Spirits of Spring (The Haunting Ruby Series Book 4)

by Joy Elbel

  “Come here, Ruby, I want you to meet Foxy.” As I got closer to where he was sitting, he slid the blanket down and revealed a tiny tiger striped kitten curled up on his chest purring contentedly. “Oh Zach, she’s precious!”

  “Yes, but she’s very, very sick. Someone brought in a mama cat and her litter of kittens about a month ago. They all seemed pretty healthy except for this little girl. Foxy wasn’t growing as fast as the others so I started bottle feeding her myself. After a few weeks, she seemed to be doing a lot better but she started having contemplated euthanizing seizures this morning. Andy her before he and Rita left for

  Niagara Falls but I begged him not to. I formed a bond with her, you know? He told me what meds to give and I’m going to spend the night here with her. I want her to make it but even if she doesn’t, I’d like to be with her when she passes.”

  “You’re sleeping here tonight? What about the play— aren’t you going to go watch Rachel’s big debut?” I got word earlier that her stomach bug was cleared up, releasing me from any obligation I may have felt to take on the role of Kira one more time. I would have done it for Giuseppe but my stomach would have been churning every time I shared a scene with Lucas. Suffice it to say, there would have been zero lip locking this time around. Zero.

  “No, to be perfectly honest with you, Rachel herself isn’t even all that excited to be taking the stage tonight. She doesn’t know any details about what happened back stage last night, but she knows exactly how conniving Lucas really is now. Plus my parents are going and I kind of want to steer clear of my dad as much as possible for a while. He’s really riding my ass about the accident. I didn’t even tell him I broke my phone, too. I asked Andy for an advance on my next pay and replaced it myself.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” I said as I reached out a finger to stroke Foxy’s tiny head. “I can imagine what my dad would say if I wrecked my car. A whole lot of blah, blah, blah about how I’m lucky to be alive, I imagine. If it helps any, I’m sure he’s only doing it because he loves you.”

  “No, that isn’t why he does it,” Zach said as he carefully rose from the chair with Foxy still cuddled tightly to him. “Rachel dropped off an air mattress so I can try to get a little sleep here tonight. I need you to hold Foxy for a while so I can inflate it.”

  “Me? Are you sure? I’m one big accident waiting to happen—I’m afraid I’ll hurt her or something.” “Yes, you,” Zach said with a smile. “She’ll be just fine. She seems to lose body heat rapidly when I’m not holding her so I don’t want to just put her down somewhere by herself. Sit down and I’ll lay her on you then you can just put your hand under her rear to support her. You won’t break her—I promise.”

  I sat down in the chair in sheer awe of him. Most seventeen year old boys were out having fun or looking to get into some sort of trouble but Zach was here at the shelter comforting a dying kitten. Without a doubt, he had the most beautiful heart of anyone I’d ever met. Sure, he was still an undeniably hot guy but that wasn’t really why I was attracted to him. What drew me to him—what drew me closer to him with each passing day now—were the moments like these. While most girls were satisfied with what they saw when they looked at him, I could see something even more stunning underneath. My love for him was stronger than ever and it almost moved me to tears.

  “You’ll make an excellent father someday, Zach,” I said as he placed the frail little kitten onto my chest. Forgetting what he said about supporting her weight with my hand, she woke up frightened as she began to slide down my shirt.

  “Thanks, Ruby,” he replied as he caught her and guided my hand into place. “You’ll make an excellent mother someday, too—after I show you the ropes, that is.” Then he gave me a smile, the one I’d come to think of as mine because it was different from the way he smiled at other people.

  With a giggle, I replied, “Thanks, shitass!” Now that all of the drama was behind us, we managed to achieve a new level of comfort with each other. He wasn’t just my boyfriend anymore—he was my best friend in every way. And if there was one lesson I’d learned, it was to always tell your best friend the truth.

