Harper grabbed hold of my hand. “Now, grab hands,” she instructed. “I’ve got so much to show you; we need to hurry. I don’t want to run out of time.”
Jax grabbed hold of my hand. Holly and Sweets linked up immediately with her.
“Come on, Alba,” Jax begged. “This is important!”
Alba rolled her eyes and let out a disgruntled breath. “Whatever,” she said and then reluctantly grasped Holly’s hand at the end of the line.
Before we could blink, we found ourselves blocks away at the Aspen Falls Police Department. Good ole Office Vargas was seated behind the plexiglass window. The sight of his big, black, bushy eyebrows reminded me that I had forgotten to buy him his eyebrow trimmer for Christmas as I had wanted. I made a mental note to get down to the drug store when the weather cleared up.
“Officer Vargas!” I exclaimed. “So nice to see you!”
He didn’t flinch.
“We’re ghosts, remember?” Holly said with a chuckle.
“Oh yeah.”
“What are we doing here?” Sweets asked looking around. “Are we here to see Detective Whitman? Did Linda finally make her decision and pick him over Merrick?”
Harper shook her head. “No. Linda never reunited with Merrick. They are still bound apart from each other.”
That thought hadn’t occurred to me. If the Witch Squad hadn’t met, then we would have never conspired to do the unbinding spell. “Wow,” was all I could manage to say. I was in such shock over all the changes.
“So Linda has to be with Detective Whitman then!” Sweets said happily. “Yay!”
Harper shook her head, frowning. “They don’t get along very well.”
I furrowed my eyebrows. “You’re kidding me! What happened?”
“Follow me,” Harper instructed. She walked through the door that we were so used to Officer Vargas buzzing us in through and walked straight back past Detective Whitman’s office. Garland and a string of colored Christmas lights framed his door, reminding us that it was still Christmas Eve. Each of us peered inside his dark, empty office as we walked by.
“Where’s Whitman?” I asked. “Is he home for Christmas or something?”
We turned a corner and walked through two sets of walls until finally, we were in a big room that I’d never been in before. I didn’t even realize it was back there. Directly ahead of us was a commons area with round white tables and blue attached seats. Behind the tables and chairs was a row of doors with bars on the windows and a stairway that led up to another set of doors with bars on the windows.
I made a face. “Is this jail?!” I asked.
“Somerford County lock-up,” Harper agreed, nodding.
My jaw dropped as my heart began to race. “Tell me we’re here to see Detective Whitman,” I begged.
Jax’s eyes turned on me nervously. “Harper. Tell Mercy we’re just here to see Detective Whitman. Please!”
Harper ignored Jax’s plea and floated up the stairs, motioning for us to follow her. My heart continued to pound wildly in my chest as we closed in on the door to one room. Harper stopped and pointed towards the door. “Go on in,” she said.
I shook my head. I didn’t want to go in. I was too scared to find myself sitting in a cell on Christmas Eve. All alone. Again. I crossed my arms across my chest defiantly.
Jax pulled on my arm. “This isn’t real, Mercy. This is only a what-if. You can do this!”
I shook my head. “I can’t. I can’t do this,” I insisted. “I can’t find out that I broke my mother’s heart on Christmas Eve. Again!”
Alba rolled her eyes. “Ugh, I’ll do it.” She turned around and to my dismay, she walked right through the wall and into the cell that Harper was pointing towards. My heart leapt into my chest. I couldn’t breathe. It felt like the walls were closing in around me. I sucked in a breath, wheezing for air. Suddenly Alba emerged from the cell. “Red. You’ve got to see this,” she insisted.
I shook my head. “Alba, I can’t.”
Alba looked at Jax sternly. “Make her come.”
“You can do this, Cuz. It’s not real,” she said pleadingly.
“Come on, Merc,” Holly begged. “It’s no big deal. So what if you’re in there. You’ve made changes to your life. You’re growing up. You’re not the same person you were.”
