I’d finished up the final details at last. This wasn’t the unhappy portrait of Ben’s death. This was a snapshot from earlier that night at the dance. When he wore his best suit and a bright blue shirt. When he started to dance with Stephanie. Funny how even though he never dated her, it was Stephanie that Ben thought about when he was leaving this world. He had regrets about her, about not going back to have that dance.
The radio played hair-metal ballads tonight. I usually listened to instrumental stuff when I painted, but this seemed appropriate. I think Ben would have liked it. I know he would have. When I stepped back to inspect the painting, I felt my heart melt at the sight of the young man’s happy face. His hair was perfect and big, his smile bright and even bigger. But my favorite thing about this painting was his eyes. His eyes were so happy and hopeful. He never imagined he would die later that night.
“Brittany is doing okay, Benjamin. She’s in a good place now. You really came through for her, and I know that she would want to thank you for that if she could. Give her some time, Ben. She will be okay.”
The song changed, and the air felt heavy with expectancy. Would Ben show up again? I doubted it, but stranger things had happened. Much stranger. I hoped Ben did know how much people loved him. His mom, his sister.
“By the way, you can keep the ring if you really want it. I’m okay with that. Midas and I have each other, and we can get another ring.” I smiled at him one last time, scooped up Domino and headed to my room to fold the laundry I had dumped on the bed earlier. What a slob I was. I couldn’t ignore my housework forever.
I folded the clothes and put them in neat piles all over my bed. My mischievous cat did his best to knock things down, but I moved too fast for him to wreak too much destruction.
When I turned to grab the last pile of t-shirts, I nearly jumped out of my skin.
There was the ring. It was shining in the middle of the freshly made bed. I’d made this bed every day for several days, and the ring had not been there. I didn’t have to guess where it came from. This was no coincidence.
I picked it up with shaking hands and put it on my finger. All this time, I’d given up getting my ring back, but Ben had kindly returned it. Another sign that wherever he was, he was satisfied. He had moved on, and he wanted us to do the same.
“Thanks, Ben,” I said softly. I closed the door and walked to the kitchen to call Midas.
Want to read about Jocelyn’s adventures at the Leaf Academy?
Read on for an excerpt from The October People,
a Gulf Coast Paranormal Extra
I returned to the room where I’d found the box that held the journal and sifted through it hoping to find more of the same. Most of the items were uninteresting, just as I first believed, but then I found an old red paper folder. Inside were the missing pages. These were drawings, a child’s drawings by the look of them.
And they were terrible to look at.
A small boy sitting in a chair in the auditorium, a gruesome smile on his face. A dead man lying on the stage with a knife in his chest. A woman floating above him, her mouth open as if she were screaming or singing or saying something. And there were so many eyes, all around the boy and the stage. I took pictures of the horrible images because that was all I could think to do. A shudder shot through me as I slid the papers around and my eyes fell on the last sheet of paper.
This was me.
It had to be me. I was sitting next to the boy, and beside me was the man in the black jacket, the one I believed to be Gary Holloway. This was no Rembrandt painting, but the artist had enough skill for me to identify myself easily enough. My dreadlocks were hanging over my shoulders, a camera dangled from my neck—and my neck! Why was it hanging at such an odd angle?
Why did my neck look like that? Was it broken?
“No!” I said as I let the picture flutter to the ground. I heard the sound of an old-fashioned lighter clicking in the hallway. Sherman heard it too. He got quiet, but his eyes were focused on the open door. He wasn’t sitting beside me now, as was his custom whenever I got still. No, the furry canine was poised to pounce, run or snap at the intruder. A shadow passed the door. Sherman began to bark, but like a good dog he didn’t abandon me.
Okay, Jocelyn Graves! Get it together! You’ve got a job to do. Remember?
“Hey!” I yelled as I stepped out into the hallway. I didn’t have my camera, but I had my phone. I fumbled with the screen and tapped the camera app. It opened, and I took a panoramic burst of photos. “Who is out here?” No one answered, and my voice echoed back to me. “Are you Moriah Mitchell? Mr. McCandlish? Ollie? Is that you?” Sherman barked once as a small shadow swept across the hall. And then all was still. I petted the dog on his head.
“Well, boy, if we’re going to chase shadows, we better do it right. Come on,” I said as I hurried back to my room to gather my audio recorder and anything else I could manage to carry. So much for research. The spirits of the Leaf Academy were stirring now, and I was ready to capture the evidence of their existence. Non timebo mala. I will fear no evil. I was beginning to understand why they had that engraved over the door. Had the builders of the Leaf Academy always known this place was a spiritual hot spot?
That’s when I noticed the picture on my cot, but I’d just dropped it in the other room. I couldn’t help but pick it up. Only there were figures missing from the sketch—the man in the leather jacket wasn’t sitting beside me now. He was gone, and so was the boy.
I was sitting alone in the auditorium. With my neck twisted at an awkward angle.
Connect with M.L. Bullock on Facebook. To receive updates on her latest releases, visit her website at M.L. Bullock and subscribe to her mailing list. You can also contact her at [email protected].
About the Author
Author of the best-selling Seven Sisters series and the Desert Queen series, M.L. Bullock has been storytelling since she was a child. A student of archaeology, she loves weaving stories that feature her favorite historical characters—including Nefertiti. She currently lives on the Gulf Coast with her family but travels frequently to explore the southern states she loves so much.
Read more from M.L. Bullock
The Nike Chronicles
Blue Water
Blue Wake
Blue Tide
The Seven Sisters Series
Seven Sisters
Moonlight Falls on Seven Sisters
Shadows Stir at Seven Sisters
The Stars that Fell
The Stars We Walked Upon
The Sun Rises Over Seven Sisters
Christmas at Seven Sisters (bonus short stories)
Ghost on a Swing (series prequel)
The Idlewood Series
The Ghosts of Idlewood
Dreams of Idlewood
The Whispering Saint
The Haunted Child
Return to Seven Sisters
(A Seven Sisters Sequel Series)
The Roses of Mobile
All the Summer Roses
Blooms Torn Asunder
A Garden of Thorns
The Gulf Coast Paranormal Series
The Ghosts of Kali Oka Road
The Ghosts of the Crescent Theater
A Haunting on Bloodgood Row
The Legend of the Ghost Queen
A Haunting at Dixie House
The Ghost Lights of Forrest Field
The Ghost of Gabrielle Bonet
The Ghost of Harrington Farm
The Creature on Crenshaw Road
A Ghostly Ride in Gulfport
Gulf Coast Paranormal Extras
The October People
Shabby Hearts Paranormal Cozy Mystery Series
A Touch of Shabby
Shabbier by the Minute
Shabby by Night
The Sugar Hill Series
Wife of the Left Hand
Fire on the Ramparts
Blood by Candlelight
The Starlight Ball
; His Lovely Garden
Ghosts of Summerleigh Series
The Belles of Desire, Mississippi
The Ghost of Jeopardy Belle
The Lady in White
The Vampires of Rock and Roll Series
Elegant Black
Lost Camelot Series
Guinevere Forever
Guinevere Unconquered
The Desert Queen Series
The Tale of Nefret
The Falcon Rises
The Kingdom of Nefertiti
The Song of the Bee-Eater
Standalone books
Ghosts on a Plane
A Ghostly Ride in Gulfport (Gulf Coast Paranormal Book 10) Page 10