16
Mirabella screamed as she tore her soul from the living, breathing woman who lay thrashing on the floor. The last images of Mirabella’s memories still burned her eyes and tortured her heart. She had waited all morning for the woman to fall asleep hoping to find the truth. Never did she expect to relive it. It was no wonder Baby had screamed and went mad when she had come out of the woman.
Mirabella held her ghostly hand over her head where she’d been struck and watched as Jessica woke with gasping screams and a fit of coughing.
“I read your thoughts.” Mirabella spat at Jessica, even though she knew Jessica would not hear her. “You say Walter was not handsome.” If she could have cried real tears, they would have fallen in great drops. “He is to me! He may not have been beautiful to most people, but his heart was bigger than all of them put together! I loved him! And … and he is gone.” Mirabella held her arm across her middle and cried. “I loved him.”
Jessica’s frightened eyes searched the room as if she knew Mirabella was still with her, but they never stayed in one spot long enough to indicate she knew where.
The memories of the shape of his jaw, the curve of his nose, and the twinkle in Walter’s eyes had faded from Mirabella’s memories over the years, but the knowledge that she had someone she once loved never disappeared. She’d held onto him, without knowing who he really was or what he looked like. Reliving the moments before her death brought back those images she’d worked to hold on to but had slipped through her fingers. Mirabella touched the spot on her neck where Walter had laid his lips for the last time. Her face contorted when she thought of the words she’d last spoken.
For this, I will make you wait for a long time at the altar.
“I did not mean what I said,” Mirabella cried out. “I did not mean for you to wait! Please! Someone help me! I cannot go on in this empty life anymore!”
Jessica
A whisper hung in the air as if someone had spoken in some distant time. The tone was soft but filled with agony. Someone was in the room with me. “Hello?” My voice croaked from having screamed a moment ago.
“Jessica!” Danny’s call echoed down the hall and into the library. “Jessica, where are you?”
“I’m in here,” I said, holding my breath to see if I could hear the ghostly whispers again. Nothing.
“Why are you on the floor?” Danny asked as he entered the room.
“It happened again,” I said and took his offered hand.
“What? Oh, you’re shaking like a leaf.” Danny held me in a gesture of comfort.
I buried my face into his chest. “It was awful. Oh, poor Mirabella.”
“What about Mirabella?”
“I ... I think I need some coffee or tea.” I rubbed my hand over my face and choked back a cry. If I were to sit here blubbering like a baby, Danny won’t let me continue helping these ghosts. I needed to get a hold of myself. I can’t quit without helping these women.
“Come on.” He led me into the kitchen and eased me to into a chair. He knelt beside me, holding my hand in his. “Are you well? You look pale.”
I took a deep breath to steady my voice. “I’m fine. Really, I am.”
“You don’t look fine.”
“Gee, thanks.”
My comment had the desired effect and brought a smile to his lips. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
Oh, how good it is to see him smile. “I know.”
He pulled a chair closer and sat before me. “Seriously though, I think you should call it quits.”
My heart grew heavy. “You want me to leave?”
“N—no. I just don’t think you should continue on this ghost hunt. If you could see what I see, then you’d stop.”
“What do you see?”
“Y—you’re tired. I can see it in your eyes. You shake uncontrollably at the thought of walking anywhere in this castle alone, and you’re about to break down and cry at any moment.”
With his words my chin quivered. “Whatever. I’m fine. Just had a scare that’s all. Besides, it’s not like the ghosts will quit just because you say so.”
“Maybe…”
“Maybe what?”
“Nothing. Just a silly idea.” He patted my knee and stood. “It’s getting late. Would you like dinner?”
“Yes, please.”
“We have leftover lasagna,” he said, his arm propped up on the fridge’s opened door and his head lowered in.
“No. Save that for another day. I’m not in the mood.”
“What are you in the mood for?” He closed the fridge.
“I don’t know.” I shrugged.
“We have a garden out back. I can chop up a salad.”
“Okay. That sounds perfect.”
“Do you feel up to helping me carry some veg in?” He gestured at the door.
“Of course.” I stood a little too quick and felt the blood drain from my head. My balance went off kilter briefly, and Danny raised his eyes at me. “What? I’m fine.”
He shook his head as if he didn’t believe a word and pressed his hand at the small of my back, guiding me to the door. My heart leapt from my chest and did a little dance.
Danny opened the door and stopped.
“It’s still raining.”
“So it is,” he said.
“I don’t want to get soaked again, do you?”
“No.” He reached to the side and pulled an umbrella from a holder beside the door. “But we can use this.” He opened it and slipped his arm around my waist, holding me close to his side.
Oh, I can get used to this.
The outside garden was well organized, and the planter boxes
were surrounded by gravel, so we didn’t need to tromp around in the mud to find what we needed. He grabbed a basket from under an outdoor garden table.
