Ghost of a Chance Book 1 in Above the Grave Trilogy

by Kara Kirkendoll

  She started to sit on the bed, and take it all in when the curtains over the window jerked shut. This was starting to get a little old she decided. “This will be my room.” She said aloud, and watched the stand-up mirror go crashing to the floor.

  Drew didn’ t know that much about ghosts, but she didn’t think that they were supposed to have that much power. This one was evidently pissed and packing some energy. The thought of sleeping another night under its roof was beginning to make her a little uneasy. If it had enough power to move things, to slam things, could it have enough power to hurt her? Of course it could, but would it?

  She went back to the hall way and found another door on the opposite side. She assumed that it was another bedroom, but when she opened the door she found that it had probably been a walk in closet at one time and was now a completely updated bathroom. Good, a toilet and a stand up shower, she had begun to wonder. Again, the stickers from the store were still on the shower doors.

  There were two more doors, one on each side of the hallway, they were both bedrooms, and were just as lovely as the first one. When she came to the end of the hallway she stood in another sitting room, a little smaller than the front room and much more personal it seemed. The light that she had seen was coming from two large glass doors that led to the back yard.

  Her ghost must have tired as she didn’t feel it following her anymore. Maybe it was a demon, she doubted that though. Did demons play the piano and dress up in dust clothes? She doubted that as well.

  Through the two glass doors she found the swimming pool. It looked like it had been redone as well. She could tell that even though the original stone had been used around the top of the pool, the inside of the pool and the fact that it had a new filter (with a sun faded store sticker) had to have been done in her life time. It had been covered at one time, but part of the cover had been blown up from the wind letting a little rain water in the shallow end and lots of leaves. That was going to be a nasty slimy mess to clean up.

  There was some beautiful patio furniture that looked like it had been made of a very heavy iron. The whole area was astounding. How someone could have the money to put into building a home like this was beyond her imagination let alone fixing it up and never even getting the chance to live there.

  Looking back at the house, Drew was beginning to understand a little more why no one wanted to live there. Just being out from under that roof gave her a sense of aloneness that she didn’t have when she was inside of the house. There were eyes on her in there, very angry, irritated eyes.

  She uncovered the pool the rest of the way and found some pool supplies including a net in a little shed near the pool. The shed was new and so were the pool chemicals and electric pool cleaners that were stashed in the shed. Whoever had bought this house had sure spent a lot of money updating it. She imagined that they just didn’t want to share. She still couldn’t believe that she bought it for only $5,000 though. The guy must have been really afraid of her roommate. She knew that he had lost a whole heck of a lot of money by selling it to her that cheap.

  She decided to run through the nasty slimy water, which was luckily only about ankle deep, with a net and try to push it down to where the drain was. She had also found a broom and a water hose to help clean as well. Since the pool hadn’t been too dirty it only took her about twenty minutes to get it clean enough to start filling it up. She figured that she would let that little funny crawling pool cleaner suck on the bottom where the leaves had stained the pool once she had the pool filled up. She found the plug for the drain in the shed as well and had just turned on the hose when she heard a doorbell ring.

  The noise just about made her jump out of her boots, which were slimy from the pool now. She kicked them off at the back door and headed through the hallway to the front of the house. The man at the door looked a little uneasy. He had a paper for her to sign and she had a check already made out to the power company. They shook hands after a little small talk and after only about five minutes Drew’s world lit up like a bonfire. Just as it had been lit up the night before, she thought. So her guest had some pretty powerful tricks up his or her sleeve.

  She heard the air conditioner kick on and blessed whoever had installed central air in the place. It hadn’t been too bad the night before, but she had had her work out that day and the air conditioner was now a God send.

  She was hoping that the ice maker in the freezer would kick on soon. She put a diet soda in the freezer though in hopes that it would be nice and chilled when she got out of the bath. She realized that she was going to have to wait a little bit for some hot water though and opted for a nap first. She still had a lot of cleaning to do (and some uncovering and exploring as well). The ghost hadn’t bothered her since she left the bedroom. She figured that it was either brewing up some trouble for her or had finally given in. Either way, she would take whatever it was going to throw at her. They were going to have to lay some ground rules, and one of them was that the furniture would be uncovered.

  Drew could hear the crunch of the leaves under her feet. The smell of autumn was all around and even for New Orleans there was an eerie magical air about her surroundings. There was a man holding her hand though he had the same face of the man that she had danced in the ballroom with, there was something different about his eyes… something evil in the way they watched her. They were walking through a wooded area, only she wasn’t herself. She didn’t feel right. Her hands were much darker and were splattered with blood. Her heart even felt colder if that was possible. She could feel someone staring at them, almost surrounding them, and it made her smirk. She was jealous of whoever was watching them somehow, and it made her very happy to know that holding the man’s hand was making their watcher very angry. Their watcher was no longer of this world, and there was nothing it could do about it anymore.

