Harper's Hill, Chapter 24: The Land That Doesn't Forget

Getting into her cousin's car, Camille looked over at Emily and gave her a big smile. "Thanks so much for coming to get me, Emily," She beamed, closing the door. "I'm really excited to go explore the East side."

"Don't get too excited," Emily said with a chuckle, watching as Camille put her seatbelt on. She put the car into reverse and backed out of her Uncle Julian's driveway. "We're not going on an extended tour. I'm gonna drive you around a big, gonna look at a few places, that's all."

"Of course, whatever you're comfortable with," Camille said with a small smile, knowing in her head that she would probably be able to get more out of her cousin. Either way, she was just excited to go over the hill, which she had never done before.

Even though the two sides of town were only about a 10 minute drive apart, the contrast had always been stark. The West side of Harper's Hill glistened with prosperity as the East side crumbled due to homelessness, crime, and so much more tragedy than could be explained.

The East side of Harper's Hill itself seemed to have its own spirit. It was alive, but not well at all, as the energy of the area loomed over the people who lived there, making them feel unsettled and lost. These people found themselves constantly searching for something, and often stumbled into the wrong places during their search.

It wasn't a coincidence that the people from the East side seemed to have tragedy follow them around. Camille knew what the people said — the land held secrets. She didn't know the nature of the secrets, but she felt like she was determined to find them out. Maybe she would be the one to make things better. Maybe she could break the curse, if one existed.

"Is it okay if I roll down the window?" Camille asked, looking over at Emily. They were currently heading up the hill that separated the two sides of town, and Camille was feeling a little pressure from knowing that she was lying to her parents. She was starting to sweat a bit, and she needed some fresh air.

"Yeah, sure. That's fine," Emily said, shrugging her shoulders. She drove casually, one hand on the wheel and the other in her lap.

"Do you drive a lot?" Camille asked her cousin, judging by how naturally the process seemed to come to her.

"Yeah," Emily nodded, "My full time job used to be delivering groceries around the East side of Harper's Hill. I only do it twice a week now, if that, but I always enjoyed doing it."

"Why couldn't the people get their groceries themselves?" Camille asked.

"The people on the East side have always had a hard go of it," Emily said nonchalantly, as if that fact was just something that everybody should know. "A lot of them don't have cars to get over the hill."

"I see," Camille said, looking out the window as they reached the top of the hill. Seeing her surroundings, she forgot about feeling anxious. "Wow, this view is cool." She peeked forward at the East side, and then spun around in her seat to try and get another view of the West side before it left her view and she couldn't see it anymore.

"Not a lot of people go up to the top of the hill to see it," Emily said. "It's a shame. It is a pretty cool view."

It was interesting to see the contrast between the two sides of town. Driving down the hill that led into the East side, the differences were noticeable. The houses and buildings were much more run down, with shitty streets and garbage all over the streets — like the set of bikes that sat by the bottom of the hill, having been there for so long that they seemed to belong to the land now.

Camille was used to everything being in reach and everything being clean. But here it seemed like that wasn't the case. There wasn't much, and access to running hydro and heat was scarce, so this side of town was extremely inaccessible for someone who didn't have a car.

"So, what are you gonna show me first?" Camille asked, watching as Emily took a left turn.

"We're gonna drive by the forest," Emily said. "We're not going in, though."

Camille nodded and rolled down her window before leaning out and watching the scenery as they drove by. The woods were dark and looming. They had stories to tell, and Camille wanted to hear them all.

She listened as her cousin explained the history of the East side of Harper's Hill, including back when the East side thrived and the West side faltered. It amazed Camille that things could switch so quickly, seemingly all because one man wasn't happy with how things were currently going. But isn't that how all change starts?

Expertly avoiding her old street, Emily drove down the other streets of the East side, telling Camille small stories about the people who lived in the different houses. Camille had never been so amazed, and Emily had never been so happy to tell a story.

"This is the general store," Emily said. "It's the only store on the East side, so they sell quite a bit more than your typical general store."

"Who runs it?" Camille asked.

"Samuel Marshall II," Emily said. "Or Sam. He's awesome, and everybody loves him."

"That's cool," Camille said. "He must have people try to rob him, eh? Because of the lack of stores here in combination with the shitty area?"

"You bet," Emily nodded as they parked in front of Sam's General Store. "He has a pistol behind the counter though." She turned off the car. "Come on, let's go meet Sam," She said, opening the door and getting out of the car.

Camille shrugged an answer and got out of the car, feeling this feeling in her chest that she wasn't familiar with. As they walked from the parking spot on the side of the road to the general store, Camille stopped about halfway.

"What?" Emily asked, a look on her face saying that she might have felt nervous, or even intimidated, because of the spot they had stopped in.

"This..." Camille trailed off, and then pointed down an alleyway that was directly across the road. "That. That alleyway."

"Wh-what about it?" Emily stuttered, quickly following Camille as she hurried across the street to walk down the alleyway. "Come on, Camille. You don't need to be going down alleyways."

"It's the middle of the day, Emily!" Camille snapped at Emily, having always been the one to push the bounds of authority. She made her way further into the alleyway as Emily stood at the top of it, refusing to enter the space.

Camille let herself feel. Something was calling her here. She looked around, touched the brick wall, allowed herself to sit on the pavement and close her eyes.

In a few seconds, Camille heard footsteps hurry up to her. She looked up at Emily, who didn't look well. In fact, she looked angry. "Come on, let's go."

"We're fine," Camille said. "You're being dramatic—"

Before Camille could finish her sentence, she was being pulled by her arm by Emily, and she was being dragged out of the alley.

"You knew what you were doing, making me take you here," Emily muttered under her breath.

"What do you mean? Where?" Camille asked.

"Like you don't know!" Emily exclaimed at her, her voice getting louder and more intense. "It can't be a coincidence that you led me here."

"I was just following my intuition..." Camille said.

"Sure, the same intuition that forced me to take you here?" Emily asked.

"Emily, I don't know what you're talking about..."

Exasperated, Emily let out a groan as she stood in the middle of the street. "Camille, you've led me to the alley where my mom died."