17 Spooktacular - My Sister the Vampire

by Sienna Mercer

  So much for being polite. Ivy’s face contorted into a scowl as she aimed her most ferocious death-squint ever at the brim of the man’s baseball cap. ‘I won’t be happy,’ she snapped, ‘until you take those stupid flowers away and leave me alone!’

  The delivery man froze. Then he lowered the bouquet and peered at her, his familiar blue eyes filled with concern. The nasal twang vanished from his voice as he said, ‘Hey, Ivy. Is everything OK?’

  For a moment, Ivy just stared, frozen with shock. Then she burst out laughing. ‘You idiot!’ she said affectionately to her twin’s megastar boyfriend. ‘Are you ever going to get tired of playing dress-up?’

  Jackson Caulfield laughed as he stepped inside, wrapping her in a flowery hug. ‘Never,’ he told her firmly. ‘Now, if I can’t interest you in any chrysanthemums, do you think you could take me to Olivia?’

  Grinning, Ivy led him down the hallway to the kitchen. The last of her bad mood vanished as she saw her twin’s face flush with excitement. ‘Jackson!’ Olivia jumped up and ran to fling her arms around her boyfriend. ‘I can’t believe you got here so quickly!’

  ‘How could I not?’ Jackson pressed his cheek against her hair and hugged her tightly, pressing the flowers into her back. ‘Your invitation was just what I needed. I’ve been missing you too much to stay away!’

  Aww. Ivy couldn’t wipe away her sappy grin as she watched them. ‘I didn’t know you’d invited him,’ she said to Olivia.

  ‘I hadn’t had a chance to tell you yet.’ Still beaming, Olivia shifted to Jackson’s side and took the chrysanthemums, breathing in their scent with obvious delight. ‘It was my brilliant idea from this afternoon. I asked him to come, so that he can distract all our “tourists”.’ She glanced meaningfully at the piles of paper on the table.

  ‘Aha!’ Ivy let out a peal of laughter. ‘Oh, that’s perfect. Having a famous actor come to town is great misdirection!’

  ‘Sorry?’ Jackson looked at her quizzically. ‘Misdirection from what, exactly? Olivia still hasn’t explained. Why are all these tourists here anyway? And what exactly don’t you want people to see?’

  Oops. Ivy swallowed a groan as she realised just how close she’d come to making a huge mistake in her relief. Even Olivia – her own flesh and blood – hadn’t been allowed to learn the secret of the vamps until she’d managed to pass some serious tests. There was no way that Jackson could be allowed to find out!

  She traded a panicked look with her own boyfriend, and Brendan came to the rescue.

  ‘Hey, Jackson.’ He waved from the table, attracting Jackson’s gaze. ‘Good to see you, man.’

  ‘You, too.’ Jackson smiled and nodded to Sophia and Reiko, too, but then he turned back to Ivy. ‘So . . .?’

  Brendan’s interruption had given Ivy just enough time to think. The truth was, Jackson spent so much time around her family, she actually forgot sometimes that he didn’t know their real vampire identity. But this time, at least, there were very few details she had to leave out.

  ‘It’s a bunch of dumb boys from our school,’ she told him. ‘They’re stirring up trouble and scaring people by pretending there’s a ghost in town.’

  ‘Are you serious?’ Jackson let out a yelp of laughter and shook his head. ‘Who actually believes in ghosts?’

  Reiko coughed. Olivia winced.

  Ivy said, ‘Lots of people, unfortunately. And it’s pulling in wannabe ghost hunters from all over the place. They’re descending on the town and messing everything up. But thanks to Olivia’s brilliance . . .’ she grinned wickedly ‘ . . . we have something much more interesting for everyone to think about now. Who wouldn’t rather pay attention to a genuine Hollywood movie star?’

  Jackson looked pained. ‘You do know what you’re asking of me, right?’

  Before Ivy could answer, her twin set down her flowers and bent into a full-body stretch, as if she was getting ready for a workout.

  The other vamps looked just as baffled as Ivy felt. Only Jackson looked unfazed.

  ‘Um . . .’ Ivy cleared her throat. ‘Olivia? You do know, right, that it’s a Saturday night? So we don’t actually have to get ready for gym class right now?’

  ‘Oh, I know,’ Olivia said grimly. ‘This is going to be much worse. Trust me . . .’ She gave her boyfriend a knowing look. ‘If our time out in public together in London was anything to go by, we’ll all need to warm up properly if we want to outrun the paparazzi!’

