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to make it the rest of the way to Whiteriver. Approaching the town she saw something unusual, the town was empty. No people. It reminded her of an old Twilight Zone movie. But this wasn't a movie it was real, or as real as Eden thought it could be. Whiteriver is a small town and the place where Eden spent most of her childhood, so she knew almost everybody in town. Old man Hat's grocery store was closed and almost as dark as the night that had plagued her since she left her cabin. Frank Jeffers auto dealership was closed, and it never closes, not even for holidays. But the thing that scared her almost as badly as the image she saw on the road, was that the Sheriff's Office was closed. Jesse Jacobsen would never close his office. He and his deputy, Sara Roads, were very faithful officers of the law, they would never abandon their duties.

"What the crap is going on here?" she asked herself as she slowly walked through the town toward her folks place. By this time Eden found herself trying harder and harder to walk. She decided to take the short cut home, past the cemetery. She was deathly afraid of the cemetery, since her father was found dead on top of his own tombstone there ten years ago, shot through the heart. No one ever did find out who murdered him. Some say that Eden's fathers ghost still haunts the cemetery, hunting for the person that killed him.

Today, however, Eden had seen too many horrific things to let some stories by the townsfolk prevent her from reaching her goal. Within minutes the cemetery came into view, and Eden discovered why no one was in town, there was a funeral service
at the cemetery. It struck her as odd that a funeral service would be held in the early morning hours of the day. It reminded her of her will, in which she stated that she wanted a service in the early morning hours.

Eden's resolve to go on was dwindling faster and faster as she got closer to the cemetery. Something wasn't right with the town she loved so much as a child. She could feel a presence in the town, an evil, horrific presence, but no one was there not even her dog, "Prickly Pete," who always ran up and down the streets of White River as if he were the guardian of the town. "The faces, it's got to be the faces," she said, as she plugged along the dirt road that would lead all the dead to their final resting place. She didn't have long to debate what happened to her town. The hill that oversaw the cemetery was within view, unfortunately so was another face. The ghostly face she encountered at her cabin was now watching her. She also, saw the ghost that talked to her on the road. But what was unusual about this situation was that there were more faces appearing as she came closer to the cemetery, and those faces she recognized, they were hers.

She recognized her face as a teenager, and the ripped face of a teenager that had been attacked by a bear. She also saw her face when she was married and when she became a forest ranger.

All in all, there were twenty-seven faces, one face for each year of her life. She now knew what had happened or was going to happen.

Her eyelids became very weak, and she could barely walk up the slope to where the funeral was being held. A misty, gray figure approached her as she tumbled to the ground. She looked up and was shocked to see her father. "There, there, Eden" he said, all is well, you're home, you're home.

Learn more about this author, Jeff Barnhart.
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