Spiritus, a Paranormal Romance (Spiritus Series Book#1)

by Dana Michelle Burnett

  Chapter 5

  Saturday arrived in a burst of brightness that woke me from my restless slumber. I opened my eyes again to my perfectly normal room, but this time it was ablaze in a hazy light. Judging from the intensity of the early morning sun, the day was going to be a scorcher.

  When I mentioned my plans to my Dad the night before, he became very enthusiastic about the whole thing, even sharing his own story about swimming at the quarry. I had no idea the tradition went that far back.

  He actually made me a little self-conscious the way he kept going on about how wonderful it was that I had made friends and was accepted. Was it really so surprising?

  “I’m glad you’ve made some nice friends,” he said for the tenth time. “I’m sure you all will have a great time.”

  “Thanks,” I said before retreating to my room. I couldn’t help it; his ridiculous excitement was wearing on my nerves.

  Billie and Ally came to get me just after lunch. I looked out the front window and recognized Ally’s mom’s black Toyota. They were both in great moods and were a nostalgic type of beautiful in their bikini tops and cut off shorts. I was dressed that way too, but they made it look so easy.

  It was only a ten minute ride out to the quarry. I sat in the backseat, laughing as they sang along to the radio at the top of their lungs. We rolled the windows down and enjoyed the hot, dry air on our skins.

  I wanted to be like them, carefree and beautiful, but I didn’t know how. I could only bask in the glow of their splendor and abandon. I couldn’t really be a part of it. I didn’t know how. The most I could hope for was to be guided by their gravitational pull.

  I’d never seen a quarry, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I saw it from the road first, through a scattering of trees, the sudden rocky stop to the surrounding hills. The water below was clear, glass-like, reflecting the rocky cliff above. Along the crest were dense groups of trees. As I looked up, it seemed impossible to believe that we would be able to walk through them.

  Ally turned at a sharp angle onto a winding gravel road full of dusty potholes and lined by trees. The view of the quarry disappeared behind weedy undergrowth and thorn bushes. The car rocked back and forth, making me think that only in Corydon would a Toyota compact be expected to go off road.

  I thought I would be bounced and beaten to death, or suffocated by dust before Ally finally pulled off to the side and parked behind a long line of vehicles on the path. I felt exhausted and dirty and we hadn’t even left the car yet.

  The air held a damp sulfur smell and was thick with late afternoon humidity. The dappled sun was less intense here, but the leafy canopy held the heat near the ground.

  We got out of the car and stumbled long the path, stepping over holes swarming with mosquitoes. Ahead, in a small clearing, despite the temperature of the day, burned a small campfire. The woodsy smoke made the smoldering day even hotter. What were these people thinking?

  “You’ll be thankful for the fire,” Ally told me when she saw my expression. “The smoke keeps the bugs away.”

  Billie struggled with a bright red cooler, hoisting it to the side so that she could avoid the pits in the road. “And it will be the only light for a mile here in a few hours.”

  They led me to the ring of logs surrounding the fire and squeezed us in a corner spot on one of them upwind from the smoke. The smoke still burned my eyes, but at least I could breathe.

  One of the boys from my Science class was roasting a hot dog on the fire for that pretty red-haired girl I always passed in the hall. Unfortunately, I didn’t remember either of their names so all that I could do was smile and wave.

  “So, what do we do now?” I asked, throwing a broken acorn on the fire.

  “Just give me a minute to catch my breath and we’ll go for a swim,” Billie said with an exhausted smile.

  Swimming was no new task for me, in Indianapolis I spent most of the summer at the local pool, but this was something totally different. The pools I was used to were made of concrete and filled with chlorinated water that made my eyes burn, this was a hole in the earth filled with rainwater. What if there were snakes or something?

  While Billie cooled off, I tried to join in some of the conversation around me, but all of them were familiar strangers to me. I knew their faces, but had no idea about the people or places that they were talking about so I really didn’t have anything to say.

  I looked around, feeling very aware of my hands and feet and unsure what to do with them. Just when I thought it was impossible for me to feel more uncomfortable, I watched the boy and girl from before walk to the edge of the blunt cliff and jump off.

