Ghost of a Chance Book 1 in Above the Grave Trilogy

by Kara Kirkendoll

  He had started to back up when she came around the corner and stopped when he saw her. She pulled up beside the driver’s side window and he rolled it down with a dreadful look on his face.

  “Look,” she said after taking off her helmet, “I’ve got $5,000 saved up in the bank right now and I can probably come up with another $5,000 by the end of the week…”

  “Done!” He said excitedly. “I’ll take the $5,000 you got saved up today and you can use the other $5,000 you got to get the place cleaned up a little bit. Where do you bank at? I’ll meet you there this afternoon with the paperwork.”

  Drew was halfway through her work day and still in awe. She had wondered how she hadn’t drooled on herself after watching the guy roll off and she still hadn’t closed her dropped jaw. She couldn’t believe that she was going to own a castle of her very own, and a cemetery she added to herself, this very afternoon for only $5,000. Maybe it was all a big scam. Maybe she would find out in a couple of days that the paperwork was fake and that she was out 5 grand but hey she was moving in tonight and getting a couple of days worth out of it anyway.

  “Drew Taylor! I can’t believe that you would fall for such crap! Did you really hand over $5,000 to some fat, cigar smoking creep? Are you seriously moving into that place tonight? Have you lost your mind? Have you fallen off of your rocker? Have you…”

  “LIZA! Enough!” Drew covered her eyes with her free hand willing the headache that was forming away. “Yes, I am moving into the house tonight and probably all of those other things that you said, but I just took one look at the place and had to! Will you please come down tomorrow after work and see it? I took the next couple of days off at the gallery and then I have the weekend to get organized. I would just really love for you to come and see it. You will understand then why I had to do it. Don’t say no!” She said as Liza started to protest. “And bring Tim’s weed eater and lawn mower I need to borrow it for a couple of days. I love you!” And she hung up. She didn’t think that she had ever heard so many buts come out of one person’s mouth before in such a short time.

  It only took her two hours to pack up her belongings. The apartment that she had rented was fully furnished so she didn’t have to worry about much. Everything else had been in storage for the last couple of years and the storage company was happy to have everything delivered to her the next day.

  She not so politely wrote on the bathroom mirror “thanks for nothing” in blood red lipstick and flushed the keys to the apartment down the toilet on her way out the door. As the front door slammed behind her she could have sworn that she heard a laugh from within the apartment. Drew smiled to herself, so maybe she didn’t like that place that much after all. Downstairs the taxi driver was already loading up her things and had already been given directions as to where to meet her with her stuff.

  She was on her way to a new beginning she felt as she flew down the highway on her Harley. It was like the Wheel of Fortune was really turning for her. She couldn’t wait to be there. She couldn’t wait to see the inside of the house; her house. Halfway there she realized that she should have thought to make sure that the electricity was on. If it wasn’t, she wouldn’t be seeing much of anything tonight. She had never owned her own home before; she had a lot to learn she guessed.

  Chapter 2 The Fool

  As she turned down the old road that lead to her new home she realized that she may not even be able to see her way to the house. She would have to use the headlight from her motorcycle as her guide. She came through the trees though and saw that the place was lit up like a family of fifty lived there and had left every light on in the house.

  As she passed the cemetery on her right she felt a chill roll up her spine. Weird, things like the dark and the boogie man didn’t usually give her the creeps. She couldn’t help feeling though like there were a million eyes on her.

  She stopped just in front of the gate and pulled out her keys. Her keys she thought with pride as she tried to untangle the lock. She appreciated the fact that the guy left some lights on for her but damn, she was going to be paying the utilities from now on and had already decided that with a place that big she was going to have to be very conservative with the electricity.

  She finally got the padlock undone then realized that the heavy iron gate hadn’t been moved in five years. It took her a while but she finally got it to budge enough to squeeze herself through. She wrapped the padlock and chain around the handlebars of her Harley and locked it to the gate. There was enough light coming from every room of the house to see her way to the front door.

  She started to wade her way to the house when she saw head lights flying her way. They stopped about twenty feet from the house. The taxi cab driver got out, unloaded her boxes and bags in a matter of seconds, and jumped back into the front of the car.

  “Hey! Wait damn it!” She yelled after him.

  “Sorry, miss. Ain’t no way I’m going any farther than this. This place gives me the heebie jeebies! Don’t worry about the fair. Good luck!” He yelled out the window all the while backing up the driveway, and then he sped off like a bat out of hell.

  “Well I’ll be go to hell.” Drew said to herself with her hands on her hips looking down at the pile of her belongings on the ground. “What an ass hole.”

  She grabbed her suitcase which she had packed as her first night’s emergency kit. Inside of it was a pair of pajamas, a change of clothes, some candles and soap for the bath, a bottle of strawberry wine, a carton of cigarettes and a Nora Roberts novel. She might not be much in to the whole relationship thing but she was a woman after all. She grabbed a big trash bag as well that she knew had her pillows and blankets in and started walking towards the gate again mumbling curses under her breath towards the long gone cab driver.

