Ghost of a Chance Book 1 in Above the Grave Trilogy (19 page)

She lifted her
hand
and
placed it
on his cheek.
“Whether it is for five minutes or for five hundred years, you
are the only one that I have ever wanted and if I have to give
that up tomorrow, I don’t want to wake up regretting that I
never took a chance. Please, Brendan, I want to be with you
tonight. Please stay!”

Chapter 7
Death

He knew better. He wanted her so bad though. To
have Drew in his arms for just one night though could never be
enough. He didn’t know what was to come, but he didn’t want
to take everything that she had been holding onto in one night
and then be gone the next day. If he was to leave, he would
marry her first. At least then he would feel as though he had
done the proper thing by her. He would talk to Liza about that.
Surely she could arrange a preacher to come here and marry
them.

“Drew, I can’t make love to you. As much as…”

There was a loud crashing noise from the living room
that made them both jump.
Liza came sprinting out of the
bedroom with a towel still on her head and Brendan held out
his hands asking them to stay put.

He reached the living room and saw that the curtains
had been lit with fire around the large window. The window
had been busted out and lying on the floor in front of it was a
stone with a piece of paper wrapped around it.

He quickly ripped the curtains down and stomped on
them. Once he was sure that the fire was out, he bent down
and opened it. Drew, who had disobeyed and snuck in behind
him, noticed that the writing was in the same symbols that had
been spray painted on the walls.

“What does it say?” Drew said over his shoulder.

 

“It says to get out and that this is your last warning.”
“Oh! Is that all?” She said sarcastically. “I thought
that maybe it was an invitation to a party or something.”

Brendan whipped around then to face her. He shook
the stone in one hand as he pointed at the window with the
other. “This is not a joke, Drew! What if you had been in bed?
You could have burned to death in your sleep!
Do ye not
understand what kind of danger you are in?”

“No, Brendan! I don’t understand! I don’t understand
a damn thing! It isn’t every day that a woman shares a home
with and befriends a ghost! It isn’t every day that that same
said woman is threatened by some pissed off witches!
If
breaking a damn crystal ball is that horrible to them than they
shouldn’t have made it out of crystal… crystal breaks! I will
go back in the morning and I will apologize. Would that make
you feel better? Do you think that is going to fix everything?”

“Drew, are you sure that witches did this?” Liza asked
staring at the paper in Brendan’s hand.

 

“Do you mind?” She asked and held out her hand for
the paper.

Brendan hesitated for a moment, when he looked at
Drew she shrugged and walked towards the dining room to get
the wine so he handed her the paper. Liza sat down then on the
couch and looked it over.

“Well, it is Wiccan alphabet” Liza said as Drew came
back in with three glasses and a freshly opened bottle of wine
“but it doesn’t make any since. If a witch wanted to cause you
any harm she would have kept something personal of yours and
would have already done the damage with a spell or a hex.”

“I haven’t been
missing anything. Maybe they ran out
so fast
when they
were
here that
they
forgot
to grab
something.” Drew said annoyed. The night wasn’t turning
into the glittery fairy tale that she had hoped for.

“They were in your house?” Liza asked.

“Yes, it was
just a couple of days ago. When I came
home, right after leaving their shop and going to the doctor,
there was spray paint on my wall in the same writing as the
note.”

“So, you think that they beat you here, had time to
spray something on your wall and leave again before you saw
them when you would have left the shop before they did?”
Liza asked.

Drew sat down next to her friend then. “I went to the
doctor after I left the shop, they would have had time while I
was there.”

“Not everyone has access to thi
s alphabet though. It is
a sacred, secret language that they use. Who else could it be?”
Brendan asked.

Liza laughed. “Things have changed since your time,
honey. You can find out just about anything that you want now
days just by Googling it.”

“By what?” He asked confused.

“Never mind that.” Drew said impatiently, “Liza, is
there something that you know that you aren’t telling us? I
mean, you obviously know that Brendan isn’t just a gay
companion.”