  I couldn’t believe what I just saw. That couldn’t be the only way into the water!

  Billie laughed at the look on my face. She stood up and pulled me to my feet. I told myself if she tried to walk me toward the edge I’d just run away, even if I had to walk all the way home, there was no way I was jumping.

  “Follow me,” Billie ordered, taking off toward the trees to the right.

  It wasn’t a long walk, but then again it wasn’t exactly a trail that we were following. It seemed like just a break in the trees with lots of itchy tall grass to walk through. There were others taking this easy downhill footpath to the water, but others took the plunge from above, screaming with fear or delight as they fell toward the water.

  I watched person after person, couple after couple, take the plunge as I staggered along. Were those people insane? I kept turning back to watch those lunatics even as I followed behind Billie.

  Once we reached the edge of the water, I slipped out of my dusty, sticky shoes just like everyone else and stepped carefully across the slimy rocks and into the cool water. My feet, already getting blisters from my hot sneakers, felt instantly relieved once wet. I was sweaty and miserable until I eased into the refreshing water.

  It felt so different than the water in regular swimming pools, slick and more there somehow. I went deeper, lowering my entire body into the water, loving the earthy smell that clung to my skin and hair.

  “How sweet is this?” Billie asked as she floated by on her back.

  I leaned back and soaked my hair again, trying to get rid of that itchy sweaty feeling. At that moment I agreed with her completely, “It is very sweet.”

  A loud whistle drew our attention back up to the edge high above. There, perched above the water, in her red bikini top, Ally was waving. She was nothing more than a speck leaning out over the water.

  As I watched horrified, she stepped closer to the edge. I opened my mouth to scream, but before I could utter a sound, she jumped.

  “Ally!” I screamed too late.

  She fell for what seemed like an eternity before breaking through the glass-like surface of the water with a large spray. I held my breath until she bobbed back up laughing.

  “Are you insane?” I scolded as she swam towards me, “You could have killed yourself!”

  “It’s all in how you land,” she replied with a playful splash.

  I couldn’t stay mad at her; I was too in awe of what she just did. I didn’t even say anything when she “had” to do it two more times. There was a part of me that wished I was the brave, but the real me watched terrified from the water as she threw herself off again and again.

  At last, just as it was getting dark, Ally grew bored of terrifying me with her antics and agreed to go back up to the fires. Billie was right, the fires were the only light around by then, and they were too far away to do much good as we stumbled through the tall grass.

  I tripped and stumbled, smacked at bugs, and all the while kept thinking to myself that this is what qualifies for a good time around here. What was wrong with this picture?

  More people were surrounding the fires by the times we made it to the top of the hill. I took a seat near our cooler and dug through the melting ice for a soda, trying to search the larger crowd for one face in particular at the same time. In the dim, flickering light, and with everyone mo
ving from group to group, it was difficult to tell who was who.

  He told me to come. He said he would be here. So, where was he?

  Billie and Ally soon joined the mix, leaving me alone on the log with no one to speak to. I couldn’t blame them. One of the boys from my English class, I forgot his name, had Billie pulled aside and was whispering something in her ear that made her giggle. Ally was following her newest crush, a boy I had only seen a few times in the hall, from group to group.

  I was only alone a few minutes before a boy sat down on the log next to me. It took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust to the darkness to see Jonah’s handsome face beside me.

  “So, you made it after all,” he said with one of his brilliant smiles.

  “Yes, I did.” I said while twisting my still damp hair. Could I look anymore awful?

  If he realized how uncomfortable I was, he was ignoring it. “Having fun?”

  “I guess so,” I mumbled, wondering if the zit that was just starting to show that morning was glowing bright red.

  Jonah frowned, “You don’t like it here, do you?”

  “It’s my first time at a rock quarry, that’s for sure.”

  “That’s not was I was talking about,” he said with a smirk. “I was talking about Corydon.”

  I was trying to craft the perfect response when Billie and the boy from my English class came up to get a soda. She eyed Jonah sitting next to me and smiled widely.

  “How are you doing there, Becca?” She asked with a wide smile.

  I was absolutely mortified. The only thing that I could be grateful for was the darkness so that Jonah couldn’t see me blush.

