Ghost of a Chance Book 1 in Above the Grave Trilogy (16 page)

“No!” She screamed. “Mommy!” She screamed
again.

He wanted to wake her and tell her that everything was
ok, but hewasn’t sure that it was. Tears streamed down her
cheek and she grabbed between her legs as if she were in pain.
She wasn’t dreaming of her childhood anymore he thought.
Something was altering her dream that he imagined she had
had over and over again in her life.

“Brendan, make her stop!” She cried
as more tears
fell. She dreamed of him. Was he hurting her in her dream?
“My eyes! Oh, they burn make her stop!”

Her body went into convulsions then and he shook her.
“Darling! Please wake! Everything is fine, it is only I,
Brendan!” He said shaking her. She rocked harder and harder
now and he thought that she was having a seizure.

Her eyes flew open then.
They were the eyes of
someone that he loved, though they weren’t Drew’s beautiful
blue angel eyes. They were the enchanting Irish green eyes of
his baby sister.

“Brendan, save her.” His sister said to him through

Drew’s soft beautiful lips as she held his face in her hands.
“You must love her. She will save you as well. You must keep
her safe though or they will do to her as they did to me. Don’t
let them take her, Brendan O’Keefe. You still have a life to
live, if you lose her you will lose everything.”

He felt his own tears now as they ran down his face.
“Mary Ann?” He cried.

Drew stopped shaking then and began to sob. He held
her as close to him as possible.
Had he been dreaming
himself?
Had his dead sister taken over the body of his poor
broken Drew to send him a message?
Her message had made
no sense to him.

“Mary Ann,” He cried again, “Can’t you at least say
who did this to you, darling?” He rocked her then. He rocked
and rocked until he felt Drew’s body relax and then snuggle up
to him.

Her eyes fluttered open and as if she was looking
directly into his and whispered, “Please, don’t ever let go.”

He didn’t let go the rest of the night or all of the next
day. She slept for solong. Though he didn’t want to let go of
her he was afraid that something was wrong and shook her as if
to wake her. “Drew?” He said, “Drew, wake up, Love.”

“Mmm.” She mumbled and snuggled her head up
under his chin.

He smiled as it felt so good to have her next to him.
He reached up to sweep the hair from her face and noticed that
his hand was slightly visible. He was no longer invisible, more
transparent it seemed. What is happening to me? He thought.

“Drew? You should get out of bed and eat something.”
He said looking at his hand.

 

“I’m not hungry.” She said finally.

“I know, Love, but it isn’t good for you to sleep your
life away and you must eat to keep your energy up.” He sat up
then and she grumbled a curse under her breath.

He laughed at that. “Darling, you must get up. I will
draw you a bath.”

She felt her head slip off of his shoulder and onto the
pillow and immediately snapped awake.
Had she just been
cuddling with a ghost? She wondered. She sat up and looked
around the room. Sitting on the edge of her bath was a see
through man turning her bath water on.

“Brendan?” She said in awe.

He turned to face her then and smiled. Though his face
was still a little blurry she knew then that he had been the man
that she had dreamed of. He had been the man that she had
become obsessed with to the point of drawing his face a million
times, and he was the man that scared the shit out of her.

She started to jump out of the bed and fell to the floor.
He immediately ran to her and reached down to pick her up.
She slapped at his hand and it made contact. She jumped.

“You are a ghost, Brendan! Why can I feel you? Why
doesn’t my hand go through yours? Why can I almost see you
and what were you doing in my bed?” She felt tears welling up
when she remembered the dream from the night before.

The look that she gave him burned a hole through his
heart and he stepped back.

 

“You raped and killed me!” She screamed. “Get away
from me!” She cried. “I’m dead! That’s why I can see you!”

Brendan’s mou
th dropped open in surprise and he
shook his head frantically. “I did no such thing, Miss Drew.”
He started to reach for her again and she pushed him away.
“Drew! I merely held you is all, when you were clearly upset.
I never touched you in that way at all!
There was nothing
sexual about it I promise you!”