  As she started up what she assumed used to be a stone path but was now smothered with weeds and grass, she thought she saw movement from one of the upstairs windows. She stopped and watched for something to move again but saw nothing.

  “Hmm.” She said to herself. “Don’t start freaking out now Drew, else it is going to be a very long night.”

  It had just dawned on her that she was going to be staying in a creepy old castle by herself. She completely believed in ghosts and spirits and voodoo and everything else that came with loving the city and history of New Orleans. She read people’s fortune’s for goodness sake. At least, she used to. She didn’t want to live with any though. She wasn’t afraid of them by any means. She just enjoyed taking a bath without anyone or anything watching her. Plus, she didn’t care who you were, you weren’t right if seeing or feeling a ghost about didn’t creep you out just a little bit.

  She had finally made it to the front door without getting eaten by any snakes or alligators. She sat her bags down and dug out the keys again to unlock the front door. When she stuck the key in it wouldn’t turn at first. She tried another one, and another one. Finally, the fourth key on the key chain turned the lock and all of the lights that had been shining down from the house went off and other than the bright moon that seemed to smirk down at her, Drew was standing in complete darkness.

  “Well, shit.” She said. “Good thing I brought candles.” She dug into her suitcase and brought out one of the Mulberry jar candles that she had packed. She dug in her jeans pocket for her lighter and found that she was in business.

  The guy had told her that the plumbing and wiring was all new. She assumed that “new” meant that it had been put in five years ago and then never tested as it seemed there must be a short in the wiring. That would have to be checked out first thing tomorrow. The front door creaked open and echoed for what seemed to be miles inside of the house when Drew pushed on it.

  The single candle that she had lit didn’t give off much more glow than to keep her from tripping over things that were right in front of her. She tried to shut the front door but it wouldn’t budge. With a growl she sat the candle down and dug in her suitcase for more. She loved candles. She had a t
on of them in storage as she used to make them herself. Just like her other art projects though she never found the heart to sell them.

  She found three more candles and lit them. She spread them out as far as each would let her see then stood in the middle to look around at what she could see of her new home. There were several pieces of furniture that were covered by dust clothes. There was an amazing staircase that wound up and around to a second floor that had a balcony that over looked the front room. It looked like there may be pictures hanging on the walls in the upstairs but her candle glow wouldn’t allow her to make them out. Drew froze in her tracks though when she though she saw a dark shadow move across the balcony. When she stood staring though, she saw nothing of it again.

  She walked around the front room now which was bigger than her entire apartment. She uncovered what looked like an antique couch. It had a wooden frame that curved from the legs all the way up and around the back of the couch. It looked like deep red velvet with a pattern of small yellow flowers. It was the most beautiful couch she had ever seen. She saw a really big piece of furniture over in the corner and assumed it was a piano. She had learned to play a little bit when she was very young and the thought of owning her own was very exciting in itself. She ran over to uncover it.

  “Holy shit!” She yelled. It was a grand piano. A very old one but in perfect condition as far as she could see. She had never seen anything more beautiful. She sat on the piano bench that had been pushed underneath and ran her fingers over the keys. Somehow the piano was perfectly tuned and though it sounded beautiful, the sudden loud noise that echoed through the silence ran chills up her spine. She closed the piano and stood up to take in her surroundings.

  The guy had said that there was a lot of furniture left in the place and that whatever was in the house and on the land was hers. When she had asked him what he had paid for the property he had told her that it was left to him from his grandparents who had inherited it from their parents and so on and so forth. He had been trying to sell it for 5 years since he had had some work done to it but couldn’t even get anyone to come and look at it. So, it was her lucky day he had said as the sweat beaded up on his forehead. He didn’t want the property and was glad that he was able to help someone out that needed it.

  “Bullshit. If I go to jail over this deal I am going to be pissed. Now where the hell is the light switch?” She had to run her hand over the piano one more time before she searched the walls for lights.

  “I may be dreaming, I may be losing my mind, I may be living on the streets with Homeless Harry tomorrow but I am going to enjoy every minute of this while I can.”

  She ran her hands along the wall in search for the light switch. She looked for what seemed like at least a half an hour and couldn’t find anything. Just when she was about to give up she felt a cold chill run from the top of her head to the tip of her toes as the front door slammed shut and the lights came on in a flash. She ran for the front door but it wouldn’t budge.

  “Hey!” she yelled at the door. “Who the hell is out there? You better leave my stuff alone or I will find you and kick your….”

  She swore she heard a snicker then, but couldn’t tell where it had come from.

  “Damn kids. I hope you get snake bit out there.” She turned around then and saw that everything that she had uncovered had been recovered.

  “Ok. So, maybe I’m not here alone.”

  She refused to completely believe yet that she was here with a ghost. After all it was now getting close to midnight and she had no place else to go. She could have gotten a hotel room she supposed but then she would be broke for the next few days until she got her life insurance money.

  “Listen. I’m staying the night here whether you creeps want me to or not. I’ve got nowhere else to go. Maybe this was all a huge scam and now I am out my life savings and you get your kicks by scaring innocent young women. I am NOT leaving tonight!”

