“Was your dad a cop?”
“He used to be. He was a police detective in San Francisco but he joined the sheriff’s department when we moved here.” He let out a bark of humorless laugh. “Ironically, the reason we moved here was because my mother was scared he would be killed in the line of duty as a cop in the big city. She believed it would be safer for him here.”
“That must have been hard for all of you.”
“Stephanie was only three, so she didn’t remember him as much. It caused problems between my mom and me. For a long time I blamed her for his death, because if she hadn’t insisted on the move, he’d still be alive.”
“Understandable.”
He shrugged. “The rationale of a ten year old who missed his father so much he shut everyone out.”
They continued to walk and were approaching another turn in the corridor.
“Mom and I used to fight. I said some pretty awful things to her. It took me some time to stop blaming her for his death. She was only doing what she thought was right. Both her parents were diagnosed with cancer just before Stephanie was born. They both died within a year of their diagnosis. She freaked out. She was worried about how she would cope if she lost dad too. Which is how she convinced him to move.”
“When did you see his ghost?”
“I used to see him every time Mom and I would fight about our moving to Dunning’s Landing. He would stand outside my window. I thought he was trying to tell me who killed him, but I realized that he just didn’t want me to fight with my Mom. He looked so sad.”
“Do you still see him?” Daphne asked. “I could try speaking to him if you want.”
“You’d do that?”
“Of course. If it would help.”
“I haven’t seen him in several years. I don’t know if he’s still around or not.”
“Sometimes it takes time before the ghost realizes he is a ghost. Sometimes that’s enough for them to move on, which could explain why you don’t see him any longer. Maybe he realized he was dead and needed to move on to whatever comes next.”
“What does come next?” Eric asked.
Daphne shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve asked my grandmother when she comes to visit me, but..” Daphne snapped her lips together, instantly regretting what she shared.
“Your grandmother visits you?”
Daphne kept silent, kicking herself for letting her guard down.
“Look, I’m not going to tell anyone, not even Deanna. I told you, I’m on vacation. I promise, nothing we talk about here will leave this place.”
Daphne remained silent for a few seconds longer, weighing the risks. She realized that she had already given him enough to bury her if he wanted, so was there was really any more harm in telling him more?
“Ok, I trust you, kind of, not completely, but the damage is done. Yes, my late grandmother comes to visit me, not too often and usually only if she feels I’m in danger.”
“Really? Like how?”
“She died when I was five. When I was eight, may parents sent me to bed early so I decided to run away. I packed my bag, ready to leave when she showed up. We talked for hours and she helped me feel better. I ended up falling asleep and forgetting that I wanted to run away. Then one time she showed up just as I was about to leave for a day trip to the beach with my friends. We were in high school and school had just ended for the summer. We wanted to enjoy ourselves. She showed up and begged me not to go. She wouldn’t say why, just that I was in danger. I didn’t go. The next day I found out that all of my friends, the ones that I would have been with, had all died in a car accident. They were run off the road by a drunk driver.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I was angry with her, thought she should have told me more so I could have warned my friends. She explained that her knowledge wasn’t specific. That she only knew that I was in danger, with no knowledge of the actual danger.”
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know, she only says that she’s between our reality and another. I guess being between the two gives her some insight into my reality.” Daphne stopped walking, remembering.
“What’s wrong?”
“She warned me, about coming here. She told me that Chris had a secret he hadn’t shared with me yet. Looks like she was right again.”
“What causes a ghost?” He asked Daphne. “Do you know?” They started walking again.
“I don’t know for certain, but most of the ghosts that I’ve been able to communicate with died with unresolved issues. For example, the first ghost that I remember, besides my grandmother, was of a nanny who died in our house in San Francisco. I was only five but I remember her. She would tuck me in at night. I never really questioned why we didn’t have a nanny anywhere else but in that house, but there you go. Kids are more resilient and accepting of the world around them.”
“Probably because they have less control of it.”
“Probably,” Daphne agreed. “Anyways, this nanny would tuck me in which would trigger a connection with her. I’d relive her experiencing the Great Earthquake in San Francisco. She was alone in the house with her two charges. The house shook and a fire broke out. She was rushing up the stairs to save the children, who were screaming. The staircase collapsed, and she fell to her death.”
“That’s awful. That must have been traumatic for a young girl.”
“We thought it was just a recurring nightmare, but it wasn’t.”
They had reached the end of the hall and had turned left. Up ahead Daphne could see Chris standing in front of a display case, his hands in his pockets as he stared at something inside it. Daphne and Eric glanced at each other and then joined him.
He was staring at a framed photo from homecoming, He and Stephanie wore the traditional crowns and sat atop an old fashioned fire engine. They looked so happy it hurt. He wasn’t alone, Deputy Becky stood next to him.
“How are you?” Daphne asked.
“Sick,” Chris said. “Embarrassed. Sorry.” He gave Daphne a small smile. “But mostly just empty.”
