Holly, Curses, and Hauntings

by Jovee Winters

  “You’re not gonna regret it!”

  I snorted as I rubbed my hands over my biceps. “I already do.”

  With a wave, she turned on her heel and made to walk off, but somehow she tripped into the corner of my coffee table, causing her knee to buckle and her legs to give out right from under her. She dropped with a sprawl to the ground. Both legs looking distorted and pointed at wrong angles.

  She grimaced. “Dag blammit.”

  Then without skipping a beat, she grabbed her right leg at the kneecap and gave a mighty jerk. There was a loud jarring snap of a bone being set back into place. She repeated the process on the shin bone of her other leg.

  It was my turn to grimace. There were times I felt Eerie had definitely gotten the shorter end of the stick when it came to the afterlife. At least my body didn’t always want to topple over like falling dominoes the way hers did.

  Eerie huffed, stood to shaky legs as she adjusted her skirt back into place, and with a proud nod in my direction, sauntered out the door. The rusted hinges squealed right before the wood banged against the frame with a loud crack.

  She was right, the house was a mess. But then, Julian had never gotten around to fixing it up. And though I had actually consented in the past to a roommate or two, one of who had actually attempted to tackle the impossible and make repairs. Both of them had moved out before I’d worked up the gumption to say a hello.

  I floated to a standing position and surveyed my home. It’d been empty when I first occupied it, having nothing but peeling and rotted wallpaper and a few flickering lights that worked but not much else. What little furniture there was had been brought here by my friends.

  I assumed that they were trying to make me feel comfortable in some way. But I couldn’t use any of it. It all felt so false to me, so phony. I was pretending at living, but I wasn’t alive, was I? I was dead. And had been for so very long.

  I was tired.

  Tired of waiting for the unknown. Tired of being trapped in stasis.

  I’d tried for many decades to move on, to no avail. At one point I’d thought Julian had moved on, but he hadn’t. Or at least, not in the way I’d hoped for him to. Julian was trapped in his own version of purgatory. And he was no longer Julian, at least not the one I’d loved.

  No, he wasn’t much in the way of company, Eerie had been right about that. She’d also been right about one other thing.

  I was lonely.

  Bitterly so.

  I couldn’t leave the premises, couldn’t go beyond the boundaries of the property Julian had purchased. Which was a little less than one acre outside of the home. But only once had I even tried to walk outside the door, I’d quickly learned there was no escaping the darkness that permeated the woods beyond. Something dark and cold was there and it beckoned to me and made me want to cry out in agony when it got too close, so in the house I stayed. My world had once been so grand, and now was nothing but a tiny, insignificant dot on a map.

  I sighed.

  But could I share my sanctuary with someone else? My moods were...unusual at the best of times now. Up and down and round and round, half the time I didn’t even know myself. The other two times I’d had roommates I’d never even left the dead lands. I’d been too scared of change, too afraid to even try and be friendly, scared of being hurt. Not in the physical sense, but...I couldn’t bear the thought of being left behind. Again. Far easier to remain detached and cold than to let others in, no matter how lonely I was. At least that way no one could hurt me again. No one could give me the hope of more, when I knew it was impossible. Eerie had pretty much become my only contact with the outside world, and now she was always so busy. Not that I blamed her, but... I had far too much time on my hands to think.

  I bit my bottom lip. Then I huffed, rolled my eyes and floated over to my chess game.

  “I doubt anyone will even answer the call.”

  TWO DAYS LATER, I SAW a ball of floating brilliant red come whistling through the air like an arrow shot from its bow, hurtling straight and uneerily in my direction. But I was a ghost; no harm could come to me. Nothing could touch me. So I stood my ground and watched like a deer trapped in the glow of a headlight.

  That ball of dazzling, fiery red slammed through my chest like a bolt of lightning, heating me up from within. I shrieked, feeling the first currents of sensation in so long I nearly passed out from the shock of it.

  Instead I went into a temporary stasis mode, blinking my eyes several hours later when I sensed another presence in my home.