“Brendan? If the Wiccan alphabet was such a secret in
your time, how do you know it?” Liza asked.

“Liza? How do you know what time he is from?”
Drew was
starting
to get
defensive and most
definitely
suspicious.

“Ok, ladies. Let us calm down and take turns, one
person at a time. Let us start with MissDrew. Why ‘tis it that
you bought this house in the first place?”

“That is easy. I bought this house because I found a
flyer on my front door after I had been evicted from my
apartment. I needed a place to stay and it just happened to fall
into my very low price range. I’m not afraid of ghosts or
witches and so I guess that made me the perfect candidate.”
Drew said. “Plus, I fell in love with it the moment that I saw it.
What does that have to do with anything?”

“How is it that you received a flyer upon your door?
Who left it there?” Brendan asked.

“Well, I don’t know. The old, fat, cigar smoking great
something grandson of yours that sold me the place I guess.
Why?” Drew asked.

“Were there other flyers on other doors around the
town?” Brendan asked.

“I’m not sure. I didn’t go up and down the streets
looking at people’s doors. But I suppose mine was the only
one I noticed anywhere.
Are you by chance implying that
someone put that sale ad on my door purposefully?”

Brendan looked at Liza who was looking at the broken
window. There was something about the woman.
She was
hiding something; he could feel it in his newly fashioned
bones.

“Alright, so I will go next then.” Brendan said. “I
know the witch alphabet because Lezetta taught it to me.
Did
ye say grandson?”

Drew sucked in air and sat up straight, “You knew that
Lezetta was a witch?” She asked in surprise and in disgust.

“Aye,” He said. “You see, she was a good witch, a
healer. She made right by people and would never have caused
harm to a soul.”

Drew rolled her eyes. “Well, if she was such a good
witch then whom the hell killed your sister and who tried to cut
my damned face and hand off in the cemetery?”

“I know not the answer, Miss Drew. I believe from the
bottom of mine heart that it was not my Lezetta. I also know
that I had no children.
Where on earth did ye hear such
nonsense?”

His Lezetta, Drew thought. Well, wasn’t that just
great. Here she was falling in love with the asshole and he was
still claiming another woman as his own. Well, he was a ghost
and she was a witch. Maybe they did belong together. Maybe
she was just in the way after all. It’s a damn good thing that he
hadn’t wanted to sleep with her; he was obviously still in love
with the stupid witch.

“Wiccan isn’t all about black magic and torture and
murder, Drew. There is a lot of good that comes from Wiccan
magic. Just like voodoo. It all depends on whose hands the
power is in. It isn’t the power that a person holds that makes
the person; it’s what is in the person’s heart to do with the
power.” Liza said.

“Well, isn’t that just the sweetest thing I have ever
heard in my life? You should put that on a Hallmark card.”
Drew said sarcastically as she stood up and headed towards the
bedroom.

“Where are you going?” Liza said when she and
Brendan both stood up at the same time.

 

“I’m getting my purse. I’m obviously not going to find
anything out sitting on my ass around here with you two.”

 

“Drew, please wait!” Liza said. “I haven’t gotten tell
you what I know.”

Drew stopped and turned around. “Please do, Liza.
Please tell me what it is exactly that you know. Because I am
sure that you have the answer to all of life and death’s
mysteries.” Drew said angrily.

“Drew,” Brendan said putting his hands on Drew’s
shoulders, “Sweetheart, please calm down and let us listen to
what your friend has to say.”

“I am calm, and I will listen to what my friend has to
say but don’t you dare call me Sweetheart.” Drew said pointing
her finger into Brendan’s chest.

She couldn’t help but see the hurt in Brendan’s eyes
and feel the pain in her own chest.

“You know what? I think I have had enough for one
night. Enough!” She yelled as Liza started to speak again.
“I’m going to bed. I will call the police about the window
tomorrow.”

She turned back
towards the hallway
then and
slammed the door to her bedroom once she was on the other
side. She didn’t care what Liza knew. She didn’t care about
Brendan and his stupid dead girlfriend. She couldn’t believe
how stupid she had been.
She had almost given herself to
someone who didn’t even love her.

