Seventh (The Hafling Chronicles Book 1)

by Abigail McGovern

  Seventh

  By: Abigail McGovern

  Copyright © 2016 Abigail McGovern

  All rights reserved

  Summary: Until her family moves in with her grandmother in the small town of Liberty, South Carolina, Olivia Norfolk is a normal girl living a normal life. But once she moves, odd things begin to happen. She begins to see ghosts, and starts developing abilities she doesn’t understand. But she’s noticed she’s not the only one with strange abilities. Her grandmother’s gardener has them too. To find answers, Liv must look in the cemetery behind her Grandmother’s house, and she may discover that she is greater than she thought she could ever be.

  Special thanks to my Dad and siblings, Rachel and Joe, my Aunt Sarah, and my friends Katie, and Paisley

  Part One

  Chapter One

  Our car drives up the long, winding driveway to the mansion at the end and pars. An old lady bursts out energetically- for an old lady, that is- from the front door and down the steps toward us. My little brothers Maxwell (Max), and Nathaniel (Nate) burst out of the car and leap into her arms.

  “Hey Grandma!”

  “Hi Gram!”

  “Oh my! Max, Nate!” My grandma squeezes them tight. “Look how big you’ve gotten! You’re in what, fourth grade now?” They nod cheerfully.

  I roll my eyes and step out of the car, getting around to the back, and popping the trunk before she grabs me. “Olivia! Look how much you’ve grown since I last saw you!”

  I pull away, slightly embarrassed. “It’s only been two years Gram. And I go by Liv now.”

  “But you look so different. So grown-up and strong. And what happened to your beautiful short hair?” She gives my long side ponytail a tug.

  “It was unsatisfactory.” I say truthfully.

  Gram laughs. “Come on in, I’ll show you around.”

  My dad lost his job two weeks ago, and we had to foreclose our house. We moved into the only place we could, a giant mansion in superstitious, small town Liberty, South Carolina with an old lady living in it. It was not a popular decision, to say the least.

  Gram leads us inside, into a large main room with a polished wood floor, and a gleaming spiral staircase going both up and down. A large grand piano sits in the corner. Gram walks over to a sliding door on the left side of the room, and pulls it open. I gasp; It’s a library. A magnificently huge library: desks, arm chairs, and couches hidden among the many bookshelves, as far back as I can see.

  Seeing my expression, Dad laughs. “Ahh, there’s the national treasure. How ya feeling about the house now Liv?” I stick my tongue out at him, but we both know that I like this house a thousand times better now that I’ve seen the library.

  Gram laughs and smiles at us. “I see you still love books just as much as you used to Ol- Liv.” I nod.

  She opens a sliding door on the right side of the room, and leads us down a small set of steps and into the biggest family room I’ve ever seen. My jaw drops. My dad and brothers gasp out loud. Even my mom looks shocked.

  “Mom, how much money did you spend on this?” She asks, gesturing to the two long L shaped couches, one against the wall with the door, and the other against the outside-facing wall. A huge flat screen Tv hangs on the wall above a fireplace.

  Gram smiles reassuringly. “I have plenty of money Sophie, and I thought you would like this better than the old fashioned stuff that was here before.”

  Mom hugs her. “We do. Thank you so much. But what did you do with all the family heirlooms?”

  “I put most of them in storage, some of them I sold.” She laughs at my mother’s worried expression, and leads us out the door.

  We follow Gram into a formal living room with lovely caramel leather couches, a glass coffee table and shelves filled with with fragile decorations: including a delicate glass bird, a painted porcelain vase, and a necklace with a pink gem in the middle. “Oh kids, take a long look around because you’re not going to be allowed back in here. I was only in here once or twice a month when I was a kid. So, if I wasn’t allowed in here when the couch’s weren’t as nice, I doubt you will be now.” Mom jokes.

  Gram nods. “Yes, please stay out of here, I’d prefer it if my things weren’t broken.”

  Max and Nate nod dutifully, but I just don’t see how I can stay out of this beautiful room. The pale light filtering through the floor-to-ceiling windows is just perfect for reading in, and this room will be peaceful and quiet without my brothers in it. Even so I say, “I’ll do my best.” hoping it sounds like a joke.

