Follow the Green Lady

“My dear, are you awake?”

Nikki Chambers had fallen asleep on her best friend’s tombstone when she heard those strange words from a woman with an airy, almost velvety voice. She lifted her head from the granite to see the woman’s low vamp, tawny slippers, and flowing green skirt. She couldn’t lift her head more than a few inches, even though she had slept for hours. She grew more weary and weaker by the day, especially in the year since Lucas passed. He was the only person buried in Lamson Corner Cemetery in over a decade. She found it unfair that her best friend had only a flat tombstone that sat flush with the ground. The Johnston family had very little money for one. No services were held. They paid the groundskeeper to have him buried without any visible markers. They pretended that Lucas never withered away to sixty pounds and less than six t-cells.

“Are you here to take me?”

“No one takes you when you’re gone,” the velvety voice replied. To Nikki’s surprise, the voice turned gruff and gravely. “You’re left to wander here until everyone forgets your name, and eventually, you forget your own.”

A cruel breeze blasted over Nikki, lifting the orchids she scattered on Lucas’ stone. The orchids circled her like a cyclone. She lifted her head a few inches higher to see the lady’s thin, graying arms and waterfall of umber hair completely cover her face.

“What do you want from me?” Nikki said weakly, now sitting completely upright.

The lady said nothing, dress flowing in the breeze, orchids now circling her. Nikki had lost track of time. It was late in the afternoon, and gray clouds were blanketing the sky. She wondered if her parents, who thought her illness was “her fault,” cared how late she stayed out or if she withered away on Lucas’ tombstone, a death she found preferable to dying within the walls of the place she once called home.

“What do you want for me?!” Nikki summoned the strength to scream, red hair flowing down her face, the purple blotches on her skin seeming to multiply. “I can help you remember who you are. Just…don’t hurt me or this place…”

“You will live, my dear,” the lady bellowed, extending a gray hand to her shoulder, which felt an awful lot like clay. “You will be one of two who remember.”

“One of two? What do you mean?”

“If you make others remember, you will forget.”

“I don’t understand.” The woman stood motionless, wind tossing her umber hair.

“My home is some ways down the road. I must go.”

Nikki blinked, and she was gone. Nikki blinked again, and she saw Lucas’ frail body standing before her. He looked frailer than the last time she saw him. He was wearing the black-and-white suit and cross his parents buried him with. His face was no longer a deep shade of brown but grayer than the lady’s clay skin, his eyelids drooping, his lips crooked. Before she could say his name, her best friend’s head and limbs collapsed into the grass and dirt beneath them.

“Beyond this life, a fog,” the head said, its lips contorting into its chin.

Nikki screamed louder than she ever had before, vomiting on her red hoodie, and darted as fast as she could to the front of the cemetery, not looking back as the head screamed again, “Beyond this life, a fog!”

Nearing the entrance, Nikki smelled something foul and started to convulse. It reeked like a putrid combination of rotten eggs and sulfur, much like the swamp she used to go to in summer camp. She started coughing profusely, a deep cough she felt in her ribs when a green mist rose from the earth and surrounded her. She resumed running, unsure of which direction she should run in, while the voice cackled. The mist grew increasingly thicker as Nikki smacked into a stone wall. She hollered and clutched her knees. The voice cackled once more, and the mist subsided. Nikki let out a scream that echoed out into the desolate road.

She ran down the steep path that led to Milford Street. A large truck zoomed by Nikki, blaring its horn as she scampered inside the white edge lines. When Nikki was sure that no other cars were coming, she crossed the road and forced her violently shaking body down onto the curb. She couldn’t grasp what horrifying thing she had seen but was almost sure it wasn’t Lucas. Still, she couldn’t erase the image of the screaming, severed head from her mind, nor could she forget that lady with the flowing green dress. The doctor warned her that as the virus progressed and her immune system weakened, she might begin to hallucinate.

Nikki blinked once and spotted the lady with the flowing green dress across the road, levitating over a pile of leaves. Though the woman stood a stone’s throw away, she could barely discern her features. Her skin now looked as grayer than the rocky face of a mountain. Her eyes, now visible, were gray too, shining like iron. The woman opened her mouth, unleashing a thick, green cloud of smoke. The cloud billowed into the atmosphere, stretching the length of the road. Nikki felt her heart stop momentarily as the smoke formed the face of a laughing man, its jaws clamping down on the asphalt.

“What do you want from me?!” Nikki screamed. The face answered with a booming scream of its own. Nikki blinked twice, and the cloud disappeared. Nikki vomited once more on her hoodie.

After the figure vanished, Nikki lost track of time and her surroundings. Over several minutes, she used the self-talk technique her therapist taught her, reminding herself that hallucinations were nothing more than that, no matter how real they looked. Once Nikki composed herself, she wiped the vomit from her hoodie. She grew weary from a massive migraine, forcing her brain to remember the last time she saw Lucas alive. It had been so long since she saw him in the flesh, but she needed to remember him as he was and drive the horrible, headless figure from her thoughts. First, she remembered his skin, a lovely shade of brown with dimples. A memory came to her of the first time they went out for coffee. Lucas joked about them being “yin and yang friends” because she was so pale by comparison. Next, she remembered his deep brown eyes with hints of green that lit up a room and matched his goofy facial expressions. Finally, she remembered his pearly white smile, which he flashed no matter how sickly he grew.

