Sleep Stalker (Ghosts Beyond the Grove Book 1) (16 page)

     “Oh.  My.  God!  It’s from her!  It’s an email from Roxanne!”

     My excitement hit a fever pitch as I began to bounce up and down in my seat, unable to contain myself.  I was too nervous, too full of energy to even read the damn thing.  After a long moment of encouragement from Addie to read it aloud, she finally tore the phone out of my hands and did it herself.

     “Oh give it here!  You’re happier than a pig in a mud patch, now ain’t ya?  I can’t wait another hot second—I’m gonna read it
to
ya!”

     I nodded my head and closed my eyes.  Something in that email was going to be important—
vital
even. Something was going to shed light on my difficult situation.  I could just feel it.

     Addie quickly glossed over the first few sentences, an apology for not having found the photos yet that Roxanne said she would try to send me.  She promised to keep looking for them but wanted to answer some of my questions first.  I was starting to get discouraged when she
finally
got to the good part.  And I snatched my phone back and began reading it aloud myself.

     “What I remember most about your mother was how much she loved to travel.  We took weekend road trips every chance we could—anywhere and everywhere.  The most memorable of them was the summer after graduation.  Your grandparents bought her a new car that year and we immediately took that thing across the country.  There were three of us on that journey—me, your mom, and her childhood friend, Josette.  That was one crazy trip!  Our original plan was to drive the whole way out to California to see the Pacific Ocean but we never made it that far.  Camille insisted on stopping in Sedona, Arizona before making that final leg of our trip.  That’s a very mystical place—I walked away from there feeling an inner peace that I never knew existed.”

     That’s where I stopped reading and mentally began to pack my bags for Arizona.  Always a speed reader, my eyes spotted a few words in the next sentence that made me momentarily speechless.  This was the biggest clue yet.  And it confirmed my theory that my very own mother was the one trying to help me heal whatever was broken inside my beloved Zach.

27.  Heaven Scent

    
When I woke up weeks later after that gunshot to my heart, I truly thought I was dead.  What else was I supposed to think?  The only people I saw when I opened my eyes that night was Clay who I knew was dead and Ruby whose life I was afraid I hadn’t saved.  Today, though, I
knew
I was still alive—but I wished that I wasn’t.

     I was cold and my whole body ached—most noticeably my heart.  I had no recollection of what actually happened to me.  All I remembered was Ruby laughing at me as I lay there in excruciating pain.  She was happy because she thought I was dying.  She was happy because she liked to see me suffer.  I felt like death.  I wanted to die on the spot.  I wanted this torture to end.

     But the second I saw her face at the back of the crowd, I leapt to my feet to catch her before she got away again.  The strangers hovering over me began shouting for me to lie back down, insisting that I shouldn’t move until the paramedics got there.  But what did
they
know anyway?  And besides, the only pain I was feeling at this point was the agony of being separated from Ruby.

     I stumbled off the sidewalk and out onto the street, shouting her name amidst the cacophony of horns, sirens, and people screaming.  They all just needed to get a grip.  I was fine.  Scratch that.  I
would
be fine once Ruby was in my arms. 

     “MY HEART IS THE ONLY THING THAT HURTS!” I bellowed to everyone who got in my way.  The closer I got to her, the stronger the scent of her perfume grew.  My nostrils were full of it.  It was permeating every cell in my body.  We were bonding at the molecular level now.  Why couldn’t they all back off and let us be together? 

     I pushed and shoved at several uniformed men who were trying to subdue me.  They were only jealous—
all
of them wanted what I had.  They wanted her. 
They
wanted to touch her, kiss her, and have the lingering scent of her perfume on
their
bodies. 
In
their bodies.  She was mine—all of that was mine and mine alone.  They couldn’t please her the way I could.  Not a single one of them would have risked their lives for her the way I did time after time.  The way I was willing to do again.  Once she saw how far I was willing to go to have her, she would stop teasing me.  My love was a gift meant only for her.  All she had to do was accept it.

     “RUBY!” I screamed her name repeatedly in her direction as I fought to get away from the men holding me back.  There were so many hands on me, so many hands pulling me away from her.  Why wouldn’t she come to me?  Why wasn’t she by my side, stroking my hair soothingly and telling me everything would be alright? 

     “WHY, RUBY, WHY?” I cried as that multitude of hands forced me onto a gurney and strapped me down tight. 