  As he began pumping up the air mattress, I broached the subject that originally brought me here in the first place. I wasn’t sure how he was going to feel about me wanting to help Clay move on. While it wouldn’t be dangerous, it would still be another ghost related issue so soon after my battle with Allison. But on the other hand, if I chose not to help Clay, I would most likely continue to wake up with him in my bed—or worse. What if he accidentally popped in on me when I was in the shower? Or even more embarrassing yet—while I was on the toilet? Even if Zach didn’t love the idea, he would have to agree that the bond between Clay and me needed to be broken.

  Confident that he would go along with the plan as long as I fully explained my reasoning, I took a deep breath and told him the truth. “When I woke up this morning, Clay was in bed with me.”

  The noise coming from the air pump instantly ceased and was replaced with the sound of air rushing back out of the mattress. “You what?”

  “You heard me correctly. Clay and I accidentally formed a bond while I was kidnapped.” I took my eyes off of Foxy and saw that Clay was now standing right in front of Zach and curiously checking out his misfire with the mattress.

  “He does know how to use this thing correctly, doesn’t he?” he asked, pointing to the air pump. “Yes, Clay, he does. Now can you excuse us for a bit? I need to talk to Zach about how I woke up this morning. Go visit with the dogs or something.”

  “He’s here? Now?” Zach looked confused, excited, and maybe even slightly jealous all at the same time. I wasn’t an easy girl to love, but he somehow still managed to do it. Hopefully Rita was right and this ghost thing would get easier over time. “He was. But when I asked him to leave, he did.” All of a sudden a healthy round of barking sprung up from the kennels. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one in the building who could see or at least sense his presence. As the howls grew louder, I decided that I probably should have sent him somewhere where there weren’t any animals. “Sounds like he took my suggestion, too.”

  Zach regained his composure and began to inflate the mattress again. “Well I have to admit that the idea of you waking up to Clay makes me a bit jealous. But I know that it isn’t your fault and I’m glad that you were honest with me about it. So now what? Is there any way to break this bond or are we stuck with him forever now?”

  And that was the perfect response to my outlandish revelation. He was honest about his feelings yet accepting of my situation. The fact that he asked if we were stuck with Clay was simply just icing on the cake. Zach didn’t see this as my problem—he saw this as our problem.

  “That’s exactly what I wanted to discuss with you. If I talk to him about what’s keeping him earthbound, I should be able to help him resolve the problem so that he can move on. Can you handle one more ghost adventure with me?”

  “As long as I’m with you, I can handle anything. What can I do to help?” Even more perfect response. We’d reinvented our relationship before but this time I really felt like we’d gotten it right. This was how we were supposed to be—honest and supportive. “I don’t think you can help me but thanks for the offer. I’m going to talk to him tonight. With any luck, the problem will be solved by morning.”

  With the air mattress now ready, Zach scooped up Foxy who was now fully awake and purring softly. “She looks so much better than she did this morning. Her eyes are brighter and she seems to have a little more energy. I think she may even be ready to start eating so I’m going to try feeding her now. Clay needs your help as much as Foxy needs mine. Good luck!”

  “You, too,” I said then kissed him goodnight. “I’ll let you know how it goes and you do the same, deal?”

  “Deal,” he said as he gently eased the bottle into her mouth. “Goodnight, Ruby.”

  “Goodnight, Zach.” I lingered in the hallway for a moment and watched him as he spoke softly to F
oxy while feeding her. It was so precious that I pulled my phone out and took a quick video of them together. Even if Foxy didn’t make it through the weekend, I wanted to have something that I could show him later to remind him that he did everything he could to save her.

  “Scout’s Honor!” I called, feeling like a witch calling her familiar. Just like any good familiar, Clay appeared instantly beside me on the futon.

  “We gotta stop meeting like this—people will start talking.” “Yes, well, that’s exactly why I called you here. We need to talk about sending you into the light. Don’t get me wrong— you’re cool to hang out with on occasion, but you shouldn’t be hanging around here. You should be in a better place and I want to help send you there.”

