Ghost of a Chance Book 1 in Above the Grave Trilogy (4 page)

It only took her two hours to pack up her belongings.
The apartment that she had rented was fully furnished so she
didn’t have to worry about much. Everything else had been in
storage for the last couple of years and the storage company
was happy to have everything delivered to her the next day.

She not so politely wrote on the bathroom mirror
“thanks for nothing” in blood red lipstick and flushed the keys
to the apartment down the toilet on her way out the door. As
the front door slammed behind her she could have sworn that
she heard a laugh from within the apartment.
Drew smiled to
herself, so maybe she didn’t like that place that much after all.
Downstairs the taxi driver was already loading up her things
and had already been given directions as to where to meet her
with her stuff.

She was on her way to a new beginning she felt as she
flew down the highway on her Harley. It was like the Wheel of
Fortune was really turning for her. She couldn’t wait to be
there. She couldn’t wait to see the inside of the house; her
house. Halfway there she realized that she should have thought
to make sure that the electricity was on. If it wasn’t, she
wouldn’t be seeing much of anything tonight. She had never
owned her own home before; she had a lot to learn she guessed.

As she turned down the old road that lead to her new
home she realized that she may not even be able to see her way
to the house. She would have to use the headlight from her
motorcycle as her guide. She came through the trees though
and saw that the place was lit up like a family of fifty lived
there and had left every light on in the house.

As she passed the cemetery on her right she felt a chill
roll up her spine. Weird, things like the dark and the boogie
man didn’t usually give her the creeps. She couldn’t help
feeling though like there were a million eyes on her.

She stopped just in front of the gate and pulled out her
keys. Her keys she thought with pride as she tried to untangle
the lock. She appreciated the fact that the guy left some lights
on for her but damn, she was going to be paying the utilities
from now on and had already decided that with a place that big
she
was
going to have to be very conservative with the
electricity.

She finally got the padlock undone then realized that
the heavy iron gate hadn’t been moved in five years. It took
her a while but she finally got it to budge enough to squeeze
herself through. She wrapped the padlock and chain around the
handlebars of her Harley and locked it to the gate. There was
enough light coming from every room of the house to see her
way to the front door.

She started to wade her way to the house when she saw
head lights flying her way. They stopped about twenty feet
from the house.
The taxi cab driver got out, unloaded her
boxes and bags in a matter of seconds, and jumped back into
the front of the car.

“Sorry, miss. Ain’t no way I’m going any farther than
this. This place gives me the heebie jeebies! Don’t worry
about the fair. Good luck!” He yelled out the window all the
while backing up the driveway, and then he sped off like a bat
out of hell.

“Well I’ll be go to hell.” Drew said to herself with her
hands on her hips looking down at the pile of her belongings on
the ground. “What an ass hole.”

She grabbed her suitcase which she had packed as her
first night’s emergency kit. Inside of it was a pair of pajamas, a
change of clothes, some candles and soap for the bath, a bottle
of strawberry wine, a carton of cigarettes and a Nora Roberts
novel.
She might not be much in to the whole relationship
thing but she was a woman after all. She grabbed a big trash
bag as well that she knew had her pillows and blankets in and
started walking towards the gate again mumbling curses under
her breath towards the long gone cab driver.

As she started up what she assumed used to be a stone
path but was now smothered with weeds and grass, she thought
she saw movement from one of the upstairs windows.
She
stopped and watched for something to move again but saw
nothing.

It had just dawned on her that she was going to be
staying in a creepy old castle by herself.
She completely
believed in ghosts and spirits and voodoo and everything else
that came with loving the city and history of New Orleans. She
read people’s fortune’s for goodness sake. At least, she used
to. She didn’t want to live with any though. She wasn’t afraid
of them by any means. She just enjoyed taking a bath without
anyone or anything watching her. Plus, she didn’t care who
you were, you weren’t right if seeing or feeling a ghost about
didn’t creep you out just a little bit.

She had finally made it to the front door without
getting eaten by any snakes or alligators.
She sat her bags
down and dug out the keys again to unlock the front door.
When she stuck the key in it wouldn’t turn at first. She tried
another one, and another one. Finally, the fourth key on the
key chain turned the lock and all of the lights that had been
shining down from the house went off and other than the bright
moon that seemed to smirk down at her, Drew was standing in
complete darkness.

“Well, shit.” She said. “Good thing I brought
candles.” She dug into her suitcase and brought out one of the
Mulberry jar candles that she had packed. She dug in her jeans
pocket for her lighter and found that she was in business.

The guy had told her that the plumbing and wiring was
all new. She assumed that “new” meant that it had been put in
five years ago and then never tested as it seemed there must be
a short in the wiring. That would have to be checked out first
thing tomorrow. The front door creaked open and echoed for
what seemed to be miles inside of the house when Drew
pushed on it.

The single candle that she had lit didn’t give
off much
more glow than to keep her from tripping over things that were
right in front of her. She tried to shut the front door but it
wouldn’t budge. With a growl she sat the candle down and dug
in her suitcase for more. She loved candles. She had a ton of
them in storage as she used to make them herself. Just like her
other art projects though she never found the heart to sell them.

She found three more candles and lit them. She spread
them out as far as each would let her see then stood in the
middle to look around at what she could see of her new home.
There were several pieces of furniture that were covered by
dust clothes. There was an amazing staircase that wound up
and around to a second floor that had a balcony that over
looked the front room. It looked like there may be pictures
hanging on the walls in the upstairs but her candle glow
wouldn’t allow her to make them out. Drew froze in her tracks
though when she though she saw a dark shadow move across
the balcony. When she stood staring though, she saw nothing
of it again.

