The Death of Colleen Rivers

Chapter 25: Colleen

Baylor was acting weird. Ever since I returned with that fat rabbit, he'd been clingy.

And Baylor isn't the clingy type.

He had found a log and rolled it close to the fire so we could have somewhere besides the cold, damp ground to sit on. It wasn't a small log either; it could fit at least seven people comfortably on it. But Baylor was right up against me the entire time.

When we finished eating the rabbit and packed it up to save for later, he put his arm around me and held my hand. I didn't mind it though, I loved having him right beside me. It was comforting to know he was there.

Maybe that's why he was so clingy...

Maybe he was afraid that if I let go that I wouldn't be there...

If that wasn't his reasoning, well, that was certainly mine.

We slept on a blanket together, the stars and canopy of the forest acting as our shelter. Of course it was chilly out, but we had many layers on and the fire was still giving off warmth and we had each other to keep warm. I knew I wasn't going to be freezing tonight, so I went to sleep with s smile on my face, although the ground was hard.

When we woke up, we immediately shoved our blankets into our bags and stomped out the fire, covering up to make sure it didn't look like we were even there.

Hopefully those goons had left Baylor's and weren't trying to find us anymore. Of course my thinking was a long shot, but that's what I was hoping for.

We had less to walk than we did yesterday and that alone made me want to hike faster.

Sometimes I was even ahead of Baylor, but we mostly trekked side by side, hand in hand, silent. We had nothing and everything to talk about at the same time, but we chose not to speak. It was also better to just listen to the sounds of the forest and how peaceful it was. Better not to disturb it.

I finally had to take a break. The shoes were killing me and I needed to sit down for at least a couple minutes to catch my breath after that long hill we had climbed over.

"We can rest, it's okay," Baylor reassured me. "We have plenty of time to reach the store before it closes." He joined me on the ground, breathing heavy, but not as heavy as I was. He pushed his sleeve up on his left arm, checking his watch. "It's only 9:35 in the morning, Colleen. Really, there's no need to rush."

"Well, nice of you to say all that, but I was going to stop here if you were or not," I panted.

He just chuckled and kissed me on the cheek. I blushed, but didn't mean to. I hated blushing, but it was okay I guess. I mean, no one was here to see me do it but Baylor.

We sat together in silence, listening to the sounds of the forest before Baylor piped up.

"I do have one question that I've been trying to understand for some time now..." he said, looking at me.

I turned to look at him. "And that would be..?"

He took a deep breath, as if he was trying to gather his words. "Okay, so how did that Ghost Colleen come to be? You know I'm not the superstitious type, and I just can't wrap my mind around that."

He looked generally confused. But so was I. "Bay, I don't even know. I do know that all I could think about while trapped in that coffin was that I would never get to see you again, or tell you goodbye. Of course I thought of my family and Nat, but you were the main person I was scared of not being able to see ever again.

"Maybe my subconscious mind came to you so you would know I was down there. Or maybe you made Ghost Me up by yourself to stand in my place. I don't know, and we might never know." I smiled at him. "But that's okay. I have you and we are together now."

He smiled back, completely content with my answer.

"Come on, Bay, let's get going. I need something besides day-old rabbit to eat," I said, giggling at him.

We hiked the rest of the way, talking about memories of our peers in school, and his sport achievements and even his failures. We also talked about my dog for quite some time. It was fun to just get to talk to Baylor; I forgot how much I loved just talking about every day things with him. He wasn't much of a conversationalist, but we could talk for hours.

"There it is!" Baylor said pointing to the gas station as we emerged from the woods.

I took a deep breath and released it, completely and utterly overwhelmed with happiness. "Food, at last!" I exclaimed. I started to take off in a dead sprint but something caught my bookbag. I turned around to see Baylor shaking his head at me.

I stopped struggling and rolled my eyes at him. "What?"

"You can't just sprint up to a gas station looking like that."

I looked down at myself. He was right. I looked like I had slept with the pigs for at least a couple of days. I was covered in splotches of mud and dirt, grass and dust also included. I couldn't tell you what my hair looked like, but thankfully it was shorter now so hopefully it looked halfway decent. "Well I guess..."

"Here lemme fix you up, darlin'."

He combed my hair — hopefully making it better than worse, brushed off my jacket and even gave me some sunglasses, placing them on my face. He searched around on the ground, finally finding a large stick and held it up to inspect it.

"What is that for?"

"Well, Cherry, you can't just go around without your walking stick, now can you? You'll bump into to something." A large, sly grin appeared on his face.

"Ohh," I said, catching on. "Yeah, I guess I can't." I shrugged. "Please give me the stick so I may go walking in peace."

He held the long branch out for me to grab it and I pretended to fumble around in the air to find it, then finally grabbed it. "Come along, my guide," I said. "We have no time to waste with this food venture."

I didn't hear him say anything, so I expected he was smiling.