  His usual smile turned to a worried frown. “What makes you so sure that I’ll go to a better place? People like me usually go elsewhere,” he said and pointed directly down.

  What? Clay was never anything but nice to me, why would he even possibly think that he would end up in Hell? Okay, so he was frustrating and super irritating at times but that was no reason to burn in a sulfurous hellfire for eternity— I don’t think. “Why do you think you’ll go to Hell?”

  “I’ve done some bad things, Ruby. Things I shouldn’t have done. I may have even done the thing that you’re not supposed to do.” “Murder?!” I shouted out without thinking then clamped my hand over my own mouth. If Dad or Shelly heard me they would come upstairs thinking I was being murdered. And then once they realized I wasn’t, they would think I was going crazy. I’d successfully kept my more recent ghost problems a secret from them and I wanted to continue the trend. All they knew about was Scarlet so they still believed that Rosewood had been haunted but not me personally. When no frantic footsteps sounded in the hallway, I knew I was in the clear but I turned on the TV to help drown out any potential future outbursts. Then I repeated it quietly. “Murder?”

  “Well, sort of. Maybe. I don’t really know. Honestly, I have no idea what happened in the last few hours of my life but I think I may have killed myself.”

  Whoa. I did not see that one coming. Zach would have told me if it was a suicide, right? But then again, not all suicides were recognized for what they were even by the best coroners. Great. This wasn’t going to be as easy as I thought it was going to be. I should have known that nothing in my life ever was.

  “Alright, why don’t you know what happened that day? I mean, if anyone should know the truth, it should be you.” “I know that, Ruby!” Clay said as he ran his hand through his hair in frustration, “But that doesn’t change the fact that I don’t know what happened that night. The last thing I remember is answering my phone.”

  “And you don’t remember who called you?” I could feel the urgency growing in my voice. Maybe all he needed was a little push in the right direction.

  “No!” he shouted back at me angrily, “I just know that I did some bad things in the months leading up to my death and the thought of what else I might have done that I don’t remember, scares me.”

  “That doesn’t give you the right to yell at me! I’m trying to help you here.” Clay buried his head in his hands and mumbled an apology. “Sorry, Ruby. But I’m not proud of who I was or what I did.”

  I accepted his apology and gave him a moment to cool down. What could he have possibly done that was so bad that he couldn’t even face it after he was dead?

  “I sold drugs, Ruby. The hard stuff, too. When my girlfriend found out, she broke up with me. I was depressed, dangerous, and self-destructive. That call probably came from one of my buyers. I didn’t use the stuff myself—I tried it a few times but I didn’t like the way it made me feel so I stopped. With the state of mind I was in those last few weeks though, I have a feeling that I went back to using. I probably got so messed up that I didn’t even know what I was doing the night I died. And I don’t think I ever want to know.”

  Wow. I was speechless, utterly speechless. Clay definitely had that bad boy persona but I never would have guessed that it extended past a bad attitude, a lead foot, and no respect for authority. He was a drug dealer. I had to repeat that phrase a few times in my head before I could fully grasp it. This problem wasn’t going to get solved by morning, that’s for sure.

  Before I could apologize to him for digging around in his painful past, he walked through the wall and disappeared. Hopefully, Zach was having better luck with Foxy than I was having with Clay. My attempts to heal someone left me feeling more like I’d killed his, well, spirit. First, I fell for Lucas’s lies and believed he was someone he wasn’t. Now, I found out that my seemingly harmless ghost friend was actually an unpunished felon. Aside from Zach of course, was anyone in this world the person I thought they were? Disheartened, I crawled into bed and set myself up for yet another strange dream.

  7. Seeds of Doubt

  I woke up disturbed but definitely alone this time. Just before waking, I dreamed about the white dog and the icy river again. As far as I could remember, the dream was exactly the same as before. The only thing the dog seemed to want was to be with me but I had to firmly keep him at bay. Dogs were supposed to be able to sense danger—why couldn’t he see that he was better off where he was?