  All the laughter from earlier that evening felt hard to remember as Ivy tossed and turned in her coffin that night. Every time she closed her eyes, the storm outside sent a shiver down her spine. The windows rattled as if they were being shaken by ghostly hands, and the low wail of the wind sounded weirdly similar to the haunting noise that had filled Café Creative at the end of Camilla’s show.

  ‘Aargh!’ Ivy pulled her black-and-red quilt over her face to muffle her own groan.

  This is so embarrassing.

  Scary, tough vampires were not supposed to get spooked . . . but Ivy totally was. So maybe, until they had solved their ghost problem, sleeping in a coffin might not actually be the best idea! As the windows gave another loud rattle, she swallowed down a very un-vamptastic squeak and jerked upright. That’s it. Grabbing a pillow and one end of her quilt, she jumped out of the coffin and started for the door. Sleeping on the living room couch sounded like a much better option . . . as long as no one else ever found out about it!

  A soft thump sounded as the end of her quilt knocked something off her casketside table. Sighing, Ivy stopped to look for whatever had fallen . . . then grimaced as she recognised the deerstalker hat she had worn on Halloween.

  So much for Ivy Holmes!

  There might be clues to be found all throughout Franklin Grove, but her own investigation was taking her in a direction she really didn’t like.

  ‘I so did not want to believe in ghosts,’ Ivy muttered to the deerstalker as she placed it carefully back on the small table.

  Unfortunately, they hadn’t had any luck finding a girl who might have posed as Patience Calhoun on Halloween to fool Olivia, or figured out how that weird effect could have taken place at the party. But even if ghosts were actually real – even if Sophia was right, and they knew exactly why Patience was haunting Franklin Grove – Ivy still had no idea how to help her find peace.

  Groaning, she pulled the quilt up around her shoulders and headed downstairs.

  Even in the warmth of the living room, though, she couldn’t fall asleep. After half an hour of trying, stretched out on the elegant black couch, she gave up and picked up the remote control from the coffee table to flick on the TV. When Lillian had first moved in, she’d insisted on getting a better cable package, with at least a hundred new channels. Now Ivy started clicking through them, grimly determined. There has to be something here that isn’t ghost-related!

  When she landed on the shopping channel, she set down the remote. ‘Perfect,’ she mumbled. This will definitely put me to sleep!

  But the next moment her eyes widened and she jerked back, away from the TV.

  ‘ . . . this unusual obsidian jewellery set . . .’ intoned the announcer, as the camera panned down from the matching earrings and necklace to focus on a large, heavy black bracelet.

  ‘Aagh!’ Moaning, Ivy scrambled for the remote control. The last thing she wanted was a reminder of the ghostly mystery!

  She let out a breath of relief as she clicked on to the next station, where the local news anchors were droning through a weather report. A repeat of tonight’s news show. This has to be better.

  And it was . . . until one of the anchors grinned and said, ‘So, Jenny, I hear little Franklin Grove is getting an unusual visitor?’

  ‘That’s right, Bob. The famous Gregor Gleka, aka “the Ghost Grabber”, is apparently determined to investigate the strange goings-on that have been reported in the small town ever since Halloween.’ The other news anchor smirked and waggled her fingers. ‘Sounds spooky to me! What
do you think, Bob? Could there really be ghosts in Franklin Grove?’

  ‘I don’t want to hear it!’ Ivy wailed. She turned the TV off with a click and slammed the remote back down on the coffee table.

  Then she drew up her knees and tucked herself into a ball at one end of the couch, pulling the warm quilt up around her. Burying her head against her knees, she let out a low groan of frustration in the quiet darkness.

  ‘Ivy?’ Her dad’s voice spoke just behind her.

  Gasping, Ivy jumped up, letting the quilt fall to the floor.

  Charles stood in the doorway, wearing elegant black silk pyjamas and a crimson dressing gown and rubbing his eyes with the back of one hand. His hair stood up in every direction.

  ‘Wow, Dad.’ Her shoulders relaxing, Ivy nearly smiled. ‘That’s some epic coffin head you’ve got!’

  ‘Very funny.’ Charles dropped his hand and narrowed his eyes. ‘But I want to know about you. What’s brought you down here at this time of night?’

