━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
chapter 1: ( dear diary... )
❝ and i miss my lover, man ❞
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"I wish I could've killed the son of a bitch myself."
Jane-Anne's despair was replaced with wrath as a scalding fire burned behind her eyes. Her hands were balled into fists stuck to her side as she stood in front of the three teenagers who told them the truth. The whole truth.
"Jane, come sit—" Joseph gestured for his wife as he was still processing the information himself.
"No! He is the reason our daughter is dead!" Her harsh tone soon became a warble. "He deserved everything coming to him. And we can't get her back." She did her best to hold back the tears and took a deep breath, looking back at Deena, Josh, and Sam, who remained quiet. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to..."
"It's okay, Mrs. Santos," Deena reassured. "You were right, he had what was coming to him."
Josh pursed his lips, debating his next few words. "Mrs. Santos, Beckham told us you were in the Camp Nightwing Massacre."
"Oh, yes." Jane-Anne sniffled and sat back down. "It was...Well, horrible isn't even the only word to describe it. The killer was, what I thought, a nice counselor. But based on what you told me, he was just another innocent boy. What was his name?...Tommy...Tommy Slater." Even saying the name made her wince. "I don't even recall what happened. I think I've chosen to block out the memories as the years went by. It was all a blur. One minute we were having the Color War, the next, we're fleeing to the buses and about a dozen campers were killed. I felt fortunate enough to make it on the bus, but I remember seeing this red headed girl left behind. I tried to tell them to stop the bus, but he wouldn't listen."
"Ziggy."
"Yes. Ziggy..." Jane-Anne's voice trailed off, remembering the night it happened so clearly. "She was very hot-tempered but we managed to get along. We shared a cabin together. God, I remember these girls would always find a way to mess with her. My biggest regret would have to be leaving her behind. I didn't put up much of a fight because I was just so scared, but relieved I was alive. And you said she was doing fine? Last I heard of her was in the papers."
"She's doing better now," Josh informed. "I think this was the closure she needed."
Jane-Anne nodded. "That's good. She's a strong girl. With what they said in the papers about her sister dying and seeing the witch, you can't just make something up like that overnight."
A silence overcame them. There were no other words to be spoken. Even though the curse and murders ended for good, all they were left with was pain and sorrow. Everything that had happened the last three days was settling in. The fear, the running, the sacrifices.
"I'm sorry." A small tear fell from the corner of Sam's eye that she wiped away. "I didn't mean to drag any of them into this. I told them they could just leave now and save themselves, but they stayed. All three of them. If I had pushed them away harder, they'd still be here."
"Sweetie, come here." Jane-Anne beckoned Sam forward before pulling her into a reassuring hug. "It's not your fault, okay? You know what? They'd be so proud of you, all of you. They didn't die for nothing. They went down fighting." She pulled away, wiping the stray tears on Sam's cheeks. "Why don't we have some tea?"
They migrated to the kitchen where they sat around the counter. Deena looked towards the fridge, seeing one of the many photos being held up by a magnet. She stood up to get a closer look. A small chuckle came from her as she recognized it instantly.
"This was before Christmas last year," Deena started. "We went out bowling. Kate was complaining how cold it was and Beck kept yelling at Simon to bowl right so they wouldn't get kicked out. That was a fun day." Jane-Anne smiled softly listening to the memories as the girl looked at the next photo of Beckham and Simon at Junior Prom. "They really loved each other."
"They did." Jane-Anne placed the tea kettle aside and moved to Deena's side, peering over her shoulder at the photo. "It was maybe a year and a half ago, he came up to us holding that promise ring. We thought he was going to propose." They all laughed lightly as Joseph shook his head.
"Damn near gave me a heart attack," he commented.
"I'm not surprised," Deena grinned. "He did want to marry her though. I think she secretly stashed a few wedding magazines to be prepared."
The two chuckled and moved back around the corner as the woman served them all tea. For that afternoon, they chose to celebrate the three lives lost. Jane-Anne and Joseph spoke mostly about Beckham's childhood as Deena recalled tales from their growing school years together, throwing in memories about Kate and Simon. Sam and Josh stayed quiet as they pictured each scenario in their mind, enjoying the tales being told of their friends.
It was a woeful day as they remembered why they started talking about the three in the first place, but it was like they could feel their presence. Deena was a usual strong-headed person, but when she looked beside her at the cold empty seat, a few tears couldn't help but build. Sam was the first to notice and wrapped her arm around her shoulders.
"I'm sorry." Deena sniffled and looked down. "It's weird to think now I'm going to have to wake up and carry on with the rest of my life without them. I'm gonna see their pictures and names everywhere, and everyone's going to remember them based on the story we had to tell the police. But it's not true. I loved them. I loved them so much. And now they're gone...and parts of me are too. I wish I had just five more minutes to say goodbye."
Jane-Anne smiled sadly, placing her hand over the girl's. "They died so we could live. Honor them. Don't let their sacrifices go to waste."
"She's happy," said Josh. "They all are. Because they're together. And we won't ever forget them, and neither will Shadyside. It's kind of crazy to think this all happened because of a girl wrongly accused."
"Right, Sarah Fier," Joseph hummed. He looked at his wife with furrowed brows. "Don't we have some old journals from your ancestor?"
"Yeah. God, what was her name?" Jane-Anne placed her head on her hands, thinking. "I think it was Rosalind. I only read about two or three pages when I was maybe your guys' age. Since then, I've just keep them stored away."
Deena glanced at her two friends before looking back at Jane-Anne. "Do you mind if we take a look at them? Beck mentioned before that her ancestor knew Sarah."
"Of course." She excused herself while going upstairs. When she returned, there was an open box in her hand that she set on the counter. They all stood up to look at the items inside. "There's a bunch of photographs and most of these journals are falling apart. I saw Beckham reading these before but she just suddenly stopped."
Sam grabbed one of the illustrations that displayed a family of three smiling in front of a small house. She flipped it over to see writing. "'The Salvatore Family. 1666.'"
Josh had a small notebook, a few of the pages peeking out. He pulled one out that was a sketch of two people— a guy and a girl. "'Rosalind + Isaac. For the heavens were envious of our love.' Were they together?"
Jane-Anne shrugged. "I guess so." She opened one of the journals, the spine cracking as she did so. "'When the sun reached its highest peak, Sarah was to be hanged after the accusation of witchcraft. But we know Sarah would never. Our Sarah Fier must have a reason. Perhaps she was under the control of Pastor Miller, but they would not let her prove her innocence. The date was set, and there was nothing we could do.'"
"So they were friends," Sam questioned.
"Yeah, it looks like it." Deena looked over the journal, flipping back a few pages. "'October 3rd, 1666. My body aches, my head pounds as if someone was hitting me with a thousand rocks. What has he done to me? There was something terribly wrong and I only wanted to help. He grabbed me and held me tightly by the head. I asked for him to let go, but all he did was whisper discursive wordings. A spell maybe? It was the only logical reason. Had he been conspiring with the devil?'"
"Who do you think she was talking about," Josh asked.
"Who knows," Joseph faltered.
"I guess we'll have to find out." Jane-Anne turned to the first page. "'October 2nd, 1666..."