Reaper (17 page)

“That is pretty awesome,” he said with a smile. “Well, maybe not for you, but this stuff never happens!”

Never say never
, I thought. My mind raced. Why would Thomas take me to a graveyard? Was his body there? He dressed like a modern child. It didn’t make sense.

“The broken glass,” I said suddenly. “Do you know why there was so much of it?”

Keith bit his lip and raised his eyebrows. He tipped his head and spoke. “I can’t promise you this is true; you know how rumors are. Supposedly teenagers used to worship the devil there. They’d have midnight séances and crap like that. I heard it went on for years and only stopped when a girl died. She overdosed and was left in the cold. It was nothing supernatural,” he said almost as if it was disappointing. “It happened ten or twelve years ago.” He laughed. “It used to be one of those things kids would dare each other to do. You know, ‘stay the night in the Devil’s Graveyard’ and prove how brave you are. I promise you, I’ve been there at night and
nothing
happened.”

“Good,” I said. “It still doesn’t make sense. I-I don’t remember walking there. Why would I be led there for nothing?”

“It wasn’t
nothing
,” René assured me. “I bet you whoever you saw is buried there.”

“Hopefully,” I agreed. “It would put my mind at ease for sure.”

“So we have a plan,” Keith exclaimed. “Anora, you seem frazzled. Go home, and I’ll hit up the museum.”

“I’ll come,” René told him.

“Missy,” he pointed at her, “you have class and you’ve already skipped, uh, how many times this semester?”

“I’ll make it up,” she retorted. “I always do. And this is more important.” She stood. “Anora, do you want me to drive you home? Keith can follow so I can leave with him.”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea.” I took off Keith’s jacket. “Thanks, guys. You don’t have to do this, you know.”

“Oh, I totally know,” Keith said. “But I want to, really. The life of a gay engineering major isn’t exciting. At all.”

I couldn’t help but smile. “Just know that you don’t have to get involved if you don’t want.”

“Seriously, Anora. We know,” René told me and laughed. “I think I speak for Keith as well when I say the chance to do anything remotely adventurous
and
paranormal is better than a trip to Disney World.”

“Oh, and I love Disney,” Keith laughed. “But yes, she’s right. What are we waiting for? Let’s go!”

~*~

“Tell me one more time,” Ethan requested. He rubbed his forehead and looked so concerned it made me feel guilty.

“I followed Thomas to a graveyard. But I didn’t know I was doing it. I can remember bits and piece of walking. They said I was gone for almost half an hour, but there was no way. Or at least no way I remember that. In my mind, I got to the graveyard and René and Keith showed up only a minute later.”

“He has to be a spirit,” Ethan speculated. “You said he dressed in modern clothes,” he said to himself. “Maybe a family member is buried there. It’s a connection, well, a possible one.” He looked at his watch; I knew he was anxious for René and Keith to call with news about the graves.

“I really don’t think it’s a spirit,” I said. “And even if he is a ghost, why is he showing me such horrible things?” I asked quietly.

Ethan sighed heavily. “I have no clue.” He stood up and stretched. I caught a glimpse of his gun tucked into his pants. It was the first time since we moved that he armed himself while in the house. “Did you notice anything…anything unusual in the graveyard?”

“No. It was abandoned and overgrown.” I straightened up. “Don’t some ghosts get angry when their graves are left to deteriorate?”

Ethan spun around. “Yeah, they do. But if all this kid wants is his mommy’s grave cleaned up, he’s going about a weird way of showing it.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “It doesn’t feel like he wants something from me,” I started and looked out the sunroom windows at the barn.

“What do you mean?”

“I feel like he’s trying to scare me. But…” I hesitated. “He hasn’t hurt me. Not yet at least.” I laughed. “I just feel freaking insane.”

My phone beeped, echoing throughout the house. I only slightly jumped. I rushed to get it and quickly read the text from René. “They’re on their way here,” I told Ethan. I filled up a glass of water and dumped it in my pot of herb seeds.