  “I’m fine, Billie.” I replied through clenched teeth, wishing her and that boy would just go away.

  The boy seemed amused by our exchange, clearing his throat deliberately. “So Becca, Billie was telling me you just moved into one of those old houses on Capitol Avenue. Which one?”

  “You know the giant white one with the really big columns?”

  “Oh wow,” The boy said raising his eyebrows. “So, have you seen any ghosts yet?”

  I was too shocked to answer. I cut my eyes to Billie, sure she gave away my secret, but she was staring open mouthed at the boy too.

  Before I could figure out how to answer him, Billie pulled him back to the furthest reaches of the fire. I could hear her talking about the beautiful night, obviously trying to change the subject. She glanced back one last time at me, giving me a wink.

  At that moment I was so grateful to her and Ally. I barely knew the two of them and here they were protecting my dark secrets. I never had friends like that before.

  Jonah interrupted my thoughts, “So, you didn’t answer me. You don’t like Corydon, do you?”

  “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it,” I scowled, not caring what it made me look like. He smiled and nodded sympathetically.

  Why was he being so nice to me? He couldn’t really care what I thought about Corydon.

  I wanted to concentrate on Jonah, regardless of why he was paying me so much attention, but I couldn’t get the boy’s question out of my head. It kept bouncing around, blocking out anything Jonah might be saying.

  “Who is that guy that Billie is with?” I finally just asked him straight out.

  Jonah glanced over at the pair in the shadows. “Oh, that’s Chris Powers. He’s a pretty good guy.”

  While it was good to hear the guy wasn’t a jerk, that wasn’t really my point.

  “Why did he ask me if I’d seen any ghosts yet?” I asked as casually as possible.

  I had to focus all of my attention on my words and the sound of my own voice, trying not to think too much about the handsome boy next to me or the being in my room. If I did, I would lose my train of thought.

  Jonah looked away and shrugged, “I don’t know why he asked that.”

  “Yes, you do,” I scolded.

  It was a little annoying that other people seemed to know something about my house that I didn’t. What if this thing that no one would take about would tell me something about the things I kept seeing?

  “You asked me that same question the other day,” I reminded him. “I want to know what it’s all about.”

  He took a deep breath, turned back to me, and winked.

  “Do you like a good ghost story?” He asked ominously.

  “Doesn’t everybody?” I asked, trying not to sound too anxious.

  “Alright,” he said with one of his dazzling smiles. “But keep in mind these are just old stories that get passed around.”

  “Fine,” I agreed. I was willing to say anything to keep him talking.

  “Well, this town dates back to the late seventeen hundreds. Anytime a place has that much history, there’s going to be some stories.” He began, dropping his voice and leaning a little closer. Under other circumstances it would have been thrilling, as it was; I just wanted him to say more.

  “A Civil War battle was fought here and some people swear that the ghosts of the soldiers still fight whenever there’s a full moon.”

  I could see him smirking in the firelight; obviously he didn’t believe the stories.

  “And then there are the stories about Capitol Avenue.” He said with a sigh.

  “There are ghost stories about my street?” I asked. I was trying to sound only the expected level of curious.

  “Yeah,” he said rolling his eyes. “There’s a ghost that haunts one of the houses.”

  “Which one?” I encouraged.

  “It depends on who you talk to,” He said with an amused smile. “But the story is always the same.”

  “And what’s the story?” I prodded.

  Jonah leaned even closer; I could smell the earthy scent of the water on him and feel his steamy breath on my cheek. “Do you really want to know? What if it gives you nightmares?”

  “It won’t,” I assured him the best I could. How could his little ghost story give me nightmares? The nightmare was already showing itself.

  “Okay, but I warned you,” He said with a playful smile. “Supposedly, the ghost is a dead civil war soldier.”

  “If he was a soldier, why isn’t he haunting the battlefield?” I asked.

  “Because he wasn’t killed in battle, he was driven mad by the horrors of war.” Jonah opened his eyes wide and crazy-like. He dropped his voice, sounding like an old-time radio villain. “He lost his last grip on his sanity one night and attacked his beautiful and loving wife.”

