Curse of Christmas: A Collection of Paranormal Holiday Stories

by Thea Atkinson

  Something clamped around my legs. “I got you, Kay!” It was Arianna. She had jumped on top of me and was trying to pull me back.

  The spirit rose, taking me with it and lifting me three feet off the hood. The tentacles around my arms pulsed, and it felt like dozens of tiny needles were puncturing my skin. An ache began to build in the center of my chest, making it harder and harder to breathe. Exhaustion crept into my limbs, and my head fogged. Unconsciousness threatened to take hold. Soon, the feeling of Arianna’s grip became lost altogether.

  The spirit was draining me. Of my lifeforce, just like Arianna had said.

  As my mind floated between aware and not, a small zap of energy flared behind my eyes. Being the only real thing I could feel at the moment, I held onto it. And when it grew, quickly rushing through every inch of me and filling my body with strength, I gasped.

  My eyelids flew open, and I was shocked to see the spirit, the highway, and the horizon—absolutely everything—outlined in brilliant shades of color. Each one pulsed in its own way, too. The trees and brush on the side of the highway were surrounded in different greens, which swayed slowly. A deep purplish-black color clung to the poltergeist and vibrated angrily, as if to say this was a malicious being, one that didn’t belong in this plane. Which were both true.

  What was even more terrifying was the whitish glow clinging to my own skin.

  It reminded me of the golden hue I always saw around Jade—and later on, around Elijah—hinting that they were higher beings. Angels. But I’d never seen it on other spirits or people. Or myself.

  What was happening?

  When the whiteness spread over the blanket-bag of Marc’s remains still in my hand, it began to tremble. As if the fragments of bone and dust inside were moving.

  Right then, the tendrils around my arms loosened and slid away. I fell, smacking into the car’s hood with such force all the air shot from my lungs.

  “Kay!” Arianna yelled.

  I groaned, my vision blurring momentarily. But when everything came into focus again, the strange pops of color were gone. The world was back to normal to my eyes.

  The car door shut, and suddenly, she was standing by me. I could see her dirt-caked sneakers without lifting my head, which was pounding mercilessly.

  She grabbed the bag from my hand and twisted the ends into a sturdy knot. Good thing, too, because I wasn’t sure how much longer I could hold onto it.

  “Can you move?” she asked, placing her hands on my shoulders. “We gotta get you back in the car before it decides to come back.”

  It flew off?

  That was lucky.

  Slowly, I pushed myself up on shaky arms. That’s when I noticed my grandmother’s rosary on the ground near Arianna’s shoes.

  I let her help me onto my feet again. My legs sagged under my own weight, and I was so tired, I feared I might pass out right there on the highway. Throwing my arm over her neck, she half-carried me to the passenger seat.

  “Sorry for getting you tangled up in this mess,” I muttered to her, my voice as weak as the rest of me. Now I was starting to understand why Jade looked so hurt when Laurence had told her to stop bringing her problems to our door. It’s not like she’d done it on purpose. And hurting someone I cared about was the last thing I wanted to do.

  She didn’t appear fazed by my apology at all. “I offered my help,” she said casually and tossed Marc’s remains into the back seat with the rest of her junk. “Besides, I was missing the danger and adventure of my scavenging days.”

  The moment she closed the door, my eyes started to drift close, the fatigue coupled with the pain too great to fight anymore. I hadn’t even heard Arianna get into the car. Or manage to get it started. It wasn’t until I felt her pushing something into my hand that I woke again to find us speeding down the road, now closer to the coast and Fairport, and the sky ablaze with the rising sun.

  And the thing she’d put in my hand? It was my grandmother’s rosary.

  Thankful to have it close again, I let myself fall back into sleep’s waiting embrace.

  Laurence’s concerned voice floated to my ears, bringing me back to the present. “She’s been asleep for too long. I’m going to wake her.”

  “Oh, no you’re not,” Arianna shot back. “Let the poor woman sleep. She needs it.”

  “What if she has a concussion?” he hissed. “You’re not supposed to let someone with a concussion go to sleep.”