  We go back up the small set of stairs and into a ginormous kitchen the size of four hotel rooms put together (I guess I’m measuring things in the unit of ‘hotel room’ from now on.) Black granite counters run the perimeter of the room, reaching up higher on one side to form a breakfast bar with sleek metal swivel stools attached to the floor. In the middle is a sleek island, with the granite continuing all the way down to the floor, waterfall style. Ultra-modern appliances fill the room: the newest fridge, microwave, oven, even coffee maker.

  My mom shoots a concerned look at Gram, but follows her through yet another sliding door and into a formal dining room. The dining room is about two hotel rooms long and one wide. Around the edges of the room are cabinets filled with wedding china, in the center of the dining room sits a long table, carved around the edges and legs with intricate designs.

  Mom smiles, and turns to us. “Now all of you have to be super careful around this table, and that includes you Zach!” She addresses Dad “It’s over one hundred years old and Gram will kill you if anything happens to it. So no antics like stabbing a butter knife into the wood.” Her gaze lingers on Max -ever the prankster- before she turns to Gram.

  Gram grins at Max and laughs, but doesn’t inquire further about that particular incident. She then leads us back into the kitchen and opens a door to what I had assumed was a pantry, but turns out to really be a well worn staircase, going both down and up.

  “These were once the servant stairs from when this house was first built.” Gram explains as we descend into darkness.

  We come out in a storage room, the walls lined with shelves filled with pool toys, supplies and gardening tools. The storage room is exceedingly large for a storage room, the size of one hotel room. We head out of the storage room and my brothers freak out…...and by freak out I mean literally go nuts.

  They race for a giant flat screen TV, even bigger than the one upstairs, and begin looking through all the video games, stacked up around it. By ‘looking’ I mean glancing at the title then tossing the game aside.

  “Xbox, Roku, and Wii!” Max shouts. “Gram, you are the best!”

  “Mario Kart, Halo, Minecraft! This is amazing!” Nate cheers.

  While Dad and Mom lecture Gram on how much money she must’ve spent adding all this stuff to the house, I take it all in: there’s a long, L-shaped couch in front of the TV, a ping pong table, air hockey table, pin-ball machine, and a- get this- mini-bar with a mini fridge, an oven, cabinets, and a microwave. The fridge is stocked with twelve cans of coke, twelve of root beer and three boxes of pizza. The little freezer has a box of ice cream cones, Choco-tacos, and mozzarella sticks. In the cabinets there are cheez-its, goldfish, a box of microwavable popcorn, and a giant bag of monster trail mix. On the counter is a handwritten note.

  Kids,,

  This game room is for you only, if you want it that is.

  No adults allowed. I stocked the fridge and cabinets

  for you this time, but you’ll have to restock them yourselves

  from now on, if you decide to use this space.

  Hope you enjoy!

  -Love, />
  Gram

  I smile, and call over my brothers. They read the note, and nod before hurrying back to the video games. I grin again and give Gram a hug. “Of course we want it! Thank you so much! You shouldn’t have!”

  “Oh it was nothing sweetheart. Again, I have plenty of money.” My mom frowns again, clearing annoyed with this.

  Gram extracts herself from me and leads me through a small hallway, and over to a closed sliding door. Through the windows I can see a desk and shelves with books. Gram opens the door and leads me in. “This is the study, it’s yours if you want it, but we’ll keep it a secret from the boys. You have to promise to be careful around the desk though, it’s just as old as the dining room table.”

  I nod and beam at her, barely able to contain my excitement and stop myself from jumping up and down. Finally! A place where I can write, study, and do homework in peace and quiet. “Ok Gram.” I promise. “The sad thing is, we actually can keep it a secret from Nate and Max, as long as they’re playing video games everytime I come down here with them, they won’t even notice I’m gone!”

  She laughs and gives me another hug, then calls out. “Zach, Sophie, Max, Nate! We’re going outside now!”

  We go out the back door, and come out on a large patio, with a fire pit, grill, chairs and couches. Beyond the patio stretches a huge yard with an in-ground pool and in the back corner, near the fence, a large garden.

