Grip of It by Jac Jemc

Author:Jac Jemc
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: Mystery, Horror, Contemporary, Paranormal, Adult, Thriller
ISBN: 9780374536916
Publisher: FSG
Published: 2017-08-01T04:00:00+00:00

45

“JAMES, THIS ISN’T helping. This isn’t all a trick of the light. I don’t think you’re going to figure it out by studying photographs.” Julie tucks my hair behind my ear and places a hand on my leg, watching me, and I feel her familiar tenderness and finally turn to her.

She tells me about the cave. Her voice is soft and matter-of-fact. I tell her about the haze of particulars I found on that barstool. Everything points to Rolf’s being connected to this house. Despite how far apart we are at the moment, Julie and I can feel that tiny overlap in our Venn diagram. That connection allows a little bit of the problem to disappear.

Julie idly massages my hand while she talks. She rubs tiny circles into the fleshy base of my palm and then squeezes each finger in three different spots, pulling gently on the end of each. She looks over my shoulder to remember and then into my eyes for confirmation. Julie brings up some specific drawing she saw in the cave. That image is nowhere to be found in my memory of my time there. She goes on. It sounds familiar now. I get overly sure. Julie tells me something she read on the wall. I feel convinced I remember that, too, but then uncertain. I worry I’m creating false memories. I consider whether I can call that experience. “This all sounds right, but now I’m questioning myself. I heard that if you remember a thing, you corrupt it. If you want to remember something closest to its truth, the trick is to remember it rarely. But, of course, if you don’t remember a thing often enough, you’re bound to forget it. There is no way for memory to be pure.” This is the closest I’ve felt to her in a long time. Everything is laid out between us. Julie is insistent on solving the mystery. I keep trying to talk myself out of believing there is a mystery at all.

Julie says, “I don’t know how you knew about the cave, but you were right.” She still can’t believe that I was really there. I wince. I grip her hand more tightly. I hold on. Julie tells me a game plan. We’ll return to the cave with brighter lights. I’ll take photos so we have something solid to reference.

I feel this threat to our credibility sharply behind my eyes. The inability to trust ourselves is the most menacing danger. I fear what we could find there. I fear what we won’t.

What is worse? To be confronted with an obvious horror, or to be haunted by a never-ending premonition of what’s ahead?

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