“Good,” Ethan said. He sat back down, tapping his foot impatiently as he waited. Hunter extended his paw for me to hold. As soon as I took it, I felt a few shades calmer. The time passed slowly. I texted Harrison since I hadn’t heard from him in a few days. I didn’t expect him to respond since he should have been in school, but was happy when he replied that his life was boring as usual, which was a relief.

René and Keith did a good job digging up info on the owners of the house. The Stellen family was indeed one of the first settlers in the town and was not untouched by tragedy. They had lost several children, but none fit the bill for Thomas. They even traced the Stellen family line until the late 1950s, when the family sold the house and moved to Chicago.

“So,” René concluded. “I can’t see how this boy you saw is in any way connected with this family.”

“Me neither,” Ethan agreed. “We’re missing something. If a ghost takes you to a grave, it’s for a reason. He could be related to one of the original owners. Maybe…maybe something brought him back. Maybe he visited the house before it was sold and he left…something behind.” He ran his hands through his brown hair. “I don’t know. Annie, ghosts are your forte. Can you come up with something?”

“Not really,” I said meekly. It was hard for them to understand. They hadn’t seen the freaky things I had. They hadn’t gone into the spirit realm only to discover nothing. I
knew
it wasn’t a ghost. I wanted it to be a ghost, but my heart knew otherwise. I looked at Hunter and mentally told him what I had just thought. Ever so slightly, he nodded.
Thanks
, I said to him.

“There are more stones to be unturned,” Keith started. “We didn’t go through the
entire
family tree. It would take a while, well, maybe not if we look it up on one of those ancestor-finding sites. We can go through and see if the kids of the kids of the owners of the house had a child die.”

Ethan nodded. He was so desperate for something tangible we could go with, and René and Keith were so gung-hoe about research I didn’t want to rain on the parade just yet. Maybe there was a teeny-weeny chance Thomas was tied to the graveyard…and the people in it.

Hunter let out a warning bark and looked at the front door. Sure enough, the doorbell rang. Ethan followed me to the door, looking out the window suspiciously, as if he expected Thomas to pop up and yell ‘boo’ when I opened the door.
 
A UPS delivery man stood on the porch, warily looking at Hunter.

“Anora Benson?” His voice shook.

“Yeah. Hunter, sit,” I said just so the poor guy would feel better. Hunter, of course, listened right away.

“Sign, please.”

I did, and he handed me a big rectangular box. “Oh, I got a present!” I said as I closed the door with my foot, thinking maybe my parents finally stopped being mad at me for moving and sent me a housewarming gift. The box wasn’t a regular shipping box; instead the top opened easily, much like boxes roses come in. But no pretty flowers were waiting to be put in a vase of water. Instead, part of a white horse leg lay in a pool of blood.

Please don’t be real
. I blinked. It was still there. I dropped the box and turned to face Ethan, René, and Keith. The horror on their faces confirmed my fear; this was real.

Chapter 7 - Sad but True

Ethan ran to the barn so fast he was just a blur. Hunter stayed by my side. Keith quickly shoved the box out of my sight and tried to get me to sit. I wanted to run to the barn myself but was terrified. The shock wore off and a hysterical sob escaped by mouth. René took my hand but was just as terrified as I was. Hunter sniffed the box and came back over, nudging me gently. The scent wasn’t familiar to him. I took in a ragged deep breath and gripped René’s hand. Keith urged again and I sank down on the settee.

The garage door opened. “It’s not him!” Ethan yelled. He was next to me in seconds. “Mystery is ok.”

“I know,” I whispered. I leaned forward, resting my head on top of Hunter’s. The room began to spin. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “But I need to see him.” Ethan extended a hand and helped me up. He didn’t let me go until I ducked under the fence. Used to getting treats, Mystery and Neptune trotted over.

I wrapped my arms around my Arabian’s neck. “If anyone hurts you, I will kill them,” I promised, my voice icy. “I dare them to try.” I let him go and moved to Neptune. “Same goes for you, girl. No one hurts my animals and gets away with it.”