  “Sweet, a pool!” Nate cries.

  Max grins hugely. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

  Nate grins back. “Oh yeah!” He takes off at a sprint, racing across the yard towards the pool.

  My mom and I realize what he’s doing at the same time. “ Nate!” We both cry, although she sounds exasperated, angry even, and I am laughing.

  As Nate reaches the edge of the pool, he bunches his muscles and flings himself into the water. Thousands of iridescent water droplets glimmer in the sunlight, the aftermath of his gigantic splash. Max cheers. Dad and I laugh. Gram looks perplexed. And Mom looks absolutely livid.

  “Nathaniel Sebastian Norfolk! Get over here now!”

  “Oooooh. The full name!” I groan, grinning at Dad and Max. They laugh.

  Mom glares at us and I shrug. “It’s not like you could have kept Nate’s antics from Gram forever.” She sighs in resignation; She knows I’m right.

  Nate drags himself out the pool and shakes water off of himself like a wet dog, then he walks sullenly back to Mom. He pauses a few feet away, another huge grin breaking out across his face. “Catch me if you can!” He whoops, spinning around and running away.

  “Olivia!” Mom shouts, forgetting, in her anger, to call me Liv. I sigh. I run cross country and distance for track, so I’ve been chasing after Nate and Max- as they run from trouble- pretty much their whole lives.

  I break into a sprint and race after Nate, my longer, stronger legs quickly catching me up to him. I leap forward and take him down. He shrieks and I snort with laughter as we struggle for a moment before I gain the upper hand and pin him to the ground.

  “You sound like a mouse being stepped on.” I tease.

  He scowls up at me. “And you sound like a demented pig! Now let me up!”

  I ruffle his wet, blonde hair. “No can do, little man.”

  He groans and flops his head back dramatically. “But I’ll get beheaded!” He whines.

  “Yes, but I must obey the queen or I will get beheaded!”

  He sighs and goes completely limp, but gets up when I pull him to his feet. I lead him back over to Mom, then back away as fast as I can, following Max, Dad, and Gram away from the “Wrath of The Mother.” Not fun to be on the receiving end.

  As we walk towards the garden, I notice the tops of tombstones peeking out over the black wire fence. “Gram.” I say, catching her arm. “Is that…….a graveyard?”

  Gram smiles slightly, if a little reluctantly, I notice. “It’s a cemetery. There’s a big difference.” When I raise an eyebrow, Gram reaches through the blanket of ivy covering the gate and says “Come on I’ll show you.”

  “Yeah!” Cries Max, grinning at Dad. “Have you seen the cemetery before, Dad?”

  Dad’s expression is odd, but he smiles back at Max. “No, but your mom told me about it. Wanna check it out?” Max beams, and they take off down a small, barely visible, dirt path. Gram and I follow more slowly, and join them under an arched, black, metal gate. The entrance to the cemetery.

  As it turns out, there is a difference between a cemetery and a graveyard. Graveyards are messy and drab, not at all elegant. Cemeteries on the other hand are morbidly beautiful and elegant. This particular cemetery is filled with beautiful mausoleums and statues, and the tombstones are made of gray marble and polished to perfection.

  For the final resting place of dozens of people, it doesn’t look dark or ominous, yet when I take a step past the gate onto the paved path, I know I shouldn’t be there. I know I should go back. It feels like the ground is breathing, moving, living beneath my feet and it doesn’t want me there. As I back away, out from under the gate, I feel the eyes of hundreds of people past watching me leave. (Crazy! That’s crazy...I’m crazy.) I see an African American girl with corn-rows that curl under her chin, sitting legs crossed on a tombstone, her golden-brown gaze on me. A feeling builds in my chest, terror, apprehension? Something else…. And it scares me.

  I turn and run back down the path, to escape the feeling, the eyes, and I run straight into someone's chest. A boy with pale skin, dark freckles, and black hair that flops into black eyes. Those black eyes glare at me as the boy mumbles “Watch where you’re going.”

  “Lukas!” Gram snaps at the boy. “Don’t be rude to my granddaughter!”

