Chapter 1
Driving back into Gallatin was a mission, and one Raz didn’t care to complete. When it called her home, she tried her best to ignore it, but there was no way out of it. Her aunt was dead, and as her final family, the last person bearing the name Walker, Raz was responsible for cleaning up the mess. The burial part had already taken place. Raz never cared for her aunt, who had been as cold and mean as Arctic ice, and felt only what was necessary took place. Her aunt was cremated in less than 48 hours after being found keeled over in her kitchen at the ripe age of 91, and that was that.
What was left behind could not be handled as efficiently. Enola Walker left behind an ancient victorian manor near the center of the small town. It had stood there for many, many years, and had been passed down through generations of Walker and their spawn. Raz could practically feel the memories pour in as she merely imagined walking up the peeling, wooden front steps to the wrap around porch. She could see herself, teenaged and slender, red hair cascading down her back in her seventh year of school, hear the sound of Aunt Walker shouting at her through the open door behind her. The memories brought fear and hatred, something cold her aunt had buried within her long ago, that she had tried to run from for so long. Raz could only imagine how bad it would be when she actually arrived.
She pulled a cigarette from a pack lying haphazardly in the center console and lit it quickly, inhaling it’s sick smoke as she watched her speed. Eyeing the arrow pointing to 90, she decelerated. The anxiety was making her drive fast, but she had no desire to get there anymore quickly than she already would be. She lifted her foot from the gas pedal, watching the arrow tick down in decceleration.
Raz was twenty-four now, and that meant a lot of things. It meant that she was precariously leaving her young adulthood behind her, and that she was now expected to be something of an adult. It meant that her three year stint of living in her old red Econoline should probably come to an end. A real job should be obtained instead of traveling from town to town and doing odd jobs as the need for cash arose. Maybe she should buy a suit jacket, but the thought disgusted her. Lastly, it meant that her brother had died, and she’d need to come back to their hometown for a funeral that only she would show up for. A wad of some $400 was hidden in a sock beneath her seat, she’d been saving for one of the fancier, bigger generators for some time, but now it was Magnus.
Thinking about him made her bite back tears constantly. Raz didn’t cry, not even for death. It was something the world would have to live with. And so she continued, onto her hometown. Onto put her brother to rest, and sort through his belongings for the last time. Whatever lay there would lay there, and she needed to accept it.
She rolled into town about half past noon, and parked the Econoline outside of the small sheriff’s office, a cruddy looking building that looked as if it had been abandoned. Memories of the times she’d spent here, in particular, were threatening and made her uneasy. Now, however, she wasn’t here waiting for her aunt to pick her up, after having been dragged by the ear from a barnyard party, half drunk and stoned and...
~~2009~~
“A terrible example for your brother.” Aunt Walker chastised as she led Raz to the station wagon. It was two in the morning, and she’d come in her nightdress, a real sight for sore eyes. Her nine year old brother followed quietly behind them, shivering in the cold February air. “Honestly, Roselynne, what on Earth were you thinking? You’ve pulled some pretty dumb shit, but this is too far, far too far.”
Raz tried to stifle a laugh but it came out anyway, piercing the night as they climbed into the car.
“Magnus isn’t going to turn out anything like me.” The drunk teenaged girl replied, pitifully, her voice cracking as she buckled her seatbelt. “I’m sure you’ll make sure of it.”
“I’m not here to clean up after your corruption.” Aunt Walker snapped back, putting the keys in the ignition. “But I am here to put an end to it. I know your mother let you wander off without a care in the world but I-”
“No. Don’t mention my mother.”
~~Present~~
“Can I help you miss?” The officer asked, tapping on her half cracked window.
“Shirley.” She responded with a blink. “It’s me, Roselynne. Don’t you recognize me?”
“Your hair’s a lot shorter.” He answered gruffly. “You’ll be here for Magnus.”
The words were not a question, but a statement. What else could she be here for? Magnus was the only business she’d ever left here, and she’d hold to regret it every day for the rest of her life. It would be uncomfortable, but it had to be done. At least as soon as she was done, she could leave, and she’d never have a reason to come back.
“Let’s head in and start with the paperwork. You’ll have to identify the body, just a formality, bless the kid’s heart. We all know who he is. And then Mr. Pellman at the funeral home will be expecting you.”
“Right.” She answered grimly. “Let’s not draw this out.”
She didn’t mean it, of course, as Officer Shirley had taken it, like she couldn’t be bothered with the dead or there justices. She meant it as her heart couldn’t take the thought or bare the feeling of breathing here without her brother at her side. Shirley gave her a mean mugging look as she climbed out of the car, but, of course, he wouldn’t understand. He’d never liked her. Barely anyone here had.
