Chapter 2 #2
Magnus nodded, and Mercedes slipped her arm through his and led Magnus out of the dining room. As she passed by, she reached and gently touched Flo’s shoulder, giving her a tentative and reassuring squeeze, which made her relax.
Now it was just the two of them. There was a part of her that wanted to say so much to him, something locked away in that fuzzy part of her memories, but she didn’t know what it was she wanted to say.
There had been so many nights she just watched him, longingly, but not really knowing the reason why. Just that it was right.
“It’s good to see you again,” he said gently.
“I’m glad you can see me now.”
“You didn’t seem so certain before.”
“I don’t remember much.” Flo hugged her arms. “I feel like I remembered more before, but then as the years went on and I was alone here…”
“What about the other spirits?”
“The other ghosts don’t like me much.”
He frowned. “Oh?”
“I’m a revenant or a phantom. That’s what I could figure out from reading books.
Other than Mercedes, it takes too much energy for them to touch things beyond the etheric plane they exist on, and I can’t really see where they exist. Nor can I really touch them either.
So they’ve always kept their distance.” And she was fine with that because in the early days, they scared her.
“I’m surprised they didn’t ask you to do more for them,” Sven teased. “They seem kind of bossy.”
Flo smiled. “I think they’re mostly jealous of me. I can solidify, but I couldn’t be seen, until Mercedes showed up. Mercedes explained a bit about what happened to me, or what she thinks happened to me, but I don’t remember any of it.”
The moment those words slipped out of her mouth her mind filled with another garbled memory.
A woman with dark hair used a knife to slice into her hand and draw blood. It hurt, and Flo could only scream through the handkerchief stuffed into her mouth.
“You’re sure this will work?” Her father asked the dark-haired woman.
“Yes. My ancestors have cursed many over the centuries.”
“Cursed? I want her to forget the ghoul, marry a respectable son of a business partner of mine. That’s all,” her father snapped.
“Oh, she’ll forget the ghoul,” the wicked woman laughed.
“Are you all right?” Sven asked.
“What?” She shook her head, touching her temple. “What did you say?”
“You went into a trance and I asked if you were all right.”
“I think so. I saw something, but it’s gone.
” It was a complete lie because it was still there, fresh in her mind, but she didn’t want to tell him what she saw because she didn’t fully trust him yet.
Something was holding her back, just like some unseen force was drawing her to him. “What do you know about my fate?”
“You disappeared from my life a century ago, and I never knew what happened to you until recently. What Mercedes told you about the whole situation is what she told me. That your family found out that you were going to run away with me and hired witches to either erase your memories or force you into some kind of mind control, only the curse backfired and you disappeared, which left you in the state you’re in. ”
“And my name is Florence. I saw a painting once and it looks like me.”
Sven smiled at her softly. “Yes. Florence or Flo, and this was your house.”
“People did live here for a short time, a long time ago, and then I don’t know when the house became abandoned because I hid for a long time.”
“Your father was a funeral director and a bootlegger.”
Flo frowned. “I do remember funerals here, but also parties that didn’t seem somber.”
“Well, parties like he threw were against the law. It was a perfect cover, having a prohibited booze-fueled party at a funeral parlor.” Sven walked swiftly to the wall, not where she’d been hiding, but the opposite wall, and he pulled on a sconce.
There was a creak and metal gears grinding as the bookcase slowly opened into a brick hall.
“The small hallway leads down to an enclosed speakeasy. It’s where he hid the gin.
Although I don’t know for sure, because I can’t go all the way down there. ”
Flo peered around the bookcase. Something about that hallway seemed familiar. “But you did go?”
Sven nodded. “It’s blocked by a stone wall.
I don’t know where the mechanism is to open the door, so I can only assume that’s how he moved the booze through.
I just discovered it last month. I’ve been so focused on getting the dead-and-breakfast opened, I haven’t explored all the hidden secrets of this place. I’m sure there are other places.”
“I’ve been down the hallway before, but I don’t travel this way. Not usually. None of the other ghosts travel this way.”
“Well, I can tell you why. Cold iron. It’s why I don’t like it.”
“Why?”
“Honestly, it’s a bit repellent to me as well, being that I’m a ghoul and undead. There are several places like this that were obviously meant to keep out unwanted guests. All unwanted guests.”
Flo took a step forward, as if it was pulling her. “Yes, but it’s like a magnet for me and I think I know why.”
Sven cocked an eyebrow. “Oh?”
“At the end of this hallway, the speakeasy room where my father ran gin and alcohol, is where I was trapped. It’s where I go.
I think my enclosure, or my tomb, was the speakeasy, which explains why no one was ever able to find me or see me.
The cold iron doesn’t bother me and might be part of my curse. ”