Beyond the Shadow

Chapter 1

Jacksonville High School, established 1900

The letters of the wooden entrance sign were falling away with age and rot. Guarantee that the sign was infested with termites, and one of the newer parts of the school.

The clouds hung low over the building as my aunt pulled into the parking lot. My brother and sister were sitting in the car as well, Meredith's head was hanging low. Mom and dad's death has taken it's toll on her, her vibrant personality has faded, she doesn't speak often these days. Jasper took after Meredith, while he wasn't as close with mom and dad, he was still bothered by it. We all were, but just wore it differently.

When we got word that they had been killed in Hurricane Charles, the world stopped spinning on it's axis. My mother and father were now dead, they wouldn't get to see any of their children graduate high school, college, walk Meredith and I down the aisle. A few hours later, as we were packing to move to aunt Phoebe's house, Jasper tried to crack a joke and I tried to laugh and we ended up on the ground crying. Meredith is internalizing all of it because she feels she has to be strong for us.

Meredith and Jasper were both seniors while they weren't twins. Jasper was a surprise for my parents, showing up a little over 9 months after Meredith. I came a year and a half later, planned.

My hands are knotted in my lap, the new school dread adding to the turmoil in my stomach that had been there since mom and dad died.

"Imogen?" Phoebe asks and I break out of my trance, having been staring at the sign for a good five minutes. "Are you getting out?"

"Y-yeah. Sorry." I duck my head, grabbing my bag and getting out of the car. Jasper and Meredith were waiting for me to catch up.

"Mom and dad went to high school here." Meredith says softly. "This town is too damn small."

"Did Phoebe never move?" I ask. She shakes her head, no.

"The house we're in now is the farmhouse that mom grew up on. Phoebe inherited it from their parents. Dad grew up on the other side of town." She answers, fixing the straps on her L.L.Bean bag.

"We're too tan to be here." Jasper says after a minute of silence, attempting to lighten the mood. I look at the kids entering the building, they all look alabaster compared to us. Mom and dad had fled the town as soon as they graduated. Mom always made a joke about a scorned ex-lover. So they packed up and left Jacksonville and moved across the country and settled in Savannah, Georgia. Meredith, Jasper and I had been in Atlanta when the freak hurricane struck and they were caught in it. Jasper and Meredith had been touring Georgia Tech, and I was accompanying them. Mom and dad let us go alone, the first time they had ever let us make the four hour trek to Atlanta by ourselves.

"We're too modern to be here. And I thought Savannah was historic." I reply and Jasper grabs my hand, he was nervous. He hadn't grabbed onto me for support since we were in elementary school, before he discovered it wasn't cool to hold your younger sister's hand.

I look over at him, meeting his pale green eyes and squeeze his hand. "I guess we should go in." I say, taking on the role of the leader for the time being. The town was small enough that I know everyone would know who we were, and who our parents were.

The school looked just as old inside as it did outside, kids were roaming the halls, talking amongst themselves, not paying any attention to us. "Do you know where we're going?" Meredith asks, brushing against my free side.

"Not particularly," I laugh humorlessly, feeling hollow. "I'm looking for a sign for the front office, right?"

"I guess. I'm following you." She says, tucking a blond strand of hair behind her ear, getting it out of her face.
"You know we won't have any of the same classes, right? I'm a junior, y'all are seniors." Meredith makes a face when I say this and Jasper shrugs.