  It was Eerie, blinking her wide liner-rimmed eyes back at me and whispering, “I’ll be doggoned, you’ve been tagged, my ghostly friend.”

  “It...It can’t be. I...I’m a ghost.” I cupped a cold hand to my equally cold cheek and huffed.

  Eerie’s laughter echoed like dry leaves dancing across asphalt in the empty hallways of my home. “Oh, but it can, my friend. It most certainly can.”

  Eerie, who until tonight had always been a bit on the brooding and melancholy side, looked positively perky as she said, “I too have been struck by the three Aunts’ spell.”

  She waggled her fingers around her head, and I finally noticed that what she said was true. Eerie was wearing her own crown of blazing jeweltone red.

  The spell was a love spell that The Aunts cast every time the veil lifted in Blue Moon Bay. A spell meant to bring our truest loves to us, a spell meant to signify happiness and joy to those of us blessed to be embraced by their magick.

  But something terrible and grave must have happened, because no amount of magick could change the truth of me; that I was dead and would forever remain so.

  “But...but,” I stuttered, unable to speak the words so clear in my mind.

  Eerie’s smile grew wider. “I’ve also got a bit more news for you, Annabelle. It seems your advertisement was a great success on this thing called Craig’s List.”

  “Who’s Craig?”

  She shrugged. “No idea, but he certainly gets around. Anyway, your home is quite popular.”

  “What?” I wrinkled my nose as I rubbed my temple with two fingers. “How did you manage this so fast?”

  “It’s the way of this new modern world, you see. Everything moves fast. Blink and you just might miss it. They have this newfangled device called a COM-PU-TER.” She wiggled her fingers and grinned from ear to ear. “Very fancy it is with all these little buttons that when you click on them you can write a letter faster than you can say gesundheit.”

  I shook my head, feeling completely baffled and lost by her conversation. It was always like this though when the veil was lifted, all this new technology would suddenly come flowing into our world. It was actually part of Old Man Tinker’s curse, which I’d always found profoundly interesting. Why help us to remain current on the knowledge of the day if you were simply going to curse us all and trap us out of the world we lived in? I’d always believed that somewhere deep down in that old man’s chest was an actual beating heart.

  Most in Blue Moon Bay didn’t feel the same about Old Man Tinker. They’d thought him a strange and unusual character, which was saying something considering the entire town was made up of the strange and unusual. But Tinker had always kept to himself. Unlike most other residents of Blue Moon Bay, I’d actually known the black witch.

  He’d lived not too far from me. Choosing to remain for a while in the town he’d cursed, until one day he’d simply up and vanished without a trace. We weren’t sure whether he’d died or left, seeing as how he’d cast the curse that held us trapped in time, it wasn’t all that unreasonable to believe he would have granted himself the ability to leave at his whimsy, when and where he willed.

  But in the twenty or so years he’d remained after casting the curse, he’d sometimes come and talked with Jules when there was no one else around.

  Of course, he was smart enough to know when I lingered, for he’d often look in my direction, even though I kept myself screened within the realm of the dead, which m
ade me invisible to any mortal or immortal so long as they were fully of the living world. But I’d always been sure he knew I was about, even though I could never confirm it to be true. I felt he’d seen far more that he’d let on.

  Tinker would speak nothing but nonsense to Jules, but I liked the cadence of his voice. Weathered and yet regal all at the same time, listening to him speak was almost as good as listening to a campfire story. I’d often been lulled by the rhythmic tones of his voice into a ghostly type of slumber that would be as relaxing and restful as sleep had once been when I’d been human.

  But Tinker was long gone, and I’d never slept so again.

  I cut my gaze toward Eerie’s pretty face. She had her head cocked and was looking at me strangely. “You spaced out again.”

  I frowned. “I didn’t either.”

  “Yes, you did. What were we just talking about, Annabelle?”

  My nostrils flared, and I glared at her, ready to regurgitate our conversation back at her and demand an apology. Except when I went fishing for the words, well, the words simply weren’t there. They’d vanished into the ether, as they so often did with me.

