Chapter Twenty-Two
Selena
Through a Vale of Tears
At the end of my shift, Ormand asked me to check on a new shipment of young adult novels that just came in. I hated going in the back. It was creepier and colder than the actual store. I made a mental note to ask Ormand if we could call a handyman to check the thermostat, because no matter how many times I upped the temperature the frigid conditions didn’t cease.
Rubbing my arms, I said a little prayer and stepped into the backroom. I reached for the light switch. The single bulb sputtered to life. I swear I could see my breath. It was that cold. I checked the boxes one at a time. Nothing was labeled young adult, so I went deeper into the bowels of the storeroom.
The light from the bulb only stretched so far, so when I reached the middle of the room, it looked like twilight. I continued to scan the boxes. Where the hell did Ormand put the new arrivals? I always arranged new boxes closest to the door. He really needed a system.
Suddenly, the bulb died, blanketing the room in darkness. I yelped, bumping into a stack of boxes. I reached out, steadying the column so it wouldn’t tumble and trap me inside the room that just got a hundred times scarier.
“Hello?” I called out, hands still on the precariously leaning tower of boxes. “Can anybody hear me?”
A cold sweat rose across my forehead. I twisted the box I was holding to stabilize the stack. Once I was sure it wouldn’t fall on me, I gingerly moved away. I couldn’t see a thing. Not even my hands in front of my face. Shit!
I tried to remember just how far I was from the door. I couldn’t have been a few yards into the back. The storeroom wasn’t that big, but in the pitch black, it seemed like a huge cavern. Hands out in front of me, I inched my way to where I thought the door was. One painful step at a time. It seemed to take forever.
A hiss stopped me in my tracks. “Hello?”
This was right about the time in the slasher flick where the heroine encounters the bad guy. Oh, god! Oh, god! Oh, god! My heart tried to beat out of my chest. For all I knew, it wanted to run away as much as I did. My knees knocked together when whatever it was in the room with me hissed again.
The already arctic temperature dropped further. I could actually feel ice form on my skin. My whole body shook. When I inhaled, a putrid smell of rotten eggs made me cough. I pulled up my shirt’s collar to cover my nose and mouth.
“Hello!” My voice rose in desperation. Regardless of the hissing that seemed to grow more insistent by the second, I kept moving. I wanted to run, but if I did I could collide with the badly stacked boxes, and that would be the end of me.
“Ormand!” I screamed now. “Ormand! Help!”
The hissing grew deafening, drowning out my screams for help. I covered my ears and sank to my hunches. I couldn’t move anymore. Fear paralyzed me. The darkness all around seemed like a wide abyss I could no longer cross.
My heart beat so hard, my chest hurt.
The voice I heard in my head at Valley View commanded me to get up. I shook my head against it. Again and again it kept saying I should get up.
“I can’t, I can’t, I can’t,” I kept saying.
“Selena?”
Light flooded the room. I opened eyes I didn’t think I’d shut and looked up. Ormand stood by the door, his hand on the light switch. I’d been a yard away. Just a couple more steps, and I would have been free.
Embarrassed, and still a little shaken, I stood up. “I couldn’t find the box of new YA titles.” I ran my still shaking fingers through my curls. “I’m sorry.”
“You better come with me,” Ormand said.
“What?” My heart thudded in my throat. “Why?”
He blinked, and what I thought was menace in his eyes disappeared, replaced by that crooked-toothed smile. “Your friend’s outside waiting for you.”
Kyle. Relief showered over me, followed closely by a new sense of dread when I remembered where we were going. I thanked Ormand for his help and hurried out of the backroom.
…
The heavy atmosphere in Kyle’s Prius welcomed me when I slid into the front seat. I was still preoccupied by the freakiness of the storeroom when the uncomfortable silence abruptly pulled me out of trying to make sense of it. He didn’t greet me like he usually did. He didn’t even spare me a glance. I had just snapped my seatbelt on when he drove off toward town limits.
I said nothing. His I’m-okay act in school had run out. Not having to hide anymore with me, his anxiety and sadness were both on display in the wrinkle on his brow to the firm line of his lips. He gripped the steering wheel like a lifeline.
The sweet perfume of roses made me turn around and glance at the backseat. About two dozen yellow roses lay across the seat. His mother’s favorite. I smiled sadly. He still thought about what she would have liked.
Facing forward again, I reached out and squeezed his right shoulder.
“Everything’s gonna be okay,” I whispered around the lump in my throat. I needed to pull it together for him.
He nodded once, keeping his eyes aimed forward. The sun dipped lower, casting heavy shadows across the road, giving the quiet in the car an edge. I thought about the time I first met my best friend. It was a very exciting day for my six-year-old self. Grams thought I was emotionally stable enough to go to Maggie’s with her. When we entered the place, I spotted Kyle sitting at the counter with Garret. He’d been answering the puzzles on the kiddie paper placemat with crayons. It had been a year since my parents had abandoned me. I had been a complete wreck, crying myself to sleep every night, wanting them back.
Because of my fragile state of mind, my grandparents kept me secret from the town that entire year—no small feat. They didn’t even enroll me in school. The town didn’t even know about me until that day at the diner. Of course, my grandparents told everyone the truth: my parents died during a hurricane in New Orleans. Nobody asked questions after that explanation. Not even Kyle.
Grams plopped me on a stool beside him and slid a puzzle placemat in front of me. He smiled the charming smile I knew so well now and slid the plastic cup of crayons my way. Something about him put me at ease right away, especially when he helped me with the puzzles. We’d been attached at the hip ever since. And when I found out I had visions of the future, he had been one of the few people I had the courage to tell. He didn’t believe me at first, but he kept my secret anyway.
I never got a chance to meet his parents. They were always away on some business trip together. Even then, Kyle was under the care of Riona, while Garret ran the family business. But he never resented his parents’ constant absences. Apparently, they had video chats every night.
They died in a plane crash a few months after Kyle’s tenth birthday, leaving him with two legal guardians and a multi-billion dollar web company. His devastation affected those around him, especially Penny and me—we didn’t know what to do or say. And since no bodies were found, he refused to believe they were really gone. He said he’d keep searching until he saw evidence of their deaths for himself. Year after year, his hold on that hope grew weaker and weaker. Finally, two years ago, he allowed Garret to set up a grave marker for them. I didn’t see him for a month after that. When he finally returned to school, he acted like nothing happened—all genuine warmth and sincere smiles. Penny and I didn’t have the heart to question him about his disappearance.
Now, in his car, I felt the sadness growing around him as we drove down Highway 16. It was my turn to support him. It didn’t matter what I was going through, I needed to be here for one of the most important people in my life.