As hard as Drew tried sleep wouldn’t come. She had
so much on her mind and the fact that Brendan was pacing the
floor above her, back and forth, back and forth didn’t help
matters any. What the hell was he doing up there?
She tried
putting the pillow over her head but that didn’t help either. She
started to get up out of bed when she heard a large thump from
upstairs and then it was quiet, finally. She assumed that he had
finally dropped onto his bed and went to sleep. After a few
more minutes of cursing him under her breath she finally went
to sleep.

Of course there were dreams. Dreams of being in that
great big house all alone. She had never felt emptier inside,
and she felt as if she were going to go insane. She ran through
the house crying his name, “Brendan? Brendan, please answer
me!” He wouldn’t answer her though, he was gone.

When Drew awoke the next morning she had made up
her mind that it was time for that talk with Liza and to
apologize to Brendan for being so stupid. She knew that it was
just jealousy that had made her turn on him like that.

Her first stop was Liza’s room. When she came to the
door though it was open and there was no sign of Liza. She
went to the front room and looked out of the broken window
and saw that Liza’s truck was gone.

“Fine!” Drew said out loud. “You could have at least
come to tell me that you were leaving.”

Since she couldn’t talk with Liza she figured she may
as well go ahead and face the music with Brendan. First she
was going to go and make some coffee. If she was going to
confront the man she was going to need a shot of caffeine and a
clear mind.

Drew kind of figured that Brendan would have heard
her rustling around down stairs and would have joined her by
now but he didn’t. Once she finished her coffee and ate a piece
of toast she set off to find him.

“Brendan?” She called up the stairs, “Brendan, can we
talk please?”

 

No answer.

 

“Great.” She said out loud. “He gets a new body and
he is going to use it to sleep all of the time.”

She stood at the bottom of the stairs for a moment
hesitating. Should she go up there anyway? He had taken her
up there the night before. She assumed that was her ok to go.
Besides, he had told her that she was welcome to use the
library so, why not.

As she headed up the steps she remember the first time
that she had attempted to climb them.
The cold air had
snapped at her and her whole world had changed after hearing
his voice for the first time. She walked past the first room and
it gave her the chills. Just knowing that someone had died in
that very room was unsettling.

When she came to his bedroom door she found it
closed.
Drew knocked on the door then cleared her throat
when there was no answer. “Brendan?” There was still no
answer. “Brendan, I’m coming in, we need to talk.”

After waiting another moment to give him one last
chance to tell her to get lost she opened the door slowly and
stuck her head in. There was no one there. She opened the
door further and stepped in to get a better look. The mirror was
still turned around she noticed. There was no sign of Brendan.

“He must be downstairs.” She said to herself but
something inside told her that she wasn’t going to find him
there either.

Drew spent an entire hour searching the house for him.
She searched the kitchen and the dining room, she searched the
servant’s rooms and the ballroom, she searched every bedroom
and bathroom and both sitting rooms, there were no signs of
Brendan what so ever.

After calling his name for what seemed to be a million
times she remembered her dream from the night before and sat
down on the couch and cried. She had been right, last night
had been her only chance, and she regretted not taking it. Even
if it would have made today ten times harder, she wished that
she could have had that one night at least. So, he was gone.
He was really gone.

The day went by so slowly. She cried most of it and
then had given that up for a soak in the bath. She went up to
his room one last time, just to look around and to smell his
scent that still lingered in the air, then went to bed and cried
herself to sleep.

Brendan wished so much that he could hold her. It was
killing him to hurt her this way but he knew that with time it
would be better for her. She would heal and be able to live her
own life. After pacing the floor the night before he started to
rub his face and saw right through his hands. When he dropped
to his knees on the floor, the world went to black and he woke
up again, just as he had done the night of his murder, in a
tunnel with everything fading around him and feeling so cold.
He was invisible and that was the way that he knew he would
stay, for all of eternity.