  “Did he kill her?” I whispered.

  Jonah shook his head, “Nope. She killed him. Shot him with his own gun. His ghost has roamed Capitol Avenue ever since.”

  “What happened to the wife?” I asked, worried that another ghost would be appearing in the very near future.

  He seemed pleased with the effect his story was having on me. “Nobody knows for sure what happened to the wife. A few days later she was found dead near Indian Creek. Some say she committed suicide, others say the soldier’s ghost killed her by scaring her to death.”

  I couldn’t say anything at first. I could only stare into the fire and wonder if this Capitol Avenue ghost was my ghost.

  “Crazy story, isn’t it?” Jonah said with a laugh.

  “I’ve never heard anything like it,” I said while watching the flames.

  Jonah shrugged, “I think every kid in Corydon hears about twelve versions of that story by the time they reach elementary school.”

  “What story are you talking about?” Ashley Richardson asked as she stepped into the light of the fire. She looked beautiful, richly tanned and her hair had that perfectly mussed look that cover models worked hours for.

  I couldn’t help but notice that Jonah shifted away from me a little as he answered her.

  “I was telling her about the old Capitol Avenue soldier,” he said with a smirk.

  “Is that why she looks so scared?” Ashley asked with a laugh, “How pathetic.”

  I told myself not to cry, but
I could feel the hot tears burning somewhere behind my eyes. It was just too much, Ashley hating me for no reason, ghosts haunting the house, what was next?

  Who was I kidding? Guys as perfect as Jonah belonged with a girl just as equally perfect. Someone like Ashley.

  I let out a huff and stood up as Ashley sat down on the other side of Jonah. I couldn’t sit there with them. I was the unwanted third wheel.

  Just stepping away from them didn’t help. I could still hear Ashley flirting shamelessly with Jonah.

  “Your hair has gotten so light,” she said. “And you know I just have a thing for blond guys.”

  As ridiculous as her statement was, I wished I had said something like that to him. Instead, I was collecting silly ghost stories. How could I be so stupid?

  I didn’t wait around to witness what would happen next between them. Even someone as out of touch as me could see the obvious outcome. I stormed away from the fire and out into the darkness.

  I walked until the grass disappeared and the bare dirt fanned out in wide patches, ending at the edge overlooking the water. I stopped, afraid to look down, and wondered what exactly it was I thought I was doing.

  Afraid. That was my problem. I was always afraid. If I wasn’t always so scared and unsure, it would be me talking to Jonah right now. Ashley was right. I was pathetic.

  I forced myself to open my eyes and look down. I knew the water was down there, but I couldn’t see it. The darkness rose up to my feet, looking thick enough to walk across.

  The wind whipped around me, carrying the faint scents of late summer like drying leaves and dying grass.

  I stepped closer to the edge, hearing small pebbles fall, but keeping my eyes forward. I took a deep breath and tried to feel the air pushing around me.

  I was tired of being afraid.

  Taking another deep breath, I shifted my weight up to my toes. I told myself it was just like a diving board at a pool and there was nothing to be afraid of.

  It’s just like a pool…It’s just like a pool….

  I hesitated a moment more, feeling the edge of the rock with my toes, then I closed my eyes…

  And jumped into the darkness.

  There was no time to scream. I was falling toward the smooth surface of the water so quickly there was no time to think. I was staring at my own reflection getting bigger and bigger, closer and closer.

  I didn’t have time to think about how to land. All of a sudden I was colliding with the water and going deeper and deeper. I knew that I should be swimming to the surface, but my body was still stinging from the impact and wouldn’t cooperate.

  My chest ached, bursting with my held breath. My shoulder hit the rocky bottom first with such force there was no time to keep my head from hitting the hard surface also.

  The world was made up of blackness, the dark night above, the inky water trapping me, and the darkness behind my eyes that was trying to claim me.

  He came to me then. Through all of the darkness I saw him, the ghost from my bedroom, hanging in space next to me. In that moment I knew him. I knew his handsome face and dazzling eyes. It was exactly the face that I wanted to see as I prepared for death.

  Was that it? Was I really dying?

  I looked to this spirit beside me, searching his perfect face for the answer. Was I dying? Is that why he looked so sad?

