Kimberly ran her fingers through his hair. Kissed his lips. Touched his cheek. She held his hand and breathed in his scent. It was a beautiful scent. She laid her head on his chest and smiled.
"I knew you'd come back to me," she said, "I just knew."
"You should know by now you can't keep me away that long," he said and she looked up at his gorgeous chocolate eyes.
"Five years is a pretty long time to keep some one waiting," she said, with an annoyed look on her face.
"I'm sorry, Kim," he said, caressing her cheek, "But I'm here now and I'm not going anywhere."
"Kiss me," she said with a smile and stood on her tip toes in anticipation. She felt him lean close and felt the tender brush of his lips.
"Mommy," Noah said shaking her awake, "Mommy, wake up! Wake up!"
"What," Kimberly grumbled, coming out of her sweet reverie, "What is it baby?"
"There's a monster in my room," he whined, "I swear."
"Noah," she said, rubbing her eyes and shaking her head with slight annoyance, "What have we talked about? There's no such thing as monsters. Right?"
"Right," he said, "But my door opened all by itself. It was scary." That had her awake in a quick minute. Now this was the second person in her house to tell her that doors were opening by themselves.
"Okay," she said, "You get in my bed and go to sleep. I'll go check it out." Noah climbed into Kimberly's bed and snuggled under the covers. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood up. She stepped into the hallway and closed her bedroom door behind her.
She'd talked to him for almost an hour before her voice ceased again. Tommy was going to figure out what the hell was going on with him one way or another. He sat outside in the back yard for a while as it got dark and then decided it would probably be a good idea to get something to eat and maybe some candles and water since the electricity hadn't been turned on and neither had the water. He called for a cab again and had them drop him off at an Enterprise so he could rent a car and get around himself. As he drove down familiar streets, he began to feel a little at home here. If she hadn't died, maybe he would have found a job here and they'd have gotten married and had kids. As he drove, he noticed that he was coming up on the cemetery where they had her buried. They would have had her buried in Angel Grove but none of them could afford to have her body transported. Besides, Florida had become just as much her home as Angel Grove had been.
He decided to turn in and pay her a visit. Even though it had been five years, he still remembered exactly where he had left her forever. He drove down a winding little road and pulled over almost all the way at the back of the small cemetery. He walked down a narrow walk way toward a tall tree. He made his way past three flat stones in the ground and kept his eyes on the fourth stone back, right under that tree. He walked until he stood before the flat stone in the ground. They'd had it engraved with a crane in the left corner. There was a light breeze and the moonlight shone down on the stone as he bent down to place a white rose on it. Before he dropped the rose, he noticed that the stone was completely blank.
"What the hell," Tommy whispered to himself. He was sure this was the right place. The ground wasn't freshly dug up, it couldn't have been a new burial. He looked around to see if anybody was around, then he looked at the stone again.
"This is crazy," he said to himself, "This is the right spot. Its gotta be." Still, the stone in the ground was completely blank. No crane in the corner. No name. No dates. Nothing. Now he was scared. He ran back to the car and raced back to her house. It was around eleven o' clock at night. He did his best to be quiet because the neighbors were very close and nosey if he remembered correctly. He slowly began setting up candles through out the house. The living room first. Then the kitchen. Then he placed two on the midway landing on the stairs. Two at the top of the stairs. One in the bathroom. Then he went to the bedroom adjacent to what used to be Kimberly's room down the hall and just as he was setting the candles down on the floor, he felt a light breeze rush past him.
"What the…." he mumbled and continued to light the candles. Terrified about what was happening here, he checked all the windows in the bedroom but none of them had been opened. The gas wasn't on so it wasn't heat that had caused the breeze. He wondered if maybe….
"No, no, no, no," he thought to himself, "There is no way she's here."
"Just breathe," he said out-loud to himself as he left the bedroom leaving the door open. He turned to Kimberly's bedroom door.
"Holy son-of-mother…." he couldn't even finished that statement. The door to Kimberly's bedroom was wide open. It had been shut when he came up the stairs. He was sure of it. He set his bag of candles down on the floor, took one out and lit it before he tried to enter that room. He couldn't bring himself to enter this room earlier in the day and now he was shaking.
"Is anyone here," he called into the dark, the candle shaking in his hands and he took a step forward into her room. Then another step. Then he felt another light breeze, the candle went out, and the door shut softly behind him.
Kimberly felt a strange sensation hit her upon setting foot in that hallway. It was a sort of dizzy feeling, like she hadn't woken up all the way. She fought it and walked into Noah's room, turned the light on and searched the room for anything but found nothing. She left the room, closing the door and walked down the hall to Tommy's room. She checked his vitals and he was the same as always.
"I love you," she whispered in his ear.
Tommy was shaking so badly that he could barely relight the candle in his hands. As his eyes adjusted, he looked around the room. There was furniture in this room. Her bed, her dresser, her pictures, her bathrobe hanging on the hooks on the back of the door. The bed hadn't even been remade. They laid in the mess that they had been in when the two of them finally rolled out of bed that last morning. The hot pink negligee that he had stripped off of her the last night they had been intimate was still crumpled on the floor. His boxers from that night still hung from the bed post where they'd caught when she threw them. Nobody had touched this room. It was as if time had stopped in this room after that day.
To terrified to deal with all of this, he turned and left the room. Shock hit him once again as he re-entered the hallway only to find the door to the room directly across from the stairs wide open. He knew he hadn't gone in there. He knew that nobody but him was in the house.
"What the fuck is going on," he whispered and walked toward the room. He couldn't go in there. He was getting nauseous just going near that room. He couldn't place the feeling but it was a strong feeling. One that was forcing him down the stairs. Halfway down, he stumbled over his own feet and fell, dropping the candle and watching it tumbled just as he did, down the stairs. It rolled to a stop in the middle of the foyer. Tommy laid in a crumpled heap at the bottom of the stairs, blood trickling down his face from his forehead.
Kimberly heard what sounded like books tumbling down the stairs and stood straight up. She left Tommy's bedside and went back to the hallway, shutting his door behind her.
"Mommy," came Noah's voice from down the hall.
"Baby, go back into my room and stay there," she said, "Do not come out until I come get you." Noah hurried back into the room and closed the door behind him. Kimberly turned on the hall light and slowly started down the stairs.
"Hello," she called, "Is anybody there?"
Tommy grown at the bottom of the stairs. Her voice rang like a bell inside his head. Who was she talking too? Tommy sat up, pressing his hand to his bloody forehead. This was getting to be to much.
"Maybe you should answer," his snide subconscious whispered. He smirked. Maybe he should. Then he really gave it some thought. Maybe he really should answer her. Maybe that was the key to solving this.
"I'm here Kim," he called, "Its me Beautiful. I'm here." Yelling hurt his head but he'd do anything to end his misery.
Suddenly, he smelled something on the stairs. Something familiar. Something musky and sweet.
"Hello," she said, alittle softer coming down the stairs. She heard nothing. She flipped on the foyer light. Still nothing. Nothing had been moved. Nothing had been broken. Nothing had fallen. She stopped on the bottom step. There was some one here. She could sense it. There was a strange energy before her. Like someone was in front of her that she didn't see. She closed her eyes and breathed as calmly as possible to try to get her heart to stop beating so fast. Then something occurred to her.
"Tommy?" she asked.