“Here, you take the umbrella. I’ll get some tomatoes over there.”
“Okay.” I took the umbrella and gathered a cucumber, an onion, and a zucchini. When I turned, Ron stood before me.
I jumped.
“You’re still here?” he asked with a frown.
“Uh, yeah. Hi, Ron.”
“Hi, Ron.” Danny waved. “Are you going to join us for dinner?”
“No. Bridgette has caught a cold, so I’m helping her mend.” He narrowed his eyes at me and proceeded to walk away.
“I’m sorry to hear that. Do I need to call the doctor?” Danny asked.
“No. She’s a tough cookie. She’ll be fine,” he said over his shoulder as he left.
“Let me know if I can help,” Danny said to his back. Ron waved to indicate he’d heard.
Wow. Okay. He goes hot and cold. Did I say something earlier to make him mad?“I feel bad.”
“Why?” Danny asked as he stepped to my side.
“Here I’ve been so worried about the ghosts when I should’ve paid more attention to the living. We should make her something to help her feel better.” I lifted the umbrella higher so he could join me under it. I glanced over his spoils in the basket. “Ooo, I love beets.”
Back inside, we rinsed the veggies and gathered them on the chopping block. “We should cut the beets first so they have time to cook,” I said, pulling the knife from the collection.
“Let me make you dinner. You made it last night,” Danny said, taking the knife from my grasp.
“You want to cut the onions?”
“Uh, no. I’ll let you do that.”
“Oh, I see how it is,” I said with a wink and grabbed another knife. A few minutes into chopping the onions I heard a sniff beside me. I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing at the sight of tears streaming down Danny’s cheeks. “Oh, poor Danny.”
“I can’t even be in the same room as those blasted onions.” He wiped his eyes with his sleeve and shook his head.
“Don’t cry, Danny boy. Oh, Danny boy, the pipes...” Unlike the last time, I sang the song in my best voice.
“Don’t! Stop!”
“Don’t stop? All right. The pipes are calling. From glen—ha!”
His fingers tickled my side. “Stop!”
I dropped my knife and ran to the other side of the butcher’s island to keep it as a barrier between us. “And on the mountainside!”
“Get back here!” Danny went to his right and I went to my right. He stopped again after a few times around. I continued singing and picked up a cucumber and held it out like a sword.
“I’m warning you!” he said and faked left. I went right and shrieked when his arms grabbed around my waist. Before I could draw breath to scream or laugh again, his lips pressed against mine.
Holy crap! He’s kissing me!I closed my eyes, letting the warmth of his lips soak into my nerve endings. His kiss lasted for only a moment, far too short for me to fully enjoy it. Our rapid breath from our exercise mixed and mingled between us. My heart behaved like a crazed rabbit in a cage. I opened my eyes to see his gaze darting all over my face like he couldn’t get enough of me at once. I rested my hand on his chest and leaned in. The warmth of his body pressed against me again, and his lips moved with mine for quite a bit longer. My hands traveled up his neck and around his head, holding him in place in case he dared pull away again.
Every inch of my body celebrated unlike anything I’d experienced before. I didn’t want to stop. I could die right here, right now, a happy woman.
At some point we had to stop for breath. I pulled away, alarmed that I still held the cucumber and had pressed it against his head. I giggled and tossed it to the table. “Interesting method at getting me to shut up.”
He tugged me closer again, leaning down to rest his forehead against mine. “I had to t—try some other way. I didn’t want to risk getting my hand licked again.”
“I think I like this better.”
He hummed seductively. “Shall we try again?”
His hands moved up my back, holding me to him as we kissed.
I ran my hands over his five-o-clock shadow, down his neck and back into his hair. Every kiss and every touch brought a part of me I never knew existed alive. I will never be the same.
A thump at our feet brought us apart. The cucumber I had haphazardly tossed to the chopping block had fallen. Danny picked it up and set it back next to some carrots. He turned around and touched my cheek, looking at me with new eyes—the eyes of someone with an incredible secret. I wanted to taste that secret, so I pulled him closer and kissed his lips again.
A shower of thumps rained down onto the floor. Vegetables bounced against our ankles and not a single one remained on the chopping block.
Er ... I don’t think we’re alone,” Danny said, picking them back up.
I held my hands up in surrender. “All right. I get it,” I said to the ghost. I couldn’t see them to know which one had rained on my beautiful parade, but I knew well enough not to mess with them.
We returned to preparing our meal, but not without a goofy grin and a wink or two between us.
The door to the blue room flew open and slammed against the wall. It only did that when Beauty was in a foul mood. Mirabella raised her brows at Karina before turning to the door.
“What did you do?” Beauty flew into the room with her fists balled and at her side.