  ‘Oh . . .’ Ivy wrapped her arms around her chest, looking away from her father’s searching expression. ‘I’m fine. You should go back to bed. Don’t worry. Everything’s OK.’

  Shaking his head, Charles walked into the room. ‘I can tell that it’s not.’ His face grave, he sat down on the couch and patted the seat for Ivy to sit down beside him. ‘Have you been worrying about our ghost issue? I’m sorry. I know you’ve seen how concerned I am . . . but just because I take these problems seriously doesn’t mean I expect you to solve them for me! Believe it or not, you know, you really are only fourteen years old. No one expects you to take charge of protecting our community.’

  Sighing, Ivy leaned her head against his shoulder. ‘I’d love to be able to give up and stop worrying,’ she admitted. ‘But now that I’m so far into the investigation . . . I just can’t.’ She turned her head to peer up at him. ‘Do you understand? I can’t bear to stop now, before I’ve figured it all out. That’s just not the way I’m made.’

  ‘I understand.’ Smiling ruefully, Charles dropped a kiss on her forehead. ‘And do you know what? I’ll tell you a secret: that unwillingness of yours to palm off responsibility is actually one of the qualities that makes me most proud to be your father. But . . .’ He gave her a stern look as he stood up. ‘That doesn’t mean you should stop looking after yourself, too. Understood? I want you to get some sleep tonight!’

  ‘Understood,’ Ivy said. ‘Goodnight, Dad.’

  She was smiling as he left the room . . . but the smile was wiped off her face only a moment later when the windows gave a sudden, massive rattle.

  ‘Ahhhhhhhhhhh . . .’

  It was that wailing wind again! It made every inch of her spine prickle. Driven by instinct, Ivy ran in a blur of vampiric speed to the window. She pushed open the curtains . . . and a chill ran through her as she glimpsed a girl in a long, Victorian-style dress walking slowly down the street. But this dress wasn’t red – it was a pale blue. Ivy couldn’t tell from this angle whether the girl was carrying any obsidian jewellery in her hands, but as she watched, the wide skirts of the girl’s dress seemed to shine and shimmer in the faint light of the street lamps.

  Ivy clenched the windowsill in both hands, forcing herself to take deep breaths. It could just be a coincidence . . . or Garrick in a different dress . . . or . . . or . . .

  But even as she scrambled to find any believable explanation, she noticed something spookier yet.

  As the strange girl disappeared into the shadows of Undertaker Hill, the air outside fell completely silent.

  The wailing wind was gone.

  Chapter Eight

  Olivia took a deep breath as she stepped into the front hallway of her house the next morning. She was wearing her most comfortable shoes and a pair of grey yoga pants under a long pink sweater. She’d tucked her cell phone and wallet into a small, blue cross-body bag that couldn’t possibly fall off, no matter how fast she moved. She’d even pinned her long hair up into a messy topknot to protect it from being yanked.

  ‘Are you ready?’ Jackson was waiting by the front door, looking impossibly gorgeous in a deep blue sweater and fitted jeans.

  ‘Almost.’ Testing the cross-body bag, Olivia did a quick lunge . . . then nodded firmly. ‘There!’ She started for the door. ‘I’m as warmed up as I’ll ever be. When we have to run, I won’t let you down.’

  ‘Believe me, I was never worried about that.’ Smiling, Jackson reached out to take her hand. ‘You didn’t let me down in London, did you, when we had to run from the hordes there?’

  ‘Yes, well, that was sheer panic taking over,’ Olivia admitted. ‘Back then, I didn’t really understand what we were in for!’

  Squeezing his hand, she took a deep breath and opened the door.

  Then she blinked. Wait a second. Where are the crowds?

  Admittedly, it was still early on a Sunday morning, and Olivia’s street was usually sleepy even at peak times. But surely the news of Jackson’s arrival must have spread around Franklin Grove by now! There should have been crowds of teenagers bursting from their homes, screaming their heads off. Olivia had even updated her Twitter feed that morning with news of her “surprise visitor”, to make sure all Jackson’s fans could easily guess where he was.

  Jackson just shrugged. ‘Maybe we need to go somewhere a bit more public.’

  ‘Let’s hit the Food Mart,’ Olivia decided. ‘We’ll definitely be noticed there!’

  And they needed to be noticed right away . . . because just five minutes before they’d left the house, Olivia had gotten a frantic text message from Ivy. Gregor Gleka was making his way to Franklin Grove right now. There wasn’t a moment to lose!

