Evelyn was still staring at the board when AmyKate looked back at her, and she seemed startled when they let go of her hands. Her features were softer now, eyes wide and round, mouth slightly open in shock. She dropped her palms to the table, and then she looked down at her body, gasping in some breaths. Slowly a smile spread across her face, a wonderfully warm gesture, unlike Mary-Evelyn's calculating curl of lips, and she looked back up at AmyKate.
"I'm breathing," she whispered with a joy that made AmyKate grin from ear to ear. "Oh my god, thank you, thank you so much."
"Our pleasure," AmyKate replied.
Amy shifted against her twin then and, reluctantly, Kate loosed hold. She sighed as Amy slipped out of their body and went dancing round the room, cheering, "We did it, we did it!"
Evelyn giggled, then hiccupped and her attention flickered away from Amy to Kate.
"I can still see her," she breathed in wonder. "I thought all that would go away once I was back in my body."
Kate shook her head and patted her temple, her mind casting back to the moment she had woken from the separation operation to see Amy standing in the corner of her hospital room.
"Once you get a taste of the supernatural, it never goes away completely," she explained. "You had over eight years wandering around that old barn without your body before Amy met you."
"But you said I was still alive," Evelyn looked confused.
"You looked so weird," Amy joined in with a bluntness that warmed Kate's cheeks.
Still, oblivious to Kate's embarrassment, her twin hopped up onto the table, making a face as she settled down, crossing her wispy legs under her where the board had been and carried on brightly, "You had all these sparkly bits that dead people don't have. I didn't know what they were."
"Apparently, the living sparkle outside their bodies," Kate agreed. "We learned something new meeting you, that and the fact that dead people can steal your body if you let them in."
Amy frowned.
"I do that all the time."
"You don't steal, we share," Kate corrected and stretched her fingers out to brush Amy's.
She smiled at the familiar tingle as flesh met spirit and Amy's presence strengthened in her mind. It has been a tough day without Amy close by: the emotions that Mary-Evelyn had dragged out of her, however old, had been real and raw and she was happy to have her twin back properly. She headed off any more of the day's dark thoughts with a little peevishness.
"Why the horse, Amy? I thought we'd agreed to use KatieAm. I had to make something up on the spot about two of them. It was just plain luck Mary didn't notice we only had the one."
Kate felt the push of energy from Amy as their ragdoll dropped down into her twin's lap, and, as Amy picked up the two-torsoed keepsake their mother had sewn for them, hugging them close, she pouted.
"They're too precious. They might have got hurt. I knew you'd think of something."
Having been around for thirty-eight years didn't always impinge on Amy, and Kate just had to accept the 10-year-old logic. However, the look her sister gave Kate then was much more adult and concern rippled between them.
"And you said you would be alright, but you still feel funny. Are you alright?"
Kate nodded.
"Now I am."
She glanced back at Evelyn and smiled: it was all going to be alright now.
"You two are quite something," Evelyn gushed, which felt a bit strange after looking after her frightened, confused spirit and meeting the cool, psychopathic Mary-Evelyn. "I don't know how I can ever thank you enough."
"We do."
Amy made the announcement with a clap of her hands that reverberated around the room. Evelyn started at the noise, but Kate was used to her twin's little dramatic effects. She wasn't sure she was ready to share the discussions they'd been having when Evelyn was not around, but, as usual, Amy had jumped in with both feet.
"Can you take us back to that great big building that is now all yours and get us into all of Mary's files? You were her first, by playing with that spirit board, but she's had eight years to perfect her technique and do this to others. We want to find those living souls and put them back in their rightful bodies."
Evelyn looked nervous at that idea.
"Don't look so worried, Lynnie," Amy waggled her head and grinned. "We'll protect you."
~*~
Kate pulled her car up in front of the tinted glass-covered building that Mary-Evelyn had called home. Beside her, Lyn (she had liked the contraction Amy had used) leant forward and stared up at it through the windscreen.
"Oh my god, what a monstrosity. I live here?"
Lyn wrinkled her nose as she glanced across at Kate. Kate nodded.
"And the little cottage by the river that Great Auntie Emma left me?"
"Sorry, our research told us that Mary sold that about six months after she assumed your identity and started the body snatching business. Apparently, trading bodies to the dead is very lucrative, but can also lead to some annoyed living spirits and a few dead ones as well. Just like that spirit board of yours," Lyn blanched, "anything can be used by spirits to hide in, so Mary bought this place brand new, made sure her flat contained nothing but modern items with no previous associations, and set up the cleansing rituals for anyone coming into her abode."
"And now it's my abode."
Lyn did not sound happy.
"You don't have to stay here if you don't want, you can stay with us at our house for as long as you want," Amy offered easily as she bounced on the back seat of the car.
"But we do need to go in now," Kate finished hastily for them.
Lyn sighed, and took a deep breath before grabbing hold of the car door handle and stepping out. Kate swivelled in her seat and whispered, "You could have asked me before offering a stranger a bed in our house."
"You would have said the same," Amy just shrugged, "and Lynnie is not a stranger, she's been with us for weeks, even if she did hide a lot at first."
There was no point arguing: her twin was right, so Kate got on with the business at hand. She closed her eyes, relaxed and then the twins smiled together as they merged into their body.