     As they lifted me into the back of the ambulance, she finally stepped forward and took her place at the steel doors that were about to close between us.  But she did it…twice.

     To the right, Ruby stood glaring at me with an untamed look in her eyes.  She was like the feral cats I helped Andy trap, neuter, and release at the animal shelter.  They were dangerous and despised being caged even for the briefest amount of time.  Fear made them unsafe and unstable.  She was plotting, planning how to escape—not caring who she hurt in the process.  She was shaking from the distress.  I was experienced enough to know that she was waiting for the right moment to strike.

     Standing on the left was the Ruby of my dreams—wearing the dress that I loved so much.  I struggled past my restraints hard enough to get a closer look at her, at the few delicate curves left unexposed by the orange print fabric.  Poised and patient, there was not a trace of anything wild in that one.  She was calm and when the wind blew in just the right direction, the scent of warm vanilla cinnamon teased its way into the ambulance.  That was
my
Ruby, my savior sent from heaven.

     As I swooned over her angelic beauty, the paramedic sent a swift jab into my forearm and almost instantly, things began to grow hazy. 

     “Are you Ruby?” the paramedic asked.  “Are you the one he’s been yelling for?”

     “Yes!  Can I please ride along?” was the frantic response but it came from the feral imposter—the one who was trying to trying to destroy me.

     “No,” I whispered into his ear as he gave another yank on my restraints.  “Not
that
Ruby, the other one—the
good
one.” 

     Barely able to move my head, I lifted it up just far enough to gesture to the angel on my left but she was gone.  Instead, I discovered my sister looking almost as undomesticated as the Ruby that remained.  But my sister could always be trusted—no matter what.

     “Rachel.  Please help me.”

     Everything was now a blur.  All I saw was a head of blonde hair approaching me as the doors to the ambulance went shut.  And cinnamon.  I smelled cinnamon.

28.  All Downhill from Here

     Addie begged me to read the next lines of the email to her but the words on the screen were nothing more than a blur to me.  My eyes were full of tears and I was too overcome with emotion to even care to wipe them away.  I was too overwhelmed to do or say anything but sit there and cry.

     “I’m gonna go change out of my work clothes and give you a minute to pull yourself together in private, okay?”

     Addie didn’t wait for me to reply; she just patted me on the shoulder and walked away.  When I heard the bathroom door shut and I knew that I was alone for at least a few minutes, I allowed myself to break down completely.  Suspecting that my mom was guiding me from the beyond was one thing, having what was irrefutable proof was something so very different. 

     Once I was able to catch my breath and dry my eyes, I took one more look at the doll that reminded me so much of myself.  I looked into her eyes and whispered—not just to the figurine, but to my mom, and most importantly, to myself.

     “I will.  I
will
go forth.  I will go forth until I find the truth.  I will go forth and follow my dreams because without Zach, my dreams are meaningless.  Lead me and I will follow.”

     By the time Addie returned, I had already read Roxanne’s email three times from start to finish.  It was all too incredible and way too crazy to be mere coincidence.  Instead of reading the email aloud to her, I handed her my phone.  As she read it, I studied the range of emotions that swept over her face.  By the looks of things, she found that email just as overwhelmingly profound as I did.

     When she was finished reading, she merely shook her head in disbelief and said, “Good gravy, Ruby!  I need to read that again.”

     Good gravy, indeed.  My life was getting weirder by the day—by the hours, minutes, and even seconds.  But there was really nothing I could do to stop it.  Hiding from destiny was impossible.  I learned small snippets of the truths that death revealed during my near death experiences.  But clearly, in the vast scheme of the universe, I knew very little.  My mom had information about me, Zach, and our futures.  She may not be able to directly communicate with me but she was able to lead me in the right direction.  I had to follow her and that path even if it wasn’t a pretty one.  Or was I going crazy now too?

     Unsure of my own sanity, I waited for Addie to speak first.  I didn’t want to put ideas into her head.  I needed to hear her opinions before verbalizing my own.  If she came to the same conclusions I did, then I would know for sure whether or not this was all nothing more than wishful thinking on my part.  I mean, who
wouldn’t
want to believe that their dead mother was trying to help them save someone they loved?     

     “Your mom.  Feathers…the tattoo she got while in Sedona.  Your dreams about Arizona.  My mind…is blown.”

