Big Ghosts Don’t Cry

by Danielle Garrett

  “Maybe he could be your tour guide!” Flapjack suggested brightly. “You could take him off our hands—I mean, rely on his expertise for months!”

  I shot a pointed look at the cat. He gave a wicked flick of his tail, returning my scowl with a grin.

  “I told you, I don’t want to do any of that,” Sabrina replied tartly. “You know, I’m beginning to think you’re all hot air.”

  Karla’s voice floated down the hall. She was still on the phone, but there was no way of telling how long she’d be occupied. And I got the feeling that Sabrina would balk if I suggested a second meeting place.

  I glanced at Flapjack.

  It was now or never.

  Drawing in a deep breath, I held up both hands. “All right. Close your eyes,” I told the woman.

  Once Sabrina’s eyes were closed, I reached out for her hand, just as I had with Loretta. The impulse wasn’t there, but when my hand neared hers, a spark of some foreign energy buzzed. The room faded as my vision blurred around the edges. My heart raced into a panicked frenzy and I snapped out of it right before my legs buckled underneath me.

  The room spun, and when I blinked away the fog, I realized I was alone. Sabrina had gone; only a slight shimmer remained before she vanished altogether.

  My spine stiffened at the sound of footsteps in the hall. I twisted around just as Karla came to a stop in the doorway, a smile on her face.

  “Scarlet, did you need a—” she stopped short, the smile melting like hot wax. “What’s going on in here?!” she asked, alarm sending her voice an octave higher than normal.

  To anyone else, the scene would appear normal. The lights weren’t flickering, chairs weren’t artfully arranged in a tower in the center of the room, and there were no spooky sound effects accompanying the transition.

  At least, that’s what I’d thought. Judging by the look on Karla’s face, I’d thought wrong.

  Her eyes were huge and round and anchored on the place Sabrina had just stood. There was no doubt that she’d just seen the spirit’s crossing.

  But how?

  “Was that Sabrina?” Karla asked. Not waiting for an answer, her eyes flashed and then narrowed into slits that threatened to cut me to the core. “What did you do?”

  Chapter 8

  “How do you—you saw that? You saw her?” I sputtered, the words a jumbled mess.

  Karla folded her arms over her chest. “She told me about this ridiculous plan. I didn’t think you’d actually be stupid enough to go through with it!” Karla huffed, shaking her head like an agitated horse. “Honestly, Scarlet, what were you thinking? Do you even realize what you’ve done?”

  Um. No.

  But I wasn’t going to tell her that.

  “Hold the phone!” I barked. “How do you even know about any of this?”

  Karla took a deep breath, and I got the impression it was the only thing keeping her from flying across the room and throttling me. Her eyes were still angry as they circled back to mine. “I’m a Summoner.”

  “A Summoner?”

  “Yes,” Karla snapped. “I’m in a lower class, meaning I can’t bring anything from the Otherworld back to this realm, but I can conjure those on the other side and commune with them. Mostly humans, though I’ve spoken with a demon or two in my day.”

  My jaw felt permanently unhinged.

  “Demons? That’s it, I’m outta here,” Flapjack said, jumping down from the table.

  “I have to admit, a talking cat is a new one, even for me,” Kara said.

  Flapjack froze.

  “How long has he been with you? Is he your familiar?”

  I shook my head, blinking rapidly. “Um—he—no. I’m not a witch.”

  Flapjack sniffed, staring up at Karla. “I’m not anyone’s magic security bouncer and I’m not a familiar.”

  “He was my childhood pet,” I explained. My mind was still spinning at three-hundred miles an hour, but the story of how Flapjack had come to be was a story I’d told dozens of times and could recite without much effort. “And, incidentally, my first ghost. I was eight.”

  Karla studied me with interest, some of the hostility fading. “So, what are you then? If not a witch, what? You don’t look like a shifter.”

  I wasn’t sure what that was supposed to mean, but I didn’t think it was a compliment.

