Six months later….
“Hey April, are you ready?”
April walked from the bedroom into the lounge room of the flat she and Cody had rented together. They still lived in Eden Vale, but now they shared a flat and were planning to be married the following year.
“Yes, ready to go. I just got a text from Sarah. She’s going to meet us there. What about Kaitlin? Is she coming?”
“No,” Cody replied, “She has some important basketball tournament in the city this week.”
Soon they were driving to Eden Vale cemetery for the graveside service.
A lot had happened since that night on the mountain.
The park rangers, the coroner’s department and the media had all clambered up the mountain, the bones were carefully removed and sent to a medical laboratory for examination. A zoologist had also examined the cave and confirmed that the animal skeleton was that of an aged Bengal tiger. Apart from the human bones there were also the bones of many smaller animals including foxes, rabbits and wild pigs.
It was surmised that the tiger had roamed the hills for a few months after its escape from the circus wagon, before climbing the mountain and making the cave its lair. From there it foraged for food, and unfortunately the humans living nearby became its victims.
April and Cody had managed to keep their names out of the media. All they had told the park rangers when they notified them of their find, was that they had stumbled on the cave by accident. They certainly were not going to say a word about seeing ghosts.
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Now after one hundred and forty five years the Bergen family were at last receiving a proper burial and farewell from the descendants of their Eden Vale friends.
Five graves had been prepared and five coffins were lowered into them as the minister finished telling the small crowd of onlookers what brave pioneers the Bergen family had been.
As April stood watching with Sarah on one side and Cody on the other she glanced around to see Jeff Goldman standing next to a woman she assumed was his wife. Jeff’s eyes met April’s and he gave her a nod.
As the people dispersed and started walking back to their cars April called out to Cody and Sarah. “Wait a moment. There’s something I have to do.”
Cody and Sarah watched as April walked up to the grave of Hans Bergen. She removed an object from her bag, reached down and placed it on the coffin. It was the old rusted lamp that she and Cody had dug from the ground near the cabin six months ago. She looked at it sadly for a moment then turned to go, but at that moment something caught the corner of her eye. She quickly looked back into the grave. For just a second the lamp glowed blue before it went out forever.
