Grave Danger (14 page)

Moving up the steps onto the front porch of Mrs.
Connors home Clarissa reached for the front door only to have it
burst open with a hand from the other side, quickly stepping back
as she encountered another living human. He was taller than her by
several inches. Except for some of the men, Clarissa had felt like
the tallest dead person among the Eidolon community and she wasn’t
particularly tall herself.

Jackson paused as he took in the ghost woman in
front of him. His grandmother was an S.S. member, a secret society
of living humans who worked for the Eidolon community throughout
the country. But unlike the Secret Service who protected and worked
in Washington, Spectral Services catered specifically to the dead.
Jackson wanted more than anything to be initiated into the S.S. He
felt he had certain gifts that made him more than qualified to
assist the non-corporal entities of this world. Unfortunately his
parents hated anything to do with the supernatural.

“
Hey,” Jackson called as he flew past
Clarissa, taking the stairs in one leap. He was already half way
down the street when his grandmother came to the open
door.

“
Jackson,” she called out, holding her hands
to her mouth to amply her voice. “Remember I have a meeting to go
to tonight. Be home before seven or else.”

“
Or else what,” Jackson shot back as he slowed
down, turning around and walking backwards. He was antagonizing the
woman, Clarissa could tell. He was grinning as he waited for his
grandmother to threaten him.

“
Or else I’ll take that motorcycle away from
you. I know you’re keeping it on the next street over, thinking
that if I don’t see it I don’t know you have one. I think your
mother would have a lot to say to you if she knew you were riding
around on one of those death rockets.” Maddy grinned, turning to
wink at Clarissa before she continued shouting at her grandson who
had stopped dead in his tracks in the street. “There is no such
luck trying to keep secrets from me.”

“
Fine,” he shouted back, throwing his hands
up. “We’ll then expect to see it parked outside your house from now
on.” He turned swiftly and sprinted down the street to his
motorcycle. He had bought it with his own money, paying for the
insurance on the thing as well. He had worked to save up the money
for years, since his eleventh birthday when his grandfather had
written him a 100 dollar check. Jackson had worked every part time
job that he could, from helping mow lawns with his friends’ dad’s
Lawn mowing business to fishing for golf balls in the ponds at the
Daytona PGA golf courses. In Jackson’s opinion it had all been
worth it. He had learned over the years that there was nothing
girls loved more than a guy on a motorcycle.

“
Did you have a nice time today in town?”
Maddy asked as Clarissa followed the woman back inside. Her ladies
meeting had ended a few hours ago. Jackson had arrived shortly
after the women left, on his motorcycle, from his parent’s house in
Daytona Beach.

“
I did,” Clarissa answered. “Eleanor and I
went to Mrs. Sands dress shop and she helped me choose a new
wardrobe. Eleanor’s coming over to walk with us to the meeting
tonight and to bring over the clothes. Did you and your friends
have a good time gossiping?”

Maddy arranged herself on the chaise lounge in the
front sitting room. “Of course we did. You in fact were a point of
interest to the discussion.”

“
Me,” Clarissa exclaimed as she paused,
hovering over the plump cushioned couch across from the living
woman. “Why would I be of any interest to your ladies
group?”

Maddy motioned with her hands to Clarissa. “Sit down
and I’ll tell you.” Clarissa sat down hesitantly, folding her hands
demurely in her lap as she watched the other woman reach down to
the coffee table in front of her. The tea service was still out
from the meeting with a pot of tea that was likely stone cold by
now. Maddy picked up an unused tea cup and poured the remainder of
the tea from the porcelain pot into her cup.

Holding the tea cup in one hand she moved her other
over the brim of the cup. Moving her fingers in a counter clockwise
pattern, Clarissa watched as the tea inside the cup swirled with
the movements of her hand. It had been cold to begin with, but as
her fingers moved over the cup the tea began to steam, growing
warmer. When it was an appropriate temperature, her fingers
stopped. Smiling, she looked over at Clarissa who was watching the
cup, her expression clearly revealing she was impressed by the
parlor trick.