  When Drew woke she was in complete darkness and covered in sweat. She must have been completely exhausted to have slept until night time. When she pulled her phone out of her pocket she realized it was almost midnight. She sat up and a cold chill made her shiver, shaking off the meaningless dream that she had just had. She used her phone as a night light to find a light switch in the living room.

  As she searched for the light switch she swore that she saw something pass in front of the light that was beaming from her phone. It made her stop dead in her tracks. Shedidn’t know why the thought of actually seeing whatever it was that was living (if you wanted to call it that) with her seriously creeped her out.

  “Hello?” She said. “I know that you are there. I would really appreciate it though if you wouldn’t show yourself. Talk to me, move the furniture around, make the lights go off and on if you want to just please don’t make yourself appear all of a sudden.”

  She started walking again when she got no response and finally found the light switch. It made her feel a little better once the light was on. She decided that it was finally time to get that bath in and to get moved into her bedroom. First, that diet coke that was probably now exploded in the freezer was calling her name.

  As she flipped the light on in the kitchen she remembered that she had left the water running in the pool earlier that afternoon.

  “Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!” She said as she ran to the freezer. She took the frozen yet somehow still whole soda out of the freezer and put it in the sink, then took off running through the house towards the back door.

  She almost tripped and fell on her face as she reached the back sitting room then ran out through the patio doors. The pool was definitely full. It hadn’t been that way for very long though, which was good. It looked absolutely beautiful. There were lights shining at the bottom of the pool that made the entire thing glow. She almost forgot to turn the water off again as she was mesmerized from the sight. The trees that surrounded the fence made peculiar shadows that reminded her of dancers bowing over and over again as if they had just put on the show of their life. She was half expecting to see roses thrown any minu
te.

  She couldn’t believe that she had her own swimming pool. She had her own castle. She had her own everything. Yet she still felt like there was something missing. Of course, there always had been hadn’t there? She walked over to turn off the water then jumped in.

  “Holy shit!” She screamed as she shot up out of the water. “That shit is freaking cold!”

  She jumped back out about as quickly as she had jumped in. Somehow the shadows looked like they were shaking from laughter now, if that was possible. It was definitely time for a hot bath. She shivered her way into the bedroom that she had claimed to be her own, not even caring that she was getting the floor sopping wet all the way through the downstairs. She turned the knob on that had a big H in the middle and cussed again as brown water came out at first.

  She waited a few seconds and then as soon as the water turned clear she jumped in. Who would have thought that the pool water would have been so cold? It was Louisiana for Christ’s sake! Nothing was cold in Louisiana especially not in August! The steaming hot bath water felt so good. She reached for her shampoo then realized that she had left everything on the bed. She also realized that she still had her clothes on.

  She stepped back out of the bathtub and stripped off her clothes then grabbed her soap, towel, shampoo, and razor. She was just getting settled back in the tub when she had that strange feeling that she was being watched.

  “Not cool!” She said out loud. “Some things are private. Go away!”

  Then as if her invisible friend had heard her she felt the presence leave just as quickly as it had come.

  “Thank you.” She knew that this time she was only talking to herself.

  So she had had a nice long nap, a freakishly cold swim in her pool, and a very soothing hot bath (once she was alone). She was now starving and remembered that there was still no food in her house. She wondered if there was any place still opened that would deliver for her. She doubted that they would come out that far even if there were. She decided on another granola, and to visit the supermarket in the morning. She was also going to have to make a phone call to the cable company. There was no way she was going to make it through another day without television.

  When she came out of the kitchen with an ice cold diet Pepsi (the refrigerator was working great) she noticed that her bags were no longer in the living room. She was going to be really pissed if she found them outside the front door again.

  She looked out the door and didn’t see them.

  “Alright, what have you done with my ba gs? I am starving and there is a granola bar just waiting for me in one of them!”

  No answer of course.

  “Fine.” She started to head back to her room when she noticed that there was a light on in one of the upstairs rooms. “So, that’s where you are.” She said.

  She started to climb the stairs when all of a sudden the light that she had seen on just seconds before had switched to off. She felt a sudden gush of freezing cold air and then felt herself flying up against the wall behind her. The force almost knocked her out and it took a moment for her to realize what had happened.

  She tried to gather herself before speaking. When she opened her mouth to speak someone else spoke instead. It was a man’s voice. A very gruff voice that should have chilled her to the bone, instead made her head spin and released a feeling that she had never before in her life felt. She wanted to hear more of it.

  “You are not welcome here!” She thought the voice said but although she knew it was right in front of her it sounded as though it was a million miles away..

  Although she saw no one, she could feel his hands on her arms… very strong hands.

  “I’m sorry. I won’t go upstairs if that is what you want. I bought this house. I need this house. I will share it with you!I know that it was yours first but I just can’t leave. I have nowhere else to go. You have to understand that, and it is so beautiful here.” She felt tears welling up in her eyes now. They were sad tears, tears of pain, tears of humiliation, and tears from a feeling that she couldn’t explain all boiled into one. Tears of anything and everything but fear.