  “I know that,” she replied in an angry whisper. “But I’m not cruel. She was exhausted.”

  I peeked an eye open to see I was in a small studio with only a sink, heating plate, lamp, and box of various knickknacks. I was laying on the one piece of furniture in the room, a grey pull-out sofa.

  Not seeing me awake, Laurence and Arianna continued to argue just beyond the doorway, at the top of the stairs.

  I must have been back at Divine Magic, in that apartment Arianna had offered us before.

  “How is anyone supposed to get any sleep around here with you two?” I said and got up. They turned to me.

  “Oops. Sorry,” Arianna said. “How are you feeling?”

  I noted the butterfly stitch Band-Aids on her forehead.

  “Better…” But honestly, my entire body ached. My muscles clenched painfully with every step. Something shifted on my stomach as I moved, and I paused, lifting my shirt a little. When I saw the pieces of gauze taped to my skin, I winced, remembering the windshield I was yanked through. “Where’s the baby?”

  Laurence tapped the baby monitor hooked to his belt. “Sleeping, like his mama was.”

  I was about to ask him how he’d gotten the monitor from our place, but then remembered we’d gotten one for Arianna for the times she babysat here.

  My gaze swung to a nearby window, where the silver moon hung high in the dark sky.

  Wait… Hadn’t the sun been rising a moment ago? I distinctly remembered the horizon lightening during our struggle with the spirit.

  But then, that would mean…

  “You slept through the entire day,” Arianna explained, somehow reading my thoughts. “But don’t worry. It hasn’t been as eventful as this morning was.”

  I’d lost an entire day?

  “We’re pretty sure the poltergeist drained you a bit. It’d make sense why you were suddenly so tired,” she went on.

  That’s what I was thinking, too. But then why had it suddenly let go and disappeared? It had me right where it wanted me, yet it flew off. It didn’t make sense to me.

  Did that weird colorful filter over my eyes have anything to do with it, I wondered. And the bag of Marc’s remains… Were the insides really trembling or had I imagined that?

  As we started down the stairs, Laurence held onto me to help me with each step, and I was grateful. My knees were still a little wobbly.

  In the shop, I found Zach sleeping peacefully in his pack and play behind the counter. The other baby monitor was beside the register, along with a large crystal and a lit candle. Must have been another protective measure from Arianna. I’d have to ask her about it later.

  As we walked further into the storefront of Divine Magic, Arianna pushed in front of us, staring at a shadow outlined in the window of the door. As if someone was trying to peer past the shade and see inside.

  “Someone’s here?” I whispered. Reaching up out of reflex, I felt the rosary around my neck again and squeezed the cross. I really owed Arianna for getting it back for me.

  “Aren’t you closed?” Laurence asked, skeptical.

  She nodded. “And I don’t have any appointments. Must be a curious passerby. Give them a minute. They should go away.”

  A knock on the door. Zach began to squirm, waking from the noise.

  “Maybe not…” Cautiously, she crept toward it. Holding her hand up and muttering in Latin, a cloud of artic air appeared in her palm. Just in case.

  With everything that had happened, it looked like we were all a little skittish.

  As
she ran her finger along the doorframe, she whispered the spells needed to undo the magical locks she’d placed on it. Then she grabbed the handle and ripped the door open.

  There stood a middle-aged man, with a long trench coat on. The fedora on his head was tilted low to conceal most of his face, and he held a duffle bag in hand.

  He said nothing as he slowly lifted the hat, revealing cloudy, completely whited-out eyes.

  Arianna stepped back. I gasped—I couldn’t help it. It was a shocking thing to see.

  Ignoring our gawking, he said in a gruff voice, “Good evenin’, all. I was told you had a little spirit problem you needed help with?”

  Chapter 10

  The necromancer.

  “Rhys.” The spell extinguished in Arianna’s hand, and instead, she waved for him to come in. He did. After reinstating the magical locks on the door again, she said, “I thought you weren’t able to come for another day. We didn’t expect you—”

  “Yes, well, the misses decided last minute to visit family for the holiday, so I took the red-eye over,” he said. “I tried to call the store, but since no one picked up, I left a few messages.”

