Around the third day, the third week to me, I watched my body physically shove my friend for ordering the wrong thing from the cafeteria, and that was the straw that broke the ghost’s back.
“You are so stupid, Pam!”
“Why are you being so mean, Zoey? Take an extra-strength Midol or something, would you?” she responded, sounding quite like a punished puppy. “What’s going on? You’re not… This isn’t you.”
I could see the pain and confusion on her face and had to follow her when she got up to go to the girls’ restroom.
“What’s wrong with her? She’s being so freaking mean!” Pam said as she sat in a stall, mumbling to herself.
I wanted to talk to her so badly, just to speak to her and tell her the truth so she wouldn’t hate me. I needed her to know that Zoey-looking bully wasn’t really me, but I had no way to talk to her. Desperate for a solution, I glanced around the bathroom, and I was quite grateful when I realized someone was showering in the stalls across from the mirrors. As my friend stood before the sink, sniffling and wiping smeared mascara away and trying to gather herself, I leaned around her shoulder and wrote a message in the mirror steam, like the stuff of all those corny horror movies I’d seen. I only hoped she wouldn’t dismiss it as fiction. “She’s not Zoey,” I wrote. “Zoey trapped with ghosts. Stay away.”
She was bent over the sink washing her face at the time, but when she looked up, she let out a high-pitched shriek, followed by a deep, stirring gasp, genuine enough to rival any scream queen. Pam’s head whipped around, and she pressed a trembling hand against her heart, trying to regulate her breathing. She glanced from the emptiness of the bathroom to the message in the steam, then quickly wiped my words away with the palm of her hand.
She snapped a pic with her phone.
I followed her to make sure she had gotten the message.
She ducked her head as she walked past my body in the hall and ignored the imposter when she tried to call her over. Instead, much to my pride, she sped up, practically jogging by the time she made it to Mr. Geo’s office. There, she begged for entry. “Something’s wrong with Zoey,” she said, falling into the seat across from his desk. “She’s been acting so mean and weird, not like herself at all, Teach. Not only that, but I just saw… Well, I don’t want to sound insane, but there was this message, written on the mirror in the bathroom, about her.”
Paling, Mr. Geo asked, “What did it say?”
“It said she’s trapped. It said Zoey is trapped with the ghosts and that I should stay away from her.”
She got out her phone and showed him the picture she had taken.
“What should we do?” Pam asked.
“I’m thinking.”
Exhaling, our teacher rubbed his jaw and glanced around his office. His gaze landed on the yellow and red roses, now in full bloom again. “She was acting very strange when I saw her Monday.”
“What did she say?”
“It wasn’t so much what she said but how she said it. She was very demanding, asking for, uh…well, something she’d previously given me for safekeeping,” he said, carefully skirting the issue of the stolen gem. “It was all quite odd, but before I could even give it to her, which I wasn’t sure I would, it was as if a hurricane kicked up in here. Someone or something began throwing things, launching things at her from on top of my desk. I’ve never seen a flying pencil sharpener before, but it almost gave her a black eye! Then she—”
Before he could say anything more, the door to his office burst open. “It’s independent study time, Mr… Oh.” With a withering glance toward Pam, the monster said, “What are you doing here? We have this time scheduled, and we’ve been meeting every day like this. Do you always have to interrupt everyone, Pam? Must you always be so selfish and needy?”
“Pam is having some…personal problems,” said Mr. Geo gently but firmly, waving my doppelganger away. “I hate having to cancel our session today, but your friend needs some advice, and I’d like to give it to her alone, if you don’t mind.”
The spirit in command of my body seemed to be aware of what was going on and narrowed her eyes, then snapped, “Fine. I’ll leave you two to gossip about me then.”
The door rattled on its hinges as it slammed shut, and the two of them shared a look of anxiety.
“That thing is not our Zoey,” Pam emphasized.
Mr. Geo nodded slowly. “Yes, I know,” he said. “I’m sure you’re right about that.”
“How is this possible? How can she be trapped in the spirit realm?”
“Possession is the only thing that comes to mind,” he said, his grim gaze trained on the closed door, as if he expected it to fling open any minute. “When the body is possessed, the soul is either trapped in its confines as a frightened observer or banished directly to the spectral realm. It is essentially like death but still preferable to being a passenger in your own form.”
Shivering, Pam asked, “How do we get her back?”
Frowning deeply, Mr. Geo shook his head and drummed his fingers on the desk. As much as I hate to say it, our only option may very well be a board game.”
“Great. My best friend is a prisoner in some ghost world, and you want to play Monopoly? No offense, Teach, but I really don’t see how buying Park Place is gonna help Zoey.”
Frowning, my teacher opened a cabinet behind his head and withdrew a box. He blew a thick layer of dust off the Ouija board and set it on his desk.
“Oh, you mean that kind of game,” Pam said hesitantly. “We played with one of those at a sleepover once, mostly just to see what the spirits had to say about this hottie in class.”
“That’s normally all they’re good for, just games. Ghosts do not inhabit all places and certainly cannot communicate everywhere, but in this castle, which is in such close proximity to the spirit realm, with all of its…historical significance, we may be able to use it to contact her.”
