Holly, Curses, and Hauntings

by Jovee Winters

  The door banged open, cracking against the wall. The knob had come only inches from smacking me straight in the face.

  Blue’s eyes were huge and panicked. She took one look at me, then over to the wall where the letters were quickly fading, and without a word or skipping a beat she turned on her heel and ran.

  Bets were good she was running for her life. I would be if I’d seen what she just had. Me, looking like I belonged in a padded cell, no doubt, and jabbering like a complete fool. There was likely drool running down my chin, but my fingers were too numb to feel anything.

  I heaved for breath and shuddered. Up until last week I’d have sworn ghosts, demons, and monsters did not exist.

  And now in the short amount of time I’d been in this weird place my entire world view was upended. And just when I thought I had a handle on the weird, it only got worse.

  Blue, bless her heart, came back in carrying two large smudge sticks in her hands. She raced around the room chanting, “I banish you, whatever the heck you are. Got that? Banished. Go away.”

  I shivered when she said that.

  I still couldn’t seem to move my limbs. I had to believe I was knee deep in shock and the second that I snapped out of it, I just hoped I didn’t shriek like a little girl or embarrass myself in any other way.

  But what the heck had I just seen? There was absolutely no way that’d been Annabelle. That spear of black had been filled with darkness, evil, and hate. I still felt the slime of its passing through me. It’d felt like wet, super-heated snot, and all I wanted to do now was shower and get it off me.

  Whatever that had been, one thing was sure; there were more than two ghosts in this place because I knew without a doubt that hadn’t been Annabelle.

  Chapter 7

  Annabelle Lee

  I WONDERED WHAT BLUE and Dante were up to. I was physically strong enough to leave the dead lands, but I was strangely reluctant to go yet. After my chat with Dante something terrible and foreboding had come over me, leaving me feeling weak and dizzy. I could tell that Dante knew something was wrong with me, but I hadn’t wanted to worry him, so I’d left instead. More like hid.

  The moment I slid from the living to the dead lands that terrible sense of apprehension had fled, which meant it wasn’t me, but something back there infecting me. But what?

  I could go back, try to figure it out, so why hadn’t I yet?

  I picked at my pinky nail as I studied my house from the front lawn. I was still in the land of the dead, and instead of seeing a Victorian manor that’d finally gotten a fresh coat of paint put on it last year, all I saw was the black rotted panels, the broken windows, and the steps that’d been held together by a termite colony.

  It was how the place had looked when Julian had bought it for us all those years ago. Through the years some of my friends had made updates here and there, whenever they weren’t too busy.

  The house had turned into a chaotic mess of differing styles suited to the individual tastes of who’d dropped by. But the truth was, I almost rather enjoyed this rotten version of it better.

  Because beneath the peeling exterior and brokenness of it all, there’d been something beautiful and worth saving. Now, it was just the place I was stuck in. But back then it’d been my hope for something greater than I’d ever known before.

  I sighed, a sad little sigh, knowing no matter how much I might want to, there was no going back for either Julian or me. Even ghosts could not redo their pasts.

  Shaking those sad thoughts loose from my head, I turned, I guess I really had no more reason to stay out here. I’d delayed as long as I ought.

  The cautious smile of greeting on my face vanished the moment I parted the veil and felt the sickly smothering presence of evil. The same as I had before, except this time it was stronger, and this time I felt it emanating from Dante’s bedroom two floors up.

  “Dante,” I breathed, and then closed my eyes and winked to where I felt him strongest. Winking was how I moved when I really didn’t want to bother with pretending to be mortal.

  I raced through the ether until I was by his side.

  He was sitting on his heels, propped against the wall. Blue was walking the room, her smudge sticks held before her like a weapon as she swished the smoke through the air.

  The darkness was strongest felt in this room. It was powerful, almost overwhelmingly so. My form flickered, and I didn’t want to stay, but I knew I couldn’t leave them.

  “What...what happened?” I asked haltingly, looking down at Dante’s head.

