Looking up from the phone, I saw a cluster of drunken twenty-somethings coming in my direction. They passed by, barely giving me a second glance, too interested in trying to remember the lyrics to a song they were singing as they stumbled down the street. I was twenty-nine years old, not that much older than them, but I felt like an old woman in comparison. I couldn't remember the last time I'd felt so carefree, so confident, so young, and so free.

Maybe I'd never really been any of those things. I'd just pretended to feel like that, so I would be like everyone else. But I had never been like everyone else.

The bells on a nearby church suddenly rang…twelve long, penetrating, clanging bells that were echoed by my pounding heart. I hurried down the street. We were supposed to meet at the cemetery next to the church. Even though I hadn't gotten a text to confirm, I needed to be there, because that's why I'd come.

As the wind lifted my hair, I felt drops of rain. Maybe the city wouldn't take the full force of the hurricane, but the incoming storm only deepened my sense of foreboding. It didn't help that I was heading into an old cemetery with overgrown trees and bushes or that the black iron gates squealed as I opened them, like a painful ghostly scream. This cemetery had been full for decades and as I walked around the crowded, sometimes broken gravestones, my bad feelings increased. I told myself it wasn't evil spirits I had to worry about. If I ran into danger, it would be from someone who was very much alive.

When I reached the mausoleum, a stone building in the middle of the property, I paused under an overhang, happy to have shelter from the increasing rain. Every crack of a twig had my head turning in fear. It felt like someone was watching me, but everyone here was dead. I paced back and forth. The adrenaline surging through my body needed somewhere to go.

This was a mistake. I shouldn't have come.

But I'd had to come. I'd had no choice.

Finally, I heard the gate open again, then footsteps. I held my breath until one of the few nearby lights in the cemetery illuminated a familiar face. Relief ran through me. "You're late," I said. "But it's good to see you."

"I wasn't sure you'd come."

"Yes, you were. I've never not come. But why are we here in this spooky place?"

"The past has caught up to me."

The words were haunting and terrifying, and an icy shiver ran down my spine. "What happened?"

"I was seen. I need to get away. Did you bring what I asked?"

"Yes."

"Good. My…friend should be here soon."

"I hope so. The weather is turning bad," I said. "Is this person someone you can trust?"

"I hope so."