     I heaved a sigh of relief.  Her thoughts, her reactions were the same as mine.  There was no chance of coincidence here.  None whatsoever.  My mother really
was
leading me on a very twisted journey.  If only I could discern where exactly she was leading me
to
.  And when.

     “I know.  Mine is too.  But I don’t know what to do next!  Should I book a flight out to visit Roxanne immediately?  Should I search for that lady she mentioned, Salma, in Sedona?  Should I barge headfirst into this adventure or wait for the next sign from her?  I’m so confused.”  I cried for a minute before asking, “What would
you
do, you know, if you were me?  Put yourself in my shoes.  If this was happening to Derek and your mom was intervening, what would
you
do?”

     At that moment, both of our thoughts were interrupted by the sound of sirens.  Police, ambulance, fire trucks---I wasn’t sure which they belonged to and to me it didn’t really didn’t matter.  But Addie went into an unexpected state of panic.

     “Oh dear God!” she said as she flew out of her seat and directly to the nearest window.  “Please tell me that it’s not another fire!”

     I didn’t know exactly what I was looking for but I joined her at the window because it felt like the right thing for me to do.  “Fire?” I queried, because I didn’t know what else to say.

     “Yes!  Fire!  The year Derek and I moved in here there was a huge fire that started a few buildings up the street. It was Memorial Day—teenagers with illegal fireworks caught a dumpster on fire.  It was a very windy night so it spread to the antique store before the firemen could get here then it was all downhill from there.  Almost the whole block was burned.  Ashes.  Nothing but ashes.  And smoke—plenty of it.  So many people lost everything they owned—not just their homes but their businesses too.  It was one terrible night but Derek and I were lucky.  They got the fire out just before it got to our building.  It’s been a few years but I’ve feared it happenin’ again every day since then.  Every time I hear sirens, it’s my first thought.”

     “Oh,” was all I could manage in reply.  Fire wasn’t something I had experience with—water was.  And that’s the point where I began to silently philosophize about life.  So many forces of nature and otherwise were critical to the survival of the human race yet deadly in the wrong quantities.  Love was no exception.  Anything and everything could go downhill at any second.  And it was about to.  Again.

    Not finding the source of the sirens, Addie switched to the front window of the apartment.  Nervously, she pulled back the curtain with one hand while gnawing on the fingernails of the other. 

     “Whew! It’s just an ambulance.  Looks like someone might have gotten hit by a car.  That’s a dangerous intersection to try to cross.  Hope he’s o—”

      From the moment she said the word “he”, I felt that the victim was Zach.  But once her words went from polite concern to describing an action movie, I
knew
it was Zach.

     “Good gravy!  What kind of drugs is that kid
on
?!  This is
crazy
!  One minute he was lyin’ there on the ground and then he just got up and started ragin’ down the street like somethin’ from out of “The Walking Dead”!  They’re trying to subdue him and he’s screamin’ and fightin’ them off!”

     I didn’t bother taking the time to look out the window.  I grabbed my stuff and ran for the door.  I had to get to him before anything worse happened.  If worse was even a possibility at this point.

     “Ruby?!” Addie shouted after me. 

     “Zach!!  That super zombie in the street is my boyfriend!”

     Rushing down the steps with Addie not far behind me, I made it to the intersection just in time to see that I was indeed correct.  Zach was strapped to a gurney and screaming my name as they loaded him into the back of the ambulance.

     Barely able to move beyond his restraints, I watched as his eyes darted back and forth from me to the other end of the ambulance.  When he was focusing on me, his eyes reflected anger, fear, distrust.  Yet when he was staring off into blank space, a sense of calm flooded over him and a peaceful smile graced his lips.  As terrible as it felt to watch him being shot full of what must have been a powerful tranquilizer, I knew that maybe it was what he needed to get better.

     “Are you Ruby?” the paramedic asked.  “Are you the one he’s been yelling for?”

     “Yes!  Can I please ride along?”

     Zach wriggled his fingers free enough to grab the sleeve of the EMT’s jacket and screamed at the top of his lungs. 

     “NO!  NOT
THAT
RUBY, THE OTHER ONE—THE
GOOD
ONE!” 

     My brain was clouded, confused.  He thought there were
two
of me?  And what made
me
the
bad
one?  I was going to climb in there with him anyway but stopped myself.  My presence at this particular moment didn’t seem like the wisest choice for either of us.  So when he set eyes on Addie and referred to her as Rachel, I encouraged her to take my place at his side.