As he arranged the board, I fluttered around him, thrilled for my chance. I knew I could use the board and tools to connect with this. The planchette would be light enough, and all I had to do was push it. It would be like writing in the steam, requiring little energy. That was a relief, because it seemed that as a ghost, my energy stores quickly drained. I could do many amazing things, but even the smallest of them took great effort without the mass of a physical body to help me achieve them.
With the board laid out, Mr. Geo took Pam’s left hand with his right and placed both their free hands upon the planchette. He glanced around the office once, then closed his eyes, concentrated, and asked, “Can you hear us, Zoey?”
I jerked the planchette to “Yes” so quickly that it whipped out from under their hands.
Pam let out a loud gasp as her eyes shot open.
Mr. Geo looked up and around. “What happened to your body?”
“G-E-O-F-F-R-E-Y,” I spelled.
“King Geoffrey!” Pam squealed. “That’s the ghost who wouldn’t leave her alone.”
“How did King Geoffrey gain possession of your body, Zoey?”
“N-E-C-K-L-A-C-E.”
Frowning, Mr. Geo released Pam’s hand that he’d reflexively been squeezing since the planchette began to move, then began drumming his fingers on the desk. “That necklace?” he said. “Is this the result of one of its powers?”
“Yes,” I answered. “D-I-M-E-N-S-I-O-N-S.”
“Travel between dimensions?” Evidently awed, Mr. Geo stared at the board, wide-eyed. “I know you mentioned this before, but it’s really quite remarkable. I’ve waited all my life to experience such a thing.”
“G-O-O-D…4…U,” I replied.
He laughed in spite of himself while I invisibly smirked, albeit without humor. “Do you know what we can do to get you out?”
“No,” I answered.
Instantly, they both looked deflated.
“What can we do?” asked Pam.
Our teacher frowned again, a common expression for him. He sighed heavily and leaned b
ack in his seat, scrunching up his forehead in thought and folding his hands over his stomach. “I’m not sure if there’s anything we can do. We could try an exorcism, but I don’t believe that will do anything to deter King Geoffrey from using Zoey’s body.”
“Isn’t there a spell or something? Anything at all? What about that spell book in the library? There were lots of magic books in there.”
“King Geoffrey is much too full of hate,” he said firmly, shaking his head, “so much so that he’s practically a demon at this point. We’d need a serious posse of priests, very well trained, to even so much as touch him, and no man of the cloth has dared step on these grounds since ancient times.”
Tearfully, Pam looked around and squeaked, “I wish we could do something to help you, Zoey.”
“M-E…T-O-O.”
“All we can do now is try to stay away from her possessed body,” acknowledged Mr. Geo, glancing thoughtfully at the ceiling. “We must find a way to avoid her without letting King Geoffrey know we’re aware of him. I’m not sure how I’ll mange that, considering that Zoey and I meet for independent study every day at lunch. If I stop those lessons, the king will get suspicious.”
“I know what you mean. She’s in half my classes,” my friend cried. “I have to sit there and look across the room at my friend, knowing it’s not really her. Oh, Zoey, we never should have come to this creepy castle. I’d give anything for a normal, boring school right now, even with all those horrible pep rallies and buses.”
Frowning, I patted her shoulder from my place in the spectral realm, wishing with all my might that we could feel one another’s consoling touch. Wishing had helped me save the flowers, but I knew it would do me no good with Pam, so I drifted away, slowly and sadly. I wasn’t strong enough to speak to her the way William spoke to me. He had practiced for centuries and perfected those skills, and I was just a newbie in the spirit realm. I was bitterly amazed that in such a sprawling castle, so full of people on both sides, that I still managed to feel so lonely and empty.
In the upstairs hall, near the faculty rooms, I bumped into Isabella.
As soon as she saw my troubled face, she pulled an exaggerated frown.
I tried to feign a laugh but couldn’t manage it. “I miss my friends,” I admitted in a sad, defeated huff, shrugging my ghostly shoulders.
Her frown deepened, as impossible as that seemed. For a moment, it appeared that she had fallen into some sort of trance, captured in deep thought. Then, as if a light bulb brightened over her head, she grabbed my hand and announced, “There is something I must show you. Come.”
I laughed a little at her sudden enthusiasm. “Where are we going?” I asked.
As was the case so many times before, my mysterious ancestor offered me no answer and only continued drawing me down the hall, toward the stairwell. At the landing, we overlooked the balcony edge, and she climbed out on it and indicated that I should do the same. Overcome with vertigo, I was reluctant, but I followed suit anyway, clambering upon the stones and surprisingly finding the balance to rise.
When I met her on her level, Isabella’s smile brightened to one of girlish mischief. Then, suddenly, in a ghostly blur of white, she pushed me off.
It was quite like my first time jumping into a swimming pool. My stomach dropped, seemingly clear to the bottom of my feet, and I felt the floor disappear beneath me. I expected to feel the horrible sensation of plummeting, and I cried out in response, instinctively squeezing my eyes shut. I only opened them after I realized gravity was not pulling on me. Laughter echoed from the ghostly courtiers who filled the upstairs hallway. Even with no floor beneath me, I was able to stand perfectly straight, suspended in the air. All I could do was float there and gasp.