With all his features recalled, a memory came to her of a sweltering summer day a year and a half ago. He wasn’t well, of course, but had all of his limbs attached. Nikki’s mom dropped her off at the Waterbury Hospital. She took the elevator to the third floor, which Lucas half-jokingly termed “pre-hospice.” Nikki and his cousin Savannah were the only ones who visited these days. His parents’ “hate the sin, love the sinner” mentality kept them away for the past few months until he’d ask “god forgiveness” for his “sinful ways.” It was a warm summer afternoon when she saw him lying in his hospital bed, a cold, sterile island in the middle of the room, sketching a five-lined skink. The skink lay in the palm of a pale, freckled hand. His obsession with lizards never ceased to amuse her, especially how he always dyed his mini-dreads to match the color of his latest scaly favorite. She even bought him a lizard calendar, which stood upright on his table. June 1995 featured a Komodo dragon.

“Is that supposed to be me?” Nikki said, tapping him on the shoulder.

“Holy shit. Don’t do that!” he shrieked, pulling the sleeve of the hospital gown over his lesioned shoulder.

“Sorry,” she said, kissing him on the cheek. Lucas blushed and continued to sketch. “Hey…is that hand supposed to be mine?”

He smirked. “Do you want it to be?”

“It’s pale and freckly. I’d sure hope it’s mine.”

“Then it’s yours, Nikki Chambers, or maybe it’s your little brother. Colt is just as freckly.”

She giggled. “Ew. I hope it’s not his clammy, seven-year-old hands.”

As Nikki gave her best Colt impression, she saw another person standing in the doorway. When they realized it was Savannah, Nikki and Lucas waved their arms wildly, cheered, and made obnoxious sounds like the characters in Pee Wee’s Playhouse, their favorite TV show. Savannah laughed, adjusting her knotless braids behind her shoulders. She was still wearing her outfit from the summer theater program, a leafy, vine-patterned dress with small bells on the fringes. Nikki was happy for Savannah’s opportunity to play the part of Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The sight of her glowing and healthy made her secretly sad as well, knowing three of them could have shared the stage. A year ago, summer theater was their life. Nikki feared it would be their last summer together.

“I didn’t even say the secret word.”

“Lord, what fools these mortals be!” Lucas said, standing atop his bed. He had the best stage pose but the worst British accent.

Savannah giggled as Nikki joined him on the bed. “If you can’t be good, be careful.”

“Guys. I just rehearsed these lines for the last hour.”

“How now, spirit! Whither wander you?” Nikki said in an even worse British accent, extending a hand. After a moment of giggling, she hopped on top of the bed and joined them.

“You’re going to make me do this?”

They nodded enthusiastically.

“Fine.” Savannah rose and twirled around, which caused the twosome to cheer wildly again. “Captain of our fairy band, Helena, is here at hand.”

As Nikki and Lucas exploded into applause, they fell onto the bed and kicked their legs into the air like they had done many times before. It felt so good to just exist for a moment without talking about their illness. It felt so right to roll around the bed sheets and close their eyes like they were at a sleepover again and not have to worry about not waking up. Skin to skin, face-to-face, they lived in the moment. Nikki hoped that, for once, her mom would forget to pick her up. Nikki hoped that, for once, Savannah’s mom forgot, too, and they could stay with Lucas as long as he needed them. At least Lucas looked more full of life than he had in the year since his diagnosis. At least Nikki felt more alive in the year since her diagnosis.

“If we stay still, do you think our parents will notice we’re here,” she said to Savannah, not thinking about Lucas’ feelings at that moment.

“Maybe their vision is based on movement,” Savannah added, forcing her limbs still.

“Your parents aren’t Jurassic Park dinosaurs, and at least they give a shit.” Lucas rose from the bed and plodded to the window. Standing in his hospital oversized gown, reality set in again. “I’m sorry to sound dramatic, guys, but at least you have parents to go home to. Mine just left me here like a fucking pound dog.”

“I know how it is,” Nikki said faintly. “I have it, too…”

“Yes…” he said coldly. “We both have the same virus, but your parents have a little bit of money, and when your time comes, they won’t leave you there.”

“Lucas…” Savannah said faintly.

The girls walked over to the window and wrapped their arms around his frail body, sobbing with him while simultaneously trying to shush him and tell him that they were there.

“You know what?” Savannah said. “Fuck them.”

“Yeah, fuck them!” Nikki shouted. “Fuck your stupid parents! And they’re missing out on a damn good dog.”

They froze for a moment before bursting out into laughter to the point of doubling over. Hospital visits were like this every time, with incredible highs, sorrowful lows, and incredibly offensive jokes that left them in stitches. These visits, these emotional roller coaster rides, were painfully exhausting and simultaneously euphoric. For Nikki, it almost felt like they were crossing off items from a bucket list before Armageddon or some cataclysmic event ended the world.

When the laughter and the tears subsided, Lucas cracked his window open.

“Guys, look. It’s a five-lined skink.”

“I don’t see anything.” Nikki and Savannah leaned out the window and shrugged as he pointed to a blotchy spot on the brick tiling.

“How could you not?! There’s so many of them.”

“We don’t see anything,” Savannah said, attempting to pull him away. Lucas tried to force himself free but didn’t have the strength, so instead, he leaned even further and pointed joyfully. “They’re crawling up the wall, and they’re so big! Oh my god. They’re coming closer.”

Savannah stepped aside and whispered to Nikki that she was going to find a nurse.

“This is crazy. They’re talking. The skinks are talking. How can that be? How can that be?”

“Lucas…” Nikki said hoarsely, trying to pull his body away. She was almost as frail as him and only a fraction of his size. “You’re not feeling well.”

“How can you not hear them?! They’re saying, “‘We’re just a memory like you. We’re just a memory like you.’ What do they mean, Nikki?! What do they mean?! Tell me you can hear this! Tell me! I’m not a memory! I’m not a fucking memory!”

As Lucas screamed, Nikki began to whimper, her arms still tight around him. Savannah rushed into the room with a towering, muscular nurse with a buzzcut who lifted Lucas away from her like a gardener pulling the last weed from his garden. He motioned for Nikki and Savannah to step outside, and Lucas continued to scream. A few more nurses entered the room, along with a doctor.