She was hysterical. “You carved my eyes out of my
head and raped me you freak!
You left me in the swamps to
die.” She screamed as she was running for the door.

“Damn it, Drew!” He yelled and was
immediately in
front of the door stopping her from leaving. “Would you listen
to yourself?” He said. “Look in the mirror, woman!” He
pointed towards the mirror on her vanity. “There isn’t a
damned thing wrong with your eyes and you are clearly not in
the bloody swamps!”

He was a grown man and yet he wanted to cry. How
could she think such a thing about him? What lies had her
mind told her as she slept?

She glared at him then and said, “Get the hell out of
my way!”

“Drew, please, just have a look in the mirror, Love.”
He said pleading this time and she thought she saw the gleam
of tears in his eyes.

“Fine!” She yelled and turned towards the mirror. So,
her eyes looked a little puffy from all of the sleep but other
than that they looked fine. They were still in her head anyway
and that was a good start.

She slowly walked towards the bed then and began to
cry. “I don’t understand. It seemed so real! I remember the
pain. She put her hand over her stomach then.” She looked up
at him with tears in her eyes.

“How is it that you can make me feel like flying one
moment and then the next be gouging my eyes out?” She said
crying.

He walked towards her then and knelt before her. He
grabbed her hands and held him in his own, kissing them
gently. “I promise you that I would never hurt you.
I would
like to promise you on my life, but ‘tis not possible.” He said,
and knowing that she would forever believe that making love
was dirty and painful he added, “, and if ever I was lucky
enough to have the privilege of knowing you as mine own, I
would be ever so gentle with you, darling. You would never
know pain, only love.” He said gently.

Somehow she believed him. His hands felt so warm in
hers. She didn’t understand how. “Why can I feel you as I did
before?” She sobbed, trying desperately to stop the tears.
“How is it that I can see you now and not before?”

“I don’t know the answers. I have been in this house
alone for far too long. Never before have I felt anything on my
skin the way that I can feel your hand right now. Not until you
came did I even feel as if I had skin. I was just empty. Sort of
like a feather just floating along in the breeze.”

“You know, I have felt the same way most of my life.
There was always someone around just not really there.” Drew
paused, “Well, I had Liza. She has always been there for me
whether she realized it or not, but I always felt like more of a
burden than a friend. Besides, she has her own life now. You
must have been so lonely and for so long.”

She reached up to push the hair away that had fallen in
front of his eyes, there was a glow, sort of a rainbow that
followed his hair, then left her hand on his cheek, “You have
been wandering around in this house for a century and a half
when most people don’t even live as old as eighty or ninety.
Lifetimes have passed you by and all you can do is read and
play the piano. Why didn’t you let anyone live here before?
Didn’t you want the company?”

Her hand on his face made him feel more alive than he
believed he may have felt when he actually had been living.
“No one that entered this house could have made me feel the
way you do.” He said then leaned in to kiss her lips, the lips
that had been calling him since the first night that he watched
her sleep.

Drew jerked her hand away then and jumped up off of
the bed. “Brendan, I…”

She didn’t know how to finish whatever it was that she
needed to say. So many emotions were stirring inside of her at
that moment.
Did she really want her first kiss to be with
someone thatcould be gone tomorrow? He really wasn’t even
a “someone”. He was a spirit. A dead man stuck in purgatory
or in his own personal hell which coincidentally happened to
be in her house.

“Drew,” Brendan said and reached for her hand. She
let him take it though she was afraid of what might happen.
“Please, don’t run away from me…I promise not to hurt you. I
won’t try that again until you ask me to.”

“That may take some time, or it may never happen. It
isn’t that I don’t want to.” She tried to explain.

 

Brendan rubbed her chin with his thumb and smiled.
“I can wait. It isn’t like I am going anywhere.”

 

They both laughed nervously then Brendan’s face took
on a troubled look.

