Ever See

Mrs King looked over her new tenants. A widower and his teenage son, strangers to the village - it was very peculiar.

"What made you chose this area to live in?" She asked whilst obtrusively looking over the pair.

"My wife talked of this place." Replied Mathew Evans in his soft welsh voice.

"Really? What was her name, I never forget an inhabitant of this village and I've lived here all my life."

"Christiana," Mathew replied observing Mrs King's reaction.

"I've never heard of her." Mrs King retorted confidently. "What was her surname?"

"If you have never heard of Christiana then her surname is of little importance." There was something creepy in the man's face as said this. Mrs King shivered and regretted that nobody else was interested in renting her little cottage.

"Well I'll leave you both to get settled in." She eyed the boy now, sixteen year old lad a couple of heads taller than her and completely silent. No, Mrs King was not happy about this situation at all.

Once Mrs King had left, Jack turned questioningly to his father who was staring out the window. Following his gaze, Jack scanned the view of organised tombstones. Some were crumbling, others were cut from fresh, white stone with flowers placed over the neatly clipped grass.

"Some next door neighbour. Couldn't we have got a place without a graveyard view?" Questioned Jack, his welsh accent much more pronounced.

"It's perfect." Matthew replied resting his forehead against the glass.

*

Hope kicked Daniel out in the end. He talked about camping out on the door step until she took him back but in the end he scuttled back to London. He tried to hug Hannah, Lucy and Sarah goodbye but none of them were having any of it. Sarah glared at him (impaired a bit by her crying) whilst Lucy pushed him roughly away. After the whole nose incident his attempt to hug Hannah was very cautious and she cut it off in the early stages by turning her back on him.

This took the entire night and now Hannah was making breakfast at half eleven. The glance at the clock reminded her about the funeral that was set for two pm. She wondered what Jordan was up to and how he was coping. It was a miserable day, completely overcast by a thick layer of cloud.

In the end Hannah was the only one of the family to attend the funeral. Hope just didn't feel up for it and Hannah phoned Joseph Smith and asked him to come round and keep Hope company. Joseph brought his son Joe with him who quickly took up the role of shoulder to cry on for Sarah. Joseph and Hope occupied the living room and Joe took care of a weeping Sarah in the kitchen. Hannah had expected Lucy to attend with her. She'd knocked tentatively on her door.

"Lucy, it's me - do you want to set off for the funeral now?"

Lucy had opened her bedroom door only enough to reveal half her face.

"I'm not going."

"Lucy she was your best friend - you'll regret it later if you don't go."

"Won't change anything, she's still dead."

Hannah couldn't argue with that. So in the end (and after getting a stubbed toe from one of Lucy's signature sharp door slams) Hannah went on her own. As it was the summer holidays she could walk across the school field that was usually used by the primary school (so small it only has three classrooms). The grass was cut short and she walked along the tracks that had been made for the school's sports day.

She had always loved sports day at school. You got to sit outside and talk with your friends and shout as loud as you liked to cheer your team. It helped that she was also a quick runner. Team games were never her forte there were too many rules to learn and she had always felt that you couldn't get really into a game if you're restricted to just playing a certain part of it. But running she liked, she found it challenging and competitive and there was no standing around observing all the action happening down the other end of the court again and again.

Hannah left the field and entered the alleyway. This was a path frequented by many all through the year as a short cut to get from one end of the (already very short) village to the other that - for some mystery - had never had a light down it. One side was a wall, the other a fence and the entire thing was overcast by an arching plant that blocked out the sun or moon. This meant that in the alleyway it was always night time. Nervous children tended to run down the entire length to get out of it quickly, yet never had anyone made any move to create an artificial light source.

When Hannah broke out of the alley way, she entered the oldest part of the village. The houses here were mainly cottages. She crossed the road and passed through a gate to the modest church. Practically the entire village had turned out in formal black attire for the occasion and were already filing through into the church. Hannah cringed as she avoided the curious eyes that observed her enter the church by herself. She wished that the others had come with her.

She took a seat at the very back and kept her eyes fixed on her hands. Whilst the funeral went on Hannah began to feel guilty about how little she'd grieved about young Jessica. To be honest she'd been too preoccupied with fears about Lucy. The Daniels' were at the front of the church, each of them got up to say something about Jessica. When Jordan read his poem his voice caught twice and he was crying silently by the end. Hannah didn't recognise the poem he'd read out but it was extremely beautiful.

Jessica Daniels was buried in the new cemetery. Hannah struggled to watch as they lowered the coffin, it felt too horrible to leave her in the dark. Instead she looked around at the rest of the audience. Many people were dabbing tissues at their eyes and there were few sniffs. Only one face was unfamiliar to her.

He didn't seem to be a relative of Jessica's - since he was standing near the back, away from the Daniels'. He looked to be about mid-twenties and was very attractive but just as this thought passed through Hannah's mind, his eyes snapped up and looked directly at her. Hannah quickly looked away embarrassed at being caught staring at a stranger. A stranger...

No, she had seen him before... But where? She meant to look more closely at him but he'd vanished. Hannah looked around but he was nowhere in the cemetery, it was like he he'd turned into a headstone or dissolved into thin air.