“He’s not well. You must go!” the muscular nurse shouted. “Go!”

Before Savannah and Nikki could move, he put his two meaty hands on their shoulders and steered them out the door as the team rushed into action. They could only look helplessly at the shadows from the tinted window as the shouting continued. Through the walls, they could hear him scream, “A memory just like me! A memory just like me.”

The girls huddled together, moving as far down the hallway as they could. Their bodies were shaking. Their vision was locked on the distant elevator. They almost didn’t see their little brothers, Darius and Colt, coming up beside them, carrying yellow bags with the words Blockbuster Night on them.

“Mom’s been waiting in the car for you forever,” Colt nagged, nudging Darius, who was a half-foot taller than him. Darius chuckled and nudged him back. “Savvy, your mom is working late, so you’re coming home with us for pizza and movies.”

“Okay,” Savannah said faintly, scratching the back of her arm.

“Sure thing,” Nikki followed, her eyes darting back to Lucas’s door, which was eerily silent.

“You guys okay?” Darius said with a fat Tootsie Pop in his fingers. She nudged Colt between licks, who nudged him back even harder and slapped him on the back. “What? You’re just letting him call you Savvy. You hate that.”

“I think we better go home,” Savannah said. “I have a severe headache.”

“You can lay down in my bed.”

As they headed to the elevator, Nikki glanced back at Lucas’s room, which, for some reason, appeared blurry and hazy. She blinked twice, and the room came into focus. She sighed with relief until she noticed the number beside the room had disappeared along with the patient card in the slot next to the door. All of a sudden, she couldn’t remember the words Lucas shouted or why he was shouting, to begin with.

For years, this memory would burn into a hazy oblivion. The day she saw Lucas in the cemetery, however, it burned quite clearly. She convinced herself the figure wasn’t him. The Lucas she had known since childhood was always a light in her otherwise dreary life. With Savannah gone for a semester abroad in Scotland, her annoying little brother Colt was the only one left who treated her as a person. At least when she came home from the cemetery, he was at the door to greet her while her parents stewed quietly in the kitchen. Even though she wasn’t dead yet, she was always a ghost to them. Sure, they brought her to the hospital for treatments, but it felt more out of obligation than anything else.

“Hey, sticky Nikki!” Colt, plump as ever, said as she entered the front door to the living room. He was holding a can of Cherry Coke and started skipping and singing as she stepped inside.“Sticky Nikki! Sticky Nikki! She’s so sticky. She’s so icky. What? You’re not gonna smack me?”

“Not today, pig boy.”

“I hate it when you call me that!” the pesky eight-year-old said, slapping her waist. “Hey, wait. Your face is red. Are you sad or something?”

“I am,” she said, plopping down on the gray sectional. She could smell something meaty cooking in the kitchen where her parents spoke of whispers.

Colt plopped down next to her. Nikki groaned and slid over to the other pillow.

“Is this ‘cause you’re sick?”

“No, pig boy. I feel okay today.

“Is this about your dead friend?”

She raised a hand to slap him, stopping at his forehead as he formed an arm barrier. “His name is Lucas, and how did you know…?”

“I hear you talking about him in your sleep sometimes.”

“Did you go to that spooky cemetery and visit him again?”

“Yes…how did you know?”

“Mom and Dad say you do that sometimes.”

“They could drop me off once in a while,” she said loud enough for them to hear in the kitchen. “And why did you say it’s spooky?”

“Well, someone at school says the Green Lady lives in that cemetery.”

“The what?” Nikki felt her fingers grow numb and her body shiver.

“She’s creepy!” He shouted, spritzing his soda into the air. Nikki winced and squirmed as droplets trickled onto her. “I heard about it from this older kid at school. He said she’s like a ghost named Lisabeth’ or something, and she’s like hundreds of years old. They said she drowned in this swamp in this really big snowstorm looking for a man.”

“Like her husband?”

Colt paused to think and remember the rest of the story. He looked surprised to have captured his sister’s attention.

“He said she was already really sick and had turkulosis or something?

“Tuberculosis?”

“Yeah! That’s it! Anyways, he said she haunts the cemetery you go to and this other cemetery on Covey Road. He said she forgot her name…or maybe it was her hubsand’s name.”

“Husband, Colt.”

He shrugged. “Whatever, sticky Nikki. That’s the story. Be careful when you go there!”

Colt kissed her on the cheek, and he skipped off, singing, “Sticky Nicky/Sticky Nicky/She’s so sticky/she’s so icky.”

As Colt skipped out of sight, she heard a cold voice from the kitchen calling her name. “Nikki, can you come into the kitchen for a moment?”

Nikki sighed and traipsed into the kitchen, where her mom leaned over the faucet, tending to her plant on the window sill. Her father had already left for his overnight shift at the power plant. Even though her mother stood feet away from her, she felt miles away, the distance growing further with each passing day. Nikki could barely stand to look at her without becoming sad. She looked like an older version of Nikki with gray streaks in her strawberry-blonde hair. She vowed never to become as cold as her mother if she lived long enough to have a child.

“Mom. What is it?” Nikki took a seat at the rustic table, exhaling deeply. “Mom?”

“Your doctor called. He said there are protease inhibitors available for you to take.”

“What are those?”

Her mother tightened her fists and groaned. “Must you ask so many questions?! Apparently, people with your condition live longer.”

“Oh…” She felt her heart rise rapidly in her chest as the words “live longer” were spoken. She didn’t think living longer was a possibility and even planned out her funeral, even knowing her parents wouldn’t have one the way she wanted. “That’s great. When can I go?”

“Goddammit. I’m not sure. Maybe next week if I have time.”

Nikki’s chest tightened as her mother groaned once more, pretending to fix the roots of her daisies. “Why do you hate me?”