“You will have to be more specific, dear, or I won’t play.” Mirabella waved her hand as though she didn’t care.
“You,” she pointed at Mirabella, “have done something to encourage her to stay.”
“Why do you assume I’ve done something when it could very well be the Master who persuaded her.” Mirabella winked knowingly at Karina.
“What? What has happened? I demand that you tell me.” Beauty gazed from Karina to Mirabella.
“Baby witnessed the two kissing in the kitchen,” Mirabella stated.
“It was shameful the way they went on. I had to do something to separate the two. So, I dropped their food on the floor. Heaven forbid! The people now a day! They have no decorum. They probably get their ideas from that telly box they stare at all day.” Karina sat a little taller with a lift of her chin.
Mirabella lowered her head to hide the smile at the newfound memory of her disreputable behavior of years past in the study room. It was good Karina had not witnessed it.
“The damage has been done. That answers for part of the reason she’s still here, but it should never have gotten that far. Did you two do anything to help run her off? No!” She started to pace the floor, floating inches above. “For some reason she’s even more enthusiastic about staying. Just now, in the sitting room, I overheard her and Danny planning the search of our bodies—and I get the impression they know how one of you died.”
“Well, don’t you want to know?” Mirabella asked. “Think about it. If she can figure out how we died then find our bodies, do you not think that something good can happen?”
“No. Nothing good will come of it,” Beauty replied.
“You cannot tell me the idea of moving on to the other side is not appealing to you.” Mirabella waved her arm as if the other side were simply beyond the next room.
“This is not about us.”
“Yes, it is.” Mirabella folded her arm.
“Have you two not learned a thing over the years? Do you not know what will happen to h—”
Karina stood and held her hand to her stilled heart. “You do not think that he would harm her, do you?”
Beauty drew a long breath then released it before answering. “If he’s set on her, then it will happen.”
“Well, I cannot let a chance go by without taking hold of it. I will do all that I can to make this misery end, and you won’t stop me.” Mirabella disappeared through the wall with such force a picture frame tilted to the side.
Jessica
I sighed and leaned into Danny’s side of the sofa.
“I don’t think I could ever get tired of that sound.”
“What sound?” I asked.
“Your sighs. They’re delightful,” he said with a smile, then just as quickly his grin faded.
“What?” I asked.
He lowered his head and looked at our clasped hands. “I—I—I have to admit that I don’t know what I’m d—doing. I don’t know how to be in a relationship. The only other girl I dated more than once didn’t like to be touched. If I start to annoy you—”
I placed two fingers over his lips, sat up and twisted so I knelt beside him on the sofa and faced him. “Shh. You don’t need to worry about me. Nothing about you would ever annoy me.”
“R—really? Even my stuttering?”
“I adore your stuttering.” I kissed his lips once then rested my forehead on his. “I even adore your Cyclops eye.”
His shoulders bounced with his chuckle. He ran his hand up my arm and onto my neck. “So, you don’t mind that?”
I sighed. “Not at all,” I kissed him.
Papers rustled at the table close by.
“And our chaperon is back,” I said and sat back in the sofa like a lady. A shiver ran up my spine at the drop in temperature. “I wonder what makes it cold when they are near.”
“I don’t know.” He placed his arm on the sofa behind me and pointed at the computer screen. “Should we keep looking?”
“Yeah.” Pouring through new articles spanning the weeks around the three deaths took a great amount of attention, which at the moment was stolen from every move Danny made.
“Are you as tired as I am?” Danny asked then yawned.
“I might be more tireder,” I said then laughed. “Tired enough to think that tireder is a word.”
He moved the laptop back to the table. “This can wait until morning. I’m going to bed. You should too.” He took my hand and lifted me to stand. “Do you think it would help if we switched rooms for tonight? I mean, do you think the ghosts will leave you alone if you’re in a different room?”
“No, no. I’ll be fine,” I said. No way am I making him move rooms.
Hand in hand we traveled up to our rooms, yawning back and forth. At my bedroom door he slowed to a stop. “I’ll leave my door open again. If you need m—m—me, just call.”
“Or scream.”
“Yeah.” He chuckled. He cupped my cheek and gave me a long, lingering kiss. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
He kissed me again. “For giving me something to dream about.”
“Oh, well, anytime.” I wiggled my eyebrows and kissed him one last time before I slipped into my room. I gathered my pajamas then headed toward the bathroom to brush my teeth. My hand paused on the handle when I caught the sound of water dripping from the other side of the door.
Strange. I don’t remember leaving the water on.
I turned the handle and pushed the door open. The drip sound came from behind the shower curtain. This better not turn into a Psycho scene. I pulled the curtain away and gasped. Before me, hanging from a rope and dangling above the floor was a translucent image of myself. My ghostly head hung to one side where the rope had nearly severed it. My pajamas were torn and my eyes were open and black.
