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In the days that followed, I fell into a deep depression. I outright refused to return to school, which made it impossible for me to complete my last high school term.
Instead, I was forced to wait until the following fall so I could register for my school’s online courses. Once I completed my final courses, I applied to every college that was located far from my hometown.
In all that time, I never once stepped foot outdoors.
I had absolutely no desire to risk seeing Em or recognize one of the voices of my attackers. Instead, I became a complete shut-in, seeing only my mother and stepfather, even months after the last of the bruises had faded.
While the bruises faded, the stones left scars up and down my arms and across most of my body. The rocks had cut deep.
My mother couldn’t bear to be brought into the rumour mill over my latest ‘cry for attention’ and had agreed I shouldn’t be seen in public.
The only thing that kept me going all that time was my unlimited collection of smutty romance novels – courtesy of my town’s online digital library.
Escapism at its finest.
The day I got my acceptance letter to a coastal college almost 30 hours from home was the happiest day of my life.
I worked hard enough while online learning that my acceptance letter came with a substantial scholarship. I mean, there was no excuse not to nail your classes when you had literally nothing else to do.
The same day my acceptance letter arrived, I secured a student loan and line of credit. Hours after that, I rented a fully furnished apartment near the college, sight unseen.
Luckily for me, people out East ‘did things a little differently’ – their words, not mine, and no co-signer was needed – just a damage deposit, paid for by courtesy of the aforementioned student line of credit.
I was on a bus and moved into my new place two days later.
No heartfelt goodbyes, no going-away party. Just more pain when my mother took that opportunity to disown me.
The college is small, not particularly well-known, and remote. So very remote. And that suits me just fine.
In this town, I’m just another tourist or student; who knows for sure? The girl I left behind is a ghost. Here, I had a chance to be reinvented.
Here, I’m normal.
Of course, normal may be a bit of a stretch to describe my current state. While I’m determined to be utterly ordinary in this new place, no shade of beige will make the ghosts and creepy faceless creatures disappear.
There must be something wrong with my internal wiring because once I noticed more of the creepy creatures here, I couldn’t ignore them.
I nicknamed them ‘the faceless,’ namely because they lack many facial features. I get zero points for creativity. But apparently, I have an overactive conscience when it comes to monsters.
And so, I didn’t do the sane thing and ignore the clinically terrifying beings. Instead, I honed my ability to release their spirits.
I liken the experience of freeing spirits to helping them ‘go to the light,’ as some popular television shows call it.
Not that I binge-watched every paranormal show I could get my hands on during my shut-in period. But if I did binge-watch them, it was solely for educational purposes.
The fog that rolls into the cove now surrounds me.
You would think as a very claustrophobic individual, the fog would make me uncomfortable. But strangely enough, the fog feels more like a security blanket.
Sure, I can’t see further than an arm’s length ahead of me, but that means no one can see me either, and that suits me just fine.
However, the cave that looms ahead of me will be a trial. The caves are a local legend. This cove is less thanan hour’s drive from my apartment, so I was all in when I heard a few tourists talking about the destination.
I love to walk the coastline by my apartment every night before bed. Over the last two years, I’ve freed at least a dozen faceless along that path. But I know that if I want to help more trapped spirits, I need to start looking into new places.
That’s where the cave comes into play. The cove is surrounded by steep cliffs, except for one slightly less death-inducing hill on the far-left side. Usually, access to the cove is completely blocked off by churning waters.
The tides here are some of the highest in the world. The cave is only accessible at the lowest tide, and even then, not for very long. As the tide ultimately rises, the cave becomes fully flooded again and invisible to the world.
