Bounce Back

They buried him on a Monday. The sky was overcast, colorless, like someone had drained the warmth from the world. The wind didn't move. The trees stood still. And I stood next to a hole in the ground trying to remember how to breathe.

Calen Draven. Twenty-eight years old. My fiancé. My almost-husband. Now, just a name on a headstone and a silence I can't fill.

I didn't cry. Not because I wasn't broken-I was. But the grief didn't come in tears. It came like smoke. Thick in my lungs, sour in my mouth. It settled behind my eyes and burned, but nothing fell.

They said it was an animal attack. A bear, maybe. Some freak encounter him in the woods where he liked to run. The sheriff said there were claw marks. Deep ones. That was all they told me.

They didn't mention the symbols. The ones scorched into the bark of the trees where he died. They didn't say anything about the way his body was found-not just torn, but arranged. I read that part in the report I wasn't supposed to see. I wish I hadn't.

The funeral was small. Calen never liked big crowds. The Dravens were there, dressed like the grief was tailored onto their bones. His mother wore black lace and pearls, but her face was sharp. She looked at me like I was the crack in the picture. Like I didn't belong next to the hole they were putting him in.

I wore the ring.

It felt heavy. Not like a symbol of love, but like a question no one would answer. The silver was warm against my skin, but my fingers felt cold.

Jez stood next to me. She didn't speak. Just slid her hand into mine and held it, solid and still. She smelled like citrus and old smoke. Her buzzed hair was dyed electric blue again. It clashed hard with her black funeral shirt, but that was the point. Jez never blended in, and Calen liked that about her.

"You okay?" she whispered, voice low enough that only I could hear.

I nodded. Lie number one of many.

The minister said something about eternal rest. About peace and memory and letting go. I stopped listening. My eyes stayed locked on the coffin as it was lowered into the ground. The finality of it didn't hit. It didn't feel like he was down there. It felt like he was somewhere else, stuck between.

When the ropes tightened and the wood disappeared below the earth, something cold ran down my spine. My skin pulled tight. I wasn't alone.

I turned slowly, like looking too fast might scare it away. At the edge of the cemetery, just past the crooked gate and half-dead trees, there was someone standing in the woods. Far enough that I couldn't see a face, but close enough to know they were watching.

Tall. Still. Like they belonged to the forest. Like the trees grew around them.

I blinked.

Gone.

"Did you see that?" I asked. Jez looked where I pointed, but the space was empty.

"See what?"