My scream tore at my throat. I backed up, accidentally slamming the door shut, trapping myself in the bathroom. I spun around, tried the handle, but it didn’t budge. “Help!” I pounded on the door. “Get me out!”
A hand clamped down on my shoulder. Louder I screamed and I jerked away, stumbling to stay on my feet. I tried the door again, this time it worked and I knocked myself in the shoulder with the edge. I couldn’t get away fast enough and tripped on my feet, landing on my face.
“Jessica!”
I rolled to my side to see Danny standing over me with his hands out to help me. I slapped my hand over my mouth to shut myself up.
“It’s all right. Calm down.” His voice sounded calming, but his hands shook as if he too was frightened.
I grabbed onto his clothes, using him as a ladder to climb up his body until I stood in his arms. I point at the closed bathroom door with a shaky hand. He stepped closer to open it, but I grabbed his arms and held him back. Shaking my head, I pointed at myself.
My voice had taken a hike at some point.
“You want to open the door?” he asked.
I shook my head vigorously and swallowed to find my voice. “No.” Gasp. “It was me.”
“What do you mean?”
“The ghost was me!” My voice cracked and hurt.
Again, he moved to open the door, but I held him back. He cupped my head in his hands and brushed my hair back from my eyes until I gazed into his. “Jessy, you’ll be fine. Let me take a peek, okay?”
“But ... it was horrible.”
“Just hold tight.” He kissed my forehead then turned to the door. I shut my eyes tight and listened to the scrape of the door handle moving. A creak and a pause. The sound of a shower curtain being pushed to one side brought my eyes open.
Danny kicked at a coil of rope that sat unused on the floor. The bathroom looked as though nothing had ever been amiss. “You say you saw yourself?”
“I…” my voice croaked. I cleared my throat and tried again, “I hung from the light fixture.” I held my hand over my neck. “My eyes were black.” I pressed the palms of my hands to my eyelids. Get a grip! This isn’t the first time something like this has happened. Get used to it! I need to buckle up and take the heat! “Uh, you know what? I’m fine. I’m just tired. Really tired. Once I’ve rested, I’ll be back in the game. This one just caught me off guard. That’s all.”
“No.”
“No? No what?”
He lowered his head and walked to me. He took my hand and rubbed his thumbs over my knuckles. He lifted my hand to his lips and kissed it once. “I can’t see you falling apart like this anymore.”
“I’m not falling apart. Like I said, I’m fine. I’m just tired. Anyone would scream after seeing themselves hanging in a bathroom from their neck.”
He took a deep breath and opened his mouth to speak. He let it out and took another deep breath. “J—Jessica, I think you ... should l—l—leave.”
An unforeseeable force must have struck my heart and taken the breath from me. His words were like a battering ram on my soul. I rocked back on the heels of my feet. “You want me to leave?” I thought he liked me. Doesn’t he like me?
He sighed. “I d—don’t want you to leave. But I think you should leave.”
Seeing his tired eyes gazing down at me as if I were a thorn in his side gave me the answer I needed. I should never have come. I’m only burdening him. Here I assumed things were good. Did I read him wrong? Was this whole kissing thing just a fun fling for him? Just a chance to snog a chick for a few days then send her on her way with no strings attached?
I’m an idiot.
Typical Jessica. Pushing your way into people’s lives like you belonged.
“Fair enough. I’ll go call Crystal.”
He reached out to grab hold of my arm, but I twisted out of his reach and left the room.
“Jessy ... Jessica. Please understand ... I think you’ve misunderstood me.” He followed me down the hall and tried to pull me to stop. Instead, he grabbed hold of my sleeve. My arms slipped through the armhole and into my pajamas.
I stopped. “You planning to undress me? It’s not a very effective way to get someone to leave, you know.”
His hand lashed back as if he’d touched something hot out of the oven. “S—sorry. Please stop,” he said and followed me down the stairs.
“You don’t need to explain. I shouldn’t have just showed up without calling first.”
“Jessi—”
“You’ve got work to do and a schedule to keep. Not to mention I’ve put a wedge between you and your family—er, friends or whatever.”
“Jessica—”
“It was wrong of me to come. I get it. I’ll see if Crystal will come tonight.” I lifted the phone receiver to my ear.
Danny took the phone from my hand and held it at his side. “Would you listen to me for a minute?”
I folded my arms and studied the floor.
“P—p—please wait. You misunderstood me.” He opened his mouth to say more, but paused when the grandfather clock chimed one o’clock five feet from us. “It’s late. I’m certain Crystal’s in bed.”
Fine.I stalked passed him and headed back down the hall, this time shutting my bedroom door between us.