"No!" I was saying, but of course he couldn't hear me. "Trevor, what do I do? How do I talk to him?" I looked around, frustrated that I couldn't do anymore. "At least the other way, I could see him and talk to him and he could see and talk to me. This is just beyond cruel. He's there and I can't do anything about it."
"Seraphine, I'm sorry, I didn't mean for..."
Before Trevor could finish that thought the door was thrown open and there stood Vampire Dave. I looked from him to Stephen who had looked up from the bed.
"No!" I shouted. I knew that look. Stephen was welcoming death. He wanted to come back to us, only he forgot that he was only an unknown spirit because of the circumstances surrounding his death. If Dave killed him here and now, it may not result in the same thing. "No, you will not die! You will not throw this second chance away for anything."
"Well, well, well" Vampire Dave turned to me, "what an interesting turn of events. It almost makes everything worth it to see you standing there so..." he paused more for dramatic effect than anything else, "dead."
The look on Stephen's face was pure torture for my soul. I had no time to think about it though. I had no time to think about anything. I was moving, out of Trevor's grasp, before I thought everything through. I just knew I had to get to Stephen before Vampire Dave did. "You can not have him!"
Dave had hold of Stephen's throat before I could get to him. "You're too late."
"Nooo!" I screamed and threw myself at the vampire, expecting to knock him off balance, something, anything except what actually happened. I suddenly found myself grasping Stephen's neck, cutting off his air supply. His eyes were large with surprise, but welcoming of the death that was coming. I was shocked into action. I dropped my hand and with the release, Stephen fell sputtering back to the bed. I looked around and found a wide-eyed Trevor standing there staring at me. I looked down and realized I had taken over Vampire Dave's body. I felt him pushing me from the inside. He was trying to get me out, but I had something to do first.
"Stephen," I said, the words coming out in the foreign, male voice of Vampire Dave's. "You can not throw this chance away."
Stephen blinked up at me, confused.
"It's Seraphine," I said smiling down on him. I'm not sure how the look came over on Vampire Dave's face because Stephen looked more startled than anything. "You can't throw this away," I reached my hand up to touch his face and he shrunk away a little, not trusting that Dave wasn't screwing with him. "I was awake that night my mom caught you in my room. I heard what you told her." For a moment the fear left his eyes and he seemed pained, "you said, 'I know how impossible things seem and I still can't help the way I feel when I am with her.'" I was crying now, and it probably wasn't a very attractive feature on a vampire, but I wiped away the tears, the blood, with the back of Dave's own hand and I continued on, "'I know, my body is dead and gone, but I have to hope for something more than this.'"
"You really did hear me," Stephen said, standing in front of me. I cupped his face in my hands and kissed his forehead.
"Please, don't lose yourself. I gave up to much. Hope is there, in the darkest corners, when things don't feel like they will ever be normal again. I will be there, watching, hoping, and looking for a way that we can be together again." He tilted his face away from me, unable to hide behind the beautiful golden brown locks of his old body. Now he was stuck in Trevor's for better or worse with nothing to hide behind. I tilted his face back up to mine. "Please, you have to promise me that you won't give up. You have to fight for both of us now." I let go and doubled over. "He's pushing me out, you need to kill him before he does."
"How the hell do you kill a vampire?" Stephen yelled.
"Same way they do in the movies, I guess. Wood through the heart should work." I pointed to the end table in the room and watched as Stephen broke the table and held up the jagged piece of wooden table leg. I nodded at him to go ahead, but he hesitated and Vampire Dave began to push harder, knowing what was coming if he didn't.
"NOW!" I yelled.
"Seraphine!"
"Seraphine!" Both Trevor and Stephen yelled my name. It was the last thing I heard and then there was a searing white heat and then a vast nothingness as the wood connected with Vampire Dave's heart.
****
I woke up with a pounding in my head like a freight train had just run through it. Every bit of my body throbbed and tingled as if electrified by something. My throat was beyond dry, a sensation I never expected to experience as a ghost. I opened my eyes and looked around, unfamiliar with where I was. The last thing I remembered was being in Trevor's hospital room with Stephen, and then... then everything was fuzzy. When I looked down at myself I realized I was in my own hospital room. I reached up and touched the soft, unruly curls that were always the bane of my existence. I touched my face, and the memories started rolling back through me. I had died, but this couldn't be death. It hurt too much.
"Seraphine!" My Auntie Perrine and my momma walked through the door to my room. "Oh my God, Seraphine!" My mom collapsed on top of me, hugging me and kissing me. "We didn't know if you were going to come back to us." I looked into the pained eyes of my mother and then to my Auntie who was crying hysterically.
"Please, don't cry," I tried to say, but it didn't come out quite the way I expected. My dried throat was thwarting my attempts to speak.