This stopped her mother in her tracks. She slowly turned around, wiping gray strands from her eyes. “Sweetheart. I don’t hate you. I hate your actions.”

“So, you think I deserve this. Don’t you dare turn back around!”

Silence was all her mom had to give as Nikki rose from her seat and stood face-to-face with her. They shared the same shamrock green eyes, but her mom’s were an icier shade. Her mother began to shake as Nikki stepped closer.

“I’m sick of the way you and Dad have treated me for the past year. You assume I got it on my own, and honestly, if I did, who cares? You should still love your daughter no matter what. If you bothered to ask, you would have known it wasn’t my choice. I had no say. Did you know that mother, or did you just assume?!”

Tears welled up in her mother’s eyes as she stepped even closer. It was the first time she had seen any emotion from her mother in over a year. It was the first time she told the full truth about her illness. She was disgusted by the fact that only now her mother seemed to care. Only now that she learned the truth did her mother treat her as a human being. Only now did her mother treat her as a daughter again.

“Sweetheart. Do you mean?”

Nikki nodded, clenching a fist, stepping even closer, watching her mother’s frail body tremble.

“Sweetheart, I’m…”

Nikki’s mom attempted to wrap her arms around her. Nikki pushed them aside.

“The way I got it shouldn’t matter! You should love your daughter anyway. I should have let you keep thinking I got it the way Lucas did. You would have continued to hate me, but it would have shown me exactly who you are.”

With her head cast down, her mother began to sob quietly. “You should have told me, honey.”

“You should have loved me enough to ask!”

With those words, Nikki stormed out of the kitchen into the driveway, not caring if her mother followed her. If she saw that woman’s face again, she might have struck it or worse. If Father arrived at the same time, she would have given him a piece of her mind as well. Gone were the days when she suffered in silence. Gone were the days when she let them treat her as a pariah.

As Nikki started toward the street, a sudden burst of green mist enveloped her. Nikki glanced around nervously as the mist grew thicker. Somewhere in the mist, she heard the sound of laughter from her mother’s voice. She heard her mother’s voice scream, “I hate your actions,” followed by her awful sobs. The mist was thick, cutting against her vision. As she closed her eyes, she heard Lucas’ voice screaming, “We’re a memory just like you!” She heard Lucas’ voice screaming, “Beyond this life, a fog!” Nikki opened her mouth to scream, but the mist, now as thick as noxious gas, seeped its way inside her throat. Nikki coughed profusely as the mist drifted deeper down inside her.

Just when Nikki thought she would choke to death on this awful substance, the mist subsided. Before her stood the Green Lady, umber hair completely covering her face, her skin even more putrid than before with missing spots in its gray exterior. Her green dress was the color of a swamp and smelled like one, too, with flies swarming around it. When the Green Lady opened her mouth, an awful stench came out, making Nikki convulse.

“This is the price of living, my dear. You will live and be one of two who remember.”

“Remember what?” Nikki asked faintly. “What do you mean by one of two?”

The Green Lady’s head twisted around her shoulders, coming loose at the neck, with rotting bones from her vertebrae puncturing outward. Nikki willed herself to run but couldn’t. Nikki willed herself to scream, but she couldn’t do that either. When the Green Lady’s head came all the way around, she saw Lucas’ face. It looked just like him except for its black eyes and blood-blue lips. Nikki willed herself to reach out and strike its face, knowing now it wasn’t him. But just as quickly as she saw its awful features, the face and body of the Green Lady disappeared into another cloud of mist that drifted down the street to its eternal resting place.

The Green Lady’s words haunted Nikki for nearly twenty years. She learned the price of living when the protease inhibitors allowed her to live a life she never dreamed of having. With her T-cell count restored and her viral load undetectable, Nikki lived long and well enough to attend college, marry a handsome young teacher named Carl, and even have two beautiful daughters who were born without the virus. Nikki lived life beyond her wildest dreams, secretly wondering if she deserved it. When she took over her uncle’s book store in Winsted, Serpent Scrolls, she recalled joking with Lucas about owning the store one day when their acting careers failed.

On a cold, frigid day in January, she wondered if Lucas deserved her life instead. She tried hard not to show her sadness to Jonah, her best friend’s son, and one of just two customers on a Thursday afternoon. Luckily, he was browsing a table of the latest graphic novels with Groucho, a plump gray cat with one yellow eye and one blue eye. The young woman in the back aisle methodically browsed the non-fiction section.

“So the cat lives here now?”

Jonah giggled, picking up a robot superhero book while Groucho rubbed against his legs. “No! He just follows me!”

“Jonah, he slept here again last night. Your parents were worried sick!”

From behind the counter, Nikki counted a few bills and drew the blinds over the storefront windows. The shopkeeper’s bells sounded as Savannah and Carl entered the store, carrying their briefcases. Nikki stepped out to greet Carl, who pulled her into his peacoat with a passionate kiss, which caught her off guard. Savannah scooped up Jonah and Groucho in one arm to kiss them, too. Nikki was impressed she could still do that with an eight-year-old. Normally, the sight of them would have filled her heart with joy. Today, for some reason, she felt the longing to be alone.

“What was that for?” Nikki said as Carl kissed her again. From behind the counter, she saw the young woman browsing the same three books. “I’m sorry. Ma’am, do you need help finding anything? We’re about to close soon? Ma’am? Okay, I guess not…”

“We were stuck in that long PD for hours. If I hear one more thing about student data, I swear.”

Savannah groaned, and Jonah chased the cat around the store.

“Jonah! Don’t let Groucho play with that. What is that?”

“It’s fine,” Nikki said. “We sell Koosh balls now. You know, those balls made of rubber strands that Lucas, you, and I used to play with in the ‘90s.”

