Chapter 3: The after time
I put up the link of the outfit that Carolyn wears on my profile info if you want to see it (:
Mood music song is Cosmic Love by Florence and The Machine : I don't own the song.
Dead, I was dead. It took me 16 years to find out every detail about what happened after I died, what happened to my so called father and mother. I also found out why I had no idea who I was. My mother snapped back when she came down for dinner, She died after my funeral, from some type of heart attack. As for my dad he committed suicide after he left the house that night. I had no idea who I was because I was buried in a grave yard, apparently I have unfinished business. I thought that kinda stuff only happened in movies I guess not. Oh, the reason why it took me so long to find out who I was? Well when you're buried in a grave yard it's like it erases everything, who you were, what you did, any thought you ever had is completely gone. The only thing I knew was my name that was written on the head stone. Now what I had to was to find my unfinished business. I walked out of the grave yard for the first time in 16 years and headed down a familiar street.
"Carolyn?" I heard what seemed like a familiar shrill voice. I turned my head and saw a woman. I'd seen her before but where, I knew a few details but not much.
"Is that you?" She said as she walked closer to where I was. "It is!" She smiled, I didn't know what to say.
"Carolyn are you alright?" Her face dropped.
"Sorry but who are you? You seem familiar but I can't put a name to a face at the moment." I honestly felt like if I found out who she was I might find out more about myself.
"Come inside dear." She said as she pulled on my wrist. This house gave off vibes, I know something happened here, it might have been where Jason died. We walked into the kitchen and I felt a massive pounding in my head.
"Carolyn this is Billie, she'll help you with your memory problem." I heard faintly over my headache. I sat down but I still felt funny. Then all of a sudden it was like I was being sucked through a straw and back to the kitchen where I was. I remembered everything. It sounds weird, walking into a room, sitting down and remembering everything but it happened.
"Constance?" I remembered the woman sitting across from me, Billie was gone. Strange but I thought nothing of it.
"Carolyn! You remember!" She smiled and clapped her hands. I didn't understand why she was happy about me being here or remembering everything. I was tempted to ask but I didn't.
"You're as pretty as I remember dear." She said, I couldn't tell what she wanted from me. She never called me pretty when I was alive. To be honest I felt judged by her, I guess even before Constance I had never felt pretty in anyone's presence.
"Constance, is there something you want from me? Or something I should know? You never seemed to be this way before I died."
"I'm sorry, I guess I'm just happy you're here. Things have changed so much since that incident." Her body shook, like she had gotten a chill.
"It has I mean didn't you live in the other house, I remember this was my house. I died right over there." I pointed to the counter, it seemed like a dream. I had wrapped my head around the fact I was dead a while ago but it just seemed so unreal.
"I remember that day, I was the one who found you. I was scared for you so I decided to see if you kept your promise to Tate, but I guess you didn't." She said as she stood up with a stern look on her face.
"Wait you read the letter?" I asked as I stood up. She read what Tate had written me?
"Of course I did, I knew about what happened with Jason and with what happened to Tate? I just wanted to make sure you were safe." She said quietly.
"You didn't change anything in the letter did you?"
"No I didn't I just read it." She came back with a cup of tea and set it in front of me. "Carolyn do you know where Jason's body was ever buried?"
"No, Tate said that Jack had taken it with him." I said as I took a sip of the tea.
"Oh dear, so he never -." She stopped, it seemed as though she were hiding something from me.
"Constance? He never what?"
"Never mind that, do you have anyone to stay with dear?" She asked as she reached to take my hands in hers. She wanted something and I want to know what it is.
"Constance, you want something. I need to know what it is." I said avoiding the recent subject brought up. She looked down and shook her head.
"I want Tate to be happy, a new-" I cut her off.
"Tate? Tate's dead Constance what are you talking about?"
"Carolyn, when you were alive and you went to our house, did you ever see any people? People you didn't know?" Constance gave me a concerned look.
"No, was I supposed to?"
"It was better that you didn't but there are things you don't understand about said house. It's evil, trapped souls every where you turn and that's what has happened to Tate." She sat back and let everything sink in.
"Wait, I don't understand, w-" This time she cut me off.
"Tate died but his soul remains in the house. It looks as though he were alive and in some form he is." She smiled at the thought of it.
"Well what's the problem then?"
"A new family has moved in, a girl has stolen his fragile heart. With you here, he can return to you and not get hurt by that other one. I don't want to see him sad or broken. You can fix that, you always had that gift with him. One gift I did not."
The thought of Tate loving another girl broke my heart. I had always loved Tate ever since the moment I met him. Another girl? A million questions buzzed through my mind. Who was she? What did she look like? Was she dead too? Was there anything I could really do?
"You want me to just go over there? I can't do that, I'm not known for my out going- ness."
"I'll help you, see I've baked this for the family and I was planning on giving it to them but since you're here you can do it. It'll give you a chance to meet the family and see the girl who has him." She showed me the bread she had made for them but I felt wrong about doing this.
"Constance, I have to tell you, I'm only here to find Jason and something tells me that that house has something to with it."
"You'll be able to do both trust me." Trust. One thing I could never do but at this point what did I have to lose? I needed to find Jason and this might be my ticket to finding him. I closed my eyes, breathed out and said:
"Alright, I'll do it, but just so we're clear, I'm doing this for Jason and partially for Tate. If my mind changes I might be doing this for you to." Constance pulled me into a hug that I was not ready for.
"Thank you." She said faintly, she pulled away and said: "So do you need somewhere to sleep? I have a bed, it's clean and oh well come on I'll show you."