I nodded. Holly was right. I was growing up. That realization was the only thing that held me together when I watched myself being put into the police car earlier. I swallowed hard, stood up straighter, took a deep breath, and counted to ten – letting it out slowly as my mother had taught me to do. When I was ready, I nodded at the girls. I followed them into the room with my eyes closed. When I was on the other side, slowly I opened them. I was prepared – or so I thought.
18
My breath caught in my throat as I saw my brother, Reign, lying on the metal framed bed all alone. “Reign!” I gasped. My eyes swiveled towards Harper. “It’s Reign! What in the world! I thought it was going to be me!”
Harper shook her head sadly. “Reign was charged with my murder,” she revealed. “Without the five of you solving the case, the police are convinced that he killed my sister and me.”
“Your sister? Elena is dead?” I asked with shock.
Harper nodded as her eyes looked like they were about to get weepy. But instead of crying she balled her fists and stomped her feet. “Ugh, I still can’t cry! It’s driving me nuts!”
“Harper! Elena is dead?” I asked her again, refocusing her.
She bit her bottom lip. “Yes. My step-mother killed her in the cabin. The Witch Squad wasn’t there to rescue her.”
I bent over and let my head fall into my hands. No! This couldn’t be happening! Elena was dead. We hadn’t saved her! And my brother was being charged with their murders.
“Harper! This is terrible! My brother didn’t do it!” I hollered, panicking.
Harper gave me a soft smile. “I know, Mercy. I know. But because the five of you became friends, you were able to save my sister. The powers that be can’t have your friendship end now. It would change too many things. Don’t you see?”
I looked around the room as tears rolled down Sweets and Jax’s cheeks. Holly looked broken up, too. Even Alba looked depressed. It was too much.
“Harper. We can’t do this anymore,” Sweets sobbed. “Take us away, please!”
“Please, Harper, we can’t stay here! It’s a warped reality!” I insisted.
“Say no more,” she said and snapped her fingers. Suddenly we were suddenly back in Alba’s household again. It took a few seconds for our eyes to acclimate to the room. The same Christmas tree stood in the corner, and the same old blankets covered the sofas. Little had changed over the last eleven years since we’d last been there.
Alba’s eyes brightened as she scanned the room. “I’m home again. And it’s present day!” Alba exclaimed. “I get to see Tony!” she said excitedly as she immediately began hunting him down. “Tony!”
“Alba, we’re ghosts. He can’t hear you, remember?” Holly reminded her.
Alba didn’t care. “Tony!” she hollered again, casing the first floor of the house.
We followed her around, poking our noses in room after room. “Where is everyone?” Alba asked as she made her way back to the living room to sprint up the stairs. Finally, we found her mother alone in her bedroom. “Ma, where’s Tony?” Alba asked her mother.
Because Alba was a ghost, Sylvia Abernathy couldn’t hear her daughter. Alba watched as her mother cried over a picture of her daughter, smoothing Alba’s face with her thumb. “Ma, why are you crying? I’m home!”
“Alba, we’re ghosts. You’re not really here,” explained Jax.
“But surely I came home for Christmas!” Alba exclaimed. “There’s no bad weather. I had to have made my flight.”
Suddenly we heard a door spring open downstairs. “We’re home!” called Abe Abernathy’s deep voice. We followed the commotion to find Abe, Jerry, Vinnie, and To
ny all taking off their shoes and coats in the entryway. Alba’s brothers looked older than they had on our last visit. Their arms were thicker, and their waistlines were more robust. Tony looked like he did on his visit to Aspen Falls at Thanksgiving, but this time his eyes didn’t shine quite as bright. In fact, they looked rather lifeless and dull.
Sylvia came out of her room, wiping the tears from her eyes as she walked. “It’s about time. Supper’s getting cold,” she barked at them.
“Well, let’s get eating then. The boys and I have to get back out there,” he said gruffly.
“I can’t believe you’ve already put Tony to work after everything he’s been through. He’s only been home a couple of days, and already you’ve got him moving furniture. He’s been through enough. You should give him a few more days.”
Alba shook her head. “A couple of days? We found him on Thanksgiving! That was weeks ago. Where’s he been?”
Tony smiled appreciatively at his mother-in-law. “Don’t worry about me, Ma. Pops just has me driving. It’s good for me. Keeps my mind off of things.”