“I’m sorry, who?” Savannah said in the non-fiction aisle with Jonah and the cat. The young woman looked up from her book about wetlands and smiled. “Lucas! Wait. You’re kidding, right? I know we haven’t talked about him in a while, but…”

Savannah groaned as Jonah threw the Koosh ball over the cat’s head toward the emergency exit. “Jonah! Oh, goddammit.”

The ball bounced toward the young woman’s leg. Still peering into her book, she picked up the Koosh ball and handed it to him, adjusting her long, green puffer coat.

“Thanks, Green Lady!” Jonah shouted as he and the cat ran to the front of the store, sending jolts down Nikki’s spine. “Groucho doesn’t catch too well!”

The lady nodded

“I’m sorry about that…” Savannah bent over to Jonah and spoke in a hushed tone. “Jonah, that was rude. That woman has a name.”

“I know. Her name is Green Lady!” Jonah said jovially. The woman didn’t have a response.

Savannah groaned again, whisking him to the front of the store.

“We’ll talk about this in the car,” she said as Jonah picked up Groucho, who made chirping sounds. “I’m sorry. The move last month and the new job have got us all in a weird mood.”

“You don’t need to apologize,” Carl said, smiling. “Jonah’s adjusting fine to his new school, and I’ve never heard this many students excited about a stats class. Hun, what’s wrong?”

Nikki couldn’t take her eyes off the woman, stumbling her way to the counter with her book. Groucho couldn’t either as he hissed in her direction. The woman didn’t respond.

“Don’t hiss at the Green Lady!” Jonah said, tugging on Groucho’s collar.

“I’m sorry if Jonah or his fluffy friend-”

“No. It’s not that. You said that you didn’t remember who Lucas was. Carl…you’re making a face like you don’t either. I told you about him! I must have…”

Carl shrugged and shook his head.

Savannah mirrored him. “Sorry, hun. I believe you. I just…don’t remember Lucas.”

Tears welled in Nikki’s eyes as she said softly, “He was our best friend…”

Groucho hissed again at the woman as umber hair fell over her eyes.

“I’m going to take them. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Savannah side-hugged her before rushing her son and cat out the door.

“You don’t remember me talking about him?” she asked softly. Carl hugged her and kissed her on his forehead. “Okay…I just thought that. Nevermind. Your mom is probably getting tired of watching Pocahontas with Ruby for the millionth time or playing trolls with Ella. I’ll lock up.”

“You sure?”

She smiled and kissed him as the woman appeared in front of the counter. Carl grimaced at the sight of her before rushing out the door.

“Did you find everything you were looking for?”

The woman flashed her a crooked smile, showing yellow teeth.

“It’s the funniest thing,” the woman said as she lay the book about wetlands on the counter. “No matter how long I look at this book, I can’t seem to remember what swamp I drowned in.”

“What did you say?” Nikki started to tremble as a green cloud of mist escaped the woman’s mouth.”

“I can’t remember what swamp I drowned in,” her voice said as the thick fog covered every inch of the store, causing Nikki to convulse the way she hadn’t in many years. “Just like your friends and family can’t remember that best friend of yours.”

“What do you want from me?!” Nikki screamed. She could hear the Green Lady’s laughter bouncing off the walls. “What have you done?!”

“Everyone remembers Benjamin Palmiter,” the voice shrieked, reverberating throughout the mist. “There’s no need for them to remember his great nephew.”

Nikki struggled to shut her eyes as the mist formed the faces of her friends and family. Carl’s face twisted to her left with deep black eyes and a deeper shade of black over its mouth. Savannah and Jonah’s faces twisted to her right with frosty eyes and mouths that spun and cackled, unleashing smoke that shimmered like an icicle. Groucho’s face came straight toward her, a deep shade of gray, his once beautiful eyes now the color of soot. Groucho yowled, increasing the size of each face, stretching from the ground to the ceiling. The faces yowled in unison, swarming around Nikki until she grew dizzy and dropped to the floor.

When Nikki awoke, she grasped her hand to her chest, panting rapidly, thrusting her arms to gain her bearings. For some reason, she felt glass. For some reason, her chest pressed against a horn. She was in her car. Why was she in her car? She peered out the window, realizing she was in the parking spot across the street from her store. How had she gotten there? When had she gotten there? Nikki pulled her phone out and realized it was eight o’clock. Several missed calls from Carl flashed across her screen. A few calls from Savannah preceded them.

Nikki frantically pressed his icon as the phone connected to the car’s speakers.

“Hello?”

“Hun. Where are you? I thought you were going to lock up hours ago.”

“I’m sorry. I’m in my car. I think I fell asleep.”

“Maybe you should call your doctor. You know… to see how the new medication is affecting you.”

“Yeah…” Nikki scratched her head as Carl apologized for not remembering Lucas. Not even a moment passed before a text flashed across her screen from Savannah apologizing about the same thing. Another text followed asking if she was upset. “Look. I’ll be home soon. Send my love to the girls.”

After Nikki hung up, she frantically scrolled through her contacts to see if she could find anyone who remembered Lucas. In twenty years, however, Nikki lost touch with most of her friends from grade school. She thought about contacting them on social media but barely used those platforms. When she came across her brother’s name, she figured it was worth a shot.

After a few rings, Colt picked up in a tizzy. Someone was yelling in the background. “Hi, sis. This isn’t the best time. ‘I don’t know why you dragged me out here!’ Sorry. That wasn’t to you.”

“That’s okay. Where are you?”

“Darius dragged me out to his grandmother’s place. You know, the one in Burlington that was left to his family. ‘I don’t think there’s a swamp back there! It’s eight o’clock at night’ Sorry. He’s so annoying.”

“I thought you guys broke, uh… never mind. Why are you helping him look for a swamp in Burlington?”

