“That’s just it. It’s a copy. It can’t be real,” Hunter said. “There are a ton of them out there. Heck, I could buy one off eBay anytime.”
“But what if it is real?” I asked.
Shantal pondered. “She could be fencing it.”
“Stealing?” I asked. “With all those witnesses?”
“Think about it,” Hunter said, changing his tune. “It’s the perfect cover-up. Mr. Rowens is completely distracted, entertaining hundreds of rich guests from all over Scotland.”
“Our principle is clueless,” Shantal said. “Maybe we should inform him about what she’s up to.”
Eric shook my head. “No, on second thought, she’s probably not up to anything bad. We can’t just jump to conclusions and get her in trouble.”
Shantal sighed. “Well, if she is running an art theft ring, she’s could be making thousands, maybe millions off some of those old heirlooms and treasures.”
I blew out a breath. “It doesn’t make sense. If she wanted to steal things, she could have done it any other time, when this place is not buzzing with people.”
“Don’t you get it?” Hunter said. “Nobody would notice her sneaking off to load a truck during a big party. Everyone is drinking, laughing, eating, and dancing—far too occupied to realize there’s an art heist going on out back.”
“I wonder what she needs the money for,” Shantal said.
“Something is odd,” I said.
“What do you mean?” Hunter asked.
“I’m not sure, but this one time, when she was teaching, her eyes turned red. Remember, I told you all about it?” He nodded and I continued. “It was like the spirits were trying to warn me about her. I didn’t understand it at the time, but I guess it’s all starting to make sense.”
“Of course it is! They want us to know she’s up to no good,” Shantal said. “If she is stealing, she could lose her job or even go to jail.”
“She’s stealing history,” I said. “And that’s not cool.”
Hunter nodded. “She could be tied into a looming criminal enterprise. The pilfered art could be worth millions on the black market.”
“Right there along with rare, exotic pets and organ snatchers,” Shantal said. “We have enough to deal with, let alone chase an art thief. We need to figure out why we’re here and what’s going on, and we have to free those spirits. And in the midst of all this, there’s this little thing called school. Call Columbo or something. We don’t have time to play detective.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” I said, yawning. “I guess our best course of action is to tell the principle and let him look into it.”
It’d been a long night, and we were beat. After spending another hour at the ball, Hunter walked me back to my room.
The next morning, we told the principle everything we knew, and he already knew about it, and he told us he had, in fact, given the go-ahead for a few items to be shipped off to some museum none of us had ever heard of. We had to seriously consider that he might be in on it too. For all we knew, our teacher and our principle were on the take, and the entire school was a smokescreen for a huge art theft scandal. As horrible as that thought was, it paled in comparison to my memories of the red-eyed thing that had stared me down, and I hoped I could find a way to deal with all we were facing.
Chapter 2
Days went by, and I tried to study hard. It felt like the school days took forever to end, and when Miss Duball finally dismissed us, I couldn’t have been happier. I went for a stroll to gather my thoughts. Pam and Eric were working on a science project, and Hunter was watching a comedy with some of the guys in the lounge, but I was happy to have some time to myself. It was pretty cold out, so I put on an extra thick sweater to keep me warm.
Gray clouds hovered in the sky, giving the whole place a dreary appearance. I suddenly stopped when a blue peacock crossed my path. It was amazing to see such beautiful birds walking the grounds. “Adorable,” I whispered as I watched the colorful feathered creature munch on some insects from the grass.
As I walked, I found myself immersed in so many thoughts and questions. We had the sapphire, The Lady of the Lake, tucked away in the wall in Eric’s room for safekeeping, and now, the gold medallion too. Now that I suspected Miss Shila and the principal of scamming the school and stealing valuable treasures, I certainly didn’t want either of them to find out about the sacred gemstone in our possession; if they took it from us and fenced it, we’d never be able to free those spirits. We heard Mr. Geo say the spirits couldn’t be freed without it. So we knew how it important the stone was. I wondered if we could confide in Mr. Geo, but I didn’t trust him either. I had no idea what to do with the sapphire, but I knew I had to figure it out. Those spirits deserved to be freed. I remembered what Mr. Geo had said on the phone: “They can’t be freed from the castle without it, and I know they want nothing more than to be free from this eternal prison.” According to the rules of the curse, the spirits weren’t allowed to divulge how to free them, but they did give us tiny hints here and there.