She walked around the front room now which was
bigger than her entire apartment. She uncovered what looked
like an antique couch. It had a wooden frame that curved from
the legs all the way up and around the back of the couch. It
looked like deep red velvet with a pattern of small yellow
flowers. It was the most beautiful couch she had ever seen.
She saw a really big piece of furniture over in the corner and
assumed it was a piano. She had learned to play a little bit
when she was very young and the thought of owning her own
was very exciting in itself. She ran over to uncover it.

“Holy shit!” She yelled. It was a grand piano. A very
old one but in perfect condition as far as she could see. She
had never seen anything more beautiful. She sat on the piano
bench that had been pushed underneath and ran her fingers
over the keys. Somehow the piano was perfectly tuned and
though it sounded beautiful, the sudden loud noise that echoed
through the silence ran chills up her spine.
She closed the
piano and stood up to take in her surroundings.

The guy had said that there was a lot of furniture left in
the place and that whatever was in the house and on the land
was hers.
When she had asked him what he had paid for the
property he had told her that it was left to him from his
grandparents who had inherited it from their parents and so on
and so forth. He had been trying to sell it for 5 years since he
had had some work done to it but couldn’t even get anyone to
come and look at it. So, it was her lucky day he had said as the
sweat beaded up on his forehead. He didn’t want the property
and was glad that he was able to help someone out that needed
it.

“Bullshit. If I go to jail over this deal I am going to be
pissed. Now where the hell is the light switch?” She had to
run her hand over the piano one more time before she searched
the walls for lights.

“I may be dreaming, I may be losing my mind, I may
be living on the streets with Homeless Harry tomorrow but I
am going to enjoy every minute of this while I can.”

She ran her hands along the wall in search for the light
switch. She looked for what seemed like at least a half an hour
and couldn’t find anything. Just when she was about to give up
she felt a cold chill run from the top of her head to the tip of
her toes as the front door slammed shut and the lights came on
in a flash. She ran for the front door but it wouldn’t budge.

“Hey!” she yelled at the door. “Who the hell is out
there?
You better leave my stuff alone or I will find you and
kick your….”

“Damn kids. I hope you get snake bit out there.” She
turned around then and saw that
everything that she had
uncovered had been recovered.

She refused to completely believe yet that she was here
with a ghost. After all it was now getting close to midnight and
she had no place else to go. She could have gotten a hotel
room she supposed but then she would be broke for the next
few days until she got her life insurance money.

“Listen. I’m staying the night here whether you creeps
want me to or not. I’ve got nowhere else to go. Maybe this
was all a huge scam and now I am out my life savings and you
get your kicks by scaring innocent young women. I am NOT
leaving tonight!”

She dug into her suitcase again and pulled out her Ipod and eye mask. She sat them on the covered couch. Then,
she opened the huge black trash bag and pulled out her pillow
and quilt
that
was
made
supposedly
by
her
great-great
grandmother.

“I am just going to sleep here on this beautiful, yet
covered” she said a little louder to whoever was listening,
“couch and I won’t bother a thing.” She crossed her fingers
over her heart and then held up two fingers, she was never a
“scout” but figured that the gesture couldn’t hurt. She wasn’t
sure if she was talking to the living or the dead but either way
she wanted to make sure that she covered her tracks and didn’t
offend anyone.

“We can talk about this in the morning.” The lights
dimmed now and the piano started to play a tune that she had
never heard before but it was very light, almost like a lullaby.

She looked towards the piano and saw that the back of
it was still covered. There was no one there. The keys on the
piano faced the wall so she couldn’t see if they were moving or
not but she imaged that it was a sight that she didn’t really want
to see anyway. The candles managed to blow themselves out
at that point leaving her in a dimly lit room with Casper on the
piano. So no candles, and no uncovering the furniture. She
nodded in understanding to no one in particular.

“Well, goodnight then.” She said to the air as she put
her
ear-phones
on and covered her
eyes
with her
mask.
Whatever was going to go bump in the night around her she
didn’t want to hear or see it.

It took almost two seconds for her to go to sleep. It
was almost like she was drugged. One would normally stay
awake and freak out most of the night about what was hovering
over them when they knew that they were in the same room
with an aggravated spirit but she couldn’t focus on anything
after she laid her head on the pillow. Her mind faded out from
the real world and she was off to dream land in seconds.

Bre
ndan didn’t take kindly to strangers. There was
nothing that he hated more than people invading his space.
It
was his house. It was his couch. He didn’t appreciate it when
someone tried to come in uninvited and take over. She was the
first one though in the past one hundred and fifty years that had
actually spoken to him. Most definitely the first one that ever
stayed longer than a few minutes (except for the very few
people that came in over the years to update the house) and
here she was now sleeping soundly on his couch.
Without a
care in the world it seemed.

She had said that she had nowhere else to go. Since
when did he have a heart? One hundred and fifty years ago he
realized. He had allowed the electricians and plumbers to hang
around and do what they needed to do. He was curious after
all.
He could always sense from the people if they were
planning on staying or not. He knew that the workers were just
there to do their job and then they were leaving so, he didn’t
bother them.
That fat old geezer who hired them wasn’t
standing a chance though. As soon as he had walked in the
door Brendan had slammed the door behind him and threw him
up against the wall. He didn’t expect the man to wet himself
but that was a nice bonus. It had been at least ten years before
that one since he had encountered any of the living.