Ghost Girl in Shadow Bay: A Young Adult Haunted House Mystery (17 page)

From the corner of her eye, Peyton detected
movement. Turning in that direction, she was shocked to see Luke
Neville standing there. He was stone-faced, wearing only jeans.

"What's going on here?" Peyton asked, gazing
directly at her stepfather.

"This doesn't concern you!" he responded
brusquely.

She looked past him to her mother.
"Mom..."

"Get out of here, Peyton," she pleaded
frantically.

"No, I won't!"

"Have it your way then," Vance stated
savagely.

He turned the shotgun toward Luke and,
without hesitation, fired. Peyton watched in horror as a gaping
hole appeared in Luke's chest just before the impact sent him
reeling.

"You
shot
Luke!" Peyton screamed at
Vance, the implications of the moment beginning to hit her like a
huge boulder.

"He got what he deserved!" Vance snapped
angrily. "And so will
she
--"

Peyton's heart nearly stopped when she
realized he had turned the shotgun on her mother.

"No! You can't do this, Vance. Please!"
Peyton begged desperately.

Vance growled like a lion. "Watch me!"

"Peyton, get away, please--" her mother
cried out.

Not knowing what else to do, Peyton stepped
in front of her stepfather and grabbed the barrel of the
shotgun.

"I won't let you kill mom!" she declared,
feeling her knees wobbling.

"Don't be a fool, girl," he spat. "Let it
go!"

"No," Peyton challenged him. "Run, Mom,
run..."

She heard her mother apparently attempting
to untangle herself from the covers. But Peyton's primary focus was
trying to hold onto the gun, while her stepfather seemed equally
determined to regain total possession of it.

"Do as I say, Peyton." His features were
pinched with rage. "I'm warning you--!"

"No, Vance," she rejected his command. "You
don't know what you're doing."

Peyton tried valiantly to keep the gun
pointed away from the bed as her stepfather fought to aim it at his
intended target. In the process, the gun barrel ended up tucked
beneath her ribcage. She sought to push it away, and then Peyton
heard a booming sound and realized she had been shot. She slumped
to the floor in total shock. Blood was pouring from the hole in her
stomach like running water.

Feeling helpless and paralyzed with fear,
Peyton watched Vance turn the shotgun away from her without even a
second glance and aim it at her mother, who had managed to get one
foot on the floor before another shot was fired. The force of it
drove her back onto the bed in an awkward position, whereby she was
suddenly very still.

Peyton screamed till she grew lightheaded,
and then there was only blackness.

When she opened her eyes again, Peyton
couldn't see anything, but she was moving. Someone was carrying
her. It wasn't until a glimmer of moonlight emerged through a small
crack that Peyton realized she was within the walls of the house.
She must have been taken into the secret passageway in the
study.

By whom? Where were they going?

Outside, the rain fell on Peyton's face.
Stickiness coated her nightgown and then it all started to come
back.

Peyton's stepfather had shot Luke, then her,
and then her mother. Now Vance was carrying her, and he was heading
towards the bay.

Instinctively, as though she had lived
through this before, Peyton implored him through strained vocals,
"Please, don't do this, Vance..."

"Shh..." he responded quietly. "It'll all be
over with soon."

"Nooooooo!" Peyton protested. She tried to
break free, but was too weak and wounded and he was too strong and
resolute.

Peyton felt powerless as Vance held her
close to his body while he walked out into the bay as far as he
could go, before they both went under. As she thrashed wildly, her
stepfather maintained his firm grip and Peyton opened her mouth to
scream, but it quickly filled with water, nullifying sound.

I'm going to die in the bay
just
like Caitlyn.
I'll never see Bry again to tell him I love
him. And I won't
have a future to look forward to--maybe
with Bry
.

Peyton began to grow weaker and weaker, her
resistance less and less. She couldn't breathe and could barely
even think anymore.

She was certain death would come at any
moment...

