Page 25 of The Stone Curse
I didn’t understand. I didn’t get it. “Where? Where is he gone?”
“To a better place.”
“Then I want to go there too!”
“No!” She looked horrified. “Don’t…don’t say that.”
I blinked back tears. “Why not?”
“Because Derek is dead. He’s dead, and he can never come back, and I don’t want you to be dead and never come back.”
I could feel my panic, the panic of my four-year-old self. “I don’t get it.”
She exhaled shakily. “It’s a special cycle that makes us human. We get to live here, and then, when our time here isover, we go to a special place. But not today and not for a very long time. Today we get to stay here. Today we have to say goodbye to Derek.”
But I didn’t understand, and my heart was breaking. “Why? Why, why, why?”
“Oh, sweetie, everyone has to die sometime.”
Everyone has to die…
Everyone has to leave…
I was standing in the doorway, partially hidden by Miss Miller’s skirts as the police officer spoke to her in a hushed voice. My stomach formed knots, making me feel sick as the officer continued to speak.
“Terrible incident. Crime. Investigation.”
And then Miss Miller saying, “Dead? You’re saying she’s dead.”
Dead and gone.
Never coming back.
I was back at Pizza Delight, standing in the gloomy corridor with Levi, preparing to tell him I didn’t love him in order to keep him at arm’s length, when my phone buzzed.
No, don’t answer it.
Don’t answer it.
But I was trapped in a memory with no control, and no way to change the events. So I answered and held the phone to my ear.
“Hello, is this Cameron?” the gruff male voice asked.
“Who is this?” I echoed the words from the past.
“Is. This. Cameron?”
“Yes, who?—”
“Romi’s dead. I thought you should know.”
Dead and never coming back.
No, no, no.
Serath reached for me, bloody mouth parted. “Live free…”
And he was gone.