Alba furrowed her eyebrows as she shook her head. “What’s going on? What does he have to keep his mind off of?”
Sylvia sighed as she rearranged the dishes on the table. “I only wish you and Alba were getting along better. Then maybe she would have come home for Christmas. It’s been so long since we’ve gotten to see her. I miss her.”
“Enough about Alba,” Abe growled. “She’s where she wants to be. Leave her be. She’s there to get an education. Not to be flying back and forth and spending all kinds of money on plane tickets anyway.”
Sylvia swatted at her husband with a dish towel. “Abe. Money isn’t everything!”
Alba’s father rolled his eyes.
We all looked at Harper curiously. “What’s going on? Why didn’t I come home? Where am I?”
“You want to see where you are?” she asked.
Alba nodded. “Yes, of course I do!”
Harper closed her eyes and grabbed hold of Alba’s hand. “Hang on,” she instructed.
Jax, Holly, Sweets, and I linked hands and were immediately transported to the Great Witch’s Library in Hallowed Hall. We all stood in a semi-circle in the entryway, holding hands. My eyes scanned the room, and when I realized where we were, I looked at Harper curiously. “Alba’s in the library?”
Harper moved forward, towards a tall stack of books on a table. Silently, she pointed to a lonely figure sitting behind the stack with her head buried in a book. As we moved around the table, I finally saw Alba’s face.
“It’s Christmas Eve, why is Alba in the library?” Jax asked.
Alba looked down at herself. “Yeah, why am I in the library? Why didn’t I fly home to see Tony and the rest of my family?”
Alba’s doppelganger flipped the page in her book, completely unaware that we were all staring at her.
Harper looked down sadly. “Tony did come to Aspen Falls to find Alba, but he was in that car accident. Remember?”
“But we found him!” Holly exclaimed.
“The Witch Squad found him, but the Witch Squad doesn’t exist in this world. Alba, you didn’t even know that Tony was missing. Neither did your family. Remember, it was your friends that convinced you to call him.”
“But – I might have called him on my own. They didn’t convince me to do it,” Alba argued weakly.
Harper shook her head sadly. “They did convince you to do it. Without them, you dug your heels in and refused to call him. You’ve spent the last four months growing angrier and angrier at him for forgetting about you. Charlotte Maxwell found him. She cared for him and nursed him back to good health. Then after Thanksgiving, she did what she said she was going to do. She reverted his memory back to Tony Sanchez’s memory and sent him back to the hospital. Tony went to find you, Alba, but you were so angry with him and so full of hate, that you couldn’t show him any compassion or love. So he went back home to New Jersey.”
“But – I’m not angry with him,” Alba assured her.
“You’re not angry with him now because your friends taught you that it was okay to show him love. Your friends have shown you how to have compassion, feel empathy, and how to love others. You weren’t raised that way, Alba. Friendship and kindness are new to you now, and without having met these girls, the only thing keeping you warm this Christmas is the hate in your heart. You were too angry to go home for the holidays, so you chose to stay here and study instead.”
Alba turned her back to us, but not before I caught a glimpse of a shiny tear in the corner of her eye. I took a deep breath and gnawed on my bottom lip. Tonight was just becoming too much for all of us.
Sweets rubbed Alba’s back. “It’s ok, Alba. Just like we told Mercy earlier. This is all only a what-if. This isn’t real. You and Tony are ok. We’re going to wake up in the morning, and you and Tony are still going to be in love.”
Alba stood motionless – lost in her world of thoughts.
I looked at Harper sadly. “We should go,” I whispered. “Show us something else. Show us something happy. Please? We need something cheerful.”
Harper nodded. “Grab hold of Alba now.”
We all put our hands on her and were whisked away to another familiar sight.
19
The row of stockings hanging on the fireplace immediately told us where we were. The names Arnold, Claudette, Benjamin, Patricia, and Mildred stood out like a flashing neon light.
Sweets squealed. “I’m home! I’m home! I get to see my family again!”
