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“Yeah, if it leads somewhere.”
The second person was a woman. She was young, about five years older than Elizabeth. She was fit compared to the man. She had pulled her dark hair back in a tight ponytai
l and wore a dark, nondescript baseball cap. Elizabeth could tell by looking at her that she took her work seriously. Would this be the woman who would solve her murder?
Murder?
Murder.
The thought entered Elizabeth’s mind unbidden and her concentration broke for a second time. It surprised her she could feel anything beyond the pain in her body; a sense of exhaustion made her want to let go and fade out of existence.
But she refused. She couldn’t disappear while her killer was still out there, living his life like he mattered more than her. Anger swept across her body, almost enough to drown out the pain. She tried to cry out again to no avail.
She paced the crime scene, looking at each person’s face, catching snippets of conversation here and there. She didn’t understand most of it when she could hear them, but it didn’t matter. They knew where she was, and that was the important part. They knew she had been killed. They wouldn’t rest until they found her killer.
And neither would she.
Her determination to stick around until they solved her case lit another fire in her. This one cooled her anger, though it didn’t dull her pain. Instead, she felt a strange sensation within her chest. It went deeper than her heart, deeper than her spine. It was like a rope had been lassoed around her soul and cinched tight. It wasn’t painful, but it wasn’t something she could ignore. It began tugging her away from the crime scene.
Elizabeth’s thoughts were still frantic. It took an immense amount of effort to think. She was dead. It wasn’t easy to accept, but she had no other choice. And something was dulling the attachment to the flashes of memories that struck like lightning every few seconds. The evidence was right in front of her. Literally. Was the lasso trying to lead her to the next life? She didn’t see a light other than the sun. No angels came down to escort her to the beyond. She didn’t feel a sense of peace washing over her.
Were all those stories a lie? Was she going somewhere else? She pondered the questions while her feet dragged her forward. She resisted at first, anxious not to leave her body behind. What would they do with her? Would she ever see herself again? Did she want to?
Maybe the lasso was pulling her home, to her empty apartment. Or maybe it was pulling her to her mother and father and sister. Maybe it wanted her to say goodbye to her family. She dug her heels in. She didn’t want that. Not yet at least. She didn’t want to see them crying over her. She didn’t want to see them begging for answers. She wanted to have those answers before she let go.
The lasso gave her a light tug, enough to get her moving again. She stumbled forward, through the trees and out onto a road. Cars zipped by, unaware that a few hundred feet in the woods was a dead woman staring up at the sky with sightless eyes, her heart having been cut right out of her chest.
Elizabeth looked at the sign in front of her. It faded in and out of view, but a few seconds later, she figured out what it said. She had driven along this road countless times. And when the lasso gave her another tug, she didn’t hesitate. She still didn’t know what she was supposed to do, but she knew where she would find her answers.
It was taking her back to the city.
Back to Savannah.
Two
Once again, Cassie caught herself smiling when no one was around. She found it strange to be aware of her own happiness, to have its mere existence surprise her. She had experienced darkness for so long that the slightest of light caught her off guard.
She allowed herself to live in the moment, something she had struggled with most of her life. She would not take that feeling for granted again. It filled her with a warmth that brought a flush to her cheeks.
It had been over ten years since that fateful night in the graveyard, the one that had almost taken her life. In fact, according to the doctors, it had killed her. But by some miracle, or maybe her own strength of will, she clawed her way back to the land of the living. And everything changed.
The thought of her would-be killer, Novak, was almost enough to snuff out her happiness.
Almost.
It started with Novak escaping jail and going on a killing spree. That was not a great start. He had seen her picture in the newspaper and decided to finish what he had started years ago. It would’ve been a gruesome ending for Cassie if Mitch Tanner, a detective and friend from Philadelphia, hadn’t saved her life. It was a miracle he was there.
The rest of the year had been a whirlwind of cops and trials and statements and media. The officers assigned to her case had kept her name as low profile as possible, but it was hard to go completely undetected. Still, she managed to keep her face out of the news. After all, this was Savannah. A few weeks went by and some other tragedy caught everyone’s attention. She was old news.
And as crazy as her life had been, it was all worth it. Novak had been given the death penalty. The evidence against him was overwhelming, and his recent escape proved he could not be reformed. If given the chance, he would kill time and time again.
Four months ago, they had taken his life. It was a small consolation for the number of lives he had taken himself.
Cassie hadn’t known peace until that day. She worried she would see him in her dreams, or while she was awake. But as the days slipped away, so did her worries. He didn’t come to her, and she knew he had received the sentence he deserved.
Her face started to ache from smiling so much, but she relished the pain. It had been a long time since she had felt this light and carefree. And she would do anything to hold onto the feeling forever.
“Today’s going to be the day.”
