IGNORANCE

The bell jarred me up, my head smacking into the bookshelf beside me and my propped up textbook slammed flat onto my desk as I knocked it over.

"Come on, Sleeping Beauty," Rhys whispered from his seat, directly in front of me.

While I rubbed the heel of my hand into my eye, he gathered my textbook and binder off of my desk.

"How long was I out?" I mumbled, the head rush kicking in soon as I stood up. My vision blurred for a moment and Rhys' hand was suddenly on my shoulder.

"You alright there?"

"Hmm. Yeah. Just tired," I replied, but didn't attempt to brush him off or refuse his help. I did sling my backpack over my shoulder and shuffling out of the classroom behind everyone else. The general pace was a lot quicker than my snail crawl of an exit.

"You might want to check you phone," Rhys suggested, still carrying my books under his arm.

Of course he couldn't just tell me why. He had to inject an ounce of mystery in it, but I wasn't conscious enough for comebacks or cynicism right now. I was barely conscious enough to pull my phone out of my pocket and squint at the message from Dean.

How did Dean get my number, anyway?

Cancel your plans tonight.

"How courteous." I sighed, letting Rhys trail me to my locker.

"Did you have big Friday night plans?" Rhys tossed my books into my locker haphazardly as I cracked it open.

"I was half-hoping he'd take his sweet time about this. Apparently not."

"I'm surprised he didn't, actually, with the way he's been after the damn thing." Rhys shrugged, shoving his hands in his pockets. "I would've thought he'd hang onto it a little longer."

I only half-paid attention to that, but in the back of my head, I knew Rhys was right. Dean wanted the recaps. He wanted to know exactly what was in that diary.

"Do you think he's flipped through the whole thing?" I shut my locker, realizing that meant I would run of reasons to linger in the hallway. What next? Walk out to Rhys' truck on my way home?

"Even if he did, he wouldn't understand it all."

There was something in his face for half a second and I couldn't tell what it meant. So, Rhys' assigned reading led to the Greyview Inn, but Dean wouldn't understand? That was what Rhys implied. I remembered his face the day after he read his bit and it said something that brought out shadows under his eyes and had him running his hands through his hair. Something put him off and by the time we got through the ghost tour, he had his edginess back.

Don't trust anyone in Cullfield.

But Kate... the visit to Mrs. Wood made me think that Rhys could be right.

"What would make you say that? I asked.

"I..." he hesitated.

"Did Natalie write you a nice little riddle that you cleverly solved? I think Dean might be smart enough for that," I replied.

"You're just Natalie's neighbor, right? That's all you are?" he asked.

I thought so. Maybe I was wrong.

Before I could find my voice, tell him I knew nothing and I didn't belong in this secret keeping club Natalie formed, a body caught my peripheral vision.

"Jane, do you have a moment?"

Caught between a rock and a hard place, I glanced at the guidance counselor. The dread didn't come. He served as a perfectly good excuse to make an exit.

"Sure." I nodded slowly, giving Rhys a final glance.

For the second time, I found myself sitting across from Mr. Gabler while he likely assessed my sleepy eyes, my generally lack-lustre appearance. The vision in front of him was a teenager who hadn't wanted to drag herself out of bed, but hadn't gotten any sleep in said bed anyway.

"How are you, Jane?" Mr. Gabler asked in such a way that led me to believe he already had an agenda.

"Functional," I replied. I still showed up for classes. I still ate. I still spoke about as much as I did last week.

"A few of your teachers might disagree," Mr. Gabler said, "having trouble staying awake in class?"

Oh, look. An agenda.

The silence didn't push me to break. I would not cry. I would not admit that walking past that ground down fence still sent chills tingling up my spine.

"If you continue having trouble sleeping, I think you could really benefit from seeing a therapist or even a pharmacologist."

I nodded at Mr. Gabler, as if Natalie's suicide was definitely something I could talk to a therapist about. While there, I could throw in how a woman practically threatened Kate and I yesterday. I could add that I broke into the Driscoll house, though I had a key, so I don't know if that actually counts as breaking in. I helped other people break into the Driscoll house.

Or I could vent about how in Massachusetts, I had friends and family. We sang karaoke and had sleepovers instead of trekking through haunted houses and underground tunnels. I could vent about how I never wanted to move to miserable Maine in the first place. It wasn't my idea and maybe now that my neighbor gored herself on a fence, my family could see how coming here was the worst possible decision.

I did not say any of that.

"I'll keep that in mind," I promised and got up before he asked more questions. The conversation of could only turn in the wrong directions. Neither of us needed to get into the details of seeing someone, anyone, dead.

The minute I had to spare was officially over.

Waiting patiently outside Mr. Gabler's office, Rhys fell into step next to me as I headed down the hall.

"I thought you might want a ride," he said, flipping his hood up.

"Why would I want that?" I replied. Ne eye contact. No picking up our conversation where we left off.

"Because—" Rhys stopped there, the windows of the school foyer answering the question for him.