  “I’m a ghost whisperer,” I told her. “At least, that’s the title I’ve chosen for myself.”

  Flapjack gave me a quick look but didn’t question my decision to hold back the truth of my power.

  “No,” Karla said, shaking her head. “That’s not it. Or, at least, that’s not all. I just watched you send a soul forward into the next realm. That’s magic. Powerful magic. What are you really?”

  “Who died and made you the queen of ghost town?” Flapjack asked, stalking toward Karla. “Scarlet doesn’t answer to you or anyone else.”

  “Flapjack—”

  The cat didn’t heed my low warning. He stopped right before Karla and whipped his tail through the air. “That ghost wanted to leave. She begged Scarlet to help her move on. So, that’s what Scarlet did. She helped her. That’s what she does. She helps ghosts. You got a problem with that? Or is it more that this is your turf and you don’t want someone else in the supernatural spotlight?”

  Karla stared at Flapjack for a long moment, locked in some kind of staring contest—which, for the record, is never a winning idea, seeing as how ghosts don’t biologically have to blink.

  “Enough, you two. Listen, Karla, I’m sorry if this crossed a line, but Flapjack is right. Sabrina asked me to help her cross over, and so I did. It’s really as simple as that.”

  Karla’s eyes snapped back up to meet mine. She snorted. “Simple? Oh, no, no. This is anything but simple. You really have no idea what you’ve just done, do you?”

  I crossed my arms, my hands balling into fists at my sides. “My friend is a witch. She lives here, in Beechwood Harbor. She’s never told me about you. And I’m pretty sure she knows all the supernatural—um—beings in town.”

  “I’m not a being,” Karla said, clearly taking umbrage with the term. “I am a person. And as for Holly, at least that’s who I’m assuming you’re talking about, she doesn’t know everything. I keep my powers to myself. I don’t go broadcasting my talents to every vamp, shifter, and ghost in town. Most of the time, the ghosts here don’t even know I can see them. I make it a point to ignore them and not interfere with the natural cycle of things.”

  I frowned at the not-so-subtle dig.

  Karla crossed the room, knelt, and folded back one corner of the long aisle runner that stretched between the wooden folding chairs that were usually set up for services. She popped up a loose floorboard and pulled out a shoebox-sized safe. Without looking at me, she dialed in the passcode, opened the door, and pulled out a small canvas satchel.

  Flapjack looked up at me and I shrugged.

  Karla replaced the safe and the floorboard and kicked the carpet back into place. She stood and opened the satchel.

  “What are you—”

  “Shh!” she hissed.

  My fists clenched a little tighter as I looked toward the exit. I’d never heard of a Summoner before, but found it hard to believe that Karla could stop me from leaving. My van was parked right out front. I could make a run for it and be back home in five minutes flat. Granted, in a town the size of Beechwood Harbor, it wasn’t likely we’d never run into each other again. Could we go on like this night had never happened? Passing with polite, if not guarded, smiles at the store or post office?

  I doubted it.

  Karla had begun removing items from the satchel and placing them on the door a foot or so in front of the wooden pulpit. With each new object, she formed a small circle, about the diameter of a hula hoop. The objects were all different: a rose quartz, black tourmaline, a blood-red pillar candle, a bundle of some type of dried herb, and a golden pyramid that looked like a gift-store trinket from a King Tut exhibi
t, but something told me it was far more than a cheesy paperweight souvenir.

  When she finished, she placed the satchel on one of the wooden chairs. The circle was nearly complete, but there was a large space between the pyramid and the first crystal she’d placed. Karla stepped to the empty space, careful not to cross some invisible line linking all the objects together. Her gaze looked far away as she lifted her hands and removed the pendant necklace from around her own neck. From across the room, I couldn’t see the shape of the pendant and couldn’t even remember her wearing it. Which, was odd in itself, as I always had an eye for jewelry, especially funky, unique pieces.