* * *

Peyton was hitting her pillow, believing she
was fighting Vance to keep from drowning. She tried to catch her
breath while coughing at the same time, as if she'd ingested bay
water.

I can't believe it didn't really happen.
Vance was not the boogeyman after all.

Peyton sat up, adjusting her eyes to the wee
hours of the morning darkness. This was the first time her
recurring dream had involved her family. And Luke.

Was it just some weird mixture of everything
that had been going on in this house, past and present?

Or was it a premonition of things to
come--like history repeating itself?

Peyton cut on the light and immediately
gazed at her Sleep-T, as though expecting to find a giant hole
where her stepfather had shot her, blood gushing out
uncontrollably. Instead, she only saw the yellow cotton fabric.

She breathed a sigh of relief, but still had
an uneasy feeling. What if her mother really had been shot to
death? And Bryant's father, too?

If so, then Vance could be out there in the
bay--a victim of suicide following his killing spree.

Or still in the house, looking for me!

As ridiculous as it all seemed now that
Peyton was wide awake and apparently no worse the wear, she had to
be sure. She got up and walked to the door. Peeking out, as if
afraid someone might be waiting on the other side, she saw no
one.

She padded down the hallway, careful to
avoid the known squeaky spots till she came to her parents' closed
bedroom door. She listened, trying to determine if there was any
sign of distress or activity. All was quiet, which was just as
alarming.

Normally she would have knocked on the door
before entering, but this time Peyton took her chances, twisting
the knob.

The light from the hall streamed across the
room, cutting through the darkness enough to allow her to see the
bed. Peyton's stepfather was cuddling her mother peacefully beneath
the covers. There was no sign of foul play. Peyton even looked in
the direction where Luke had gone down after being shot, and saw no
one and no blood staining the floor from his massive chest
wound.

Peyton heard a noise and jumped, before she
realized it was just her mother and Vance turning over, as if on
cue, to let her know they were fine. She closed the door
quietly.

Peyton went back to bed, not sure she would
be able to sleep.

Guess I was spooked more than I realized
after Caitlyn's cryptic words to Lily's grandmother.

She recalled Frances Kramer also saying,
"Ghosts are usually harmless in their ability to actually hurt
people in the living world."

So what am I worried about?
Byron
St. Claire can no more hurt me, my mother, stepfather, or even Luke
any more than Vance could, in spite of his occasional weirdness and
changing appearance.

It was times like this when Peyton wished
her father was still alive to provide much needed comfort when
she'd had a bad dream. But he wasn't alive. He was gone and
couldn't help her.

After lying awake for a while wondering if
Caitlyn or any other ghosts would once again appear before her,
Peyton finally drifted off to sleep. But before she did, she prayed
that there would be no repeat of her nightmare of unimaginable
horror.

* * *

Caitlyn stood over the bed watching as
Peyton fell asleep. It was bound to be a restless night of tossing
and turning, much like when Peyton had experienced the all too real
events in her dream. Caitlyn wished there was another way to go
about this, but there wasn't. Time was running out and lives were
at stake.

And the worst was yet to come...

Caitlyn tried to touch Peyton's cheek. Her
face twitched, as if being tickled by a feather.

Soon it will be all over, Peyton,
Caitlyn promised. One way or the other. Only then would she know if
peace would come her way at long last or if she would continue to
be caught in her father's cycle of anger and hatred.

Caitlyn could feel someone's presence.
Turning around, fearing the worst, she saw her mother. She was
smiling, masking her misery. She extended her hand and, after a
moment or two, Caitlyn held it.

Both turned to look at Peyton, as if seeing
her for the final time. Then they gazed at each other.

Through her mind, Caitlyn heard her mother
say,
"Have faith, dear. Everything will be just fine. You'll
see
.
"

Caitlyn wanted to believe that with all her
heart. But seeing the unease in mother's face, it was clear she
didn't even trust her own words. Not when they both knew there was
someone powerful standing in the way of any happiness and freedom
they might enjoy.