I touched my teardrop crystal necklace and wondered what power it held. I also wondered about the sapphire; when I touched it, I was able to stop time. That power might have come from the necklace, but I’d been wearing it for years and had never had a paranormal experience like that. The necklace seemed like an ordinary piece of jewelry, and I wasn’t sure how I’d triggered it in the first place. It had to be when I touched the ancient sapphire. That’s the only logical explanation I could think of. We all strongly suspected that the necklace might have belonged to Isabella, but I just wasn’t sure. Fondling the pendant between my fingers, I wondered, Could this have belonged to a great Scottish queen? Could I be…a direct descendent of royalty? The thought boggled my mind. I certainly looked like her, and the necklace was a special heirloom passed on from generation to generation.
I blew out a long breath. It was already mind-blowing enough to be walking around a real, live castle where kings and queens had once lived. It was more beautiful than any fairytale I ever could have imagined, from my luxurious bedchamber to the well-kept, beautiful grounds.
I continued walking and pondered more on my pendant. I was wearing an ancient artifact, and we had discovered an ancient gemstone. Pam believed that putting the sapphire together with the necklace had triggered some sort of magic, and she could have been right about that; my necklace had never given off any paranormal vibes before, not until I touched that stone. Was it magic or some kind of paranormal power? I hadn’t a clue. I pondered over everything once again trying to make sense of everything.
Another problem plagued me. I knew we were handpicked to attend that school, chosen because of the psychic connections that ran in our families. They didn’t want us to know, but we were quite the detectives and had figured that out on our own. Still, it made no sense whatsoever. Why do they want us here, at Mount Park Manor? The castle was obviously haunted, and we were attempting to help the bound spirits escape. However, there was another force at play, something far more sinister, the evil one who had locked me in the bathroom. I had no idea who it was or why he was there. I only knew he didn’t want us there; he made that pretty clear by writing “Get out!” on the bathroom mirror. I wondered if that insidious haunting was somehow connected to why we were there, if we’d been brought there for some sort of greater purpose. I really didn’t know much about the place, but according to Google, the knower of all things, the haunting had been going on for a long time, for hundreds of years.
I also had to think about William, the ghost I’d met when I woke up in the piano room and found myself tickling the ivories like a sleepwalking Beethoven, only without the crazy hair. Why was I so consumed with playing the piano in the middle of the night when I was supposed to be sleeping? What does Isabella’s brother want from me? Was it a dream or some kind of vision…and what can it possibly mean?
“Hi, Zoey,” Eric said as I returned to the front of the castle. “Good walk?”
“They called your name.”
I arched a brow. “They?”
“You put your name in the pot for the Winter Circus Charity Ball, right? They drew your name, so you’re one of the lucky volunteers.”
I grinned. “Oh. Awesome.”
“Yeah, but none of us got picked. Pam and I are kinda bummed. It’ll probably be loads of fun. It’s just you and a few others, like Jake and Sam.”
“I’m sure it will be fun, but it’s not even for a few months.”
“Time flies around here,” he said.
“You got that right,” I agreed, nodding.
“Hey, I, uh…” He bit his lip hard. “I need to talk to you.”
“Yeah? What’s up?”
“Pam is having those dreams again, and she’s been sculpting more stuff, so much that it’s tearing up her hands.”
“Hmm. I still have the piano dreams here and there.”
A worried look spread across his face. “We’ve gotta stop the spirits from possessing us.”