Raindrops chased each other down panes of glass, puddles already formed on the uneven slabs of concrete sidewalk. Rain pelted down from the angry clouds exactly like it was April in miserable Maine. Ptt ptt ptt ptt ptt, continuously. Droplets pattered off every surface.

"Are you done being snide or are you going to walk?" Rhys asked casually.

In the distance between the door and the parking lot, the rain slicked my hair, soaking my jeans. Cullfield couldn't get cute rain showers that made people want to jump in puddles like children. No. Instead, wind whipped against my already frigid exposed skin and tried to twist my hair into sticking to my face.

Bzz bzz informed of another text message. Probably more vague directions from Dean. For the sake of saving my phone from water damage, I left it in my pocket until Rhys unlocked the Datsun.

Or I was just sick of trying to read into vague nonsense. Natalie could get away with it because she wasn't alive to be mad at. Being angry at the dead didn't get anyone anywhere. She knew she wouldn't be around to answer further questions, so why not leave them as mysterious as possible?

No one else had that excuse. Not Rhys, not Kate, not Dean. It was like Natalie's shroud rubbed off on them. No one could be straightforward.

"Don't look so miserable," Rhys said, jamming the key into the ignition and cranking on the heat.

"I can't help it. Rain makes me look like the Grudge girl."

The engine rumbles to life under the hood, but Rhys didn't shift his gears or even wrap his hands around the wheel.

"What did Gabler say?"

"It doesn't matter."

"Like hell it doesn't."

I gritted my teeth, twisting to stare out the window. Past the glass, there was nothing to see but more rusted cars and ripples in the puddles.

"I hate this stupid town. I don't know why my dad's company dragged us all the way out here or why we had to move into the house next to Natalie. I don't know I got dragged into this thing that is clearly slowly taking over my life." I sighed. "I just want to go home. I don't know what I have to do with any of this."

Driving rain struck the metal of the truck, drowning out all sound outside. The heater blasted warm air against my clothes, trying to dry me out but the engine hadn't run quite long enough for the heater to do much.

This was clearly bigger than Natalie's dead, entangling pieces of things that set Kate's eyes glassy and threw off Rhys' intensity. There were pieces that I had no context for. All I could do was guess while everyone else seemed to understand more of the puzzle, keeping it to themselves.

"You've really got no secrets, do you?" Rhys said.

I pushed wet hair out of my face, turning to look at him. He had them. Everything about that sentence said he had plenty of secrets. Never mind what drew Kate into the deep, dark underground depths. What pulled Rhys in?

Curiosity wasn't enough. Not anymore. I couldn't buy that.

"I just wanted to graduate, get the hell out of town, and forget about this place," I said, blinking back the sting in my eyes. I would not cry in his truck.

"Sorry about the whole wrench in that plan," he said.

Me too.

"Where is Dean dragging us tonight?" I detoured around getting into that more. The more I talked about it out loud, the more I would just dissolve into a puddle of self-pity.

"We should get coffee and rain jackets before getting into that."

More vague bullshit.

I sank down in the seat, staring out the window and nodding in defeat.

  ˚˚˚˚˚˚  

"We are not. Tell me we are not doing this." If the cup of tea in my hands did anything to warm me up, the high Gothic fence of the cemetery undid all of it and then some.

"You thought the Greyview was bad. At least we didn't have to break in." Rhys leaned forward, squinting past the rain out the windshield.

The detour for hot overpriced tea and suitable rain gear unwound me just so I could coil back up again, like a spring waiting to bounce back.

Dean's Subaru hadn't pulled up yet, so I hastily finished my tea so it burned the roof of my mouth. Icing on the top of a fabulous Friday evening escapade.

A couple more minutes passed before Dean's headlights appeared in the rear view mirror. Outside, in the falling darkness only made the weather look more miserable, if that was even possible. The trees surrounding the cemetery stretched out their long limbs, forming hulking shadows over the rows and rows of marble and granite.

"Alright, let's go." Rhys cut the engine, the silence striking after listening to the white noise of the heater droning. He leaned over me, popping open the glove compartment to pull out a proper flashlight. No more phone apps for us. 

Both of us pull up our hoods, button everything up to avoid the drenching outside the truck.

A van pulled up behind Dean's Subaru, the same one that pulled into Natalie's driveway less than a week before. Bundled Kate climbed out, scarf wrapped tightly up to her chin and her hood up, too.

Dean, again, looked like a burglar. Black hats and black gloves did that. He was the only one who looked even more than a sliver above completely done with this already.

"I want you to know exactly how much I hate you right now." Kate wrapped her arms around herself and for once, I actually believe it's because she was freezing. "And how exactly do you think we're going to get in?"

The question was a perfectly reasonable one. It was a question that I myself desperately wanted to know the answer to.

"We climb the fence," Dean said, as if it was that easy. The black metal spires speared upward in a very Stephen King kind of way and Dean wanted to just climb over it. The rest of us were not athletes ready to parkour our way into locked up cemeteries. 