  He blinked, looking shocked that I was there, and a brilliant blaze of a smile radiated from him. And though I could sense his unease, I also sensed his pleasure in this moment.

  And though being in this room with the heavy stench of the evil that had only ever stayed outside before made me feel nauseous and unsure, I smiled back at him.

  “You’re here,” he said in a rush.

  I nodded and hugged my robe tighter around my suddenly cold body. I hated the presence of this evil. But it was fading now thanks to Blue’s use of the sage. Whatever it had been, it was gone.

  “I’m sorry it took me so long to come back,” I whispered.

  He frowned even as a crooked grin tipped the corner of his full mouth. “No need to apologize for that, Casper”—I shivered whenever he called me that now, the way he said that pet name made it sound like a caress—“You’re here now.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Blue interrupted, moving between us and pinning me with a hard, intelligent glare. “Now that that’s outta the way, mind telling us, AL, why you hid the fact that there’s another ghost in this place? One with a seriously nasty ‘tude?” She lifted a brow, her look demanding.

  “AL?” I said with a wrinkle of my nose.

  “That’s my sister’s way. She likes to shorten everything. Annabelle Lee, AL for short.” Dante shrugged as he walked steadily toward me, staying within arm’s reach.

  The left side of my body tingled, feeling as though a current of electricity rippled through me. He seemed as pleased to see me as I was to see him and that was certainly a curiosity for me. I remembered how it had felt when he’d touched me, the warmth of him that had penetrated every inch of my nebulous soul. I trembled.

  “Oh,” I said, not knowing what else to say to that.

  Blue snapped her fingers. “Stop distracting my ghost, Dany. The question, AL. Why’d you hide that?”

  Frowning as I paused to regroup and remember what in the world it was she’d just asked me, I shook my head. “Ghost, no. Not a ghost. There is only Jules and me here. Believe me, I’d have found others if they existed.”

  Blue scoffed. “Then what in the world just tried to kill my brother?”

  “Something tried to kill you!” I said, the words sounding reed thin and rough with fear. I clutched at my throat.

  The tension that’d been gathered in Dante’s shoulders when I first arrived was starting to relax. He brushed long fingers through his thick, brown hair and shook his head.

  “Nothing tried to kill me. It wasn’t like that.”

  “Well, what exactly was it, Dany? You’re white as a ghost. Sorry, AL,” Blue looked at me with a squinch. “Didn’t mean to offend.”

  I held up my hand. I wasn’t really sure why that was such a popular phrase when we were really more of a luminescent blue than anything else.

  “None taken,” I said.

  “Yeah, well, that stuff got inside of me,” he said with a shudder, “I’d like to see you react any different.”

  “Wait.” I interrupted him. “What stuff got inside of you?”

  Blue blinked, looking fiercely impatient about all my interruptions, but I felt lost and confused right now.

  Dante glanced at me. “I promise I will answer all your questions, but can we get out of here right now? I’m feeling sick to my stomach. I don’t like this room.”

  “Oh, all right,” Blue grumped and started stomping out. “Meet me downstairs in a couple of
minutes. I’ll get some tea brewing. But you will answer all my questions.”

  And without a backward glance she walked back down the stairs, leaving me alone with Dante. I wet my lips as the tension in the small room suddenly ratcheted up, but this time it had nothing to do with whatever it was that had attacked Dante and everything to do with the fact that he and I were alone.

  He looked down at me just as I looked up at him.

  My heart, which hadn’t been all that calm to begin with, banged violently in the cage of my chest. I wasn’t sure how I still had functioning organs, considering my current non-living status, but maybe I didn’t have an actual heart that beat. Maybe this was nothing more than a type of muscle memory. The memory of what my body would have done in a situation like this. Whatever it was though, the flurry of butterflies in my stomach, and the knot in my throat felt very, very real.

  “Are you okay?” I asked him softly, wishing I could reach up and brush the errant lock of hair off his forehead.

  Wishing I could glide my fingers along the smooth line of his jaw and feel the texture of warm skin. I could not touch him, but I could smell him.