“Maybe they’re just dreams, Eric,” I said, though I didn’t quite believe it myself.
“Pam’s hands are covered in calluses. That’s no dream, Zoe.”
“Yeah, well, my fingers are covered in blisters too. I try to come up with rational excuses, because the possible truth seems so…farfetched.”
“You got any brilliant ideas? I can’t take much more of this. I’m not sleeping, and I’m irritable all the time because of it. Something’s just not right.”
“I’m not sure what to do. I don’t even really understand what’s going on,” I admitted. “I feel like we’re here for some sort of reason beyond academics, but I don’t know what it is.”
“I know it sounds crazy, but maybe the school officials picked us because of our inherited…special abilities. Maybe they picked us so the spirits could inhabit us.”
My jaw dropped as I began to put the equation together.
He continued, “And what if this is just the beginning? What if the spirits want to permanently possess our bodies?”
“You think they’re just testing us out?” I asked, dumbfounded. “Or slowly getting our bodies ready for them to completely take over, to inhabitant us forever?”
“Maybe, or maybe it’s not permanent.”
“What do you mean?”
“Think about it, Zoey. Those spirits have been locked up for centuries, and they’re pretty desperate to escape. Maybe we’re just pawns, a way to break the curse. If they die in our bodies, they’ll finally get to leave this realm by killing us. If they possess us and we die, it’ll be their ticket to the realm they’re supposed to be in. Maybe we’re just…taxis.”
“But their souls are bound here. Their souls would just be imprisoned again.”
“You don’t know that. Maybe there’s some kind of supernatural loophole. Maybe the school officials are helping them. That might be what the medallion or The Lady of the Lake is for, like some kind of cheat code.”
“Eric, that’s a crazy theory,” I said, “and a scary one. You’re talking about mass murder of the student body. Why would any teacher or principle participate in that?”
He crossed his arms. “You tell me.”
I shook my head. “No, there has to be another reason the school chose us. I mean, how would they benefit from that?”
“Maybe they’re witches. Maybe they plan to sacrifice us in order to help the spirits.”
A chill shot through me. “Stop it! You’re scaring the crap outta me. Besides, your theory is full of holes. They can already possess us at night, obviously, so they could’ve easily already killed us. It’s obvious they don’t want us dead.”
“Well, whatever’s going on, we need to find out soon, or I’m outta here. This place is cool, and I love hanging out with you guys, but it’s not worth dying for. I would have left already, but I don’t want to desert Pam. She’s everything to me.”
“Just try to keep calm, and don’t let Pam fill your head with her crazy ideas. I know this stuff is coming from her. Sometimes she thinks too much.”
I knew Eric was far too reserved and down-to-Earth to believe in anything so outlandish. Pam was scared, and that fear had all sorts of crazy ideas brewing in her head. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but we all needed answers, and we needed them fast.
“Elizabeth said we have to disable the portal,” I said.
“What’s that supposed to mean anyway? I Googled some stuff about portals,” he said, “but I don’t see how any of that has to do with us.”
“Well, from what I can gather, the other spirits need some kind of an active portal to come through.”
“Do you think they’re haunting the castle?” he asked.
“I have no idea.”
He looked at me and shrugged. We were both clueless, and nothing seemed to make sense. Whatever was going on, our lives seemed to depend on finding answers and finding them fast.
Chapter 3
Pam stopped by my room before going to bed.
“You’ve got your boyfriend all freaked out. You know that, right?” I said.
“We have a right to be scared.” She held out her hands to show me her calluses. “They’re using my body at night, and it’s freaking me out. I can hardly stay awake during the day. I’ve been passing out in class and taking long naps.” She looked at me long and hard. “It’s not a dream, Zoey. This is…far too real.”
“I know.”
“Do you think they wanna harm us?”
“I don’t think so. If they wanted us dead, we’d be gone already.”
