Sleep Stalker (Ghosts Beyond the Grove Book 1) (4 page)

     “You ain’t been listenin’ to half of what I said, have ya?  I was raised by my daddy’s mama.  Granny ain’t royalty—at least not the kind
you’re
thinkin’ of!” Addie replied with a laugh.  “She’s a voodoo queen, one of the most respected and feared women in all of Louisiana.”

     Voodoo. 
Voodoo?
  I had no idea that voodoo still existed in modern times.  But of course I was curious so I asked her to tell me all about it.  As I listened to her speak animatedly about Queen Elva and their religion, I noticed something about her.  Addie reminded me a lot of Rachel—same enthusiasm, same air of confidence.  The only difference was the rate at which they spoke.  With Addie’s southern drawl, she would never make the Guinness Book as the world’s fastest talker.  Obviously, no one could ever replace Rachel as my best
living
friend, but my new boss was now definitely in the running for second place.

     Before I knew it, my first day at Poe’s Corner was over and it was nowhere near as terrible as I was anticipating.  And I was a lot less stressed about everything else.  Before catching the next bus home, I sat down at one of the outside café tables and gave Rachel a call.  I needed to get Crimson’s phone number so I could find out what happened to Zach in California.  Rachel instantly panicked.

     “I
knew
something wasn’t right with him!  I got a weird feeling about him the day of his flight home!  Mom called to tell me that he got back okay but that feeling never went away.  I’m psychic. I tell you, psy-chic!”

     After her initial monologue, I could only catch about every other word out of Rachel’s mouth.  Either spending the entire day with slow talker Addie or the fact that I hadn’t talked to Rachel in a while had dulled my ability to keep up with her verbal bullets.  All I caught was something about me needing to respond quicker to her texts and not wanting to be left out of our loop of weirdness simply because she was living in Florida now.  When she stopped to take a breath, I hopped in quickly to end the conversation. 

     “I’m hanging up now so I can call her before I head home.  I’ll let you know what she tells me ASAP.  Bye.”  My phone hadn’t even begun to dial Crimson’s number yet when I received a two word text from Rachel.

     “You BETTER!”

     I was still chuckling to myself over the fact that Rachel texted as fast as she talked when I heard Crimson’s voice on the other end of the line.  I said hello then cut straight to the point.

     “Did anything weird happen to Zach while he was out there?  He’s been acting strange ever since he got home.  I know you don’t know him well but did he act normal while he was out there?  Was he sick at all?”

     “I really don’t know what normal is for him, Ruby.  Sorry.  All I can say is he seemed to be having fun the entire time he was here.  If he didn’t feel well, he never mentioned it and he certainly didn’t act like it.  What’s wrong with him now?”

     Not wanting to get into the details, I pared it down to four simple words.  “Tired.  Headache.  Extremely irritable.”

     “It’s probably just jet lag.  It’s a real killer the first few times around.  I wouldn’t worry too much.”

     Jet lag.  I
knew
it was more than that but I tried to convince myself that she was right.  “Okay.  Thanks, Crimson.”

     “Any time, Ruby.  Tell Zach I said hello.”

     I was hoping that she would tell me that Zach wasn’t himself while he was in Santa Ana but she didn’t.  Now I was faced with the terrible thought that had been lurking under the surface since yesterday.  Me.  It felt like
I
was the problem, like he was intentionally trying to avoid
me
.  Did he change his mind about us right at the point when it was too late to turn back?

     I boarded the bus home with as much dread as I had heading to work this morning.  The only thing I could think about were the words he hastily placed on the napkin for me before leaving this morning.

     “Let me take you shopping.” 

     Maybe I was reading too much into it—letting my imagination run wild again.  I had a bad habit of doing that.  Zach knew how much I loved to shop.  Perhaps he was feeling the same strain I was and this was his attempt to return to common ground with me.  Even still, I had a bad feeling about it.  I was probably the first girl ever to be discomforted by having her boyfriend want to take her shopping.  Maybe being kidnapped by pirates wouldn’t be such a bad thing after all.  Argh.  Welcome to Ohio, me matey.

5.  Fed Up

     When everyone told me that college was completely different from high school, I never realized just
how
different it was going to be.  There were so many people crammed into those lecture halls yet barely any conversation was exchanged.  The professors each droned on about a topic then gave insane reading assignments in books I hadn’t even bought yet.  I couldn’t concentrate and almost fell asleep in every class.

     When my day finally ended, I dragged myself to the student bookstore with a list of everything I needed.  As I was gathering the last few textbooks from the shelf, I suddenly caught a whiff of something heavenly.  It was sweet yet spicy at the same time, sort of like a combination of vanilla and cinnamon yet with some other indescribable scent linking the two together.  I’d never smelled anything like it.  Instantly, I was hungry, in love, and in lust.  Where in the world was it coming from?  Wherever—and whatever—it was, I had to have it right now.

     The books once tucked securely into the crook of my arm, tumbled to the floor beneath me.  That scent, that intoxicating scent was the only thing that mattered to me.  I whipped my head around, searching for its source.  Even though I had no idea what I was looking for, I immediately knew when I found it.

     A few feet to my right, I spotted a brief flicker of orange printed fabric as it swished around to the other side of the bookshelf.  Before I had chance to react; the soft, scintillating sound of laughter began drifting through the books in front of me.  She was on the other side.  Ruby was on the other side teasing me, taunting me.  I had to have her.

