Ghost of a Chance Book 1 in Above the Grave Trilogy (7 page)

She was hoping that the ice maker in the freezer would
kick on soon.
She put a diet soda in the freezer though in
hopes that it would be nice and chilled when she got out of the
bath. She realized that she was going to have to wait a little bit
for some hot water though and opted for a nap first. She still
had a lot of cleaning to do (and some uncovering and exploring
as well). The ghost hadn’t bothered her since she left the
bedroom.
She figured that it was either brewing up some
trouble for her or had finally given in. Either way, she would
take whatever it was going to throw at her. They were going to
have to lay some ground rules, and one of them was that the
furniture would be uncovered.

Drew could hear the crunch of the leaves under her
feet. The smell of autumn was all around and even for New
Orleans there was an eerie magical air about her surroundings.
There was a man holding her hand though he had the same face
of the man that she had danced in the ballroom with, there was
something different about his eyes… something evil in the way
they watched her. They were walking through a wooded area,
only she wasn’t herself. She didn’t feel right. Her hands were
much darker and were splattered with blood.
Her heart even
felt colder if that was possible. She could feel someone staring
at them, almost surrounding them, and it made her smirk. She
was jealous of whoever was watching them somehow, and it
made her very happy to know that holding the man’s hand was
making their watcher very angry. Their watcher was no longer
of this world, and there was nothing it could do about it
anymore.

When Drew woke she was in complete darkness and
covered in sweat. She must have been completely exhausted to
have slept until night time. When she pulled her phone out of
her pocket she realized it was almost midnight. She sat up and
a cold chill made her shiver, shaking off the meaningless dream
that she had just had.
She used her phone as a night light to
find a light switch in the living room.

As she searched for the light switch she swore that she
saw something pass in front of the light that was beaming from
her phone. It made her stop dead in her tracks. Shedidn’t
know why the thought of actually seeing whatever it was that
was living (if you wanted to call it that) with her seriously
creeped her out.

“Hello?” She said. “I know that you are there. I
would really appreciate it though if you wouldn’t show
yourself.
Talk to me, move the furniture around, make the
lights go off and on if you want to just please don’t make
yourself appear all of a sudden.”

She started walking again when she got no response
and finally found the light switch.
It made her feel a little
better once the light was on. She decided that it was finally
time to get that bath in and to get moved into her bedroom.
First, that diet coke that was probably now exploded in the
freezer was calling her name.

As she
flipped the light
on in the
kitchen she
remembered that she had left the water running in the pool
earlier that afternoon.

“Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!” She said as she ran to
the freezer. She took the frozen yet somehow still whole soda
out of the freezer and put it in the sink, then took off running
through the house towards the back door.

She almost tripped and fell on her face as she reached
the back sitting room then ran out through the patio doors. The
pool was definitely full. It hadn’t been that way for very long
though, which was good. It looked absolutely beautiful. There
were lights shining at the bottom of the pool that made the
entire thing glow. She almost forgot to turn the water off again
as
she
was mesmerized from
the sight.
The trees
that
surrounded the fence made peculiar shadows that reminded her
of dancers bowing over and over again as if they had just put
on the show of their life.
She was half expecting to see roses
thrown any minute.

She couldn’t believe that she had her own swimming
pool. She had her own castle. She had her own everything.
Yet she still felt like there was something missing. Of course,
there always had been hadn’t there? She walked over to turn
off the water then jumped in.

“Holy shit!” She screamed as she shot up out of the
water. “That shit is freaking cold!”

She jumped back out about as quickly as she had
jumped in.
Somehow the shadows looked like they were
shaking from laughter now, if that was possible.
It was
definitely time for a hot bath. She shivered her way into the
bedroom that she had claimed to be her own, not even caring
that she was getting the floor sopping wet all the way through
the downstairs. She turned the knob on that had a big H in the
middle and cussed again as brown water came out at first.

She waited a few seconds and then as soon as the water
turned clear she jumped in.
Who would have thought that the
pool water would have been so cold?
It was Louisiana for
Christ’s sake! Nothing was cold in Louisiana especially not in
August!
The steaming hot bath water felt so good.
She
reached for
her
shampoo
then
realized that
she
had left
everything on the bed.
She also realized that she still had her
clothes on.

She stepped back out of the bathtub and stripped off
her clothes then grabbed her soap, towel, shampoo, and razor.
She was just getting settled back in the tub when she had that
strange feeling that she was being watched.

“Not cool!” She said out loud. “Some things are
private. Go away!”

 

Then as if her invisible friend had heard her she felt the
presence leave just as quickly as it had come.

 

“Thank you.” She knew that this time she was only
talking to herself.

So she had had a nice long nap, a freakishly cold swim
in her pool, and a very soothing hot bath (once she was alone).
She was now starving and remembered that there was still no
food in her house. She wondered if there was any place still
opened that would deliver for her.
She doubted that they
would come out that far even if there were.
She decided on
another granola, and to visit the supermarket in the morning.
She was also going to have to make a phone call to the cable
company. There was no way she was going to make it through
another day without television.

When she came out of the kitchen with an ice cold diet
Pepsi (the refrigerator was working great) she noticed that her
bags were no longer in the living room. She was going to be
really pissed if she found them outside the front door again.

She looked out the door and didn’t see them.

“Alright, what have you done with my ba
gs?
I am
starving and there is a granola bar just waiting for me in one of
them!”

No answer of course.