“Yeah. We did. I don’t know why I’m here. It’s complicated. He said he kept having these dreams. Maybe this will stop him. ‘It’s eight at night! Why are we in these woods? I’m sorry, Nikki. Why did you call?”

“Be careful. I just wanted to know if you remembered my old friend Lucas from long ago.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t remember any of your friends named Lucas. ‘She’s talking about someone named Lucas. What do you mean he was your cousin?’ Ugh. I’ll put him on the phone.”

“Hello. Nikki. You said something about my cousin Lucas?”

“You remember?! Okay…that’s weird. Your sister doesn’t, and apparently, my brother doesn’t either.”

“That’s so strange. I was talking to my mom the other day about him. She doesn’t remember either. I know his parents moved to Florida after he died, but. Hold on. ‘There it is, Colt! There’s the swamp.’ Sorry. I know this is crazy, but I’ve been dreaming about this swamp lately. I think it’s near Grandma Johnston’s Bungalow, or at least, that’s what the family said growing up.”

“Why do you-?” Before she could finish her sentence, the Green Lady’s words from long ago echoed through her mind- “You will be one of two who remember.”

“Hey, Darius. Do you know anything about a man named Benjamin Palmiter?”

A long silence passed before Darius spoke again. “Sorry. It’s dark out here, and we only have one flashlight. He was my great-uncle. Lucas talked about him before he died. It was…something about the place he was going to be buried, awfully dark stuff to tell a little kid. Come to think of it…I think this swamp is near the…wait. ‘Colt, do you hear that? Colt?!’ I’ll be right back.”

“Darius. Are you there? Are you guys okay?”

“There’s this really weird green mist. I think we should…”

The phone clicked. Nikki tried calling back, but her brother’s number went to voicemail. She called Darius’ number, too, with the same result. She sent a text to Savannah and Carl that something was wrong with Colt and Darius. The message failed to send. She tried several more times before calling them. She reached their voicemails and nothing more. She plugged his grandmother’s street name into her maps application. It was all she could remember.

“Come on. Come on, dammit.” When the app and route finally loaded, Nikki sped toward U.S. 44-E, a two-lane highway that led to Burlington. She attempted to call Carl and Savannah several more times, reaching voicemail immediately. She called Savannah’s husband with the same result. Save for a few cars, Nikki’s was the only one on the highway that night. After checking the app for nearby speed traps, she accelerated well over the recommended speed limit, something she hadn’t done since high school.

As Nikki drove, a green mist surrounded her vehicle, blanketing the road from both sides. She found herself drifting over the edge lines, “Pac-manning” them as Savannah used to call it. She laughed and remembered that Lucas termed the phrase on an impromptu, unlicensed road trip they took to Rhode Island. Having only his learner’s permit, he wasn’t a good driver, frequently “Pac-manning” the edge lines. For some reason, as Nikki laughed, the mist began to disappear. Nikki thought of a time shortly after when they went to a local arcade and played the original Pacman, calling it a simulation of the Lucas Johnston driving experience. Laughing to herself even harder, Nikki gleaned as the mist dissipated to a dull glow.

“I found your kryptonite, bitch!” Nikki yelled, rolling the windows down. The green mist attempted to morph into a face, but it was much too weak, weak enough for her vehicle to plow through, spreading its particles into the frigid night sky.

She kept a steady speed as she turned onto Steele Road in New Hartford, a seemingly endless route with very few street lights that wound past groves of trees and nestled houses. As the green mist filtered through the trees, she remembered teaching Colt to drive on the same road and laughing at how break-happy and melodramatic he was. With a mere giggle, the mist retreated into the trees. She willed herself not to think of her brother and Darius in the swamp. When she couldn’t, a thick, green fog floated over the road. As she neared Grandma Johnston’s blue bungalow, the fog thickened, taking the shape of an elephant-sized, five-lined skink. The skink smashed its tail into the car, spraying green vapor inside. Coughing hysterically, Nikki pulled onto the curb, forcing her body onto the street.

Face-to-face with the giant skink, Nikki laughed as its gray eyes shined like iron through the fog. The skink snaked its body toward her, revealing a mouth of conical, gator-like teeth. Nikki laughed again as the skink snapped its jaw at her head. Nikki and the skink repeated the laugh-and-snap movements until she realized something she actually could laugh about. Lucas would find a giant skink equally terrifying and hilarious. The thought of Lucas trying to tame the skink amused her, causing the figure to break from its jaw down to its tail, exploding into a giant vapor cloud that showered the street.

“You don’t own my fears anymore!” Nikki’s words carried into the night. After the vapor evaporated, she carried every aching inch of her body up the street and onto the property of the ramshackle house. Two distant screams drifted from the backyard. She couldn’t tell if it was them or another illusion from the Green Lady. Upon the screams intensifying, she stumble-ran into the backyard, which was overgrown by wild vines and invasive shrubbery. She felt as if she was playing a madman’s game of Twister, contorting her hands and feet through the shrubs and vines, seemingly scraping every inch of exposed skin. She heard screams again, which sounded inhumane, punctuated with staccato yips. The screams punctured her eardrums. The awful scent of rotten eggs and sulfur punctured her nostrils as she found herself knee-deep in murky water.

Ahead of her lay a stream of murky water with cypress trees whose gnarled roots rose from the water like skeletal fingers. The roots created a maze of shadowed pathways beneath a canopy of thick, moss-draped branches. The air hung heavy with the stench of decaying vegetation. As Nikki trudged forward, she realized how eerily quiet the swamp was, disturbed only by the low hum of unseen insects. A hazy silhouette loomed in the distance, the sight of which paused Nikki’s breathing. Though the figure swayed above the water, it made nary a ripple. Nearing the figure, she noticed its human form, towering at least a foot above her. Creeping closer, she gasped at the figure’s frail frame, covered head to toe in algae. She sobbed quietly as she heard its groaning.