     I grabbed a handful of books from the shelf and tossed them to the floor but it wasn’t enough to reveal the face of my goddess on the other side.  Wildly, I flung aside book after book until she became visible.  Her eyes were emeralds lit by an internal fire.  Her hair, soft and wispy, framed her face delicately like the work of art it truly was.  That seductive giggle drifted like a siren song into my ears, driving me insane with desire.  She was mine.  I wanted her
now
.

     Like a man possessed, I dove through the now empty shelf to get to her.  As I reached out to touch her, she backed away and ducked quickly into the next row of shelves.  Why was she teasing me like this?  We’d been together for over a year and she claimed that she wanted me too.  What was the problem?

     “What’s the problem here, son?” a voice behind me echoed my sentiments back to me.

     Automatically, I replied without questioning who I was responding to. 

     “I have no idea why she’s playing these games with me!”

     “So you’re wrecking the place all because of some girl?  That’s not how we do things here at Pendleton University.  Either learn that now or find yourself another college.  You got that?”

     Wrecking the place?  I was about to argue my innocence when I realized that every book on the shelf was now strewn across the floor, victims of my desperate attempt to get to Ruby.  I was so tired but now I was going to have to pick every last one of those freakin’ books up and put them back on the shelf.  It was all
her
fault.  I was seriously getting tired of her girl games.

     I mumbled a quick apology to the security guard who had just busted me for acting like a lovesick idiot and began cleaning up the mess.  The mess
she
made.  The mess she
made
me make.  Luckily, one of the employees felt sorry for me and offered to help.  Twenty minutes later the shelf was back to normal but my head was pulsating with the mother of all headaches.  I found the books I needed, made my purchase, and left with only one thing in mind—sleep.

     I’d barely entered the apartment and closed the door behind me when it reopened and Ruby stepped inside.  Momentary excitement quickly drained into nothing.  If she’d looked and smelled the way she did at the bookstore, I would have jumped her right then and there regardless of my pain and fatigue.  But she didn’t.  In fact, she looked like shit and I felt the urge to tell her that right to her face.  So I did.

     “You look like shit.  Where’s the dress you were wearing?  And that new perfume?  What’s it called?  You should wear that all the time instead of that lame crap you’ve been using since we started dating.”

     That was all it took for her bottom lip to start quivering.  She was either ready to cry or scream at me in anger.  Either way, I wasn’t in the mood for an emotional outburst from her.

     “Zach!” she screamed, as the tears began spilling from her eyes.  “What the hell is wrong with you?!  I wasn’t wearing a dress today
or
new perfume!  I haven’t even seen you since you stormed into the bedroom and slammed the door last night.”

     Great.  Just great.  Tears
and
anger.  She had no reason to be mad at me but I had
every
reason in the world to be angry with her.  She made me look like a moron in public by playing hard to get.  And where exactly was that dress?  She claimed she had no idea what I was talking about but I saw her with my own two eyes.  She was hiding something from me.  Several things, I suspected.

     “Where.  Is.  That.  Dress?” I asked, emphasizing each word so that her illogical girl brain could understand exactly what I was saying.  “Did you leave it at
his
house?  I can’t believe it.  We haven’t even lived here for an entire day and you’re already cheating on me!”

     Her eyes grew wide and her jaw dropped open.  “Zach!  You have
got
to be kidding me!” she shouted back, her eyes widening and taking on a slightly psychotic expression.  “Who in the hell would I be cheating on you
with
?  Aside from my new boss, Addie, I don’t know a single other person in this town besides you!”

     “I don’t know.  But you spent a few days here while I was in Santa Ana—you had more than enough time to find your next victim.”

     “
Victim?
  What the
hell
do you mean by that?”

     “Never mind.  But you have to admit that you had the opportunity to meet someone while I was away.”

     “What?  Are you
crazy
?  Every second I spent in Liberty last week was spent with Shelly no more than ten feet from me!  I couldn’t have cheated on you if I’d wanted to!” 

     I’d never seen Ruby so mad at me.  She looked like she wanted to scalp me with a dull hatchet.  So I took a deep breath and tried to calm down.  “Fine.  I believe you.  But
please
don’t ever lie to me.  Of all the people in my life, I expect total honesty from you.”

     “Well that’s
exactly
what I’m going to give you then,” she countered hotly.  “I don’t know what California did to you, but I don’t like it.  You came back mean and nasty.  You don’t seem to want to be anywhere near me.  And right now, I don’t want to be anywhere near
you
.” She snatched a bag of chips, two cans of soda from the fridge, then her laptop from the coffee table.  “Tonight, the bed is mine.”  With that, Ruby disappeared into the bedroom and slammed the door shut behind her.

     It was only six o’clock but I was so tired and pissed off that I popped two ibuprofen, set the alarm on my phone, then made myself comfortable on the futon.  Both Coco and Foxy tried to snuggle between my legs but I wanted to be left alone.  I was fed up with this entire day and I craved solitude.  Rudely, I scolded both of them until they gave up.  All I wanted was to go to sleep.

6.  Digging for Answers

     All I wanted was to be able to cry in peace.  So I did.  Something was terribly wrong with Zach, but what?  He’d never once told me that I looked bad let alone used such harsh words in the process.  What dress was he talking about?  And new perfume?  It felt like he was making things up just so he could have an excuse to argue with me.  He couldn’t possibly believe that I was cheating on him, could he?  The whole situation was so insanely confusing.