  “You are not welcome here!” The voice said again, louder this time, with a slight Irish accent, and more annoyed it seemed. She swore she could picture teeth being clinched together and she felt his grip tighten in anger as he spoke. He let go of her when she grimaced, and she felt him move away from her.

  “What is your name? Mine is Drew. Drew Taylor.” She said, rubbing her arms and trying not to cry. When she didn’t get an answer she began to speak anyway.

  “You don’t scare me you know. I would however, like to respect your wishes. You have to respect mine too though, and we have to lay some ground rules. I won’t go upstairs and you stay out of my bedroom and bathroom whenever I am indecent. I imagine that you came from a very proper time and so I would appreciate it if you would respect the fact that I am a woman and need my privacy.”

  Still no answer.

  “Well, I am going to bed. We can talk some more in the morning if you want.” She started to walk to the room when he spoke to her again only much quieter and only slightly annoyed this time.

  “I said that you are not welcome here girl. We have nothing more to talk about.”

  “I heard you clearly eno ugh, sir, and I am not going anywhere.” She said, staring at the empty room before her then turned back towards the hallway, lifted her chin and went to her room. She shut the door quietly and leaned against the door as if it would keep him out. She wanted to cry for the first time in a very, very long time. She wouldn’t let it out though. She couldn’t.

  It seemed that the tarot cards were coming true after all. The wheel of fortune had brought her to this place and though the house was everything she could have ever imagined she knew she was a fool for ever thinking that it could be hers and hers alone. As she listened to his footsteps pace over and over again on the floor just above her, she drifted off to dream again about the ballroom and the same handsome stranger with the strong hands and the enchanting green eyes.

  Chapter 3 The Hermit

  What he wouldn’t give just to sleep as she did so peacefully, so at ease with the world. He had hurt her. Probably emotionally just as much as physically and had only meant to scare her. What he didn’t get was how he knew that he hurt her pride more than anything.

  She was a very strange girl. She wasn’t afraid of him at least not of his touch or his voice he found out. In fact he thought that he felt her ease when he spoke. Was he going to have to show himself for the first time in order to get rid of her? Did he even know how to do that?

  Why had she wanted to talk to him again? What was wrong with her? She should have been screaming and running. She should have been terrified by the fact that she had a hostile ghost in her existence. The truth was that he wouldn’t hurt a fly unless it had it coming. Maybe she was able to sense that.

  As he stood over her bed watching her he noticed again how angelic, how innocent she looked. He imagined that she was of at least twenty-five years yet she looked like a sweet child as she slept. Maybe she had been telling him the truth. Maybe she really had nowhere else to go. He didn’t know how the people were in this time. He had only met a few over the years but something told him that she would mean him no harm. A part of him wanted to let this one stay yet, another part of him wanted to spend his eternity alone. He had nothing to offer anyone after all.

  Drew woke the next morning with a terrible sinus headache and sneezing that wouldn’t stop. She decided that it was time to get rid of the dust clothes and start doing some cleaning. First thing first though and the market place was calling her name. She was starving for some real food and needed to buy some other supplies.

  She was up and ready in no time. As much as she loved the house it was time to get out of it for a little while and visit the living. As she started to head for the front door she heard footsteps on the stairs. It was kind of nice that he was making himself known for her now i
nstead of creeping up on her in silence as he had done before.

  “I’m going into town. Do you need anything?”

  Of course there was no answer.

  “Alright, suit yourself. I will be coming back in a little while. Maybe we can talk then?”

  He still didn’t answer her so she turned around and walked out of the front door.

  It felt really good to sit on her bike. She started down the drive when she spotted the old cemetery again. It was an above ground cemetery, as most cemeteries were in New Orleans and it was surrounded by a very old stone and rustic iron fence. She decided to take a look around and noted to herself that she would bring the weed eater over this way. It was very disrespectful to let a cemetery go like this and since she supposed that she owned it now, she wanted to make sure that she kept it up.

  There were only three graves in the cemetery but there was one that really caught her eye. A Brendan O’Keefe lay in the center of them.

  “Ooh. Well, well.” She said sarcastically. “Is that who you are, my fine bossy room mate?”

  She didn’t need an answer. Something down deep told her that it was and she again felt a small pang down in the pit of her stomach. Even though his was the largest and most beautiful tomb with its large Celtic cross for a tombstone, she could clearly see that it hadn’t been the most visited. She ran her fingers over the date 1830 to 1860. He had only been five years older than her when he died. This peaked her curiosity even more.

  Next to Brendan’s was a much smaller tomb. It had at least thirty partially melted candles around it that had mostly been knocked over and washed slightly away from it. Instead of a cross there was an angel hovering over her holding a stone heart in her hand. At the base of the tomb lay a small covered metal cup that was rusted with age. She debated on whether or not to open the cup but her curiosity got the best of her and she couldn’t help but lift the lid and take a peek inside.