“
Are you a witch too?” Clarissa hesitantly
asked, even though she already knew the answer.

“
No, Clarissa, and you know that I am not.”
Maddy held the cup to her lips, taking a sip of the hot tea before
putting it down on a matching saucer on the coffee table. “Will you
take a cup of tea with me?”

Clarissa frowned, looking from the tea cup on the
table to the unique woman in front of her. “You know I cannot
consume living substances, Maddy. You of all people should know
that.” It was one of the reasons the Eidolon people used other
means to create food and drink for themselves, not because they
needed the nourishment but because the little things like eating
and sharing a drink with friends made them feel like a normal human
being. If Clarissa tried to consume the tea offered to her she
assumed it would pass through her and stain the couch, embarrassing
herself and Maddy in the process.

“
I don’t mean to be insensitive Clarissa. I
was just curious about something and I thought we could try a
little experiment.” Maddy picked up another empty tea cup. Taking
her tea cup, she poured a small amount of the liquid into
Clarissa's empty cup. Holding it out to the other woman she said,
“Take it. If it spills it spills, don’t worry about it. A stained
couch can be easily fixed.”

Clarissa didn’t at first take the offered cup,
unsure of trying this seemingly innocent experiment. But Clarissa
was not a person to shy away from the uncertainty of life, death
had not changed that. Accepting the cup, Clarissa brought it slowly
to her lips. For the ordinary manifestation of a classical ghost,
the interactive entity could manipulate the tangible world to an
extent. They could touch and interact with the world, but it did
not interact with them. Unlike a living human, the ghost repelled
all physical molecules, and was not subject to the laws of the
natural world. The liquid in Clarissa’s tea cup would be expelled
by her form instead of being accepted like it would in a living
body.

Clarissa held the cup to her cool lips, feeling the
brim of the cup on her mouth. She didn’t know what the cup should
feel like to her ghostly form, nor did she remember what it would
have felt like against her once fleshy body. With slightly parted
lips, Clarissa downed the contents of the tea cup in one swift
gulp. Closing her eyes, she placed the tea cup back on the coffee
table in front of her. For a moment she wanted to believe that she
wasn’t dead, that she was a normal living woman, sitting in the
home of an equally normal woman, having tea and chit-chatting like
any other person would on a quiet Friday afternoon.

“
I’ll help you clean up the mess, Maddy.”
Clarissa spoke when Maddy remained silent for several more seconds.
“There wasn’t a lot in the cup, so it should come out easily if we
don’t let it set too long. I told you I can’t drink tea. This was a
stupid experiment and I shouldn’t have let you give me that tea. I
feel like a child that just messed itself.”

Clarissa heard laughter. As she hadn’t yet opened
her eyes, she was confused by Maddy’s response and a little hurt as
well. It had been her idea, and now the woman was laughing at her
for creating a stain on her perfectly clean sofa couch. “I don’t
think this is anything to laugh about. I’ve embarrassed myself and
you’re laughing at me.”

Maddy stifled her laughter with a cough and a sigh.
“Open your eyes, Clarissa,” she said in a quiet voice. “I think it
would be easier to explain if you could see it.”

Clarissa slowly opened her eyes, focusing her eyes
on Maddy’s face and not yet ready to look down at her-self and what
she was sure to see when she stood up and saw what had become of
the upholstery. Maddy’s expression was calm, a large smile
plastered across her aged face. Nodding her head, she insisted that
Clarissa see for herself the results of their experiment.

Standing up with a quiet dignity that she didn’t
really feel, Clarissa turned about and faced the sofa couch. The
floral patterned cushions matched the chaise lounge that Maddy was
sitting on. A cream color with bursting flowers of pinks and rose
red, it suited the older styling of the home. Where Clarissa
expected to see brown water spots and crushed tea leaves she saw
nothing but pristine fabric, not a drop of tea had marred the
couch. Which meant that the tea had been accepted into her body,
her form had accepted the offering, making it her own.