“What is it?” Drew asked him.
“Drew, there is something very important that I need to
ask you. I need to know, in your dream, who was it that raped
and killed you? It is very important that you remember.”

Drew’s face turned very pale and she had to look away
to swallow hard the dry lump that had gathered in her throat.
“It was you.” She whispered then looked back at him with tear
filled eyes. “You raped me and Lezetta tore my eyes out with
her black fingernails.”

Just then she heard the doorbell ring. It was a loud yet
empty sound that echoed throughout the house. It was either
the sound of unwanted company or her heart was beating
louder than she thought.

“Liza! It’s Friday. She was coming over for a girl
night.” Drew said apologetically yet with some relief at the
same time.

“Great. A girl night.” Brendan said annoyed.

“Please behave yourself.” Drew pleaded. “I have to
convince her that I am not crazy… or in any danger.” She
added when she recognized a sly look upon his face.
She
didn’t need any of his trickery to prove that she wasn’t crazy.

“I hate to ask, but can’t you make yourself invisible
again, just for tonight?”

Brendan sighed then closed his eyes to concentrate.
Nothing happened. He opened his eyes again and said, “I
can’t. I’m not sure why you can see me this well.”

Drew’s color was coming back fast. H
e would have to
stay upstairs for the rest of the night, that was all there was to
it.

“I’m going there now.” He said as if he read her mind.

Drew jumped up and kissed him quickly square in the
mouth. “Thank you so much!” She said then blushed. She
had really meant it to be a simple thank you kiss but after she
felt his warm, soft lips she felt a tingling in her gut, like the
first time she heard his voice.
She wanted to scream I love
you, but before she did she dashed out of the room before she
contracted diarrhea of the mouth.

Brendan stood in awe. Even though he knew her kiss
meant nothing to her more than a friendly gesture he felt it
from his head to his toes. He tingled all over. He was a grown
man why did a little kiss from a girl make him feel like he was
a kid again. He smiled, he felt.

He figured that he had better hurry and get up stairs
before he ruined the moment for both of them by making her
angry.
When he reached for the door knob, since he had
become somewhat visible walking through walls had become
impossible, he realized that he could see his hand very clearly.
It was a live human hand it seemed.

Drew waited at the front door for Brendan to come
through the hallway and up the stairs but he never did. She
thought after a moment that he had found a way to make
himself invisible again after all.
She figured she had made
Liza wait at the front door long enough and gave up on him.
When she opened the door there was no one there.

She heard a car on the gravel and saw Liza coming up
through the trees. She had heard the doorbell ring. If Liza was
just now coming then who had rang the doorbell she wondered.
She looked around for a note or a package but saw nothing.

Liza pulled in through the gate with a huge grin on her
face.
Through the driver’s side window she hollered up to
Drew, “You look like you are up to something! You have a
guilty school girl flush about you. Are you hiding a man in
there?” Liza laughed.

Drew turned beet red. Her friend knew her too damned
well. “Of course not, silly. I just got back from jogging.”

 

“Really, in that sexy nighty that I got you?” Liza said
with a cocked eyebrow.

Drew looked down and realized that she hadn’t
changed out of her pajamas. She laughed. “Ok, you got me. I
just woke up froma nap and hadn’t really gathered myself yet.
Are you going to come in or are you just going to sit there in
the car and give me shit all night?”

Liza started gathering her things, “Oh, I’m coming
inside, but I am still going to give you shit all night.”

Drew laughed and was beginning to come to her senses
again. “Hope you are ready for a glass, or several bottles, of
wine because I sure am.”

Liza had three bags shoved in her hands, and one that
Drew imagined had clothing, one was stuffed full of groceries,
and the other was just a mysterious plain brown bag.
One
much like the one that she had gotten from the Wiccan shop
just a couple of days before. She was sure that it was just a
coincidence though as many stores used plain paper bags.

“So, first stop t
he kitchen please, I need to drop this
bag off.” She said tapping one of the bags that she carried with
her finger.