  She dug into her suitcase again and pulled out her Ipod and eye mask. She sat them on the covered couch. Then, she opened the huge black trash bag and pulled out her pillow and quilt that was made supposedly by her great-great grandmother.

  “I am just going to sleep here on this beautiful, yet covered” she said a little louder to whoever was listening, “couch and I won’t bother a thing.” She crossed her fingers over her heart and then held up two fingers, she was never a “scout” but figured that the gesture couldn’t hurt. She wasn’t sure if she was talking to the living or the dead but either way she wanted to make sure that she covered her tracks and didn’t offend anyone.

  “We can talk about this in the morning.” The lights dimmed now and the piano started to play a tune that she had never heard before but it was very light, almost like a lullaby.

  She looked towards the piano and saw that the back of it was still covered. There was no one there. The keys on the piano faced the wall so she couldn’t see if they were moving or not but she imaged that it was a sight that she didn’t really want to see anyway. The candles managed to blow themselves out at that point leaving her in a dimly lit room with Casper on the piano. So no candles, and no uncovering the furniture. She nodded in understanding to no one in particular.

  “Well, goodnight then.” She said to the air as she put her ear-phones on and covered her eyes with her mask. Whatever was going to go bump in the night around her she didn’t want to hear or see it.

  It took almost two seconds for her to go to sleep. It was almost like she was drugged. One would normally stay awake and freak out most of the night about what was hovering over them when they knew that they were in the same room with an aggravated spirit but she couldn’t focus on anything after she laid her head on the pillow. Her mind faded out from the real world and she was off to dream land in seconds.

  *******

  Bre ndan didn’t take kindly to strangers. There was nothing that he hated more than people invading his space. It was his house. It was his couch. He didn’t appreciate it when someone tried to come in uninvited and take over. She was the first one though in the past one hundred and fifty years that had actually spoken to him. Most definitely the first one that ever stayed longer than a few minutes (except for the very few people that came in over the years to update the house) and here she was now sleeping soundly on his couch. Without a care in the world it seemed.

  She had said that she had nowhere else to go. Since when did he have a heart? One hundred and fifty years ago he realized. He had allowed the electricians and plumbers to hang around and do what they needed to do. He was curious after all. He could always sense from the people if they were planning on staying or not. He knew that the workers were just there to do their job and then they were leaving so, he didn’t bother them. That fat old geezer who hired them wasn’t standing a chance though. As soon as he had walked in the door Brendan had slammed the door behind him and threw him up against the wall. He didn’t expect the man to wet himself but that was a nice bonus. It had been at least ten years before that one since he had encountered any of the living.

  He had had countless tricks, numerous ways of scaring people out of his house for good. But it had been a hundred and fifty years since anyone had stayed the night in his house besides himself. The servants just seemed to have disappeared after his death, leaving their belongings behind, and with his sister passing just before himself, there was no one left. Now, as he stood looking down over the quilt covered body he wondered why he had let her stay. He moved the blanket off of her head so that he could get a better look at her up close.

  He was annoyed when he saw the mask over her eyes. The contraption that she had tucked into her ears was playing some very loud annoying music. That was going to have to go immediately. He threw it down and stomped on it until it was silent, another one of those amazing things that had entered the living world since his passing. He moved the mask up over her forehead and stared at her in awe.

  “An angel.” He whispered. He looked up at the ceiling and said,
“Finally. After one hundred and fifty years of being stuck in this house you send me an angel…with pink hair.” He said when he looked back down and noticed the stripe of pink that ran down the front of her beautiful, flowing blonde hair. “And she sleeps.”

  Of course she wasn’t an angel, he thought. And she would be gone first thing in the morning. He walked away back up the stairs where he spent most of his time in his library, alone.

  ******

  As the sun shone through the tall windows of what Drew would call the living room area of the castle, she woke up feeling completely refreshed. She had had an amazing dream the night before of a tall handsome gentlemen and herself dancing in a ballroom. She wore a long flowing dress just like Scarlett in Gone with the Wind. In fact now that she thought about it, it reminded her of the scene from Beauty and the Beast, minus the singing tea pot of course. She figured it must have been a dream because she had never danced with a man in her life and had absolutely no intentions of ever doing so. For some reason, in the dream, it made her feel like flying.

  Once she sat up and her eyes had adjusted, she realized that her mask was lying on a small table beside the couch and her I-Pod was in several small pieces beside it. The front door was standing wide open with her suitcase and bag, that now had her pillow and blanket stuffed back in it, waiting for her in the door way. It was halfway out the door as if whoever moved it wasn’t going any farther or putting any more effort into helping her find her way out.

  “Well, I guess that is as about as frank as you can get.”

  She stood up and stretched and took a better look at her surroundings now that it was daylight. The place was absolutely gorgeous. The chandelier that hung above her head must have been made of real crystal the way that the colors changed in the sun. It had to have at least 50 layers from top to bottom. If it wasn’t for the cobwebs hanging from every nick and cranny the place wouldn’t seem that creepy at all. The piano was still covered along with all of the other furniture she noticed. There were several doors that led out of the living area and of course the beautiful stair case that looked like mahogany as did the trim around the ceiling and walls.