@Chapter 1@
Ten years after the first suicide the town was almost back to normal. After cutting down Cecilia's favorite, disease carrying, tree the town had planted another one and dedicated it to Therese. Everyone wanted it to be dedicated to Cecilia but even Mr. Lisbon had found that Therese took a bigger interest in plant life. Cecilia had kept a decorated journal showing that she was a dreamer. That's what we dedicated to her. Every journal in our town was decorated as hers was and on the front cover in silver lettering it had written: Dedicated to Cecilia Lisbon on it. Just her name brought back memories but then again so did the names of the other Lisbon girls. Lux had gotten a brand of cigarettes named after her. Everyone knew that it was one of her favorite hobbies and habits to smoke, so that's where the idea came from. A brand of make-up was named after Mary. It wasn't hard to tell that she was pretty much in love with the stuff. Bonnie had a brand of clothes named after her. No one really knew her. We knew more about her than we had known about Cecilia but in the end Cecilia had given us more clues about her life. The bench that had been dedicated to the girls, had gotten full of graffiti and was pretty much falling apart by now.
* * *
None of us ever found out why any of the Lisbon girls had killed themselves, but we're still determined to find out. In the old Lisbon house across the street (well now it doesn't look old) there are always light on in a room. The people who had just moved in after Mary had ended her life were always outside. The holes that have remained since the fence was taken out now had flowers being planted in them at this moment. The new neighbors have been pretty nice and they have cared about our love for the Lisbon girls.
In a few months are "new" neighbors, or in other words the Kingways, would be expecting a baby girl. When they first heard the news that they were going to be having a girl they promised us that they'd name all of their daughters after the Lisbon girls just for us. Their first child is going to be named Therese and they'll go until they finally get us a Cecilia. Once every week they let us walk inside each room of their house to see if we can still smell the scent of the Lisbon girls. Of course all of us could, seeing the fact that the Lisbon girls' scents were everywhere to us. They would always ask us what it smelled like to see if they could smell it also. No matter what we knew that they couldn't.
* * *
We felt that the girls' spirits had come to us keeping their beautiful scents and images around us for eternity. To the people around us the smell was non-existent. They thought we were crazy saying things like, "Mmm, I can smell the jasmine that Mary used to wear," or things such as, "Even though I hate the smell of cigarettes these cigarettes smell like the one's that Lux used to smoke, and that's what I love about the smell now." That one really got us some strange looks. People thought we were crazy saying that cigarettes smell good. Who wouldn't? We of course didn't care though. We kept the Lisbon girls locked in our hearts and souls. Which, we still do.
We really do miss them, but we get on with our lives. I mean we still do care about them and every night we get together and look at the exhibits from their deaths. Even if we still had them in our souls then we would keep them living. None of us are planning on going around killing ourselves. Well, at least not anytime soon. Okay well not really but we were obsessed and we still are. Come on though! You couldn't have thought that we're crazy people, could you? We didn't think so.
* * *
All over town people have been seeing visions. The first person was Trip Fontaine. He swears that he is being haunted by Lux. "She's with me everywhere, I just can't seem to get rid of her!" Trip has seen her at places such as the football field, the same place that he had left her after the dance. He has also seen her in school, he claims that he saw her roaming the halls and looking into his classrooms. "I swear, I have seen her, she stares at me as if I'm evil, I don't know what I ever did to her but now I really do regret it." Everyone knew that Trip had gotten Lux into trouble and he pretty much just stranded her there on the football field alone. Why he did such a cruel thing? No one knew.
Two weeks after Trip had seen images of Lux roaming the hallways of the school Chase Buell had claimed to be seeing Bonnie strolling around town. Of course we believed him because he was our friend, but the thing we're questioning is why are all of these 'ghosts' of the Lisbon girls suddenly appearing? That was another question to add to our thoughts. Now we wouldn't quit until we found out the answer. Of course the most reasonable explanation is either that the girls are now just a figment of our imaginations or the people we see look almost like the Lisbon girls. Part of us wished that it really was the Lisbon girls and they had never killed themselves but we knew they had and that it was in the past. We also knew that the past was over.
* * *
Everyday now, when we look outside our windows we see the Lisbon girls. We figured that we could just let our imaginations run wild while there at it. A few days later, on June 22nd we started receiving to pictures of the Virgin Mary again. It could have been a coincidence but we all doubted that it was. Just by opening the mailbox almost twenty pictures had flown out. From opening a door almost a hundred would come pouring out at us. The pictures of course were the same as the one Cecilia had had. No one believed that it was just a coincidence anymore. Now it seemed like reality. A horrible reality. We felt that the Lisbon girls were going to curse us. Follow us and haunt us wherever we go. Whatever the reason was that all of these things were happening it sure seemed like a secret. A secret that only the Lisbon girls knew. They seemed to be laughing at us now. We felt like they were planning on torturing us. We knew that if the did then they would love to see us be tortured.
