrated in my pocket, no doubt Dad telling me to calm down and not to let this get to me. I pulled out the phone and yes, it was him. Tom looked over and I hurriedly switched it off and stuffed the phone back in my pocket, trying to think of other things to calm myself.

I thought of Jake. I thought of the forest, the rivers and of the mountains of the Olympic peninsula that were our back yard. I longed for them; to be home and be out in them again with him. I yearned for Forks; for the Cullen's house, for the cottage, for the little red cabin on the reservation. For Grampa's house, for Frederick's the diner, for school even and more than anything, silly afternoons with Jess in her bedroom; laughing at some idiotic thing that had happened at school that day. Her happy face swam into my mind and my eyes correspondingly swam with tears. I wiped them quickly away with the side of my hand but it was fruitless; they didn't stop, they went right on cascading down my cheeks like the waterfalls of the Sol Duc River. Tom reached out to take hold of my hand and for some reason I didn't pull away. Right now it was what I needed; contact with someone, anyone and he had given it. Who was I to be picky about what species the giver of comfort was?

Filing out again I spotted Will on the far side of the church in a corner. He didn't look at me as I passed; his eyes were firmly fixed on the floor. I didn't need to see them to know what I would find there. I wondered what he had made of Gem's tribute to Jess? He more than anyone, had a right to feel insulted by what she'd done.

It was fully dark by the time the service had finished and the congregation streamed out into the ice cold night. Lights in the wall around the churchyard illuminated the grass with pools of yellow light. Brian and Susie were talking to people, each person wanting a few minutes of their time to try and offer what comfort they could. Tom had knelt down by Dan trying to talk to him, but Dan didn't appear to be in a very talkative mood. I understood that, I wasn't in a talkative mood either. I retreated under the dark shadows of a yew tree to wait for them.

"Ness!" Came the angry hiss from above. "What is the point of you having a phone if you switch it off?"

I turned around and looked briefly upwards into the tree, catching the face of my Dad looking down at me from a high branch.

"I was handling it! " I hissed in return.

"That's not what I was calling you about. I need you to go and see Fiona."

"Fiona?"

"Freaky."

"I know who she is. I'm just querying why you want me to go see her? She's not here; she's at her Uncle's."

"She's back and I need you to get something out of her head."

I looked around the remaining people leaving the church. "I haven't seen her."

"She's not here, she's at home. She didn't come because she's too scared."

"Sounds like Freaky." I rolled my eyes.

"She's not scared of the church; she's scared of a pair of red eyes."

"What?"

"Look out!"

"Are you talking to trees now?" Tom's voice made me almost jump. I turned around and looked at him, he looked amused. "Mysterious men? Clandestine meetings? Talking to trees? You'll get on well with Freaky."

I said nothing; I just looked at him with a blank expression.

"Are you coming over to the Vicarage? The Gisborne's are putting on some food. Brian and Susie are taking Dan back to Carlisle, but I'll look after you."

I shook my head. "No."

"Are you going back to the house? We could go to the pub if you want? I don't really want to go and hang around with that lot." He seemed to be trying to put me at my ease instead of accusing me of something all the time.

"Thanks, but I'd prefer to be on my own." I said.

"Are you meeting up with that guy?"

I fixed him with a look of greater intensity; this was not going to die down without some intervention. "No, I want to be on my own."

Tom blinked as if dazzled by imaginary bright lights. Above me I heard the quietest of chuckles.

"Fair enough." He replied and started to back away. "I'll… see you about."

"Yeah. Bye." I watched him leave, walking down the path at speed and shoving his hands into the pockets of his black jeans.

"Ness?" I turned back around to see Susie standing there. "We're taking Dan back to the hospital. Here's the door key." I took the key from her. "Help yourself to something from the fridge for tea, Brian and I'll get something in Carlisle. We'll see you later."

I said goodbye and tried to catch Dan's eye as they wheeled him past, but he was still in an almost catatonic state. I turned back to the tree.

"Meet me by the Oak Bank Hotel." Dad said. The tree shook slightly as he sprang out of it, unseen by those few people still leaving the church.

I left the churchyard and walked through the quiet roads of Grasmere until I came to the hotel. Dad was sat on a stone wall on the far side of the car park. As I reached him he stood up and hugged me. I allowed myself to relax and let go of some of the tension that had taken up residence in my shoulders. I heard the footsteps of two people walking along the road.

"Aww, young love." The older man said of us as they passed

I pulled a face.

Dad laughed. "They will never understand us." He kissed my forehead.

"Freaky's seen red eyes?"

Dad sat back down and I sat down beside him.

"I don't know when, I only got flashes of what she was remembering."

"Lots of people see the occasional vampire."

"They do, but this is significant. Fiona's bedroom window looks out over what was Mary's back yard. She saw the vampire at Mary's door."

I looked at Dad, incredulous at what I was hearing. "Are you serious? Freaky could just be imagining stuff. All those girls look like they have over-active imaginations."

"Perhaps they have, but from what little I've seen, I think the reason Fiona looks so frightened all the time is that she knows that there's every reason to be. She's seen what the others only dream of and it scares her. She arrived home a little while ago. When she was told what had happened, her mind lit up like a Christmas tree, with the biggest pair of cold scarlet eyes." He snickered. "I'm no superhero, but that was almost like seeing the bat signal. And then of course, you pick that moment to want to kill the girls in church, so I'm trying to work out if I call you about Fiona's head or your head. And you switch your phone off!" He grinned at me.

"I was in church!" I laughed. "I reined it back in, though."

"You did, admirably. We'll be home soon. But first, I want to find out why Mary Burton had a vampire at her door and I want to know what Fiona Sawbridge knows about vampires." Dad looked at me, his face now serious. "Only you can do this Ness, nobody else. Do you want to try?"

"What do you need me to do?"

"Get Fiona to talk about what she's seen, hopefully she'll picture it in her mind and I can see more clearly what she knows."

"Do you think it has something to do with Jess and Mary's deaths?"

"I don't know." He sighed. "But vampires don't just show up at people's houses, they're not stray cats looking for a bowl of milk. He would be there for a reason."

"Do you think Jess and Mary were killed by a vampire?"

"It's not outside the bounds of possibility and if so, Will needs to have the right to face whoever killed his mate. I'm not going to pressure you, but will you have a go at this?"

I didn't really need to think. If this vampire had killed Jess then I would be in the queue behind Will to avenge Jess's death too. "Yes!" I said with absolute certainty. "Now?"

"No time like the present."