AmyKate climbed out of their car after Lyn and they all headed towards the small entrance on the side of the ugly building. AmyKate kept their eyes, ears and perceptions open, well aware that this was not a safe place to be with the possibilities of Margaritte, or any of Mary-Evelyn's other cronies hanging around. Yet, when Lyn reached the security door, pulling out a card from Mary-Evelyn's bag, she did not have to use it, because the door swung in all by itself. AmyKate slid past their client and pushed the door all the way open. The expansive ground floor was shadowy as always, and also completely empty. The place felt quiet, there was no hum in the front of their mind like the last time Kate had been there. Cautiously, the twins led the way in.
They called the lift. Still no sign of Margaritte. AmyKate hesitated at the sight of the shimmering interior as the claustrophobia came back. Amy's presence warmed through Kate almost instantly as they shared the recollection and another memory, of curling up together in the small space at the bottom of the airing cupboard at home, all warm and cosy, rose to counter the moment of panic. AmyKate relaxed gently away from the pique, sinking onto their heels and Kate took control of their vocal chords as she whispered, "Thanks."
It took another moment before they were ready to step into the lift, but then they led Lyn forward. AmyKate still kept their eyes on the ratty old boots that were Kate's favourite as they travelled up to the top floor and their attention flicked both gratefully and cautiously to the room beyond as the doors opened. What was revealed was a scene of destruction. Mary-Evelyn's neat, sterile apartment was now a mess of escaped feathers, slashed furniture and broken art.
"Margaritte wasn't very happy," Lyn whispered as she gazed at the carnage from behind AmyKate.
"Hmm," was all the twins replied as they surveyed the room on more than just a visual level: nothing, living or dead, i
t really was incredible how sterile Mary-Evelyn had made this place.
Then they saw it, the ripples coming off something in pieces on the coffee table. They walked over to get a closer look: it was a black mirror, and carefully brushing their fingers over the air above the table, they felt the fading tingles of Margaritte's presence.
"Damn, she was remote viewing us," they concluded, glancing around the room for any hope of something the faithful retainer had not destroyed.
"There's an office over there," Lyn pointed over AmyKate's left shoulder, then she gasped. "I don't know how I know that."
"Mary made memories in your brain. You may get some flashes from time to time."
The sound Lyn made did not sound pleased, but AmyKate was not about to lie, they knew how sharing a body worked. Amy did not remember everything that Kate experienced when they were apart, but they had no secrets, because, just like the airing cupboard, memories could pop up, or be drawn forward for them both at any time.
"Come on."
AmyKate led the way with Lyn keeping close behind them. It was not looking hopeful for finding anything in one piece. Their pessimism was proved right as, when they opened the office door, they found it equally as trashed. A computer was lying at an odd angle against a desk leg and it had been smashed apart. The place was also strewn with bits of shredded paper. AmyKate knelt down and picked up some of what was left of Mary-Evelyn's files.
"Finding the others isn't going to be as easy as we'd hoped," they sighed, scrunching the rubbish in their hand.
"Margaritte must have done this," Lyn tutted.
When AmyKate glanced up at her, Lyn had her hands on her hips and her face creased up again then. AmyKate waited.
"But…she doesn't have access to the bank accounts. I…Mary didn't trust anyone, not even Margaritte, who was her first body snatch after me."
A little hope rekindled inside AmyKate and they stood up.
"Then there must be other records as well as the bank accounts. We can start there, payments, charges, they can tell a story."
Lyn grimaced again, but she was half smiling when she met AmyKate's gaze.
"I'll try and remember the details. I want to help if you'll have me. And Mary's money is mine now, we can use it to support the search."
AmyKate had never had a partner before; they'd never even had a plan before, let alone a mission, they had just helped anyone they met, living or dead, who needed help. Yet, this felt right. It was time to do more than just wander through the supernatural life that had been theirs since the moment they had woken up to their new shared existence.
Embracing the sense of purpose that idea gave them, AmyKate grinned and nodded.
####
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Forced out of the police by scandal and illness, Tris is trying to rebuild his life through the renovation of a new home, a sprawling Gothic pile, Berwick House. Faced with a presence in the house only he can sense, Tris must decide if his damaged brain is playing tricks on him, or if Berwick House really holds a dark and dangerous message from beyond the grave.
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Afterword
About Wittegen Press:
Wittegen Press is a small independent publisher based in the UK. We publish on many eBook sites. To see our whole catalogue please visit our website.
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About Tasha
Tasha was born and raised in rural Kent, England where she still lives with her husband Rob, just down the road from her twin sister and sometimes writing partner Sophie. Tasha has been writing since she was a pre-teen and chose to take it up as a full time career when her company downsized and made the whole software engineering department redundant. After setting up Wittegen Press with her sister as a brand for their books she has not looked back, publishing novels, novellas and short stories in a wide range of genres.
Before taking up writing professionally she was very active in the world of fanfiction and still believes it is a wonderful creative outlet, even though she doesn't have very much time to play anymore. She likes to maintain a lively presence online and welcomes new friends, readers and writers alike.
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About Sophie
Sophie was born with the writing bug in her blood, boring her primary school teachers with pages of creative writing and killing her first typewriter from over use when she was thirteen. She began publishing her work on line while at university where she discovered the internet and fanfiction. It took another decade for Sophie to realise her long-time dream of releasing her own original fiction.
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Possession is Nine Tenths of the Law Page 5