Cemetery Tours (4 page)

“If by ‘real’ you mean ‘enjoyable,’ oh, probably seventh grade when the cutest boy in class took me out for a Blizzard at Dairy Queen.”

“You really are that pathetic, aren’t you?”  

“Oh yeah.”
 

~*~

Pulling into her driveway that evening, Kate noticed a familiar figure unloading groceries from his car.  Thinking fast, she grabbed her lip gloss out of her purse and dabbed a little on her lips.  Then, she ran her fingers through her hair and checked her reflection in the rear-view mirror before climbing out of her car.   

“Hey,” she called casually over to Michael.
  He glanced over his shoulder and smiled. 

“Oh, hi,” he replied.
  “How are you?”

“I’m great.
  How about you?  Do you need some help?”

“I think I’ve got it.
  But thanks,” he replied, slamming his car door shut with his free hand.

“No problem,” she answered.
  It looked like he’d recovered from whatever was ailing him
on Saturday
.  “Are you feeling better?”   

“Yeah, lots.
  I think I was just dehydrated.”

“Well, that’ll do it.”
 

“Yeah.
  I’m sorry I couldn’t help you with the couch.” 

“Don’t worry about it.
  It was a lot easier than I thought it would be,”  Kate assured him.  Their conversation had carried them up the stairs and to Michael’s front door, where they stopped.   

“Still, I wish I could have helped,” he said.
 

“You did help.
  You have no idea how much you helped.”  She could tell her praise embarrassed him, so she changed the subject.  “Hey listen, Gavin’s birthday is this weekend, and we were going to have a few people over
on Saturday
evening to celebrate and to show off the new apartment.  Would you like to come?” 

She could have sworn she saw a moment of hesitation
flicker across his eyes before he answered, “Yeah, that sounds like fun.” 

“Great.
  We’ll actually probably be spending most of our time down at the pool, so uh, dress accordingly,” Kate tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.  It had been a while since she’d asked a guy out.  Well, technically she wasn’t
really
asking him out.  She was asking her new neighbor to come to a party.  As a friend.  A cute friend who looked really good in the jeans he was wearing.  But still, just a friend.  “Party starts around seven.  But I’m sure I’ll see you before then, you know, because we’re neighbors...” 

Okay, time to shut up and leave before you awkward him to death
.   

“I’ll be there,” he smiled.
 

“Right.
  Well, I guess I’ll see you around, then.  And I’m really glad you’re feeling better.” 

“Thanks, Kate.
  I’ll see you later.”

“Bye.”
  And with a small wave, she walked across the landing and into her apartment.

~*~

Michael spent the rest of the week trying to think of a reason not to attend Kate and Gavin’s party.  It shouldn’t have been that hard, really.  Neither Kate nor Gavin knew very much about him.  He could easily tell them that his cousin was in town, or that his mother had hoped to have dinner with him that evening.  He could say that he had a friend who needed a favor.  The more he thought about it, however, the feebler the excuses seemed.  He could have always told them that he was sick.  Then again, he wasn’t sure how credible that would be given his “dehydration” the weekend prior.  He could just not show up, claim that he’d forgotten or that he’d had a family emergency.  Still, that seemed like a pretty weak cop out. 

The real problem with all of those excuses, Michael realized, was that deep down, he actually wanted to go to the party.
  It was the perfect opportunity to mingle, to see what else he could find out about Kate and Gavin’s strange and rather unfortunate past.  Maybe one of their friends could tell him something that would clue him into the identity of their spectral stalker.

He’d spent all
Sunday
browsing the Internet, trying to find anything he could on Gavin Avery.  Aside from a few high school and college cross country records however, there wasn’t much.  Michael had also managed to track down both Kate and Gavin on Facebook (Kate added him as a friend later that evening), but even after scrolling through all of their photographs, he couldn’t find a trace of the dark young man.  He remembered Kate mentioning that Gavin had fallen ill around two months after her accident.  That meant that whatever had happened occurred around late February, early March.  Neither of their histories, however, revealed anything more than Kate had already told him. 

Of all the questions Kate had left him with, she had been right about one thing; the break-in, the attack on their old apartment, had been personal, and it would likely happen again.
  Or maybe something worse.  And although Michael was about ninety-eight percent confident that the spirit’s anger wasn’t directed at Kate, he couldn’t help but worry that she might still get caught in the crossfire between the ghost and his intended target. 

Truth be told, Michael could count on one hand the number of people he’d met, or even heard of, who’d been critically injured by a spirit, so there really was no reason to worry about Kate.

Yet he did.  He hadn’t been in the room with the ghost for two minutes and already, he was turning out to be one of the most powerful spirits Michael had ever encountered.  Only a handful could acquire and retain the amount of energy it took to trash an apartment, and he’d never met one that could drain energy so quickly and efficiently.  Then of course, there was the rage; the intense hatred that had resulted in the destruction of a living space and that Michael had seen reflected all too clearly in the man’s dark eyes.  He’d met angry spirits before, but never of that caliber. 