  My dreams always had something to do with whatever ghost was currently messing with my life. My conclusion? The dog represented Clay and his inability to cross over into the next life. He was stuck here just wanting to hang out with me instead of finding his peace. Just like with the dog, I was going to have to be firm with Clay. He needed to move on and stop clinging to me. It simply wasn’t good for him and frankly, not good for me, either. I would have to discuss it with Zach later— maybe he would know something about Clay’s life that could help me. The idea that I once thought I could live without Zach now felt like a long forgotten memory. What would I ever do without him? I sent him a text before I even crawled out of bed to let him know that I was thinking of him and that sweet little kitten he was desperately trying to save.

  “Good morning, Sunshine! How’s Foxy?”

  Less than a minute later, I had a reply.

  “She’s great! But Sunshine misses u…” I giggled out loud when I read his reply. To me, he really was sunshine. He lit the darkest corners of both my heart and my mind. His mere presence in this world made me feel warm inside. He was the sun to my moon—two opposites that were never meant to cross paths but when they did, they formed something more magical than either of them could ever create on their own.

  “What r u doing later?” I replied, hoping that he would say he was free to make plans with me. His response was even better than that.

  “Seeing you…somehow. Still no car, remember?”

  “Meet u at shelter after work then?”

  “” I one upped his smiley face with a winky face and dragged myself out of bed. Now that my morning Zach fix was satisfied, it was time to get ready for my day at Something Wick-ed. Little did I know that “wicked” didn’t even come close to describing the kind of day I was going to have there.

  The chaos began as soon as church let out. There were only a few weeks left until Easter however apparently no one realized it until their sermons reminded them. We received our shipment of bunny and chick-themed candles weeks earlier but they sat untouched until now. All of a sudden, everyone was in the mood for them. I restocked the display several times between customers but had very little time to do anything else. To put it into perspective, I was too busy to even think about Zach. Now that is the new definition of busy.

  Since Zach was always at the forefront of my thoughts, that meant I definitely didn’t have time to think about anything else, either. Business was steady until shortly before closing time. Glad that the day was nearly over, I spent those last few minutes filling the display with the last box of Easter stock. Going almost my entire shift with no worries beyond whether or not we would be able to get more bunnies in before next weekend, I was taken by surprise when my final customer entered the store. Lucas.
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br />   As he walked through the door, he glanced at the clock on the wall and then back to the sign in the window. My heart was already pounding through my chest when I watched him flip the sign from “open” to “closed”. That’s when I started to panic and silently called for Clay. When he appeared in the shop, he still looked as angry as he did when he walked away from me last night. Once he saw the look of sheer terror on my face, though, his anger turned more to confusion as he looked around to see the cause of my fright. With Clay by my side, I felt more able to face Lucas. It wasn’t as comforting as having Zach with me, but it was infinitely better than being alone.

  “Sorry, we’re closed,” I said through clenched teeth. “If you’re really here to shop, you’ll have to come back tomorrow when Rita’s here.”

  “Ru, you know I’m not here to buy any stupid candles. I’m here to talk to you.” “Well, that’s too bad because I don’t want to talk to you. Ever. You’re lucky that I didn’t call the police on your sleazy ass. Zach wanted me to but I told him that I just wanted to let it go and forget about it. Don’t press your luck.”

  “Look, I didn’t come here to argue with you. I want to explain a few things to you. Really, I’m not the complete jerk you seem to think I am.”

  “Yes, you are. As a matter of fact, calling yourself a complete jerk is quite the understatement, don’t you think?” My words came out with an air of confidence but inside I was starting to crumble. Seeing his face made me sick. Plus, he had managed to taint every good memory I had of his brother because I couldn’t even think of Lee without thinking of Lucas now, too. Clay must have been able to sense my growing anxiety because he moved a step closer to me. Clay wasn’t who I thought he was, either, but at least he’d never tried to hurt me.