“I think we’re all in shock.” Eric added. “All this time, we’ve believed that she left with him. No-one ever questioned it.“
Chris nodded toward Becky. “We were just talking about Stephanie and Russ.”
Daphne smiled at Becky, who nodded before turning back to Chris. “As I said Sheriff Blaine is going to look into it. I promise I’ll let you know if we find anything.”
“Thanks Becky.” Chris turned to Eric. “What do you think happened to her?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you think she’s,” Chris paused on the word, “dead?”
“I don’t know. Daphne said she hasn’t seen her ghost, so it is possible that she did leave town, but just not with Russ.”
Becky frowned at Daphne, and Daphne felt that she understood the question. Another stranger learning about her gift. The question would be if she believed her.
“Then who?”
Eric shrugged.
They turned as the door to the parking lot opened. Debbie came in.
“Where did you go, Mom?” Chris asked.
“Pamela was upset, she wanted me to check to see if Russ had left yet.” She stared intently at her son, “how are you doing?”
“I’ve been better. We’ll be back in there in a few minutes.”
Debbie nodded and left them.
“I’m going to head home,” Eric said. “I want to tell my mom what happened here, I don’t want her to hear about it from someone else.”
He nodded goodbye to them and left through the door Debbie had just come through.
“I’m going to take off too, I’m on duty tonight.” Becky waved at Chris and Daphne before following Eric through the door.
Daphne took Chris’s arm and gently pulled him
along. “I’m so sorry, Chris.” She said to him.
He squeezed her hand. “I’m the one who should be apologizing. I have a lot of explaining to do, don’t I?”
“Yes, but it doesn’t have to be tonight. But to be honest, I don’t want to go back in there,” Daphne said gesturing toward the auditorium. “I can either wait outside or in the car.”
“We can go. I don’t want to stay here either.”
Once they were in the car, Chris stayed silent until they passed through the town and headed up the mountain to his home. “Daphne, I am so sorry for this. I never intended to hurt you.”
“Why did you invite me here this weekend?”
“I honestly did want to give you a mini vacation, but that wasn’t the only reason.” He admitted. “When I believed that Stephanie had left town with Russ, I had a hard time accepting it and an even harder time facing anyone here in Dunning’s Landing. It was all the pity that got to me. I had no answers for why she left and no idea of how I was going to go on without her. So I couldn’t face everyone asking me how I was doing. I left as soon as I could, and I never came back until today.”
“I can understand that. So why now?”
“Because I had you. I thought returning here with someone I cared about would help me cope with facing it all again. I honestly thought I was over her, I thought time had done its magic, but seeing Russ again just brought back all the anger and the jealousy. And I realized that I had never gotten over her. My feelings haven’t changed since the day I left. It was like no time had passed.”
“You still love her?”
“Yes, I do. I’m so sorry.”
“Chris, you can’t help how you feel. You have a long history with her and she hurt you, but you still love her. You don’t need to apologize to me for that.”
“You’re being incredibly kind.”
“It doesn’t mean that I’m not mad at you for not telling me all this before we got here, but I guess I can understand why it would have been hard to talk about. What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know. Honestly, I’m lost. For so long, I felt hurt that she would leave me and go back to Russ. But now I’m so scared that something really bad has happened to her.”
They sat in silence for a few minutes, but then Chris said. “Do you want me to drive you home tomorrow? I’d offer to drive you tonight, but honestly, I’m exhausted.”
“Tomorrow is fine.” Daphne agreed as they pulled in view of the house.
She had a twinge of regret that she wouldn’t be staying there after all. She imagined that the views would be spectacular. It had a retreat-like vibe that beckoned you to come in and be at peace. Chris had been right, it would have been a perfect escape from everything. Except now a part of her wanted an escape from Chris. Maybe she could find a different mountain retreat or find somewhere else just as peaceful and relaxing to hide for awhile.
She turned her face away from the house and let out a scream as Chris plowed the car into a young woman who stood in the middle of the road. He slammed on the breaks. “What?”
Daphne opened her eyes, expecting to see the woman laying on the hood of the car, but she didn’t. Instead she stood with her lower half inside the car and her upper half sitting on the car hood. Her silver blonde hair flowed down and brushed the metal. She was close enough that Daphne could see the pattern of blue flowers on her white dress. The blue of the flowers matched the blue of her eyes. Eyes that were staring fixedly at Chris.
“Why did you scream?” He asked.
“Sorry, I thought I saw something crossing the road. An animal or something.” She mumbled, forcing herself to turn away from the specter.
Chris shook his head, but seemed satisfied with her response. He got out of the car and came around to help Daphne out. The ghost, for Daphne was certain it was a ghost, followed Chris closely. She kept sobbing and calling his name. Chris paid her no attention. He held his hand out to Daphne, but she moved away from it, he dropped it. “Sorry,” he muttered.