 

“Fine.” She started to head back to her room when she
noticed that there was a light on in one of the upstairs rooms.
“So, that’s where you are.” She said.

She started to climb the stairs when all of a sudden the
light that she had seen on just seconds before had switched to
off. She felt a sudden gush of freezing cold air and then felt
herself flying up against the wall behind her. The force almost
knocked her out and it took a moment for her to realize what
had happened.

She tried to gather herself before speaking. When she
opened her mouth to speak someone else spoke instead. It was
a man’s voice. A very gruff voice that should have chilled her
to the bone, instead made her head spin and released a feeling
that she had never before in her life felt.
She wanted to hear
more of it.

“You are not welcome here!” She thought the voice
said but although she knew it was right in front of her it
sounded as though it was a million miles away..

Although she saw no one, she could feel his hands on
her arms… very strong hands.

“I’m sorry. I won’t go upstairs if that is what you
want. I bought this house.
I need this house. I will share it
with you!I know that it was yours first but I just can’t leave. I
have nowhere else to go. You have to understand that, and it is
so beautiful here.” She felt tears welling up in her eyes now.
They were sad tears, tears of pain, tears of humiliation, and
tears from a feeling that she couldn’t explain all boiled into
one. Tears of anything and everything but fear.

“You are not welcome here!” The voice said again,
louder this time, with a slight Irish accent, and more annoyed it
seemed.
She swore she could picture teeth being clinched
together and she felt his grip tighten in anger as he spoke. He
let go of her when she grimaced, and she felt him move away
from her.

“What is your name? Mine is Drew. Drew Taylor.”
She said, rubbing her arms and trying not to cry. When she
didn’t get an answer she began to speak anyway.

“You don’t scare me you know. I would however, like
to respect your wishes. You have to respect mine too though,
and we have to lay some ground rules. I won’t go upstairs and
you stay out of my bedroom and bathroom whenever I am
indecent. I imagine that you came from a very proper time and
so I would appreciate it if you would respect the fact that I am
a woman and need my privacy.”

Still no answer.

“Well, I am going to bed. We can talk some
more in
the morning if you want.” She started to walk to the room
when he spoke to her again only much quieter and only slightly
annoyed this time.

“I said that you are not welcome here girl. We have
nothing more to talk about.”

“I heard you clearly eno
ugh, sir, and I am not going
anywhere.” She said, staring at the empty room before her then
turned back towards the hallway, lifted her chin and went to
her room.
She shut the door quietly and leaned against the
door as if it would keep him out. She wanted to cry for the first
time in a very, very long time. She wouldn’t let it out though.
She couldn’t.

It seemed that the tarot cards were coming true after
all. The wheel of fortune had brought her to this place and
though the house was everything she could have ever imagined
she knew she was a fool for ever thinking that it could be hers
and hers alone. As she listened to his footsteps pace over and
over again on the floor just above her, she drifted off to dream
again about the ballroom and the same handsome stranger with
the strong hands and the enchanting green eyes.

Chapter 3
The Hermit

What he wouldn’t give just to sleep as she did so
peacefully, so at ease with the world.
He had hurt her.
Probably emotionally just as much as physically and had only
meant to scare her. What he didn’t get was how he knew that
he hurt her pride more than anything.

She was a very strange girl. She wasn’t afraid of him
at least not of his touch or his voice he found out. In fact he
thought that he felt her ease when he spoke. Was he going to
have to show himself for the first time in order to get rid of
her? Did he even know how to do that?

Why had she wanted to talk to him again? What was
wrong with her? She should have been screaming and running.
She should have been terrified by the fact that she had a hostile
ghost in her existence. The truth was that he wouldn’t hurt a
fly unless it had it coming. Maybe she was able to sense that.

As he stood over her bed watching her he noticed again
how angelic, how innocent she looked. He imagined that she
was of at least twenty-five years yet she looked like a sweet
child as she slept. Maybe she had been telling him the truth.
Maybe she really had nowhere else to go. He didn’t know how
the people were in this time. He had only met a few over the
years but something told him that she would mean him no
harm. A part of him wanted to let this one stay yet, another
part of him wanted to spend his eternity alone. He had nothing
to offer anyone after all.

Drew woke the next morning with a terrible sinus
headache and sneezing that wouldn’t stop. She decided that it
was time to get rid of the dust clothes and start doing some
cleaning.
First thing first though and the market place was
calling her name.
She was starving for some real food and
needed to buy some other supplies.

She was up and ready in no time.
As much as she
loved the house it was time to get out of it for a little while and
visit the living. As she started to head for the front door she
heard footsteps on the stairs. It was kind of nice that he was
making himself known for her now instead of creeping up on
her in silence as he had done before.

“I’m going into town. Do you need anything?”

 

Of course there was no answer.

 

“Alright, suit yourself. I will be coming back in a little
while. Maybe we can talk then?”

 

He still didn’t answer her so she turned around and
walked out of the front door.

It felt really good to sit on her bike. She started down
the drive when she spotted the old cemetery again. It was an
above ground cemetery, as most cemeteries were in New
Orleans and it was surrounded by a very old stone and rustic
iron fence. She decided to take a look around and noted to
herself that she would bring the weed eater over this way. It
was very disrespectful to let a cemetery go like this and since
she supposed that she owned it now, she wanted to make sure
that she kept it up.

There were only three graves in the cemetery but there
was one that really caught her eye. A Brendan O’Keefe lay in
the center of them.

“Ooh. Well, well.” She said sarcastically. “Is that
who you are, my fine bossy room mate?”