CHAPTER THIRTY NINE

Tegwen could make out the shape of the Audubon Bay Bridge in the distance through the foggy night. Everything she still owned was at that bridge. It had been her home, a place of refuge where she sought sanctuary when her memory chose to serve her too well. But that night, visions of the bridge through her clouded sight brought her unbearable heartache. Yet she continued toward it, running just as fast as she had when she tore out of the Fourteen Karat Jewel Garden. Her stamina as a sprinter was amazing; she could have been a distance runner, just as well.

Tegwen stopped running once she reached the south facing tower. Dropping to her knees on the roughened sidewalk, Tegwen let out a dreadful cry.

Her head was turned to the overcast sky, void of any discernible color, and she felt fine mist spraying against her cheeks from the low lying clouds. "Why?!" She wailed, reaching to the clouds, searching for stars she couldn't see. "Why can't you just leave me alone?! Why must you haunt me? Why must you torture me?!"

She drew in a deep breath, shaking from her sobs. "I found him! I know now who killed you!" Crying harder yet, Tegwen dropped her arms to the ground, in a gesture of prayer and placed her forehead to the concrete. It shook and vibrated as the occasional car drove by on the bridge.

"Why?" She asked herself through her tears. "I found who killed you, Mom, Dad. Isn't this closure?" She glanced back up to the sky, yelling until her throat became raw: "Why does this still hurt?!" Why am I still dying? Why won't it all go away?

An eerie silence fell over the city and Tegwen vaguely noticed that no more cars were crossing the bridge. Her shaky breathing was the only sound that echoed in her ears, reminding her just how alone she was.

Tegwen rested on her knees, head bent down in sorrow. Emptiness was a feeling Tegwen could never grow accustomed to.

Off in the distance somewhere, she heard a low rumbling sound, pulsing through the sky at regular intervals. Tegwen wiped the tears from her eyes and glanced upwards in search of what was making the peculiar noise. A beam of white light sliced through the fog as the sound grew near. When the light came to shine just above her head, casting her shadow onto the white concrete beneath her, Tegwen realized it was the cause of the rumbling. A helicopter?

She gasped, jumping to her feet. There was a figure in the low lying clouds, but what little Tegwen did see was enough to inform her that the unidentified flying object was not a helicopter. At least, not like any helicopter that she had ever seen before. It almost looks like a . . . a . . . duck! Tegwen pondered it, feeling one last tear slip down her bill. The object continued into the heart of St. Canard. For a split second, she considered following it.



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