Three days after Dan's death, Marietta woke to find Anne
Faith staring at Maryanne's cross. 'Do you remember,' Anne asked quietly, 'what
her name was?' Marietta opened her mouth. But something somehow forced it shut.
The name was there—she could feel its shape, taste its syllables—but couldn't
speak it. Like trying to recall a dream that fled. They'd been driving for days
now, chasing fragments of memory that dissolved like mist. Then they arrived at
a distant churchyard Marietta gasped. Anne Faith's pendant flared. Together,
they watched Dan's soul—a blue orb now, cleansed—float toward endless light.
They both also saw a pure gold light go ahead of Dans soul, it was Maryanne's
soul. Maryanne blessed them as Maryanne moved on into the afterlife. As Marietta
and Anne Faith both saw the vision, the memory of there beloved mom faded out
of existence.. Anne Faith immediately realized this and said, "What was that?"
Marietta "Seems like we just experienced a taste of the life
beyond this one. She smirked, but that feeling in my gut says something's wrong
like we're forgetting a love that was so fond…"
Anne Faith "A love that shaped our story, or life it was our
life it even blessed us when it left…"
Marietta said "Why are we outside this ruined church we need
to get home, or at least to aunty Clara's and Elijah's to tell them what's
happened."
Anne Faith said " What has happened all I remember is making
it out of that church and that weird vision after we prayed for that creepy Dan
guy." To tell you the truth I can't recall what happened inside the church or
how we even got there!
Marietta said " It's that love the one we feel under the
deepest layer of our skin, and in the depths of our hearts still. It feels like
it's fading in and out of memory." We need more answers, Marietta and Anne
Faith find their moms car and don't recognize it. They both said looks like we
got lucky enough, a car up the road still with keys in it. They step in and see
a cross with jagged edges, and dried blood hanging around the mirror and they
feel a tug at their hearts. Anne Faith said, "This car seems to familiar to not
be ours. Marietta started the engine. 'Then we're going back to Clara's. If
anyone remembers her, it's family.' The rain started as they pulled onto the
highway."