  Arianna threw Laurence a glare. He shrugged as his way of saying, “I’m not going to take a business call. I’m not a secretary.”

  She sighed and turned back to Rhys. “Well, we’re glad you’re here. And yes, our spirit problem is getting out of hand.”

  He pointed to the gash on her forehead. “I can tell.” When his gaze swiveled my and Laurence’s way, he paused. Without irises or pupils, it was hard to tell who he was looking at exactly, but unease ran through me at his unnatural, eerie stare. I’d never met a necromancer before, but I couldn’t help but wonder if they all had eyes like that. Could he be blind?

  Stepping toward us, his head dipped, as if he was skimming us over, seeing something normal eyes couldn’t.

  Okay, maybe he wasn’t blind. Maybe it was enhanced vision?

  “You’re the one this spirit latched onto?” he asked.

  Laurence and I both stammered, unsure who he was talking to. When he slanted his head my way, I nodded.

  “Y-Yes… It’s me. I’m Kay, and this is my boyfriend, Laurence,” I replied, rambling in my embarrassment. “On my walk home one night, I found some college kids chanting and opening the veil unknowingly. I stopped them before it got out of hand—at least I thought I had. The next day, I was attacked by this thing.”

  “Is that your baby?” he asked and pointed to the crib behind the counter.

  I glanced at Zach, who was awake now, kicking his arms and legs and babbling. “Yes.”

  To my surprise he smiled, his entire face lighting up. “He’s about the same age as my grandson. Maybe a little younger. What’s his name?”

  “Zachary,” I said.

  “Ah, my grandson is Paulie.” His gaze switched to Laurence and his broken wrist still in a sling. “You all look like you’ve been through the wringer.”

  “You have no idea,” Laurence grumbled.

  “Poltergeists can be powerful and relentless spirits, which it looks like you all can attest to,” he said. “Can I ask what supernatural you are?” The question was directed toward me.

  “I’m a Medium,” I said.

  He paused, brows pinching as if he wasn’t sure I was telling him the truth. “And you weren’t able to get rid of this spirit on your own?”

  His question threw me off guard. What was he implying? That this was easy?

  If I could reason with the thing, you think I wouldn’t have done it by now?

  “Obviously not,” Laurence snapped.

  “Hmm…” Rhys rolled his shoulders back. “Well, I’ll do whatever I can to help. I just need the payment.”

  I peeked at Laurence. That’s right, the three grand…

  Without hesitating, Laurence reached into his pocket, pulled out a folded check, and passed it to him. Not even bothering to look at it, he stuffed it into his coat pocket with a satisfied grunt.

  “We also were able to figure out the spirit’s living name and dug him up,” Arianna said.

  Rhys’s eyebrows shot up at that. “You did all the dirty work already.”

  “Does that mean we can get some money back?” Laurence grumbled. I elbowed him in the ribs.

  If Rhys heard him, he didn’t react to it. Instead, he walked over to the counter, plopped his duffle bag down, unzipped it, and began pulling out the contents. Candles, mostly. A dagger. A jar of dirt. A jug of clear liquid with a cross sunken inside—Holy Water was my guess. And what looked to be a folded, embroidered tablecloth.

  Glancing between the three of us, he said, “We have only a few hours until midnight, and while I set up, there are still a couple things I need for this to work. I’ll also need every protection spell taken off this place to allow the spirit to enter during the ritual.”

  “I’ll handle that,” Arianna said, already moving to the shop’s display window to start the long process of taking off the wards.

  “I can help,” Laurence offered.

  “I think it’s better if you help Kay,” she said with a sympathetic look. “My aunt and I put them up, so it’ll be better if I’m the one who takes them down.”

  Even though it had been a kind way of saying no, Laurence frowned.

  Rhys plucked a piece of paper out of his bag and handed it to Laurence. “These are the other objects I need, including a wide table to set everything up.”