  I inhaled, bringing his scent of the woods and spices deep into my lungs.

  “Soon as I leave this room I will be,” he said softly, eyes peering deep into my own as if looking for something.

  I bit my bottom lip and nodded. I wanted to apologize for staying away so long again, wanted to explain to him that he was the first man I’d been around in over five decades, and that he made me accountably nervous and shy. But I was a ghost, and he...he was not.

  Whatever it was I was feeling was only on me. My grin was tight as I said, “I’ll meet you downstairs.”

  I winked into the veil, imagining for just a moment that he’d called me back. But he would never. How very foolish of me to think for even a moment he could have been as glad to see me as I’d been to see him.

  A ghost becoming infatuated with a human, what a silly person I’d become in death.

  Dante Martin

  “ANNABELLE, I—” I SAID the words just as her body materialized out of existence.

  Her warmth and pure presence that’d helped cleanse the remnants of darkness from my room were now gone, and all I felt was cold again.

  With a shudder, I jogged out the door and closed it behind me. By the time I reached the kitchen, Blue and Annabelle were there. My sister was pouring two mugs of chamomile tea out.

  Annabelle had her back to us and was staring out the window with a sad, haunted look on her face just as she had the other day when she’d left and hadn’t come back for two terrible days.

  The craziest urge to go to her and hug her tight filled me. I clenched my hands, only just starting to regain feeling in them again.

  “Sit,” Blue said without preamble, pointing to the kitchen chair.

  I sat, looking over toward Annabelle again. She’d still not moved from her spot, though now she had her hand pressed against the windowpane. I swallowed hard.

  Blue shoved a hot mug into my hands.

  “Ouch,” I hissed, setting it down harder than I’d planned and sloshing some of it over the sides and onto the table.

  “Okay, dish, Dany. What exactly happened up there?” Blue asked as she scraped the opposite chair from mine back and plopped down onto it with a weary thud.

  From the corner of my eye I spotted Annabelle finally turning, and a beam of sunlight poured through her translucent form, making her appear almost angelic. All that was missing was the wings. She suddenly shimmered like morning dew on a blade of grass.

  I took a deep breath. She must have driven all the guys crazy in her day, with her large doe shaped eyes and gorgeous face that looked young and innocent. God, I couldn’t help but wonder who she’d been in life. What had she liked? Who had she been in love with?

  My brows dropped and I turned away with a frown, looking back at my expectant twin.

  Blowing out a heavy breath, I said, “I’m not really sure what happened to me up there, B. I went up to get my wallet, and then the door slammed shut and the room got cold. Like Antarctic kind of cold.”

  From the corner of my eye I saw Annabelle gliding forward, an intense look of concentration on her face.

  “Then the words popped up on the wall.”

  “Go away,” Blue said. “Yeah, I saw that.”

  Annabelle frowned. “Go away? You saw that on the wall?”

  I looked up only to note she was studying me already. I nodded. “I didn’t just see it, I saw it write it.” I rolled my eyes, shoving my fingers through my hair and tugging gently. “I know this sounds crazy, but it was like an invisible finger was burning it onto the wall one letter at a time. And then the...the black shadow is all I can call it, gathered into a ball and slammed into me.”

  Annabelle grimaced. “I don’t understand this.”

  “Then what good are you?” Blue tossed up her hands. “You’re the ghost here, not us.”

  “Blue!” I snapped. “Don’t talk to her like that. I’m sure we can figure this out.” I looked at Annabelle who had her robe hugged tight to her trim body.

  She looked like a startled doe, and my heart constricted for her.

  “Hey, it’s okay. Don’t listen to my sister, you’re fine. Ask as many questions as you need if it helps.”

  Blue sighed. “Sorry. I’ve been told I have the patience of a grizzly.”

  Annabelle nodded at her, but said nothing.

  “But what was that godawful scream? That’s what made me run to you,” Blue asked, looking back at me. “I thought it was you at first.”