“Right. They just want to use us, and I hate it. Still, I can’t exactly tell my parents I wanna leave because I think spirits are inhabiting me at night. They’ll take me to the closest loony bin and throw away the key.”
“My parents would do the same, and my mom believes in this stuff!”
“Eric writes all night like some kind of literary genius, and Hunter’s getting his Da Vinci on, painting like a madman. You play the piano, and I sculpt. It’s insane.”
“I saw William Bernard Montour in my vision or dream or whatever it was.”
“We all have. He’s gotta be the leader, but I have no idea why. Maybe he’s charging admission.”
“Huh?”
“Maybe he’s charging the ghouls five bucks to inhabit their favorite human for a night.”
I tried to laugh, but it really wasn’t funny. “We’ll get to the bottom of this.”
She nodded. “I know, but I’m not sure how much more of this I can take in the meantime. Eric and I are fed up. If we didn’t love each other so much, we’d be long gone already.”
“I know. That’s why I’ve stayed too—for Hunter, I mean…not Eric.”
She yawned. “I’m gonna try to get some shut-eye. Sweet dreams, and let’s hope the dead people leave us alone.”
I told my friend goodnight and tried to study for my history exam. When my eyes began to feel heavy, I got dressed for bed and brushed my teeth. I decided to leave the light on, as Pam’s talk of dead people inhabiting me had me a bit freaked out too. I climbed under the soft, luxurious covers; I’d never slept in a more comfortable bed.
Just as I was about to drift off into some much-needed sleep, a tap on the door jerked me out of my trance. “Zoey,” Blair said, “it’s me.”
I scrambled out of bed and opened the door. “Hey.”
“Did I wake you?”
“No. I wasn’t asleep yet. What’s wrong?”
“I swear I heard something whisper my name,” she said. “I don’t mean to bother you, but I’m kinda freaked out right now.”
“It’s okay. Come on in.”
She walked in and sat on my bed. She stared at me as she wrung her hands. “It was only once, and maybe it was my imagination. You know I don’t believe in this stuff.”
“You haven’t been talking to Pam, have you?”
“No. About what?
”
I shook my head. “Never mind.”
She tried to quell her trembling hands, to no avail.
“I know this is hard,” I said, “especially when you’re such a skeptic.”
“Well, I think this castle might completely change what I believe,” she whispered, her eyes wide.
“I know what you mean. I used to think my mom’s some kind of nutcase, but I’m starting to think she might be on to something.”
“Do you…believe in ghosts?” she asked.
“Yes. How could I not? I’ve seen them. I can’t possibly deny firsthand experiences.”
She yawned, indicating she was just as sleep deprived and disturbed as the rest of us. “I can’t talk about this right now, or I’ll never get to sleep. I guess I shouldn’t have come here. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
I sighed. “I get it.”
“Can I sleep in here tonight?” she asked. “I promise I won’t take up much room. I’m just too… I just can’t go back to my room. I don’t want to be alone.”
I chuckled. “It’s no problem, as long as you don’t snore.”
She laughed. “I don’t. I usually sleep like a baby. I promise you won’t hear a peep outta me.” She reached over to turn off the lights.
“Um…sorry, but I always leave the small lamp on,” I said.
“Really? I don’t mean to be a pain, but I can’t sleep unless it’s totally dark. You have nothing to worry about. I’m here.”
“Okay,” I hesitantly agreed.
She smiled. “Thanks, Zoey. You’re the best.”
“Well, I’ve always got your back,” I said.
“And I’ve got yours.”
She snuggled under the covers on the left side of the huge bed. My body was exhausted, and I couldn’t wait to fall asleep.
* * *
Some time later, Blair, the alleged sound sleeper, began to toss and turn and smacked me across the face in the process. I glanced over at the digital clock. It was three a.m., and my temporary roommate had woken me up. We had a big test later that morning, and I desperately needed rest. I decided that if Blair kicked me once more, I would have to go sleep in her room.
Enchanted Dreams - Book 3 Page 2