  “I um...erm.” I pouted. “I forgot.”

  “Of course you did. Going off on those strange tangents of yours again, were you? And this is exactly why you need a roommate. Too long spent alone isn’t good for one’s spirit. I swear, too much longer on your own and you’re bound to fade into the dead realm completely. You need a purpose again, Annabelle.”

  “And a roommate is that purpose?” I asked dubiously.

  She nodded. “Absolutely. And she arrives on the morrow.”

  I blinked. “What? So soon? But does she even know what she’s getting herself into?”

  Eerie scoffed, blinking her large colorless eyes back at me. “Of course she does. Do you honestly think I’d write the advertisement and not let on the truth of things? I wrote that the house is in derelict condition, but that there’d be no rental fees so long as they were willing to put in a little hard work and bring the blasted place up into the twenty-first century.”

  My body tingled, realizing that Eerie had very neatly sidestepped my question.

  “So you told her I’m a ghost?”

  Eerie laughed so hard one of her curls came unpinned. “Of course not, who do you take me for? A fool? No one would come if they thought it was to keep the dead company. No, I said that the house had ‘charm’ and was rumored to have a spook or two, not a lie out and out.”

  I gasped. “Eerie Thistlebottom, what in the foolhardy heck have you done?”

  “Oh tut,” she rolled her wrist so hard it literally spun around once, “only what I promised you I would. I said I would bring you company and I have. I’ve chatted with Blue and she seems quite lovely. Very sweet girl.”

  I wrinkled my nose again. “Blue?”

  “That’s her name, of course. Blue Bonnet Martin. Nice gal.”

  “What kind of god-awful name is Blue Bonnet? Good Lord, her parents ought to be ashamed of themselves.”

  “Listen to you, Ms. Judgeyjudgepants. You’ll like her. You’ll see. Best part is she’s got a brother! And from what I could see...” Eerie clucked, pressed her lips together and let out a long and ear-splitting wolf whistle that caused Jules to come temporarily out of hiding and howl in return, the sound long and mournful and pained.

  Even I grimaced and dug a finger into my ear canal to try and help stop the ringing. Gods, Eerie was a pest. But goddess help me, I loved her anyway, even though she annoyed the ever loving snot out of me sometimes.

  She clapped her hands together as though dusting them off and said, “And with that, I must be off. I’ve got a booth to man. And also the Madam told me my fortune last night, and apparently I’m to meet my beau tonight. Ain’t life grand? Well, toodles!” She finger waved and then turned and walked out the door.

  “But Eerie! You can’t just leave like that. You have to tell her. She has to know! There is a spook. Me. And Jules. And you know how jealous Jules can get sometimes—” I cried at Eerie’s back, but my zombie friend was long gone.

  With a sinking heart I twirled, realizing I was still in the sitting position but now hovering several feet in the air. This was going to be bad. So, so bad.

  “How in the bloody blazes does Eerie expect this to go tomorrow?”

  It was a long night spent in front of my upstairs window that night. A very, very long night.

  Chapter 2

  Dante Martin

  “YOU REALLY NEED TO come and visit me.”

  I sighed an exasperated and long-suffering sigh. My sister was relentless. Five foot nothing with a shocking curl of red hair flowing wild and untamed around her elfin face. She was dad incarnate. Looking sweet and innocent from the outside, but inside she was a spitfire full of piss and vinegar.

  I popped an antacid and groaned as I ground down on the chalky disgusting nub, rubbing at my aching temples. I was sitting in the center of my unmade bed, with piles of work boxes on my floor, my laptop open and looking through one ad after another after another, trying to stave off the eventual meltdown of this anxiety induced food coma I was presently in. Empty silver hamburger wrappers littered my feet. I never ate hamburgers. Or even fast food for that matter. Hadn’t touched one in over five years. Only steaks and lean protein for me, I ate like an athlete because I usually lived like one too.

  Tonight I’d wolfed down five half-pound burgers. Acid reflux was hammering like an enraged bear at the back of my throat. I so didn’t have the energy for my twin tonight.