Ten years after the first suicide the town was almost back to normal. After cutting down Cecilia's favorite, disease carrying, tree the town had planted another one and dedicated it to Therese. Everyone wanted it to be dedicated to Cecilia but even Mr. Lisbon had found that Therese took a bigger interest in plant life. Cecilia had kept a decorated journal showing that she was a dreamer. That's what we dedicated to her. Every journal in our town was decorated as hers was and on the front cover in silver lettering it had written: Dedicated to Cecilia Lisbon on it. Just her name brought back memories but then again so did the names of the other Lisbon girls. Lux had gotten a brand of cigarettes named after her. Everyone knew that it was one of her favorite hobbies and habits to smoke, so that's where the idea came from. A brand of make-up was named after Mary. It wasn't hard to tell that she was pretty much in love with the stuff. Bonnie had a brand of clothes named after her. No one really knew her. We knew more about her than we had known about Cecilia but in the end Cecilia had given us more clues about her life. The bench that had been dedicated to the girls, had gotten full of graffiti and was pretty much falling apart by now.
* * *
None of us ever found out why any of the Lisbon girls had killed themselves, but we're still determined to find out. In the old Lisbon house across the street (well now it doesn't look old) there are always light on in a room. The people who had just moved in after Mary had ended her life were always outside. The holes that have remained since the fence was taken out now had flowers being planted in them at this moment. The new neighbors have been pretty nice and they have cared about our love for the Lisbon girls.
In a few months are "new" neighbors, or in other words the Kingways, would be expecting a baby girl. When they first heard the news that they were going to be having a girl they promised us that they'd name all of their daughters after the Lisbon girls just for us. Their first child is going to be named Therese and they'll go until they finally get us a Cecilia. Once every week they let us walk inside each room of their house to see if we can still smell the scent of the Lisbon girls. Of course all of us could, seeing the fact that the Lisbon girls' scents were everywhere to us. They would always ask us what it smelled like to see if they could smell it also. No matter what we knew that they couldn't.
* * *
We felt that the girls' spirits had come to us keeping their beautiful scents and images around us for eternity. To the people around us the smell was non-existent. They thought we were crazy saying things like, "Mmm, I can smell the jasmine that Mary used to wear," or things such as, "Even though I hate the smell of cigarettes these cigarettes smell like the one's that Lux used to smoke, and that's what I love about the smell now." That one really got us some strange looks. People thought we were crazy saying that cigarettes smell good. Who wouldn't? We of course didn't care though. We kept the Lisbon girls locked in our hearts and souls. Which, we still do.
We really do miss them, but we get on with our lives. I mean we still do care about them and every night we get together and look at the exhibits from their deaths. Even if we still had them in our souls then we would keep them living. None of us are planning on going around killing ourselves. Well, at least not anytime soon. Okay well not really but we were obsessed and we still are. Come on though! You couldn't have thought that we're crazy people, could you? We didn't think so.
* * *
All over town people have been seeing visions. The first person was Trip Fontaine. He swears that he is being haunted by Lux. "She's with me everywhere, I just can't seem to get rid of her!" Trip has seen her at places such as the football field, the same place that he had left her after the dance. He has also seen her in school, he claims that he saw her roaming the halls and looking into his classrooms. "I swear, I have seen her, she stares at me as if I'm evil, I don't know what I ever did to her but now I really do regret it." Everyone knew that Trip had gotten Lux into trouble and he pretty much just stranded her there on the football field alone. Why he did such a cruel thing? No one knew.
Two weeks after Trip had seen images of Lux roaming the hallways of the school Chase Buell had claimed to be seeing Bonnie strolling around town. Of course we believed him because he was our friend, but the thing we're questioning is why are all of these 'ghosts' of the Lisbon girls suddenly appearing? That was another question to add to our thoughts. Now we wouldn't quit until we found out the answer. Of course the most reasonable explanation is either that the girls are now just a figment of our imaginations or the people we see look almost like the Lisbon girls. Part of us wished that it really was the Lisbon girls and they had never killed themselves but we knew they had and that it was in the past. We also knew that the past was over.
* * *
Everyday now, when we look outside our windows we see the Lisbon girls. We figured that we could just let our imaginations run wild while there at it. A few days later, on June 22nd we started receiving to pictures of the Virgin Mary again. It could have been a coincidence but we all doubted that it was. Just by opening the mailbox almost twenty pictures had flown out. From opening a door almost a hundred would come pouring out at us. The pictures of course were the same as the one Cecilia had had. No one believed that it was just a coincidence anymore. Now it seemed like reality. A horrible reality. We felt that the Lisbon girls were going to curse us. Follow us and haunt us wherever we go. Whatever the reason was that all of these things were happening it sure seemed like a secret. A secret that only the Lisbon girls knew. They seemed to be laughing at us now. We felt like they were planning on torturing us. We knew that if the did then they would love to see us be tortured.