Souls Apart (Book 1 in the Lost Souls Trilogy) (7 page)

“Yeah, but that was him in a past life.
 
He’s changed now.
 
He’s lovely.”

Amber raised her voice. “He isn’t, Charls!”

The people in the library glared at us.

“I have to see him, otherwise he’ll suspect
something,” I whispered.

“As long as you’re sure.
 
You can’t tell him anything about the ring
though.”

“I know that. I’m not stupid.”

“Just as long as we’re on the same page.
 
Text me as soon as you get back tonight.
 
If I don’t hear from you I’m calling the
police.”

“Ambs, I think you’re getting a bit carried away—“

“This is serious now, Charls.
 
He scares me and he’s starting to scare
you.
 
He lives in a hut next to a
cemetery for goodness sake!”

The librarian came over. “I’m sorry ladies but we’re
getting some complaints about the noise.”

“It’s ok,” I said. “We’re going now.”

***

I took the ring from my sock drawer and held it inside
my palm; I felt tears welling up inside my eyes. It was a different feeling,
this time; like a huge release of emotion. It was a heavenly feeling, as though
angels were watching over me or something and then I heard the voice.
 
It’s
payback time.
I knew then that I was Emily.
 
How could I be with Eddie knowing what he was capable of? It didn’t seem
to matter anymore that we were both in a new life; his soul was evil.
 
I put the ring on my finger and stepped into
my long floral dress.
 
It had gone a
little chilly so I put on my boots and my duffle coat.
 
I was dreading telling him but I had to do
it.
 
My heart lurched as I saw him at the
top of the hill.
 
He wasn’t smiling. “Hi,”
I said.

“Why are you doing this to me?” he said, a look of
hurt spreading across his face.

“What do you mean?” I felt scared. Had he seen me at
the library?

“I know you don’t want to marry me.
 
I had a dream about it.” He looked genuinely
sad.

I felt so guilty. “I love you so much, Eddie but I’m
not ready for marriage yet. I’m sorry. Can’t we just carry on as we were?”

“If you loved me you’d marry me.
 
We can sort out whatever worries you’ve got.”

“I’m just not ready.
 
I’ll be going to college in the fall.
 
I’ve already got a place at
Husson
.”

“
Husson
in Maine?” He looked horrified.

“It’s got one of the best law departments.”

“You said you’d never leave me.”

“I won’t be leaving you.
 
It’s not that far away.
 
I’ll be back every weekend and you can come
and stay with me.
 
You could even come
live with me.
 
It’s better than your
hut.”

He sneered again. “You think you’re so much better
than me, don’t you? How dare you do this to me. You’ll be sorry.”

His eyes darkened again and I was really scared.
 
We were still at the bottom of the hill and,
for once, I hoped my mom was watching through the window. “I love you,
Eddie.
 
Surely you want the best for me;
the best for us?” I reached for his hand but he pulled it away and put it in
his pocket.

 
“The best thing
for us is to get married and start a family like most normal people.”

“I agree, but we can do that when we’re a little older
and when I’ve got a good job.”

“I know you think I can’t support us but I’ll find us
something, you’ll see.”

I wanted to get away.
 
I was torn.
 
I loved him but I
knew he’d drag me down with him if I didn’t stand up for myself. “Like I said,
I love you so much but you’re suffocating me.
 
I need some space.
 
If you really
love me you’d understand.” I took off the ring and felt so much better as I
handed it back to him.

“Take as much space as you need.
 
You’ll be sorry.
 
You’ll never leave me Charlotte Perry.” His
eyes glinted and for the first time I saw inside his soul and saw pure evil. I
shuddered. I’d had a lucky escape.

 
“I don’t want
to leave you, Eddie.
 
I just wish you’d
understand that I can have a career and my own life and still love you too. You
need to set me free.”

He shrugged his shoulders. “Why does this always
happen? I keep saying to myself that things will be different this time and
that you’ll love me too much to want to leave me; but you always do this.”

I knew he was talking about our past lives. “I’m not
leaving you, though.”

“Oh, but you are. You just don’t know it.”

“I think I’d best go home now.”

“See, you can’t wait to leave.”

I could see such hurt in his eyes and in spite of
everything I knew I loved him and I felt so sorry for him being all alone.
 
I reached out for him and this time he didn’t
push me away.
 
He didn’t reach for me
back either, though. “Eddie, why can’t you see how much I love you?”

He gazed into my eyes and I noticed his eyes had
lightened again. “I know you love me but you’ll never love me as much as I love
you. Never.”

“I didn’t mean what I said about having a break.
Please can we keep seeing each other?”

He ran his fingers through my hair and it felt nice.
“Ok. But please can you reconsider marrying me?”

“Ok.”

I watched him climb up the hill; slowly this time, as
though he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. I phoned Amber when I
got home and she was a little angry that I’d not had the guts to totally break
it off with him but she was glad I was safe; as was I.

Now that I didn’t have the ring I fell into a deep
sleep; the best I’d had in days.

-14-

I pulled back the drapes and stared at the mansion
house.
 
Did I really live there as Emily Gray?
And if I did, could it mean the people living there now were sort of my
ex-relatives.
 
I started to get ready for
school.
 
I reached for my hairbrush and
noticed a mark on my ring finger.
 
It was
bruised.
 
It was strange because it
wasn’t really hurting me.
 
I pulled my
hair back into a ponytail, brushed my teeth and went down to get breakfast.