  I leaned over and scanned the list with him. “A permanent marker. Kosher salt.” I read aloud. “Matches and a fire extinguisher?”

  “After trapping the spirit, we’ll have to burn the body at the end to banish it from both sides of the veil. To prevent it from coming back for you,” Rhys explained. “Sometimes the fire part can get a little out of hand, so that last one’s precautionary.”

  “What about the four bottles of sparkling water?” Laurence asked to the last item on the list. “Wouldn’t regular water be just as good as dowsing a fire?”

  Taking his hat off and placing it in the duffle bag, Rhys cleared his throat. He was balding up top and graying everywhere else. “The bottles are for me. Banishing an evil spirit can make a guy thirsty.”

  Laurence rolled his eyes my way, his expression telling me he was having second thoughts about this guy. But if Arianna suggested him, and her Aunt Marla had him in her book, he had to be legitimate. Even as ridiculous as his requests were…

  At least, that was what I was telling myself.

  Just before midnight, Arianna had managed to get every protection spell and extra magical ward off the store and Laurence and I had found all of the items on Rhys’s list. Well, except the sparkling water. He’d have to deal with a half-carton of orange juice that Arianna had left in the minifridge.

  Using one of the shop’s display tables, Rhys had laid out all the objects he needed on it. The candles were lit. A symbol had been drawn with permanent marker on his embroidered tablecloth, and a bowl full of Marc Anders’s remains, salt, and the grave dirt sat in the center of it. With all the magic that had kept the spirit away now gone, we had only minutes before it found me again and attacked.

  My biggest worry was Zach. I didn’t want him near this chaos and danger. What I really wanted was for Laurence to go back to the apartment with him, to keep him safe, but he refused to leave me. And Arianna—she was our best fighter and spellcaster, no offense to Laurence. We needed her here just in case things went bad.

  I couldn’t go anywhere with the spirit hunting me. It’d only come if I was here.

  So, since he had to stay here, we put his crib upstairs with the baby monitor on standby. My hope was that he slept through the entire thing, completely unaware of what his parents were involved in.

  When the familiar icy chill ricocheted through me, every one of my muscles tensed. My gaze snapped toward Rhys, who was turning my way at the same time, letting me know he felt it, too.

  “It’s here,” he breathed, his whited-out
eyes glowing eerily.

  Laurence took my hand and gave it a comforting squeeze. “Ready?” he asked.

  No.

  “As ready as I’ll ever be for something like this,” I replied instead, my wavering voice revealing my fear.

  Arianna was scanning the store, hands outstretched and at the ready.

  Rhys stepped up to the table and picked up the jug of Holy Water. “Remember, it’ll not like what we’re doing, so expect a fight. But whatever happens, do not let it touch you. It can try and hold on to your soul to prevent being pulled into its body and banished.”

  I didn’t like the sound of that.

  I watched as he poured the Holy Water into the bowl and dunked his hands into the soggy mixture. Tilting his chin up to the ceiling, he closed his eyes and drew in a slow breath.

  Silence spilled over the room as we waited. The only noises were the soft crackle of the baby monitor on Laurence’s hip and my own frantic heartbeat against my eardrums.

  Then a breeze stirred my curls, caressing the side of my cheek, and I spun to see wind passing over everyone, ruffling their clothes, and disturbing some of the jewelry for sale on the shelves. As the wind built, swirling around the room like the making of a tornado, I dropped to my knees, covering my head, and clutched the cross around my neck. Laurence came with me, his unslung arm wrapping around my shoulders.

  He may have been trying to say something comforting to me, but with the wind now whipping past us, the roar made it almost to impossible to hear. Merchandise flew off their displays. Books shot open, their pages flapping violently. The flames from the candles erupted upward, sparking and hissing and throwing more red light about the room.

  “Hold steady!” Rhys shouted against the turbulence.

  Memories of my failed channeling attempt flashed across my mind—the candles, the storm-like winds, the booming noises—and the same panic I’d felt then reared up again.