Spinning back around to face Maddy, Clarissa saw the
shifting thoughts in the other woman’s head. Clarissa could consume
living nourishments. She was indeed different from the ordinary
specter. And the question that rose in both women’s mind: What kind
of ghost was Clarissa? Was she even a normal ghost at all?

“
What does this mean, Maddy?” Clarissa stepped
away from the couch, going over to the front windows. “What am I?”
It was so frustrating, not having the memories of her living self
to rely on for comfort. What she did remember didn’t account for
much. She knew that she had been a reasonably happy human woman
living in the Orlando area. She liked to read and she had once had
friends and a family, though their faces were distorted in her
thoughts. The answer to her question should have been easy, she was
human – she was ghost who used to be human – she was dead. But that
wasn’t the whole of the answer.

“
It means that you are a very special woman.”
Maddy explained, watching the young woman pace back and forth in
front of the large front windows. “The gods have seen fit to bless
you with these gifts. Don’t distress yourself because you don’t
understand who you are right now. In time I think you will find the
answers to your past identity and find your place in this world.
For now let things just be, there is no sense in worrying over what
you cannot change.”

“
I think I will just go to my room for a bit,”
Clarissa responded absently as she brushed past the sofa couch, not
daring to look at it again. “I’d like to rest before tonight’s
meeting, if you don’t mind.”

“
I don’t mind, Clarissa.” She picked up the
tea service, leaving Clarissa alone in the front room.

The poor young woman, she thought. It wasn’t easy
being odd even in the paranormal world. Clarissa was trying to come
into her own with this existence and it wasn’t going to be easy for
her, not that it was easy for any of the others. And if Maddy was
correct in her seeing, Clarissa was going to be faced with many
more obstacles to come.

Chapter 8-

The Government House was packed with people. A large
conference room had been reserved and set aside for the meeting,
hoping it was large enough to accommodate the unusually large
numbers. Eleanor had arrived on Mrs. Connors door step to escort
the two women to the town meeting at a little after six in the
evening.

Clarissa had spent the remainder of the afternoon
closeted in her rooms, going over the books Leah had selected she
read. A few had been slipped in unknowingly. One was quite
humorous, a non-fiction story written by a deceased ancestor of
Edgar Allen Poe; a ghost writer. The woman had written a first
person account of her dealings with the melancholy man who spent
too much of his time drinking. During his perennial bouts with
drunkenness, she and he would have long discussions, and sometimes
she would make suggestions to works he had in progress or she made
suggestions for future works.

Even though she had enjoyed her afternoon absorbed
in her books, she felt no closer to finding the answers to her
questions. Accurate information on the flesh-eater was even more
difficult to find than the mysterious wolf-man or the Yeti. It
seemed to be true that anyone who managed face to face contact with
the night creature found themselves on the menu all too soon after
that. They kept their distance, preferring to remain indoors until
nightfall. Clarissa wasn’t sure if daylight affected their physical
form like other night creatures. For all she knew they could just
as easily walk about during the day, though they might be less
conspicuous in the dark. Clarissa wasn’t even sure of that, as
there were no references to the physicality of a flesh-eater. They
looked human enough to pass for the living, but their behavior was
anything but human.

“
Put this on,” Eleanor remarked as they
entered into the spacious conference room a quarter before the
hour. It was already mostly full and would likely be standing room
only once the meeting was fully under way. “I’ve made name tags for
everyone so you won’t feel left out if you don’t know people’s
names. There are quite a few of us here tonight. I’m not
surprised.”

Clarissa nodded in agreement as she placed the
sticky paper with her name written on it over her new blouse.
Pressing it down firmly, she looked around the room at the Eidolon
Community. There were people of varying ages, the youngest being a
girl of about sixteen and a man in his mid-fifties. But looks were
deceiving because the young girl was about a hundred and
fifty-years older than the man. As a general rule, though no rules
were ever concrete, the very young and the very old did not take to
this existence.