Mom was already up pouring coffee. I could smell
toast.
 
She’d buttered it and put it in
the toast rack and so I took a piece; enjoying the taste of melted butter on my
tongue.
 
I felt good today, for the first
time in ages.

“How are you today?” Mom asked as she sat down with
her coffee opposite me.

“I feel great, how are you?”

“I’ve got an interview today, actually.
 
If I get it I won’t have to work two shifts any
more and I’ll get to spend more time with you.”

“Mom, that’s great.
 
Where is it?”

She placed her coffee on the table and held it tightly
in her hands. “It’s in Maine.
 
Not far from your college.”

“What?”

“If I get it I can come with you to Maine and we can still live together, if you
want.”

I thought about Eddie. “But if you move to Maine I won’t be able to
come back here at weekends.”

“What is there here for us? Once you go to college
you’ll meet other boys and you’ll forget about Eddie.”

“Mom, why are you doing this?”

“It’s fate don’t you see? It’s a fresh start for both
of us.
 
Now that you’re older I’m ready
to get on with my life too.
 
There’s
nothing here for me, Charls.”

“I’ve got to get to school.”

“You can’t avoid this talk.
 
I’m going to the interview and I’ll move to Maine with or without
you.”

I grabbed my school bag and knocked for Amber.
 
Now I wouldn’t be able to see her at weekends
either.
 
I just had to pray Mom didn’t
get the new job. Amber answered the door; toast still hanging out of her mouth.
“I’m so tired today,” she mumbled. I didn’t answer.
 
I had so much going around in my head.

“What’s up with you?” she asked.

“Ambs, Mom might be selling the house and moving to Maine with me.
 
She’s says there’s nothing here for her.
 
She isn’t thinking about me at all.”
The color drained from Amber’s face. “What did you say?”

“I told her she was being selfish but she said she’s
moving with or without me.”

“But you can’t go for good; I’ll miss you.”

I fought back tears. “And I’ll miss you too.”

“And what about Eddie? He’ll go mad if you aren’t
going to be coming back at weekends.”

“I know.
 
I
don’t know what I’m going to do.
 
I just
hope she doesn’t get the job.”

I found it hard to concentrate for the rest of the
day. It was lucky we’d already done all of our tests and we weren’t really
doing any real work.
 
We both had a free
period after lunch and so Amber had agreed to come with me to the mansion.
 
If the blonde woman was my ex-relative of
sorts then I wanted to find out more about her and my past.
 
We were both going to pretend that we were
doing research for a history project and go from there. I was willing to risk
her thinking I was weird.
 

Amber knocked loudly on the door again and eventually
somebody answered it.
 
It was the blonde
woman from the attic sale. “Hello again,” she said. “Can I help you?”

“We’re doing a history project at school,” Amber
began, “and we were wondering if we could ask you a few questions about this
house and some people who used to live here.”

She paused, giving us both the once over. “I would
have preferred some sort of notice but luckily for you I’m not busy.
 
Come in.”

We followed her through the huge entrance hall and
into a room on the left which looked like something off Cribs.
 
It was amazing with its marble floors and
huge leather sofas.
 
The mix of the old
building with modern furniture worked well. She invited us to sit next to her
on one of the sofas.
 
I let Amber do most
of the talking.
 
She was hoping to be a
journalist and it would be good practice for her.

“I’d like to as you about her,” Amber said, passing
the blonde woman a print out of the photo of Emily and Edward. The blonde
inhaled sharply and started to twist pieces of hair around her fingers. “That
would be my great grandparents,” she said. “Why do you want to know about my great
grandmother?”

“It says in this article that she drowned but there is
talk in the village that maybe her husband did it? I know this is a little
sensitive for you but we’d be interested to know what you think about these
rumours.”

She shifted in her seat and started to nibble on her
fingernails.
 
I thought this was strange
behaviour for someone who seemed so statuesque and composed. “I used to hear
people talking about it when I was at school but Mom told me to ignore the
gossip. That’s all it is.
 
She drowned.
I’m not denying they may have had a huge argument and that’s why she went to
the lake, but how could he kill his wife.
 
She’d not long given birth to my gran.”

I felt a sharp pain in my chest.
 
I’d had a child with Eddie.
 
He hadn’t mentioned that “Where’s your gran
now?” I asked.

The blonde looked sad. “She died; almost a year ago
now.
 
That’s why we had the attic sale;
we couldn’t bear to keep all of her stuff.
 
We wanted to get rid of the past and start afresh.”

“So the gold dress I bought was your grandmother’s?” I
asked.

“It was her Mom’s.” She looked at the photo,
“Emily’s.
 
She was wearing it the night
she died. I don’t know why Great Gran wanted to keep it. I’d have destroyed
it.”

Things were starting to make more sense now but I was
still confused.

“What happened to your gran’s husband then?” Amber
asked.

“He got killed in the war. Gran was only twenty.
 
She lived here by herself the rest of her
life. She was a recluse in the end.
 
She
used so scare me a little.”

I realized that it must have been her I’d seen at the
window when I was small.
 
How weird that
I’d given birth to her in my previous life. Why had she scared me so much?
Surely I would have known on some sort of level that she was special to
me.
 
It only just hit me that the blonde
was my relative too.
 
She would be my
great great grand-daughter.
 
This was
just weird.
 
This is probably why most
people don’t remember their past lives.
 
They can totally mess up your current life.