We turned around and found several older, but recognizable faces in the living room, relaxing after their Christmas Eve feast. Arnold was spread out on the couch napping. His body was so much more filled out than it had been during our last visit. His face was older, firmer, and more mature and his hair was longer.
“Now this is the Arnold I remember,” Sweets said with a giggle. “Oh! And look! It’s Claudette and my nephew!” She raced to the side of her sister, who was holding a big baby in her arms. “He’s so big!”
“What’s his name Sweets?” Jax asked as she sat down on the sofa next to Claudette.
“His name is William. It was my great grandfather’s name,” Sweets explained. “Oh, how I’d love to hold my first nephew!” She bit back the urge to cry, but I knew inside she was torn apart that she wasn’t really home for the holidays.
Holly looked around. “Where’s the rest of your family, Sweets?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Upstairs maybe.”
Just then, there was a commotion at the front door before it promptly burst open. Mr. Porter was the first to enter, armed with a backpack and a suitcase in either hand. Peach came in next. She was the least recognizable. She wasn’t the nine-year-old girl we’d seen only hours before. Now she was a tall, slender brunette with long wavy hair wearing a white stewardess uniform and high heels.
“Ahhh! Peach!” Sweets exclaimed excitedly, bouncing on her toes and clapping her hands. “Yay! Peach is home!”
Equally excited was Claudette, who sat the baby down on the floor and leapt from the sofa to hug her younger sister. “Peach, I’m so happy to see you! How was your flight?”
Peach hugged her tightly. “It was good. I’ve got a splitting headache, though. There was a kid on the flight who screamed the entire way, and his mother kept asking me to bring him snacks to settle him down, but of course, nothing worked. It was exhausting.”
Claudette nodded as if she could feel that mother’s pain. “Having a baby is exhausting.”
Mrs. Porter came in next, carrying yet another suitcase and her oversized purse. “Ugh, that traffic!” she sighed as she sat the suitcase down at the bottom of the stairs and put her purse down on the sofa. “Who knew so many people traveled on Christmas Eve?”
“Mom! I’m so happy to see you!” Sweets exclaimed. Then she turned to us. “It feels so good to be home. I only wish it was for real.”
Only a few second
s later, Sweets’ alter-ego surprised us by coming in through the door. With her back to us, she closed the door and then promptly turned around. My jaw dropped open when I saw the change in her. She looked like she’d been stung by a bee and had an allergic reaction. Her cheeks were puffy, and she appeared to be extremely winded.
Claudette let go of Peach to rush to hug Sweets. “Sweets! I’m so happy you’re home!”
Sweets smiled at her big sister. “Claudette, Merry Christmas,” she chirped. “Where’s William? I want to see my nephew.”
“He’s over here,” she said and moved aside so Sweets could take a look at the newest member of the Porter family.
“Oh! I can’t wait to hold him!” she cooed excitedly. “Just let me take off my coat and get comfortable.”
Sweets unzipped her coat, and when she’d taken it off and thrown it over the back of the sofa, I immediately noticed she’d put on weight, and it wasn’t just in her plumper than usual cheeks, it was all over.
“Sweets!” Holly said with surprise. “You put on weight!”
Sweets furrowed her eyebrows as she looked at herself in dismay. “I am a little rounder than usual, aren’t I? What happened to me, Harper?”
Harper nodded. “I’m afraid your eating habits have become much more unhealthy. Without the Witch Squad and your family around to keep you accountable, you’ve really packed on the freshman fifteen or twenty in your case. In addition to not eating healthy, you don’t have the girls running you all over town and keeping you active. Instead of solving murders and doing fun things with your friends, you’ve spent most of your free time in your room, baking.”
Sweets groaned. “Seriously? My choice is to be friends with these four, or I get fat?” She shot us a wink.
Jax giggled.
“Ok, fine, twist my arm. I’ll be their friend,” Sweets agreed happily. “Do we have time to watch me play with my nephew now?”
Harper shook her head. “We’ve got more visits to make, and we’re running low on time. Who wants to go next?”
A Very Mercy Christmas: A Witch Squad Holiday Special (A Witch Squad Cozy Mystery Book 5) Page 11