  “I can’t.”

  “Liar,” she huffed. I could picture her shoving that ever-present curl that drooped in front of her left eye away. No matter how many times I told her to cut it though, Blue never listened. “It’s nearly Halloween and you promised you’d come this year. I’m all settled in now so what’s your excuse?”

  Honestly, I was shocked my sister had actually settled down, in an honest to God house of all things. Blue had wanderlust like no one else I knew. She’d been all over the world, and at only twenty-seven, she had already seen six of the seven continents. If someone had asked me even last year whether Blue would ever plant roots somewhere, no matter how temporary, I’d have laughed in their face and walked away. A domesticated life had never been for my twin. She was a wild spirit. Free. And fun.

  I, on the other hand, was an accountant—which basically told anyone who bothered to care exactly who and what I was without having to delve any farther.

  Blue was Pistachio ice-cream and sprinkles. I was vanilla. Boring. Simple. Predictable. I lived my life by rules and numbers and the known. I didn’t have a clue how Blue and I could have wound up so different, but we had. Where she was the ‘take life by the reins and manhandle it into submission’ kind of girl, I was serious and steadfast.

  Don’t get me wrong, I loved my sister. But I rarely understood her. For years she’d lived her life in a renovated bus I liked to call the Hippy-mobile, painted with bright sunflowers and peace signs on the silver sides, driving from one state to another. She dressed in these gauzy, weird, flappy things she called dresses and smoked pot nearly every night—herbal medicine she called it.

  She knew no strangers and swore that I knew a lot less about the world than I thought I did. She was nuts, but she was my sister, so that was pretty much a given. Still, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone more empathetic and sweet than Blue. And once you knew her, it was impossible to hate her. Blue had a way with people. A quality I envied.

  Our mom had been a single parent for most of our lives and had done all she could for us until the day she died. She’d always understood my twin in a way I knew I never could. Mom hadn’t been a hippy, she’d been more like me, but she’d seen the spark in Blue and had fostered and nurtured it. Yeah, Blue and I were different, but she was one of my favorite people in the world too.

  “Please, Dany, take a week off. When was the last time you had a vacation? You work yourself to the bone. Seri
ously, you need to recharge every once in a while or you’re gonna send yourself right into an early grave.”

  I eyed the empty hamburger wrappers, only the stains of ketchup and mustard remained, and fought a disgusting belch. My stomach was rioting like a bunch of toy soldiers were stabbing me with their pointy bayonets inside. Why had I done this?

  Oh, I know why...

  I ground my jaw and rubbed my brow bone. “I’m not taking time off, Blue.”

  “You prom—”

  I growled. “I’m not taking time off because I was just handed my pink slip last Wednesday, okay? That’s why.”

  I scowled at the offending wrappers, hating my life so much right now.

  “Oh, Dante,” she breathed, instantly switching from her typical sisterly shrewishness to a softer, kinder version of it. “But I thought you said that—”

  I swallowed, feeling that dumb lump working its way up my throat again. “He lied to me, Blue, okay? And I was stupid enough to fall for it. The company has been struggling for years, so I knew this was coming. I do their books.” I sniffed and swiped at the tip of my nose with my wrist.

  I wasn’t crying. There was dust in the air.

  No, I wasn’t panicking and trying not to choke on worry that I was currently jobless in a crappy economy with not much in the way of prospects for me out there. The marketplace was brutal right now, and it wasn’t like I was without options, but none of them were even within the same ballpark as what I’d lost. The healthcare benefits alone had made the mind-numbing job worth it.

  I had savings, but only three month’s worth to float me before I’d be forced to downsize from this brownstone into God only knew what. And I already knew I couldn’t afford to eat like this again, not if I didn’t want to kiss the porcelain throne for the rest of my life from a severe case of gastro-intestinal distress. I groaned and clutched onto my stomach. There was a battle royale brewing inside of me.

  “I have to find a job, B, which means I have to stay put. I’m sorry.”