Smiling, Isabella stepped off with me and showed me how simply she could stroll around in the air, as easy and breezy as a princess in a waltz. She swirled and spun like an autumn leaf on a draft, rising and falling, hovering and flying as free as any bird; maybe she was even freer, as her flight required no wings. She merely had to walk or will herself to move, and the air held her weight and carried her about. When I tried to mimic her actions, my heart soared with joy. It was truly effortless, and that discovery sent me into a round of delighted giggles, like a child on a carousel. My ghostly form rose and fell; it was something like being on a rollercoaster only so much stranger, so intensely foreign, a sensation human beings were not used to experiencing but something beautiful and enticing all the same. Like a pixie in flight, Isabella sped off through the upper halls, and I followed her, laughing, narrowly avoiding the courtiers, who alternately looked on in embarrassment or delight.
Our joy was short-lived, though, and when we reached the end of the hall, we both braked to a halt before the one barrier that could truly stop us. We stopped just in time to see Principal Rowens throwing open the door to storm out, his eyes dark and his skin sallow.
From the perspective of that special realm, I could see the blackness poisoning his aura, and I frowned as I floated down to the floor. When my feet rested upon it, I touched my necklace. In an instant, I heard him railing in his own mind his thoughts growing wilder with every passing second: Where could it possibly be? That idiot girl. I’m sure she took it, but it’s nowhere near her bed. I checked myself and would have seen it, unlike these other bumbling idiots on my staff. Her stupid little friends and that punk boyfriend of hers doesn’t have it either. Where is it!?
As I watched him walk past, I scooted back against the wall, as if I expected him to reprimand me for skipping class. Isabella gently touched my shoulder, looking on as he made his jittering way down the hall, bound by the time of the living. For an awful moment, I found myself wishing he would simply die before the night of the ceremony, but then I felt an immediate and thorough strike of guilt in admonition of my wicked wish. It was a vile thing to wish death upon a person, even if he was wishing that for me.
Feeling cold and disheartened, I squeezed my great-great-something-grandmother’s hand. “Thank you so much,” I said. “That distraction was wonderful. I needed it. No offense to any of you, but this spiritual life is getting to be…a bit much.”
She smiled. “No worries, my dear. We’ll get you back to your body.”
“I’m doing my best to keep the hope alive.”
“Good. In such times, that is the best we can do.”
I said goodbye and walked away. I wandered down to the dorms and sat numbly on my empty bed. Not even that majestic flight could really relieve the pain and hurt of being separated from my body and the living world I knew. Nothing could save me from the dread of my fate except the power of my own will, and now I even had doubts about that.
For a time, I thought about my mother. I wondered if it was possible to dial her up on the supernatural Wi-Fi. Since she had some pretty impressive psychic abilities of her own, I thought she might be able to make out at least a little of what I had to say, but I also had the feeling it would do little good. If she got the message and contacted the school, demanding that they check on her daughter, she would only be told that I appeared alive and perfectly well, despite my recent brush with trouble and the detention stemming from it. Realizing that any maternal help was out of the question, I again felt completely isolated in the realm of the ghosts, my body so close and yet so far.
But what would happen, I wondered, if I try to take my body back by force? After all, many demons possess the bodies of the living with their human souls still inside, so it must be possible for more than one spirit to inhabit the same form. There has to be some way to do it. Maybe it’s just a simple matter of will.
* * *
That night, as everyone settled into their dorms, I watched from the corner. Pam avoided the intent, piercing gaze of my possessed form; somehow, she’d managed to duck even the slightest chance of conversation. As admirable as her efforts were, I knew it wouldn’t be long before the evil, conniving King Geoffrey learned that she and Mr. Geo were on to him, and I feared that migh
t be a tipping point almost worse than the ceremony itself.
Frowning, I hovered over my own sleeping body and examined the necklace, which was dulled by the presence of a spirit in my form, just as it would my own soul. The light of the pendant was the connection between the physical necklace and its spirit form. With that severed, I wasn’t sure I would be able to slither back into the homey biological construct of my body, but I had to try.
Almost immediately, I regretted that decision. I did fall into my body as I’d done before, but it seemed so much harder to align myself properly while it was occupied by another. When I sank inside myself, I was overcome with great terror. It was like falling into the depths of a great, black sea, the way I’d always imagined drowning might feel. The darkness quickly compressed my lungs and filled my stomach, blotting out my vision until I was aware of nothing more than the demonic presence that suffused the air around me, tainting my entire being.
“What are you doing, Zoey?” asked a vile voice, creeping into my ears like a thousand tiny ants, words formed in the speechless and unsettling language of the spirits.
“Taking back what’s mine,” I told King Geoffrey.
At that, he laughed, a chuckle like a rain of broken glass falling down upon my skin. “You’re a fool to even try. Now that you’re here though…”
Ablaze - Book 4 (The Enchanted Castle Series) Page 10