A Beautiful Tragedy

:: :: A Beautiful Tragedy :: ::1

:: Prologue ::2

It wasn’t a dark and rainy night, in fact, the starry sky was clear of all clouds. Despite the beautiful weather, it was like any tragedy film evening. Jackie spent the small hours of the morning drowning her pillow, crying over the farthest thing from spilled milk. Death and disaster weren’t recurring themes in her world. This was the first time she’d lost anyone really important. 3

Her best friend, Travis, who was also her boyfriend, had found his end. He went out to a party with his parents and everything was like the usual. His parents had nothing to drink that night, the doctors checked their blood-alcohol levels to be sure of it. When they found the car, it looked as if someone had planted a bomb somewhere inside. The police had already begun investigating the area and interrogating numerous people that were at the party. 4

:: Chapter One ::5

It had been six months since Travis’ death. On the outside, Jackie was back to normal, but on the inside she was still going crazy with unanswered questions. The F.B.I. had given up on the case two months after they had started trying to figure everything out. No one really remembered what had happened, except a few people who were close to the family. Jackie’s parents, had let it slip away almost instantly, and they looked over her depression for half a year. 6

Summer vacation wasn’t what it used to be for Jackie. Before everything she used to hang out with Travis. They went to concerts and went skateboarding and sometimes they just drove around for hours and talked. Travis was 17 then and Jackie was 15. 7

Jackie walked down the roads in the town she lived in with no real destination. She walked past the site of the murder and put flowers near the memorial plaque. 8

All her time was spent alone, she had no other real friends. None, that is, that she wanted to spend time with. They were all insensitive to the fact that Jackie was depressed, and most likely would be for the rest of forever. Or so she believed herself.9

Today was Wednesday. The ground was muddy and slippery from the rain, and as she walked back toward her house, she could barely see in front of her it was raining so hard. Her clothes clung to her, and her hair hung over her smudged make up on her face. She pushed open the front door and called out to her parents, who, she found, were not home. She then realized both cars weren’t in the driveway, so she assumed they had gone out to lunch or something.10

She changed out of her soaked clothes and went online. The internet was her way of becoming the center of all knowledge. She always checked to see if the police had stumbled across any hints to the murder of Travis’ family, but everyday it was more clear that they had really given up on the case. 11

What she did find was that the house next door to hers, which she’d believed to be haunted for as long as she could remember, had been sold. She wondered when the family was going to arrive, but it didn’t say that much.12

Once she’d absorbed all the useful, interesting little tid-bits of information she flipped on the TV and watched music videos until late that night. She fell asleep at around eleven thirty, and still her parents hadn’t arrived home. 13

She was aroused from sleep when she heard doors slamming in the next yard over. She looked out her window to see that there was a U-Haul in the driveway. Still there were no cars in her driveway, and she was beginning to get worried that something may have happened.14

The floor was hard, and hurt when she rolled off her bed. Before she did anything she put on a pair of faded jeans, a black ‘The Used’ concert tee, and her black skate shoes. Only because there were new neighbors, she put on make up, because she hated how she looked without it.15

Before she was out the door to introduce herself to the new-comers an hour and forty five minutes had passed. As she walked across her lawn she caught a glimpse of the family. There appeared to be four of them. The man who must have been the father was almost fit-looking and had graying brown hair. His wife or girlfriend was short and looked as if she’d been through Hell. There were two sons. One looked about five years old, at most, and had light blonde hair and was absolutely adorable, Jackie thought. The older son, who had to have been 17 at least, had jet black, obviously dyed, hair. He was tall and pretty good looking. 16

“Hey neighbors!” Jackie said, being fake cheerful to make a good first impression.17

“Well, hello there,” The older man said. “James Lavigne. This is my wife, Debbie, and my boys Roland and Charlie.”18

“Nice to meet you all, I’m Jackie Johnson.”19

“Nice to meet you too,” They said.20

“You guys need any help?” 21

“If you want to, you can help Charlie carry his boxes up to his room. He’s getting edgy because he wants all his stuff in,” Roland, the older boy, suggested, with a slight hint of a Canadian accent. 22

“Okay,” Jackie said, smiling and meeting his green eyes. 23

Charlie climbed up into the U-Haul and pointed to all the boxes that were his. Jackie noticed that each one he pointed to had crayon scribbles all over them. She climbed up into the back of the truck and lifted two boxes and Charlie led the way to his new bedroom. 24

It took six or seven trips to get all of Charlie’s boxes, and four more to get his furnature. Jackie passed a few more hours helping arrange Charlie’s room, since his parents had to do the whole house and Roland had to do his room. Helping the family was the first time she had a chance to get Travis off her mind. 25

“Guess what,” Charlie said, his voice still young and high pitched.26

“What,” Jackie asked as she hung up a poster of about twenty different HotWheels cars. 27

“’dis is Teddy” He explained as he stuck a stuffed bear in Jackie’s face.28

“Hi Teddy,” She said.29

“Teddy finks you’re nice,” He said, then went back over to his box of toys. “Look! ‘dis is a car. Vroom! Vroom!” He was occupied on the floor making a small car go back and forth over cracks. “Boom! Oh no, the car blowed up.” He threw the car to the side and found something else to do.30

When he said that, memories came back to Jackie. She didn’t say anything or let any signs come through that she was upset, but she went quiet. She finished the room and went back down to see if they needed any more help. 31

Since they had everything under control, Jackie went home. Her parents still weren’t around. She picked up the phone and dialed their cell phone number, but she heard the ring coming from her parents’ bedroom. 32

“Dammit!” She snapped at no one in particular.33

She looked at the numbers on the cell phone and called a few people, but no one knew where they were. Something inside gave her the idea to call the police, but before she did a knock came on the door. 34

Without any caution she opened it and saw Roland standing there with his hands in his pockets. “Want to come with me to get some take-out? I don’t really know where any good restaurants are and i thought it would be cool to get to know each other.” He asked.35

“Uh,” Jackie looked at the phone and thought about the situation at hand. For a second she hesitated, but in the end she agreed and they climbed into his black Dodge pick-up. “So what kind of food are you looking for?”36

“I don’t know. Pizza maybe,” He said.37

“They serve pizza at a little place 20 minutes away. Sound cool to you?”38

“Sounds great,” He said.39

“So, where are you from?”40

“Toronto.”41

“Is it nice there?” 42

“I guess so. Get’s mighty cold in the winter.”43

“It gets pretty cold here too. Not as cold as Canada though.”44

“What’s there to do for fun around here?”45

“Not too much. The ocean’s about a mile or two away from here. Sometimes some good bands come around and play in Portland or Augusta. There’s a bunch of skateparks around here. That’s pretty much it i guess.”.....46