  “No.” I rubbed the back of my neck, feeling a tension headache starting to come on. I bit onto my back teeth, trying not to flinch. Whenever I’d get headaches as a child they could lay me low for days.

  “Drink the tea, it’ll help the feeling to subside,” Annabelle said.

  I looked up and she smiled softly.

  “That unsettled feeling you’re having, it’s what happens when a spirit travels through a mortal.”

  “I thought you said there wasn’t another ghost,” Blue asked, sounding accusatory.

  “There’s not, per se. But I think that maybe something has crossed over the veil to this side. That darkness that you’re describing, Dante”—I was just about to take a sip of my tea when she said my name and instantly my body was flooded with nerves at the husky sound of her voice with my name on her tongue—“happens when a mortal encounters a malevolent presence.”

  I frowned and so did Blue.

  “But wouldn’t that mean there’s a ghost?”

  Annabelle, who’d been steadily drawing closer as we talked, was now standing inches from me. She smelled of frost and morning flowers, and without intending to I suddenly found myself leaning into her, swearing I could almost feel the icy glide of her touch upon my outer thigh. But when I looked down not even her robe grazed me.

  “I could not say for certain. The possibility does, of course, remain. But I sense no other ghost around. However, you’re misunderstanding me. A presence of otherworldliness isn’t simply a ghost, it can be many things. When something truly horrific occurs in life, sometimes a memory of it becomes imprinted after death. I...” she swallowed hard, and I frowned.

  “Annabelle, are you—”

  Her smile was tight and didn’t reach her vivid purple eyes. “I’m fine. I just haven’t talked about my death, well, ever. I was murdered you see.”

  I took a hearty swallow of the tea, not tasting it. Blue gasped. But I’d already known about the way Annabelle had died.

  “Oh, AL, I’m so sorry.”

  Annabelle laughed, and the sound actually appeared genuine. She flicked her wrist. “Don’t be. It was a long time ago. I’m long over it.”

  “And yet you’re still here,” Blue said, causing Annabelle’s momentary sparkle to dim. “Are you cursed or something?”

  “God, Blue, I swear you’ve got the tact of a porcupine.”

&nbs
p; “What?” she sounded offended and shrugged. “You almost died. I’ve got no tacts left to give right now. So what’s the deal, ghost? You wanted a roommate. I’d say you owe us some answers here.”

  Annabelle frowned and muttered something that I was sure Blue hadn’t caught, but I could have sworn I’d heard her say, “No, actually I didn’t.”

  My lips twitched, which she must have noticed because she looked down at me. I’d had no idea ghosts could blush, but her cheeks darkened a nice rosy shade. I covered my mouth and pretended to clear my throat to cover up the laugh.

  It took a saint to want to shack up with either one of us, Blue or me. I wasn’t going to pretend my sister and I weren’t just a little bit on the extra side. I was annoyingly type-A, and Blue...well, she was anything but.

  Annabelle was now hovering, all pretense of humanity gone at this point. She was in a cross-legged position, exposing a good bit of legs and man, did she have nice ones. Toned and fit. I swallowed hard.

  She was still right beside me though, and this time the edge of her robe was fluttering just along my thigh. Phasing in and out of my leg and making me break out in a wash of shivers and goose bumps.

  I didn’t mind when Annabelle touched me. I wondered why that was. Her touch, even when she passed through me, felt good. Completely different from how the other thing had made me feel.

  “So why are you still here, Annabelle?” I asked softly, more than a little curious.

  She looked at me and her brows were knitted tight. I sensed that if she’d never spoken of her murder, this topic too would be off limits. So I was surprised when she answered.

  “Truth? I don’t know. I’ve seen others who’ve died here in Blue Moon Bay move on through their doors.”

  “Oh, that’s cool. Like an actual door? Trippy. I wonder what my door will look like?” Blue said, mostly to herself.

  I just rolled my eyes. Leave it up to my twin to make it about her somehow.

  I’d never believed in an afterlife before coming to Blue Moon Bay. I’d always just assumed that we lived, and someday we’d die, and that would be the end of it.