My eyes traced the outline of the pasture. Was it safe to let my horses stay outside? Reading my thoughts, Hunter took off, sniffing out anything unusual. Once she realized I didn’t have any treats in my pocket, Neptune walked away and started grazing. I turned and let Mystery rub his head against my back. He didn’t give up as easily as Neptune; he pressed his nose against everyone and sniffed, making sure he didn’t miss a hidden treat.

Hunter raced to my side. He didn’t find anything unusual, like I had expected.
 
He told me that he was able to pick up a human scent on the horse leg; he wanted to get another good sniff before I got rid of it.

“Good idea,” I told him and stroked his head. “Let’s go in,” I suggested to everyone. “I need to, uh, take care of the leg.”

“I’ll do it.” Ethan put his hand on the small of my back. “You don’t have to look at it.”

“I can do it.” Anger began to boil inside at the thought of someone killing a horse just to scare me. “I want to bury it. The horse deserves that much, at least.” We entered the house once more. “I want to find out who is doing this, cut off their legs and put them in a pretty box.” I let out a breath and looked at Ethan. “At least you can see it. I told you someone was messing with me.”

Keith’s eyes darted around the room. I could sense the confused panic quickly building up inside of him. “I’m guessing we’re not really investigating
just
a haunting. There’s more to this, right?” he asked.

“Yes, ghosts can’t mail things,” I explained.

“We have the weirdest conversations with you,” René said distantly. She was rather pale and her eyes were wide with fear. We regrouped in the family room. Once Hunter had taken in all of the scent information he could, Ethan took the box out back and dug a hole. René helped me tie the protective charms I made last fall in my horses manes and Keith poured a circle of salt around the barn.

“So,” René inquired after the last piece of Devil’s Shoestring was tucked above the barn door. “What do you do now?”

“I’m not sure,” I told her honestly.

“Shouldn’t you call the police?” Keith asked. “I’m sure they can track who sent you that package.”

“It’s best not to get the police involved in anything remotely paranormal,” Ethan explained. “If I didn’t think the horse leg was connect to the other weird shit that’s been going on, I’d call.”

“What do you mean, ‘paranormal’? If it wasn’t a ghost, then it’s a person, and the police deal with people.” Keith asked.

“I’ll explain,” René offered. “But really, Anora, what are you going to do?”

I shook my head and looked at Ethan. “It’s getting bolder,” he assumed. “I don’t think it will be long before a meet-and-greet happens.”

“Yay,” I responded sarcastically. “Wait, actually, I mean it.” The feeling of complete and utter satisfaction that I had felt when I killed the reaper was still easily remembered. “I want to kill it.”

“So do I,” Ethan agreed. Something fiery flashed in his dark eyes.
 

“What are you killing?” Keith exasperated.

“I’ll explain later,” I promised

 
“Is there anything else we can do to help?” Rene asked.

“Um,” I thought. “I can show you how to make a potion.” René and Keith jumped on the opportunity; it also gave me a chance to explain everything that had been happening to Keith. I wasn’t sure if he believed me. I had left out major chunks of the story, like the fact that demons existed, so I couldn’t say I blamed him.

We made three different protection potions, ground up more of my banishing concoction, and poured another outline of salt around the house. If anything was coming, we’d be ready.

~*~

Nothing bad happened for the next three days. I didn’t even have a nightmare. Still, Ethan and I hadn’t left the house in fear of something horrible happening to my animals. We were running desperately low on groceries, so Ethan assured me he would keep an eye on the horses while René accompanied me to the store.

“I was thinking,” René said as she climbed into my Silverado truck. “That night you, well Hunter, heard something,” she began and looked at me.

“Yeah?”

“Someone was in the street by your house. I don’t know if this makes much sense, but it’s pretty quiet around here and really dark at night. They might have been familiar with the layout of the land.”

I nodded, not sure where she was going with this.