  Karla placed the pendant in its place amongst the other items, and no sooner had it touched the floor than a golden line appeared, shooting from one item to the next like a quick flame blazing up a line of gunpowder. When the final line connected, a strange hum echoed through the room and it felt as though the temperature had dropped a good ten degrees instantaneously.

  “Scar …” Flapjack said nervously, coming to stand beside me.

  Karla looked up from the circle and the golden light reflected in her normally hazel eyes. “I call forth Sabrina Hutchins, who left this world today to cross over. Show her to me!”

  Karla closed her eyes and muttered something else in a language I didn’t understand. The words were strange and twisted, not like anything I’d ever heard before in all of my travels. Goosebumps broke out along my arms and the hair on Flapjack’s back stood on end.

  Suddenly, Karla’s eyes snapped open and another low hum filled the room.

  The circle of light pulsed and then Sabrina’s ghost appeared, just as it had been minutes ago before I’d sent her across.

  “You!” she demanded, her eyes locking on mine. “What did you do to me? What is this place?”

  Karla looked at me, the gold drained from her eyes. “She can hear you.”

  Slowly, I lowered my arms and took a tentative step closer toward the circle. “Sabrina? Where are you?”

  “I don’t know, but this is not what I signed up for! It’s worse than being there, stuck on earth. At least there I had people to talk to! This place is … empty. Desolate. There’s nothing and no one.”

  “I don’t—I don’t understand. How could that be right? That can’t be all there is on the other side.”

  Even as I said it, I realized that I had no proof. No one who had crossed over had ever come back—at least, as far as I knew. Sure, every religion had their theories and sacred beliefs about what happened after death, but no one knew or could prove what was waiting for all of us once we left this world behind.

  Panic fluttered through me. What had I done?

  “Karla, what does this mean?” I asked, barely able to muster a whisper.

  “Her spirit wasn’t ready to cross and you forced her over,” Karla said.

  Sabrina turned to her. “You can see me? I’ve tried talking to you for days now!”

  “It’s not that I’m unsympathetic,” Karla told her, “but I have a business to run, a life to live. Do you have any idea how many spirits I see come through here? If I tried to stop and help all of them, I’d never have time for anything else. Besides that, there is an order to things, as I was explaining to Scarlet before calling you here.”

  “I told you I was leaving!” Sabrina said. “Why didn’t you tell me this is what would happen to me if I did?”

  Karla shrugged. “For one, I didn’t think Scarlet had that kind of power. Sure, I’ve heard about your affection for ghosts and know all about your support group. It’s admirable, really. But I had no idea you’d moved into taking more forceful measures. And secondly, it’s not my job to babysit specters.”

  “Then why are you doing any of this?” I asked, anger seeping into my tone. “You just want to rub my mistake in my face?”

  “I’m educating you,” Karla said coolly. “Additionally, you’ve created a problem that needs to be solved. If Sabrina remains in limbo for too long, there’s a good chance a demon will find her and use its magic to cross through into this world.”

  Karla might as well have socked me in the gut with a bowling ball.

  “What?”

  “Think of it this way—normally the Otherworld and this world are separated by a piece of glass. It’s strong and it would take a lot to break through. Your average, garden-variety demon wouldn’t be able to punch through. Limbo, on the other hand, is separated from this world by a piece of plastic wrap. It wouldn’t take much to pierce the barrier and slide into this world.”

  Flapjack jerked his head up to look up at me. Terror filled his wide eyes.

  “If a demon gets through, they’ll first appear here, where Sabrina was shoved through, and then it becomes my problem. So, I’m telling you all this in hopes that you’ll set about making this right before that happens.”

  “Yes, of course! Just tell me what to do,” I replied.

  “What happens to me?” Sabrina asked, the desperation in her voice raked across my nerves.

  Karla lowered her eyes. “The demon will use your soul as its ticket out of limbo and you’ll be gone. Forever.”

  Sabrina broke into sobs and my heart squeezed.

  “I won’t let that happen,” I told her. “How long do we have?”

  Karla shrugged. “We could have weeks. It could be months. It just depends on how long it takes a demon to find Sabrina and realize she could be their ticket out.”