Constance showed me to my "room" for now. I wasn't quite comfortable staying with her but it's gotta be done. After Constance left I laid down and thought about everything I had heard, everything I was going to do. I thought about Jason, I missed him dearly and knowing that I might see him again made a smile appear on my face. I thought about Tate and this girl. I wondered about her, with every thought I got more insecure of myself. I ended falling asleep with the smile on my face, it was the first time I had dreamt of Jason.
I woke up to see the sun shining in my face, it felt nice. Something about it made me feel more alive than dead.
"Knock knock." I head a voice say from outside my room. "May I come in?"
"Come in Constance." I said as I remembered why I was here. Constance walked in with some boxes.
"What's that?" I asked as I got up and walked towards her.
"Well when you died I collected some of your things, hoping maybe some day Tate would find them in the basement and remember but he didn't."
"You kept my stuff next door? How did you even get in there?" I was a bit confused on the subject.
"Well am I going to answer your questions or are you going to pick what you want to wear to meet the Harmon's?" She put her hands on her hips. I leaned down and opened the box. I remember all of my clothes, shirts, pants, shorts, skirts. It made me happy to see them it reminded me of when I had all that I needed.
"I knew you'd be happy to see this." She said as she sat on the edge of the bed.
"I'm very happy, I just can't believe I'm seeing all of this again." I smiled as I took out my things. Constance stood up and said:
"Well go freshen up and you can go over, they should be up and running by now." She walked out of the room. As soon as she left I jumped all around. I was happy just to see the clothes that reminded me of the times I spent with Jason and Tate. I went to shower and put on my favorite outfit; skinny jeans, a fancy top with a tank top underneath and my white converse. It made me feel at home. I had a chance and I wan't going to mess it up.
I walked downstairs to find Constance reading the paper eating her brunch. She looked up and smiled.
"Look at you! You look beautiful, the glow on your face makes you seem alive." I smiled slightly because I wasn't going to trust Constance just yet.
"Thank you. So what's the plan?" I asked as I sat down.
"Simple, you'll go over with the cake and Vivienne will answer, you'll greet her and tell her you've moved in with me and this is just a little something you made to great them. Make conversation, but don't look for Tate just yet, it'll take some getting used to for him, he's sensitive. You already know that." She took a sip of her drink and kept reading.
"Should I go now then?"
"Go whenever you feel like you're ready." She smiled at me. I got up and I was about to take the cake when I remembered a very important question.
"Constance?" I turned to face her. "What did happen to Tate that day? The day I died?"
Constance set her cup down slowly and said:
"That day, Tate was very upset, he couldn't control what was coming. He went to school but with a different objective other than learning, he was going to take his anger out."
"Take his anger out? On who?"
"He never did like anyone at school, except for you of course." She stood up and walked towards me. "Carolyn it wasn't easy for me to understand what he had done, so you can't run off like you did that night." What did Tate do? How could what he had done be the cause of his death?
"Carolyn he went to school that day and shot down 15 of his classmates, injured many more." Constance looked down and walked back to her seat. I couldn't believe what she had just told me, Tate couldn't have done that. He just couldn't, it wasn't like him. I knew Tate and whoever killed those kids at our high school was not Tate.
"I think I'm gonna go over now." I said as I took the cake and left. I knew it probably wasn't a good idea since I had new information to deal with but it didn't matter to me. It mattered in way but I needed to go through with Constance's plan. I walked up to the house, I remembered Constance's words, about how the house was evil. It sure gave off an evil vibe. I knocked on the door and a woman opened it. She was pregnant from what I could tell, she was taller than I was and was very pretty. In a way she reminded me of my mother.
"Hi, how can I help you?" She said.
"Oh hi, I just moved in next door and I came with this cake, you know just to be friendly." I had never really done this before, mainly because when I was alive I had lived in Constance's house since I was seven, so she was the one who greeted us.
"Oh well that's funny, I haven't seen any house's around here for sale."
"They weren't I just moved in with Constance, she's an old friend of my family." This was the only excuse I could think of.
"Oh really, well come on in, you must have had enough of her for one day. I'm Vivienne." She let me and when I walked through the door a rush of memories came to me, seeing everything around me had some distant memory except for the new furniture and such.
"Well she isn't the best company to have but she's kind of the last thing I have left." She led me to the kitchen and we sat down.
"What about your parents? Where are they?" She asked as she got a knife to cut the cake Constance had made.
"My parent's are dead, they died a while ago." More like 16 years ago. "That's why I came to live here with Constance." It didn't hurt me as much as I thought, remembering my parents I mean. They were basically never there. What did hurt was remembering Jason.
"Oh I'm so sorry." She gave me a very sorry look, I knew she meant it.
"It's alright, they were never really there for me anyways. I'm just hoping I'll see my brother." I said as I looked at my hands.
"Where's your brother?" I just realized what I had said, how did I let that slip?
"It's a long really complicated story." I said as I looked back up. At that moment I heard footsteps from behind me.
"Oh Violet I'm glad you're here, I want you to meet, Oh sorry I don't believe I caught your name." Vivienne said.
"Carolyn." I responded as I turned to see a young girl around my age maybe younger. So this was Violet. She sure was pretty. She was thin, with medium long dirty blonde hair, I can honestly say her skin was flawless. I guess I know why Tate was attracted to her. I needed to forget all of that, the only reason I was still here was to find Jason. I had to put my emotions, my insecurities, what I wanted aside, I needed to replace all of that for finding my brother. That's all that mattered.
Thank you for reading! I really love how this is going so I'm going to update a lot. Just so you guys know when Carolyn was alive she lived in the house Constance lives in, the one next door. Tate lived in the murder house. Sorry about the confusion. Anyways send me some ideas I might use 'em. I love you all!