  His hand was pale, almost silvery, as it reached toward me. He took my hand in his and suddenly he was above me, pulling me toward him.

  I was in his arms then and I wasn’t thinking about dying anymore because he was lifting me toward the surface. I didn’t have to do anything; I just had to trust him.

  The rocky cliff came into focus above the surface. I was almost there, just a little further and I’d be able to breathe again. My lungs ached with the memory of air, suddenly craving it again.

  A splash beside me rocked my body and the spirit was gone. I was sinking down again, the last of my air escaping in shinning bubbles. I watched helpless as the image of the spirit swirled and dissolved like ink in the water. I didn’t want him to go, but my mouth was full of water and I couldn’t speak.

  The intruder grabbed me, wrapping his arms around my waist, and pulled me to the surface. I felt the darkness behind my eyes was pulling me back, refusing to let me go.

  I let this person lift me, and then I was spinning away. The next thing I remembered was the coarse, needle-like grass poking into my back. I tried to open my eyes, but the lids were heavy like concrete.

  There was buzzing everywhere, like an electrical charge or a hive of bees. As I lay there, trying to remember how to breathe, words broke through the buzzing, but then faded before I could make out what was said.

  One voice rose above the den, close and hot in my face.

  “Becca?” Jonah asked. “Can you hear me?”

  I struggled and lifted the heavy veil of my eyelids to see him leaning over me, his wet hair dripping water down onto my face.

  “Jonah?” I choked out through the rawness of my throat. It felt and sounded as though I was speaking through gravel.

  He ordered me not to move, but even without turning my head I knew that a crowd had gathered and everyone was staring at me. That’s what the buzzing was, all of them talking about how stupid I was. I closed my eyes and wished I could just disappear.

  “Stay with me,” Jonah pleaded as if he thought I was slipping back into unconsciousness. “The ambulance is on the way.”

  Oh God.

  Sure enough, the high pitched wail of a siren was getting closer and closer. I would never be able to face anyone again. How could I have been so stupid?

  I didn’t hear Jonah leave my side; he was close and silent until the paramedics ordered him to move. Only then could I open my eyes and answer their questions.

  “What happened?” One asked as he shone a light in my eyes.

  “I jumped in and hit my head.”

  To add insult to injury, they strapped a hard plastic neck brace around me and placed me on a hard wooden board. I was mortified. I was relieved when I was lifted onto a stretched and then placed in the ambulance where no one could see me.

  I was whisked away to an emergency room somewhere. It could have been in Corydon, the next city, or the next state. How different can hospitals look when strapped to a stretcher and your only view is the ceiling as you’re wheeled down the hall?

  Once in the emergency room, I was placed in a forgotten corner room. A nurse checked on me a few times, but other than that I was left alone to wonder what all had happened.

  Did that spirit really come to me as I was dying?

  It took hours for the doctors to run all of their tests and scans. At last I was released with a diagnosis of only a concussion to my very nervous father.

  “Oh thank God!” He said, pulling me to him as soon as I walked out into the waiting room.

  “I’m fine,” I assured him, wanting him to stop looking so worried. “Let’s just go home.”

  He nodded and walked me toward the door. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jonah sitting on the far side of the waiting room; he stood when I looked his way.

  Oh God! I couldn’t face him. I gave him an embarrassed wave and followed Dad out the automatic glass doors.

  “You don’t know how scared I was,” Dad said as we got into his Suburban.

  “I’m okay, really, it’s just a bump on the head.”

  “When I got the call to come to the hospital, my first thought—“

  “I know,” I interrupted, definitely not in the mood to talk about my mother. “But I’m fine.”

  He anxiously watched my every move when we got home, making me feel so guilty. When I couldn’t take it anymore, I gave up and went to bed. I loved the peace and quiet as I slipped under the covers.

  As I lay there with my eyelids growing heavier and heavier, he came to me again.

  I had just closed my eyes when I felt a tingling sensation over my cheek. I opened my eyes and there was the ghost, stand
ing over me and touching my face with his nothing hand.

  Just as I gasped, he shimmered and faded away, leaving me alone again in the darkness.