"I am not climbing that fence," I said.

Even looking at it, the shriek of the grinder shrilled in my head.

For a moment, no one said anything, having realized in that moment the luxury they had of not hearing Mrs. Driscoll's blood-chilling scream and the drip drip drip of blood on the sidewalk.

There was none of that here, only the ptt ptt ptt ptt of driving rain and the high whistle of rainstorm wind.

"Alright, that option's out, so... check the fence line? Maybe there's a gap somewhere." Rhys spoke up first, accepting my verdict.

"Sure." Dean shrugged, less enthusiastic. Option two undoubtedly would take longer.

That started the trudging, following along behind the beam of Rhys' flashlight around the edge of the cemetery that edge onto the forest.

Fighting through the slippery undergrowth around the edge almost made me regret speaking up, but every time I looked up to see the slick points of the spires catching distant streetlight, I reaffirmed my choice.

"Check this out." Rhys stopped, jumping up so his fingers slapped against a low branch on a tree. It swooped from our side of the fence and drooped over the cemetery side.

"You want me to climb a tree?" Kate hissed.

"So be it," Dean went for it first, grabbing the branch and pulling himself awkwardly up, trying to gain footing on the slippery trunk of the tree. It wasn't impossible, but it didn't look fun.

"Kate, give me your hand," he said, from the top side of the branch. From where it connected to the trunk, the branch looked sturdy.

"I am not—"

"Kate, do you want a hand up or are you going to get up here by yourself?" Dean pressed, his gloved hand extended out to her.

Kate shook her head, but reached up for Dean's hand. Rhys stepped in, giving her a boost up.

Even though a low growl threatened to intrude on her constant frustrated sighs, Kate looked significantly less tense than she had stepping into the tunnel at the Greyview.

While Kate clung to surrounding branches, practically hugging the solid trunk of the tree, Dean inched his way across the branch. The branch creaked under his weight, leaving him frozen for a moment before he braved the next few feet.

"Watch yourself," Rhys warned as Dean got a good hold on the wood before letting his legs slip off, then his body until he was dangling only a few inches off the ground.

The drop sent the thin, furthest stretching part of the tree waving in the air, but Dean landed easily on his feet.

"Come on, Kate. You can do it," he said, dusting himself off.

"You don't sound condescending at all," Kate scoffed, but she began repeating the process more slowly and carefully than Dean did. A sliver of me believed she did it just to prove a point. Kate was not only a delicate porcelain doll.

"You ready?" Rhys asked, once Kate had landed awkwardly on the other side.

Ready to sneak into a graveyard in the pouring rain in dark on a moonless night? Why not.

"Bring it on," I said, my tone not quite matching the words.

I even let him boost me up while my hands found grip around the branch enough to pull myself the rest of the way up.

Dean made it look easy. The bark of the tree didn't have enough texture in the rain to provide a lot of security. It was only a few yards. A deep breath and a low center of gravity got me over half the way before my hand slipped.

My body twisted, legs wrapping around the branch as my shoulder grazed against the fence spikes. I heard Kate's gasp before I heard my own.

Heart stopped, breath hitching in my throat, I grabbed desperately, wrapping my whole arm around the branch. The spike still pressed into my shoulder.

"Just take a second, Jane. You're okay," Rhys said, catching me dead center in his flashlight.

It didn't feel okay. My eyes squeezed shut. It did not feel okay.

What went through Natalie's mind the moment her body launched into the air, in the split second between free falling and the wrought iron puncturing through her organs? Was it instant or were there still minutes when she could feel everything?

"Jane."

Eyes snapping open, I took a deep breath, dragging myself the rest of the way, my jacket catching on the fence and tearing down the back, but I would rather that than slip trying to pull myself up again.

When I let my legs out of their death grip on the tree, my hands slipped too and I fell into Dean, feet only partly underneath me. Kate pulled me into a proper standing position, squeezing my hand.

"Awesome." Rhys leaned against the fence, thrusting his arm through the fence. "Mind holding this?"

I nodded, still shaking as I reached out for the flashlight in his grasp.

"Are you okay?" He whispered.

I nodded again, panning the light up the trunk of the tree for him.

Kate and Dean had to notice the way the beam shook as I lit Rhys' way, but they said nothing about it.

He dropped down more gracefully than I would've thought.

"Great, now that that's over with," Dean said, "let's go."

"Wait. So, now that we've all scaled the bloody tree to get over here..." Kate said, "how are we going to get out again?"

Silence. I flicked the light around, waiting for someone to offer a suggestion, waiting for someone to promise there was no chance we could possibly end up locked inside a cemetery all night. 

"We'll figure that out when we get to it," Rhys swallowed hard. 

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A/N  A lot of talking in this chapter, but promising ending, yes? Any predictions for how the night will end? I'm excited about the next two chapterrrrs, dear readers. 

//kc