Aunt Kelly is looking at me like I'm insane and I'm starting to believe it. Maybe everything that's happened with the Watchman and Zack and flying monsters is really all in my head? Could I have blacked out somehow? I've been heartbroken for so long, could I have lost my shit and actually dug up my dead brother? Could I have been that far gone?
Just the thought of it scares me and I immediately feel like throwing up. I don't have an explanation. I wasn't prepared for this.
"Kate! Answer me!" she screams, startling me out of my thoughts. I look down from her stare as a tear drops down my cheek.
"Zack's not dead." I whisper the truth.
"What are you talking about?" she reaches for my arm and we lock eyes.
"He's not dead, Aunt Kelly. I've seen him." I pause and watch her face change like she's starting to get it. "I've talked to him, too."
She scoots back in her chair and walks over to the window. "Where?" she asks, as if humoring me.
"What do you mean?"
She turns to look at me, "Where did you see him?" she asks again, only this time, she's eerily calm.
"I don't know. I—I've seen him a few times." I admit, waiting for another question but she stays quiet, so I keep going.
"The first time I was taken to him." I say, as she cocks her head like she's gaging my sanity.
"Wait, who took you?"
Is she really curious or is she just gathering mental notes for the shrink?
"Um, I'm not sure how to describe him other than saying he was a large man, wearing a black cloak."
She shakes her head slightly and smiles. "So you're telling me that some dude, in a black coat took you to your dead brother?"
Her sarcasm would have pissed me off under any other circumstance but when I hear how crazy it sounds out loud, I can't really blame her.
"I'm telling you the truth, Aunt Kelly!" I blurt out. She's the last person I want to upset. I won't lie to her anymore.
"Dammit, Kate, you've been going to that fucking cemetery for months." she pauses and walks toward me. "Even when I tired like hell to stop you, I knew you still went. There's no telling how many lies you've told me! And quite honestly, I think you've finally lost it."
Okay, now I'm pissed.
"You have no idea what I've been going through! None!" I shove my chair back and stand. "You're right, I have been going there. Even when I told you I wasn't—because grief and hopelessness was beginning to unravel everything I knew about myself! But no matter how many times I went or how long between visits I forced myself to wait, that same man in the same black cloak was always there, too. But one day, when it was cloudy and I thought I'd reached my limit on being alive at all, he looked at me. He'd never done that before. So, when he walked away, I followed him. He wanted me to. I could feel it!" I stop and wipe tears from my drenched cheeks with the back of my hand but Aunt Kelly is just staring at me. Like if her mind could dial the number to the nuthouse this very minute, she would. But then she says something I can't believe.
"Holy shit." her voice almost trance-like. "It's happening. It's really happening..."