"Seraphine?" The voice that came from beyond my Aunt, over by the door, caught me by surprise. It was Trevor and when both my mom and my aunt turned to look at him I knew it wasn't actually Trevor, but Stephen. He bypassed everyone in the room and came straight to me, grabbed me up in a hug, that while welcome, hurt like hell. I embraced the pain because it meant I was really here. He kissed me, my first real kiss. When we broke apart I could only form one thought.
"How?"
His answer was just as simple as it was puzzling, "I don't know."
***
Epilogue
None of us knew what happened or how I ended up back in my body. All we knew for sure was that we were all very thankful. Trevor was gone. He had spoken to my mom before I had woken up, and she promised to tell me about that conversation when I was ready for it. I wasn't sure I would ever be ready for that conversation, but it was time to hear it.
"Momma, it's time," I said to her as we stood in the kitchen of our house in Rosedale. "What happened to Trevor?"
My mom sighed and put down the dish she was in the process of rinsing. She dried her hands on the towel and walked over to the kitchen table. "Come, sit down." I did as she asked and sat down beside her before she continued. "Seraphine, Trevor blamed himself for what happened to you."
"He what?"
"Let me finish, without interruption please." I nodded my assurance that she could finish without interruption, "based on what he told me, he's probably right. During the ceremony, when he was supposed to be concentrating on relinquishing his human body to Stephen, he was, but he was also wishing to be with you." She grabbed hold of my hands and held me as she continued. "We think it was that wish, combined with the imbalance of power that threw a charge at you, causing you to collapse. I'm not sure how you made it back to yourself, none of us are, but when we realized you were back, Trevor left me with this message to give to you. He typed it on the laptop and I had it printed. I didn't think it was right for me to read it. It was meant for you." My mom went to her purse and grabbed a folded sheet of paper out of it. "Go on and read it alone, if you like."
I took the paper to my room and sat down on my bed, not sure if I wanted to know what it contained. I opened it anyway, because I had to know and because I owed that much to Trevor for giving Stephen and I a chance.
Seraphine,
I am so sorry that I nearly cost you everything for my own selfishness.
You have to understand that I never meant for you to be hurt. Tina told us that day in her room about the spell she put on you. I was sure that it meant that you and I were supposed to be together. It was obvious when I saw
you with Stephen in that hospital room that I wasn't the guy you were supposed to end up with. I knew then, because I was too hard headed to see it sooner, that the only reason that spell worked the way it did was because you were meant to end up with me in body, just not in spirit. How was I to know that putting Stephen into my body would actually work?
I thought it might be a bit confusing to have two of me hanging around, so I am taking off, and going to see the world. I mean, I have forever, might as well start now, right? You are such an amazing person, Seraphine, make sure he treats you right. And if you ever end up in my world again, I will be waiting!
Love forever,
Trevor
"Seraphine?" Stephen was knocking lightly on my door, waiting for me to answer. I folded the paper back up gently and put it inside my jewelry box. Then I turned to Stephen, who's hair had grown out some in the past couple months since everything happened. "Are you ready for school?"
"Yeah, almost," I said as I grabbed my bag. "It's the beginning of senior year, I wouldn't miss it for the world!" Stephen hugged me close and we kissed before leaving my room. I owed Trevor more than he would ever know. I looked at Stephen and knew we both owed Trevor, because he gave us both a second chance at our lives and we weren’t about to waste a moment of it.
***
About the Author
Christine's favorite holiday is Halloween. She has always loved the world of fantasy and often wished for own pet unicorn when she was a child. Even though she never got her unicorn Christine still believes in magic, faeries, and all the things that go bump in the night. After all, they exist in her imagination!
When Christine M. Butler isn't off in one of her made-up worlds she lives with her four children in South Carolina.
You can find out more about her and the books she writes on her website:
http://www.moonlitdreams.org
You can find out more about The VooDoo Follies at:
http://voodoofollies.moonlitdreams.org/
You can also find out more about The Awakening Trilogy, also written by Christine, here:
http://awakeningtrilogy.moonlitdreams.org/
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Book Recommendations
A few books recommended by Christine M. Butler from the young adult, fantasy/paranormal genres:
The Gifts Trilogy by Patria Dunn-Rowe
http://giftstrilogy.moonlitdreams.org/
The Book of Lost Souls and Don’t Fear the Reaper by Michelle Muto
http://michellemuto.wordpress.com/books/
Being by T.R. Mousner
http://twitter.com/#!/TRMousner
Anathema by K.A. Tucker
http://www.kathleenatucker.com/index.html
Twin Prophecies: Rebirth by Nina Perez
http://twinprophecies.com/
Wormwood by D.H. Nevins
http://www.dhnevins.com
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VooDoo Follies Page 15