Caitlyn saw Peyton as an ally who just might
be strong enough to thwart her father's evil intentions--with
Caitlyn's help.

Goodbye, Peyton, just in case things go
wrong and we never see each other again.

The mother and daughter vanished into thin
air.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Peyton was up bright and early for her first
day of school in Shadow Bay. Instead of thinking about classes,
books, making new friends, and her boyfriend Bryant, her thoughts
were more on infidelity, murder, and suicide. In spite of her best
efforts, Peyton couldn't shake the nightmare she had last night and
the feeling that there was more to it than just another bad
dream.

Am I just looking for trouble where there is
none?

She had mixed feelings about the absence of
Caitlyn's ghost lately. Had she seen the last of Caitlyn St.
Claire? Maybe she would rather make her presence known only to
Frances Kramer from this point on, now that the two best friends
had sort of reunited.

Or was Caitlyn holding back for some
reason--waiting for some dramatic moment to reappear?

Peyton tried not to think about that
possibility, even if a small part of her wouldn't mind seeing
Caitlyn one last time, if only to say goodbye. Other than that,
Peyton knew it wasn't very healthy to have an ongoing relationship
with a fifty-year-old ghost who hadn't gotten past age sixteen.
Better to focus on friends who could at least talk back to her with
real words, other than in dreams and carved out messages on the
wall.

Peyton found her mother in the kitchen
making waffles.

"Good morning, honey," Melody said
cheerfully. "You look nice."

"Thanks." She had put on new clothes, but
nothing that would attract too much attention at school other than
from Bryant.

"Have a seat. Waffles are just about
ready."

"I'm not really hungry," Peyton said. "I've
got butterflies in my stomach, with school starting and all."

Her mother's brow creased. "You have to eat,
especially to begin your school day."

Peyton relented. "Okay, maybe just half a
waffle," she said, filling a glass with orange juice. "So where's
Vance anyway?" She hadn't passed him on the way down.

"He had to go to work early," Melody said,
sounding disappointed. "Looks like it's just you and me."

"Just like when dad died."

Peyton wondered if they would have been
better off on their own without Vance in the picture. At least she
wouldn't have dreamt about him killing them.

"Your father didn't have a choice in the
matter, honey," her mother said. "And neither did we."

"I know." Peyton sipped orange juice. That
didn't make her feel any better about it. "Do you think dad's
really watching over us?"

"Of course he is. Your father's spirit
didn't die with him." Melody looked at her curiously. "Where's this
coming from, Peyton?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. Nowhere,
really. I just wish things could go back to the way they were
before--"

"That's not possible. Sometimes bad things
happen to good people. We just have to make the best of the life
we're given and try not to regret too much the things we have
little to no control over."

Peyton was frustrated that she had so little
say in the things most important to her. Like where she lived,
whether or not she should have a stepfather, and dreams that
freaked her out.

Even what would become of her and Bryant was
pretty much something that she couldn't control or predict.

Several minutes of silence passed before
Peyton decided to clear something up once and for all that had been
on her mind since she woke up the second time around this
morning.

"Is there anything going on between you and
Luke?" she asked her mother.

Melody sipped coffee and asked innocently,
"Anything like what?"

Peyton sighed, locking eyes with her mother.
"Are you and Bry's dad having an affair or not?"

"What--?" Her mother's face flushed. "No, of
course not. Why would you even ask such a thing?"

Maybe because I saw Vance shoot Luke and
you, just like Byron St. Claire shot Caitlyn's mother and her
caretaker lover.

"Because I've seen the way you two flirt
with each other, Mom. Vance isn't stupid, you know."

"Neither am I, Peyton!" Melody said sharply.
"Grownups flirt. And so do teenagers. There's no harm in that. I
would
never
cross the line. I love Vance, just as I loved
your father. I have no interest in adultery."

Peyton suddenly felt foolish.
I have no
proof of anything going on between her and Luke, unless I count the
implied scenario in my dream with the hatred in Vance's eyes that
resulted in his murderous rampage.