  Lukas pauses, his eyes widening. “Your granddaughter? Sophie’s daughter?”

  Gram rolls her eyes. “Luk-” He cuts her off.

  “It can’t be! Izabel! Do you know what this means?” When she doesn’t respond, he leans forward and flicks me in the forehead. “Now we’ll know for sure.” He turns on his heel and strides into the cemetery.

  Gram shakes her head. “I’m sorry honey, that was Lukas, my gardener.” She sounds apologetic, but I can hear an underlying nervousness there too. Her eyes are clouded, like she's worried about something, but I can see her trying to dismiss it.

  “Don’t tell me he mows the cemetery too?” Dad jokes, though he too looks a bit nervous.

  Gram looks uncomfortable. “Let’s go back to house.” She says, turning and hurrying away without answering.

  Chapter Two

  I’m on my knees on a bench that-is-not-a-bench-but-a-windowsill, peering out into the yard, watching something, when I push a little too hard on the windowpane. I blame the bedroom for what happens next.

  Now, it’s an all around nice room with a huge windowsill that is basically a bench. Since it’s in the back corner of the house it’s the largest, with the largest closet, but it’s the view that kills it. I can see into the huge backyard, and into the forest, but I’ve got a lovely aerial view of the cemetery as well. Stupid cemetery.

  The ‘something’ I’m watching is Lukas. Flying. He is beautiful, graceful. Twisting and turning in the air of the backyard as though he was dancing. The moonlight shines pale beams down on him, making him almost……..see through.

  Now I realize it’s crazy that I’m watching someone fly. Fly. I know that humans can’t fly, but for some reason it feels….right that Lukas is able too. I had been reading when I’d seen him out of the corner of my eye, and it hadn’t shocked me, not even a little. I think that if it had been almost anyone else but him, it would have. Don’t get me wrong, I’m more than a little confused, but just not surprised. Again. I’m crazy. Maybe it’s because it’s past two A.M and I’m sleep deprived. Or maybe I’m just delusional.

  I lean forward, all my weight on the glass windowpanes, my gaze locked on Lukas when I hear a creak. Creak. The latch on my window moves slowly up inching towards ‘open’. “Oh, no,
no, no!” I cry, struggling to sit up. Too late.

  The latch comes undone, and the windows fall open. A strangled squeak escapes me as I fall, face-first towards the immaculately trimmed hedges, the only thought in my mind is the fact that Lukas, the gardener, will kill me for damaging his hedges. If I survive. What an awful last thought to have.

  The first leaves on the hedge brush my forehead, when arms wrap around my waist and pull me up. A gasp escapes me as a feeling not to different from riding a roller coaster fills my stomach. We ascend incredibly fast. The air gets thin as we pull to a halt. “No Lukas don-aaahhhh!” I scream as we drop fast...faster than should be possible. Oh who am I kidding?! None of what is happening right now should be possible.

  My hair whips around my face, stinging it, as the ground rushes up to meet me. I don’t have time to think. To process anything other than OMG, I’M GONNA DIE!!!!!. My feet touch solid ground gently, and I open my eyes. I hadn’t realized I’d had them closed. I’m breathing heavy, in shock as I look up at Lukas.

  “Izabel what were you-” He says then shakes his head and scowls. “Olivia. What were you thinking?” He doesn’t look happy to see me, but I’m in no condition to care.

  “Lukas. How can you fly?” I blurt. I hadn’t really meant to, but in my condition it was the first thing that came out.

  I watch emotions I can't identify dance through Lukas’s eyes before he speaks. “I wasn’t flying Olivia, you must be confused, I-”

  My attention is drawn away from Lukas as something white flits through the shadows at the edge of the yard, vanishing past the fence and down the path towards the cemetery. “Who’s there?”

  Lukas follows my gaze, “No one.” He says, but I know he’s lying; he won’t meet my eyes.

  I see the white shapes dart by again and again. They move along the path vanishing every time I try to focus on them. I can hear music, ghostly music, like a whisper in my ear. Suddenly I’m filled with a burning desire to see what’s happening. What’s making that sound. I yank my arm out of Lukas’s grasp and sprint towards the gate.