  Pinning a bright smile to her face, Olivia walked with Jackson down the main street of Franklin Grove and into the Food Mart, or rather – as it would definitely become as soon as Jackson’s fans spotted them – the Scream Zone. Ivy’s really going to owe me for this! she thought. The aisles in the Food Mart were narrow enough that if a swarm of Jackson’s fans descended on them, they might well get trampled!

  Holding hands, Olivia and Jackson strolled down the aisles, doing one full lap of the grocery store . . . and then another.

  Olivia stared at the oblivious shoppers all around them. Then she pulled out her phone, scrolling through her Twitter feed. ‘Doesn’t anyone have a smartphone?’ she demanded. ‘I can’t believe we’re out in public, and not a single person has tweeted about it. This place should be a zoo by now! Where are all the screaming girls?’

  Jackson looked sheepish. ‘I have to admit, I don’t really miss them,’ he said. He gave Olivia a mischievous grin. ‘Hey, maybe my star is finally falling. That might not bode well for Eternal Sunset, but it would make it a lot easier for us to go out on a date!’

  ‘Your star is definitely not falling,’ Olivia said firmly. ‘How many magazine covers have you been on in the last two months?’

  ‘Well . . .’ He shrugged, looking embarrassed. ‘Maybe a couple.’

  ‘More like four or five.’ Olivia rolled her eyes. ‘Maybe it’s just because you spent a good amount of time here last year, going to school like a regular kid. That could explain why people in Franklin Grove don’t freak out any more.’

  The middle-aged cashier at the check-out line nodded calmly to Jackson as they passed her for a second time. ‘Looking forward to the new movie, young man!’

  ‘Thank you, ma’am.’ He gave her a sweet smile. ‘I hope you enjoy it!’

  Olivia sighed as they started their third lap of the store. ‘At least someone cares you’re here.’

  ‘Sorry,’ Jackson said. ‘I know it’s not what you were hoping for . . . but it is actually nice to feel normal for once.’

  ‘I bet.’ Olivia touched his arm sympathetically with her free hand. ‘But it’s not going to help us outwit that Ghost Grabber man, is it?’

  Before Jackson could answer, a sudden murmur of excitement rippled across the Food Mart. As Olivia watched, shoppers from
all across the store started racing towards the front door.

  ‘Uh-oh.’ Olivia hurried after them, pulling Jackson with her.

  Shoppers lined the glass windows at the front of the store, chattering excitedly and snapping pictures with their phones. Olivia wriggled her way to the front of the crowd just as a crimson hearse rolled past the store at a funereally slow pace. Plastered on the side of the hearse, painted three times larger than life, was . . .

  ‘Looks like the Grabber’s here,’ Jackson murmured into her ear.

  Olivia winced as she watched the picture of Gregor Gleka’s face – his eyes wide in mock horror – roll past on the side of the hearse. There was no way that anybody in Franklin Grove was going to miss the Ghost Grabber’s arrival.

  Jackson nudged her as more camera flashes exploded around them. ‘It sure looks like people are excited about this!’ He let out a low whistle. ‘I don’t know how good he is with ghosts, but this old guy is definitely “grabbing” my thunder.’

  Olivia wanted to laugh along with him, but she couldn’t. ‘This is a disaster! He’s going all out. That means he really is going to devote a whole episode of his show to Franklin Grove. Everyone will know about it! People are going to be interested, and then they’ll start asking questions, and . . .’ She cut herself off with a gasp as she suddenly realised what she’d been saying.

  Jackson was frowning at her, his gaze intent. ‘Who cares if people ask questions?’ he asked. ‘Seriously, what are you so worried about?’

  ‘Um . . .’ Olivia’s head went blank as she stared back at him. ‘Uh . . .’

  ‘It’s not like there’s anything you’re trying to hide,’ Jackson said slowly, ‘ . . . is there?’

  Uh-oh. With a gulp, Olivia forced herself to think fast. ‘Of course not!’ she said. Her words rattled out too quickly, and she could hear her voice turning high-pitched and squeaky, but she forced herself onwards anyway. ‘I just hate the idea of ghosts, you know? And this is such a small town. If a whole TV crew shows up, it’ll be a nightmare zone for days. People won’t stop griping about it for months!’ She forced a tinkling laugh that sounded super-fake even to her own ears. ‘I mean, who wants that hassle, right?’