As much as he tried to convince himself the only reason he wanted to go to the party was to find out more about the ghost, he realized that wasn’t quite true.
  Although he’d been hoping to avoid Kate, he couldn’t deny the part of him that had been wanting to see her again.  He knew that he would end up going to the party just because she’d invited him, and it was for that very reason he knew he should stay away.

He’d dated a few girls in the past and had even had one almost-serious girlfriend, Natalie, but he’d ended up hurting all of them.
  Not because he was some smooth heartbreaker.  That would have been less insulting, at least according to Natalie.  As she’d put it, Michael didn’t trust her enough to open up to her.  It was obvious that he was keeping something from her, remaining distant and aloof instead of being honest with her.  That was a lot more offensive than a guy who simply couldn’t commit.  He didn’t want to hurt Kate the way he’d hurt Natalie.  Unfortunately, if he wanted to spend more time with her, the only alternative to eventually hurting her was telling her the truth.  

He wasn’t sure he’d ever be ready for that.
 

~*~

Kate woke with a start.  

It was back.
  That horrible sense of unease.  Those hairs standing straight up on the back of her neck.  The feeling that someone was standing right outside her bedroom door, listening.  Waiting. 

Kate had prayed that with her new apartment would come a sense of security.
  She hadn’t slept soundly in her old apartment since the break-in. There had been several nights that she’d crept into Gavin’s room and spent the night curled up in his old sleeping bag.  It wasn’t the most comfortable accommodation, but it was better than being alone.  

Now
, as she sat upright, dizzy and disoriented, in the darkness of her new bedroom, she fought the urge to sprint across the hall into the sanctuary of her brother’s room.  She couldn’t say for sure what had stirred her from a dreamless sleep, but she recognized the feeling almost immediately.

Someone, or something, was in her apartment.
 

Her therapist had told her that it was perfectly natural for victims of break-ins to experience insomnia, nightmares, even panic attacks.
  Kate knew she should trust her therapist, but she couldn’t help but feel that her diagnosis wasn’t entirely accurate.  She had no trouble falling asleep and she usually had pleasant dreams.  Her problem was what woke her up in the middle of the night; the sensation that she was being watched. 

And now, it had followed her here.
 

Gavin had told her that it was all in her head, and that if she just kept reminding herself that, then the feeling would go away.
  “Mind over matter,” he’d always say.  Kate was no stranger to the concept.  Over the years, she’d mastered the art of willing away premenstrual nausea.  

She couldn’t will this away.
  She tried as hard as she could to rationalize with herself.  The apartment was locked.  They were on the second floor.  Gavin had been there all day. 
There was no one in her apartment.  

So why couldn’t she shake the dreadful feeling that she wasn’t alone?
 

A quick glance at her cell phone told her that it was almost two in the morning.
  She had to wake up at
six-thirty
.  Thank God it was a
Friday
.  

With a sigh of resignation, she lay back down and pressed the heels of her palms against her eyes.
  She had to at least try to get some rest.  Desperate, she tried to think of something, anything, that could keep her mind off of the unnerving presence.  She thought of the movie she’d watched on Netflix earlier that day.  She thought of the party that she and Gavin would be hosting
on Saturday
.  She thought of all the friends they’d invited, and how they’d react to the new apartment.  She thought of Michael.

As she conjured up an image of his face, a surprising wave of serenity washed over her.
  Again, she felt a sense of familiarity as she thought of him.  The day he’d helped them move, she’d felt so comfortable around him that she’d shared things that she hadn’t even been able to share with some of her closest friends.  What was it about him that made her trust him so completely?  She barely even knew him.  

Whatever strange influence he held over her must have been powerful, because the next thing she knew, her alarm was ringing in her ear, and she was looking around her very empty sunlit room, wondering why she’d been so afraid a few short hours earlier.

By the time Michael got to the party
on Saturday
evening, it seemed that most of the guests had already arrived.  There weren’t too many people, maybe a dozen or so, and most of them seemed too preoccupied with what Kate and Gavin had done with the apartment to notice the newcomer.  The apartment really did look good, he suspected all thanks to Kate and her flair for decorating.  

Gavin came to greet him first.
  Michael shook his hand and wished him a happy birthday, and Gavin thanked him for coming and again for all his help the week prior.  Although he still wasn’t a shining sample of perfect health, there seemed to be a little more life in Gavin’s eyes.    

Before he could think too much on it, Kate appeared, looking bright and lovely in a lime green summer dress and blue sandals.
 

“Michael,” she smiled.
  “I’m so glad you came.” 

“Thanks for inviting me.
  The apartment looks great.” 

“Thank you.
Can I get you anything to drink?  We have more than water and Gatorade now.”

“I’m okay,” Michael
replied.  “But thanks.”

“Well, help yourself to anything.
  We have a bunch of snacks and a couple of our friends are already down by the pool.  In fact, the rest of us will probably head down there in a few minutes.  I really only wanted people to meet up here so they could see the new apartment, but now that everyone’s seen it, I’m ready to swim.”  Michael was relieved.  He was beginning to feel kind of dorky in his tropical-themed swim trunks and orange polo shirt.