Daphne let Chris assume that she didn’t want to hold his hand because she was upset, but truthfully she didn’t want to move closer to the ghost or have the ghost focus on her. Because Daphne was certain she knew the ghost was, or had been prior to her death. She was the same girl Chris had been staring at in the pictures at the school, the same girl he had hugged against him the prom pictures. Stephanie. Stephanie was indeed dead and Daphne had a feeling the poor girl had no idea.
Stephanie had stayed at the bottom of the stairs, staring at Chris with tears slowly dripping down her face. The sight of her broke Daphne’s heart. With her own problems paling against the reality of Chris’s pain, Daphne entered the house feeling more sympathetic than hurt.
She knew she was going to have to tell him, but she was suddenly too exhausted to deal with it at the present time. Maybe Chris could sleep tonight, maybe he wouldn’t. Tomorrow would be soon enough to tell him that the love of his life was indeed dead.
Chapter Twelve
Chris led Daphne up the back stairs to her room. He gave her a sad smile before wishing her a good night of sleep.
Daphne fought with the guilt that was egging her to tell Chris what she had seen. But she was too exhausted to talk with him about it now. Stephanie would still be dead in the morning. While she needed to be rested in order to deal with the fallout. After all, it wasn’t just Chris she needed to tell, but Eric and his mother as well. The next day was going to be an emotional one, so she knew postponing the inevitable until she was physically and emotionally ready was the best decision.
Before climbing into bed, Daphne glanced out the window. She could still see Stephanie down below. The light from Chris’s window cast a glow on the snow encircling Stephanie with its light. Daphne climbed into bed overwhelmed with sadness.
She awoke unable to breathe. Her chest burned, and she could no longer see. She thrashed and bucked, trying to shake the weight that was smothering her. As she felt her consciousness slipping away, the weight lifted. She rolled out of bed, sucking in deep breaths as she stayed on all fours. As her breathing and heartbeat returned to normal, she was able to use the bed to lift herself up off the floor. She was still lightheaded but more in control.
“What the hell was that?” she asked herself, feeling the need to hear a voice in the dark, even if it was her own. She looked at the bed and shivered. With no desire to crawl back under the covers, she opted for her robe and the window seat. The night sky showed no signs of morning light. She thought about checking her phone for the time, but it was all the way over on the nightstand and she had no desire to move. Not yet. Looking down, she saw that Stephanie was still standing vigil, only instead of staring at Chris’s window, Daphne found herself looking straight into Stephanie’s eyes.
Daphne shivered again and considered getting dressed in order to go speak to the ghost. If she could find out how Stephanie died, it would be more information she could share with Chris and Eric. It was a perfect opportunity, no one around to watch the crazy lady talking to herself. But that would also mean that she had no backup. What if Stephanie had been the one to attack her? Was she jealous of her and Chris’s relationship? She shook off the concern. Ghosts couldn’t really hurt you, the worst that could happen is that Stephanie wouldn’t want to talk to her. Daphne would make sure Stephanie understood that she and Chris were only friends and that he still loved her.
Daphne was just about to rise and go downstairs when she saw a new light shining on the snow. She moved to look straight down, the light was coming from the mud room. As she watched, the door opened and a figure stepped out. Whoever it was wore a bulky coat in black, or some other dark color, and a hat that covered their head. They closed the door behind them before passing by Stephanie into the woods. They carried something long and thin in the crook of their arm, but Daphne couldn’t tell what it was. Worried that the person might return while s
he was talking to Stephanie, she decided to go back to bed and get some sleep. Maybe she could talk to Stephanie in the morning. She glanced back to Stephanie, only to find that she had gone.
Instead Daphne climbed into bed wondering who in Chris’s family needed to go into the woods at 2:15 in the morning.
Chapter Thirteen
The rest of the night passed without any additional incidents or interruptions, but Daphne still woke up tired. She wasn’t looking forward to her discussion with Chris, but knew it had to be done.
She showered and dressed before glancing out the window. Stephanie had not returned. She must have given up her vigil. She made the bed and thought about packing when Chris knocked on her door. She opened it to a man who needed more sleep. His bloodshot eyes were not enhanced by the deep circles under them. His skin was pale and his posture told Daphne that he had given up on life. She felt a pang of guilt knowing that what she had to tell him was only going to make it worse.
He managed a quick smile that lacked any voltage. “You look ready to go. Mom made breakfast. I’d like to eat before I take you home, if that’s alright with you. I haven’t told the parents that you’re leaving yet.”
“We can eat first.” Daphne said, grateful for the reprieve. He might handle the news better on a full stomach, at least that was what she was going with since it gave her more time.
They entered the kitchen to find everyone seated at the cozy kitchen table that offered views of the woods around the house. Snow still covered the ground behind the house, creating a stunning winter tableau. On the counter near the table were warming trays. Craig was shoveling scrambled eggs from one onto a plate already full of bacon, toast and pancakes. Chris offered her a plate and lifted the lid for the pancakes.
“Blueberry,” he told her. “I can never get enough of her blueberry pancakes.”
“This food smells amazing,” Daphne said as she took a seat at the table. “Do you always eat like this?”
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