  “What about Loretta?” Flapjack asked, speaking for the first time since Karla began the circle. “Will she be some kind of demon trap, too?”

  “Who is Loretta?” Karla asked, tenseness straining her voice.

  I pinched my eyes closed, willing myself to wake up from the nightmare unfolding before me.

  “Scarlet?” Karla snapped.

  I forced myself to meet her eyes. “Yesterday, last night, I helped another ghost cross over. I think she was ready, but I did—I did the same thing as with Sabrina.”

  Karla swore, her nostrils flaring. “Any others I should know about?”

  I shook my head. “No. Just the two.”

  “What is her full name?”

  “Loretta Mays

  “And she crossed over yesterday?”

  I nodded.

  Karla muttered another incantation in the strange, gnarled language and squeezed her eyes closed. She waited a moment and then repeated the words. Still nothing.

  Her shoulders relaxed as her eyes fluttered open. “She’s not in limbo. She’s moved on properly.”

  The revelation should have made me feel better—and to a point, it did—but it came with a stab of regret. I should have trusted my gut instincts. With Loretta the whole thing had seemed so natural. Right. With Sabrina, there’d been more force and a nagging voice had chattered at me right up until the final seconds.

  Why hadn’t I listened?

  “How do I help Sabrina?” I asked, stuffing down the self-lecture for another time. “What do I need to do to move her out of limbo?”

  “It’s simple enough, I suppose,” Karla began, considering the spirit trapped in the summoning circle. “You’ve helped spirits cross over before. This will be no different. It just can’t be forced. Sabrina’s spirit was held back for a reason. There was unfinished business, something tethering her soul to this place.”

  “I don’t know why,” Sabrina pleaded. “Please, you have to believe me.”

  “She was murdered,” I offered. “In the past, I’ve found that once the case is solved, the spirit is released.”

  “Do you know who killed you?” Karla asked Sabrina.

  The woman shook her head, fresh tears streaming down her semi-translucent cheeks like shining beads of mercury. “I don’t want to think about it!”

  “You have to, Sabrina,” I said gently, approaching the circle. “Please, anything you can remember could be helpful. Unless you think there’s something else that was holding you back. Your daughter?”

  “I miss her so much,�
�� Sabrina whispered.

  Tears pricked at my own eyes. “I’m sure you do.”

  “She’ll be okay. She’s strong and she has Jeffery. For all his faults, he’s a good father.”

  A memory sparked. My conversation with Barry. “Sabrina, is it possible—”

  The circle flickered and another hum, this one lower than the last, resounded in the room.

  Karla swore again. “The spell is dying.”

  “Sabrina, is it possible Jeffery is the one who … attacked you?”

  The ghost’s eyes went wide but her form flickered and her words came out garbled. All I could make out was, “… never … ”

  Then, she was gone.

  The light forming the circle sputtered and faded.

  Karla sighed. “Like I told you, I’m a lower class of Summoner. I don’t have the magical reserve to hold the summoning spell for long,” she said, bending to retrieve the objects from the floor. She grabbed the necklace first and quickly slipped it back over her head. The pendant slipped under her shirt and she collected the other items, placing them back in the satchel.

  I exhaled slowly. “When can you call her back here again?”

  “It will take a few days before my magic builds up again. I don’t practice often and when I do, it takes a toll.” She slipped the last crystal into the bag, cinched it closed, and crossed to the corner of the carpet that concealed the loose floorboard. “Come back Sunday night. That should give you time to find out more about her murder. If you’re right, and that’s what she needs before she crosses over completely, we can give her the details and send her through and close this portal for good.”

  “And if I can’t?”

  Karla’s eyes flashed. “Then you’d better study up on how to use whatever power you have to send a demon back over, because it will likely kill me before I get the chance to try.”

  Chapter 9

  I’d like to think what I did next is the same as any normal human would do upon finding out they’d trapped an innocent soul in limbo-land and was on the verge of ushering a demon into the world.