FOREST HILLS → OUTSKIRTS OF EMPIE PARK
ft. @amytaylcr
Jogging wasn’t exactly Alyssa’s strongest activity. She much preferred spending 40 minutes or so on a mixture of the cardio machines, and then promptly go and complain about how hard she had worked in the juice place down the street. She got much more satisfaction about it that way. Jogging had her far from home, and the lack of fitness she actually had her genuinely considering calling herself a Lyft home rather than jog all the way back to her apartment.
She’d come to a stop somewhere outside of Empie Park, an area that she wasn’t completely familiar with in its entirety. Since she had moved to Wilmington she’d moved straight into the Downtown area and as such spent the most of her time there if she hadn’t ventured towards the beach. As she looked around, she couldn’t help but think that maybe she’d missed out on not coming down here sooner. That was her eyes fell upon what looked like a church in the distance, and she finally focused on the headstones in the ground on the other side of the low wall that ran adjacent to the sidewalk that she had been jogging against.
Graveyards put her on edge slightly, and she’d tried to avoid them where she could. She’d not stepped foot in one before the age of eighteen, and even then it was only for the funeral for a teacher she’d admired. The last time she’d gone near one was her sister’s funeral just over two years ago, and she certainly didn’t plan on going back any time soon if she could help it. The thought of all the people under the grass caused her to visibly shudder at the thought. She tried to shake off the thought, instead taking it as a sign that she should probably start heading in the other direction back home. Her thoughts were on the many ghosts that must be wandering around the grounds of the graveyard, as her attention was drawn to another jogger coming down the path. Her eyes squinted as she tried to make out the figure that she was certain she recognised, and wondered whether or not she was truly seeing a ghost that she had been so desperately trying to run from.
A baseball hat on her head, her hair pulled up into a ponytail, and her favorite pair of sneakers. Those were the essentials when Amy Taylor went on a jog, making sure she was comfortable above all else. Her route changed and shifted every time, letting her feet carry her rather than consciously choosing where to go. This time, as her thoughts wandered to the letters of application she had just sent out that morning, she lost track of time and space, moving out further than she normally would have, near Empie park, and the graveyard nearby. It was a spot she hadn’t visited since before she left for Latin America, not because she was avoiding as was the case in the past, but because her time and mind had been taken over by other issues.
Now that she was nearing it, however, Amy wondered if she should stop and pay a visit to Logan’s grave, make sure it was still neat and tidy. Tell him all about what’s been going on in her life recently.
That track of thoughts was brought to an end as she spotted a figure jogging towards her. It wasn’t unusual to see people running in this area, in fact, it was one of the favorite spots for everyone, but there was something about this particular jogger that seemed oddly familiar. As she neared the young woman, her features coming into sharp focus the closer Amy got, her mind was flooded with memories of the last time she saw her, and the last time she saw someone who looked a lot like her. Blood drained from her face as she remembered the limp body of a young woman who looked exactly like the one within Amy’s reach as her jog slowed to a step, and then came to an abrupt halt.
“A-Aly?” Amy muttered. Part of her waited for the woman to dissipate and disappear like the apparition she must have been, and another part prayed it was the twin sister of the woman she couldn’t have saved. “Is that you?”