“Lucas…”

The figure croaked with the nearby bullfrogs.

“I…don’t know what to say. It’s been too…”

The figure croaked again, almost sounding like a gurgle.

“Are you okay?”

The figure shook its head. “Why-why are you here?”

A long snarl elapsed before the figure croaked, “I’m here until they remember.”

She bit her lip, sobbing and shaking. “How…can I help you? How…can I make them remember? Where can I find my-”

An even louder, longer gurgle elapsed before the figure thrashed its arm outward, croaking, “Follow the Green Lady.”

Nikki threw her arms around the figure, which felt so human beneath the algae, so much like Lucas felt all those years ago.

“I’ve missed you so much…”

“Follow the Green Lady,” the figure croaked again, one arm wrapping around her waist, the other still pointing downstream. “Make them remember. Make her remember…”

“I will,” she said between sobs.

The figure sank from Nikki’s arms beneath the swamp. Though the water floated only a few feet deep, she saw the figure drifting miles below the muck into some ungodly world. Taking in her reflection, she blinked once and saw Lucas in the flesh standing beside her, flashing a smile so pearly white that it glowed in the nighttime. Lucas looked well and older, perhaps as old as Nikki now. He looked the same except for a tinge of gray in his dyed mini-dreads. She blinked again and saw Colt and Darius lying at the foot of a defaced gravestone. Glancing up, she saw the lady standing downstream, her skirt as sparkly as the day she first laid eyes on it. She hovered above the water at a point where the swamp stopped, and the hollow woods began.

Trudging onward, the murky water rose to her waist. The lady’s dress shimmered in the moonlight. Nikki shivered as two figures raced toward her, taking the shape of Colt and Darius. Unlike the other apparitions, they weren’t made from mist or fog. She kept her distance, unsure of how real they were.

“Nikki!” Colt shouted. She felt certain it was him by his curly, black hair and shirt with the quote, “Everyone Deserves a Chance to Fly” from his favorite musical.

“Are you okay?!” Darius called. She felt certain it was him by his striking resemblance to his cousin, especially his big hazel eyes. The two of them were too real, too put together to be apparitions.

“Guys!” she called back. “Oh my god. Are you okay?”

Colt and Darius stopped dead in their tracks.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s like we’re stuck…” Colt said. Darius nodded. Both were completely unfazed by their predicament. “Why don’t you come over here?”

“That’s okay…”

“You can’t find her without crossing this way,” one of them said.

“What?”

Darius and Colt were furiously scratching the back of their necks. “Please help. There are so many mosquitos out here. They’re so itchy.”

Nikki stopped dead in her tracks, too, as they scratched more intensely, their fingers digging deeper and deeper into their necks, blood spouting through the crevices. Nikki forced herself not to scream as the figures’ heads plopped into the water, blood exploding like a geyser from their necks. Nikki covered her mouth as the two heads floated and began to laugh maniacally.

“Beyond this life, a fog!” the Colt head shouted.

“When we die, you will be the only one who remembers us!” the Darius head cackled back. “When everyone you have ever loved perishes, you will be the only one who remembers.”

As both the heads cackled, Nikki forced herself to cackle back, remembering everything that ever made her laugh: her dad losing his toupee in Disney World when she was ten, a preschool-aged Ruby bringing home a duck from the pond, Ella finger painting Carl’s face when he was sound asleep. Little by little, the heads turned to bits of green fog. Carl’s fear of Ferris wheels on their first date, Savannah chasing Jonah and Groucho through his elementary school, amusing moments made the heads burst into green vapor, its remnants drifting back through the wintry woods where the Green Lady wandered.

“I told you! You don’t own my fear anymore!”

Nikki sprinted through the skeletal woods, sliding on an icy blanket of snow toward the distant, green shimmer. The faster she ran, the more voices she heard, echoing cruel memories from her past.

“Sweetheart. I don’t hate you. I hate your actions,” a voice echoed from her left.

“I’m not a memory!” a voice echoed above the trees.

“Nikki, just try it once. Come on, honey,” a sinister male voice echoed from below. She hadn’t heard that voice in a long time. Even though she knew it wasn’t real, she still shivered, sprinting into a thorned bush.

Stopping herself mid-holler, she glanced up to find a translucent cloud of smoke, a window to a distant past. Within the cloud, she saw the lady in mortal form, running through the skeletal woods in her vamp, tawny slippers and flowing, green skirt with an oil lantern.

“Benjamin!” the woman cried, coughing into her puffy sleeve. “Mine, dearest. Whither dost thou wander?

The lady stopped mid-run to cough again, this time spraying blood. Below her foot stood a tiny creature, no more than a foot tall, with white horns, clay skin, and black eyes. As the lady knelt to catch her breath, the creature glanced up at her.

“What manner of foul creature art thou?” The lady spoke in labored breaths, the creature’s black eyes beaming into hers. “Hast thou come hither to claim my life?”

“Thou shalt proceed no further. Thy husband shall not come forth to rescue thee. Thou shalt perish from the chill whilst I shall dwell within thee as thou roamest this earth in solitude.”

The lady gasped. “Begone, thou vile creature! I shall do no such thing!”

The creature cackled. “Thou shalt traverse this earthly realm bearing a blight, a blight which can only be lifted should these stipulations be fulfilled—thou must cause all save two to forget thy husband’s eminent nephew, and thou must discover a vessel that shares thine affliction, for me to dwell within.”

The lady shivered. “A malediction? I beg your pardon; I comprehend not. I am a woman of virtue and divinity. Why wouldst thou lay such a curse upon me? I must persist in existence. There must indeed be an alternative.”

The creature unleashed another earth-shattering cackle. “There exists yet another manner. A soul must recollect thy name, lest thou forget thine own. Yet none shall do so. Now, I bid thee, open wide.”

