Hello everyone sorry for the delay! This chapter is a bit shorter than originally written, but I changed voices for the next scene so I should have that up tomorrow. I want to thank everyone for their support it is much appreciated and I wanted everyone to know that I take your reviews very seriously and into consideration. I hope to give everyone a hint of what they want! Much love ~your secretkeeper
Sally's notebook was covered, but nothing she found could be connected to her near death experience, however every last Wilcox member was never short for words. A trait that Sally once thought was special her only her, was sewn into her genes, and unlike most people would she did not yearn to have a connection with others from the past. This was something she knew about herself, she hated choices her ancestors had made in the past and found herself exhibiting their poor judgment.
23 November, 1854
The pain in my heart will not mend until my Charles is with me once more.
"Ugh," Sally grunted slamming the book closed, frustrated was an understatement. There were no words that could describe her endless state of stress and she wasn't even going to attempt to try. She was weeks behind in her journal, she never missed more than a day, but when she stared at her blank page the words didn't appear and if they had they wouldn't have made any sense. Going through her family history was driving her nuts, all they did it seems was write, and much of it lacked substance. She stretched her hunched body and looked around her bedroom, chests and books polluted every inch of it, her stomach lurched, there would be another truckload arriving any day with more useless memorabilia.
Sally slid carefully off her bed, "at least the 'rents came through" she whispered to herself as she took her finished pile off of the floor and placed it in the chest by her window. Sunlight attacked her eyes like daggers, 'that has to be what the vampires feel'; she thought pulling her curtains down. She caught a her appearance in the mirror, "oh brother" there was a nest of pens and pencils stuck in her nappy brown hair, her scalp sighed as she let out each one letting the hairs relax from the tight up do. Adam's Kansas City friends would be here in two hours and this was not an impression she could make. She grabbed her robe; yes a relaxing shower would be good, some time away from her family and their petty selfish lives.
Everything they wrote was about stupid gossip, nothing at all correlating with the Spooksville she knew. Her family was part of the blind that refused to believe the strange goings on of the town. She wondered if the further back she would go in the timeline, she would meet up with someone who knew Madeline Templeton and some information on the execution. That feeling came over her again, the nagging sense that she had met Madeline.
Watch explained to her once that in a parallel world she had indeed crossed paths with the witch and was to be burned at the stake with her and Adam. Madeline had tried to save her life. Didn't sound like the workings of a violent dictator who would rather kill you first and ask questions later.
It occurred to Sally that Ann Templeton may not be a vicious being, but being raised as a Wilcox she had been raised to fear them. The journals didn't match this belief so far, maybe because it was all to be passed down vocally. None of it really made sense, and she was beginning to give up on her search. So she was attacked in the woods for no known reason and made a miraculous recovery, plus she also had a dream about her dead brother who told her about the Wilcox curse. From what she was read there was no such thing. Maybe the universe was giving her a break. She giggled as she stuck her face in the flowing spout, she wasn't one for optimism, and she knew that there was always an answer to the strange occurrences, but this was beginning to take over her life. No one else had been attacked, but the Mayor did put out a warning for dangerous animals in reservoirs vicinity so she was sure that helped a great deal.
She vacated the shower and began brushing the remaining knots out of her long brown hair, 'reminder to not lose writing utensils in hair' she thought yanking harder than necessary. She knew the stress was getting her and was secretly thankful for the distraction of Adam's friends and birthday, not that she would express that in any way except with contempt. Why was she like that? She didn't have inkling, she supposed it was because she didn't want to get close to people; they have a habit of abandoning her. She was fully aware of her issues and today was going to be a day where she pushed all of that behind her. Life was too short to be afraid of death. She had technically already died and it didn't so bad, living was much more painful.
She stared blankly at her closet once she moved more piles out of the way, what on earth was she going to wear to make the girl Adam left behind jealous? Clearly the girl had a lasting crush on him, which needed to be extinguished immediately, especially since Adam clearly was not interested. She had a white flowing sweater that she had never worn, but white wasn't the best color to wear; you never know what scrapes you could get into, so she went with a hunter green blouse and blue jeans with brown boots. "Accessory is key," she said grabbing one of her many belts, it was brown like her boots, but had green vines etched into it to match the shirt.
She blew her hair dry and in a way that created soft waves, next was makeup, she rarely wore make up. It was a waste of time to her, in a few hours she could be running for her life and her makeup would be faded or dripping down her face, no makeup up was better than sad clown makeup. Today, though she would take special care and highlight her simple face. Her brown eyes stared back at her, she had see so much in her short life and yet she missed out on everything that mattered. Getting dressed up for the day and excited about what it could bring was not a pleasure she had; she worried about how she was going to make it another day. Yes she was thankful that her life was never dull, but sometimes she needed a day to do nothing except be herself. She decided this would be the day, she was not going to be like the Wilcox's of the past and ignore something that was obviously a threat, but she was not going to be frightened to be who she always wanted to be.
They were to meet at the doughnut shop like they have every Saturday morning since they were kids, as soon as Sally made it to the curb across the street Adam came bolting out and ran across the street without even looking for cars. "Adam!" she cried looking to her right side relief when the car that had been there turned the corner. When he reached her she hit him in the arm "what were you thinking?" he shrugged in his cute way that usually sparked some form of annoyance, but today Sally decided to just enjoy it.
"How are you?" he said giving her a random hug, "you look great." He said pulling back and looking at her.
"Thanks." Sally said feeling suspicion come over her, "what is going on?" Adam gave a fake laugh and took her hand leading her across the street.
"Can't I just be glad to see you?"
"I guess." Adam opened the door for her and whispered in her ear as he walked passed her, "I told them you were my girlfriend." Sally stopped in her tracks.