The lady’s eyes opened as wide as saucers while the creature pried her jaw open. A loud crack rang out as the creature crawled inside. The translucent cloud vanished. Too terrified to scream, Nikki finally understood what the lady wanted from her. Nikki finally understood why only she and Darius recalled Lucas’ existence. She feared the thought, however, of following the lady any further. Just the idea of that creature crawling inside her made her equally repulsed and horrified beyond repair. The thought of Lucas, doomed to that wretched swamp, was enough for her to carry on.

Sprinting onward, Nikki couldn’t see even the faintest glow of green. Somehow, she knew that her brother and Darius were nearby. The skeletal woods stopped abruptly at an open patch of land lined by a stone wall that snaked horizontally around the land. Several small, upright rectangular stones pierced through the snow. She found Colt and Darius facedown in the snow by a fragmented stone marker.

“Guys!

“It’s a trap…” Colt said weakly.

“Don’t come any-” From the stone, a thick, green fog emerged that muffled Darius’ words.

Before her stood the lady, extending her clay arms toward Nikki’s mouth. Nikki clenched her jaw tighter than a clam. The lady opened her jaw like an alligator about to snap its prey. As the lady’s jaw unnaturally widened, she saw the foul creature with its glistening black eyes and ivory horns emerging from its head to form a semicircle.

“Now, I bid thee, open wide!” the creature snarled.

With the lady’s clay hands tight upon her jaw, a memory to Nikki from long ago, young Colt recounting the Green Lady story he heard from an older boy at school.

“Colt, what’s her name?!” Nikki cried as the lady’s clay finger reached inside her jaw, yanking it upward. Nikki bit into the clay, causing the foul creature to snarl and howl, stumbling backward into her stone.

“Elisabeth Palmiter…” he said weakly.

“Elisabeth Palmiter!” Nikki screamed. “Your name is Elisabeth Palmiter!”

With an earth-shattering snarl, the foul creature slid from Elisabeth’s elongated jaw into a puddle of slush. Her skin was no longer clay-colored but pale with freckles. Her eyes were no longer gray but shamrock green like Nikki’s.

“I remember now…” Elisabeth said as she faded into a final swirl of green fog. “They will remember too…”

The foul creature trampled the snow toward Colt and Darius, its talons scraping against the crumpled leaves. Nikki kicked the creature with the vamp of her boots. It darted toward the skeletal woods. Colt and Darius suddenly rose to their feet as if a bolt of lightning had jolted them to consciousness.

“Kill it before it finds someone else!” Colt shouted.

“How?!” Nikki felt her heart in her throat, her jaw still pulsating with traces of clay she spit into the snow. “I don’t even know what-”

“There’s no time!” Darius said, darting toward the woods. “It will find another host.”

The three of them raced through the snow as the foul creature bounded over fallen branches, shedding clumps of clay in its trail to the swamp. Nikki picked up a few chunks of clay and hurled it at the creature. Colt and Darius did the same. With each throw, the creature dodged or kicked the pieces back at them.

When the creature reached the swamp, Nikki saw lights illuminating the water. They were coming from the bungalow. She pulled out her phone to see two missed calls from Savannah and Carl and a text indicating they would “be there in twenty minutes.” This was twenty minutes ago, despite hours having passed since her arrival.

Nikki motioned for them to follow her as the creature bounded over floating lily pads and algae, cackling and snarling the words, “A vessel I shall seek within!”

She kicked the creature’s horns and missed, splashing murky water onto Darius. Nikki rose and kicked again, this time clipping its horns. The creature snarled once more before an algae-laden hand pulled it underneath the water. One more submerged cackle reverberated, and then, there were only ripples. From the swamp emerged the figure covered head to toe in algae. The figure stood tall, taller than it had before, shedding the algae from its skin. The three of them gasped as the algae gave way for a teenage boy wearing a black-and-white suit and a cross. He no longer looked frail. The purple blotches that once plagued his skin were gone.

“Thank you for remembering,” he whispered. “I love you all.”

While they stood stunned and wordless, the figure turned around, fading into a lovely swirl of white fog.

For what seemed like an eternity, they remained stunned and wordless before they saw Carl trudging through the swamp, shining an LED flashlight. “What the hell are you guys doing out here?!”

They couldn’t find the words as Carl hugged them and led them back to the bungalow. They were surprised to find their entire family in the living room. Even though they were covered in murk, their family tightly embraced them. Savannah’s face was drenched in tears. Miles, Savannah’s husband, hugged her just as tightly. Ruby, Ella, and Jonah pointed excitedly to a photo album lying on the boomerang sofa.

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” Savannah said, squeezing Nikki tightly. “I’m sorry I ever forgot him.”

“Look what Aunty Savvy found!” Ruby and Ella said, leading their mom to the album. “We saw you when you were little, mommy!”

Ruby snatched the album from Jonah, who was lying with Groucho on his lap.

After freshening up, Savannah sat down next to Nikki as the girls plopped on her knees. Jonah and Groucho peered over Nikki’s shoulder as she opened the album. Darius, Colt, Miles, and Carl gathered around them, commenting on this unique discovery. Nikki excitedly opened the album to find pictures of her and Savannah as children at Grandma Johnston’s house. The album was chock-full of photographs from their childhood playing hopscotch, dyeing eggs on Easter, and swimming in the pool. As she turned the page, her mind felt foggy when she came upon a photograph of a dark-skinned boy standing with Savannah and Nikki at the entrance of the Beardsley Zoo. She scratched her head, turning to the next page. The same boy was smiling from ear to ear, holding an iguana.

“Lucas loved his lizards,” Savannah said between soft sobs. “Look at that smile!”

“I’m sorry,” Nikki mumbled, her mind growing increasingly foggy. “I don’t…seem to remember him.”

Credit: Tristan Mason

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