The Candle (Haunted Series Book 23)

by Alexie Aaron

“Yup. He says it, and I was caught off guard and laughed my behind off. And now, I’m banned from meeting Rand Templeton.”

  “Rancid,” Audrey said and grinned. “It’s a good one. Wait until I tell Orion.”

  “Fortunately for us, Cid only pouted a little. He’s cooking gumbo for all of us. I’ve already made the corn muffins. And I believe you’re supposed to bring the dessert.”

  “Yes,” Audrey said with her eyes twinkling. “I have a surprise for us all.”

  “Come on, tell me.”

  “No, you have to wait just like the others.”

  “I’m intrigued,” Mia said.

  The downstairs of the farmhouse was full of people. The little guys dominated the floor of the room with the bushel basket full of stuffed dinosaurs Glenda brought with her to entertain the young children. She pulled one out of the basket, and Brian gave the proper name for it. Glenda would make a face and give it a silly name, making the little guys laugh. Baby laughs were contagious. Soon everyone was in a relaxed mood.

  PEEPs had just finished filming a haunt, and the group decided it was time to celebrate. Burt and Mike were really pleased with the professionalism the group showed for a change. Mia started off a bit stiff on camera but warmed up once Mike started teasing her. Audrey had the research done before they started, and the techs had no problems with filming the old haunted monastery.

  “Going into this, I thought that ghost monks might be too placid, not very entertaining,” Mia commented. “They stood there watching us, wrapped in those brown robes. I started to worry that they had taken a vow of silence, but after Mike broke that bottle of wine and they started chasing him, I knew we had ourselves a haunt.”

  “Just where were you when I was cornered in the bell tower?” Mike asked. “The bells were deafening.”

  “She was ringing the bell,” Ted tattled.

  “It was Murphy’s turn to follow you, and you know how much I love steps,” Mia said, looking at her nails.

  Mike shook his head. “I may never get rid of the tinnitus.”

  “Oh, it can’t be as bad as having to listen to two tone-deaf women sing hymns in the chapel,” Cid said. “It was horrible. Even Jake quit for the day.”

  “I thought the idea was to prod the ghosts into doing something,” Mia said. “Besides, Audrey’s and my rendition of the “Hallelujah” chorus will never be forgotten.”

  “Don’t worry, I dropped the audio after the screeching began,” Ted said.

  Dieter and Mark walked in carrying some chairs from upstairs.

  “I guess that’s my cue to serve the gumbo,” Cid said.

  The dinner talk progressed to other happy things. The babes were fed and burped and carried upstairs to bed. Brian was given permission to watch hockey with the older boys in the aerie as long as he didn’t repeat any of the words he lip-read.

  When the boys left the farmhouse, Audrey commented, “Brian has become very amenable.”

  “That a polite way of saying the brat has left the building,” Ted said, picking up the gumbo bowls.

  “Well, he was rather, um, bratty,” Mia admitted. “The summer working with my father, combined with his romp on the island with Ed, has taught him some manners and how to choose his words more carefully.”

  “How so?” Orion asked, interested.

  “Well, he told Ed that fishing was a simpleton’s task,” Ted said. “So, Ed took him fishing, telling him that they couldn’t return until Brian had bested him in the amount they caught. The gist was that Brian had assumed, incorrectly, that it wasn’t a sport that involved skill.”

  “I don’t care if I ever eat another lake perch again,” Mia admitted. “They came home with a boat full. Neither fisherman would relent. But Brian did learn to think first before calling Ed a simpleton.”

  “He still talks a lot,” Ted said.

  “That’s the pot calling the kettle black,” Mike commented.

  Ted ignored him. Mia had warned Ted that Mike was in a mood and not to fall for any of his traps.

  “I think everyone goes through phases,” Glenda said. “Even we adults. I remember a few things about each of you that you’ve changed.”

  “Mia’s language,” Burt said. “When we first met, I was shocked.”

  “You weren’t raised by wolves like I was,” Mia said. “You’d be surprised what cuss words a wolf can come up with.”

  “Having children changed you, didn’t it?” Audrey said. “It did me.”

  “That and the threat of Murphy’s bar of soap,” Mia said, winking at the ghost who stood in the corner observing the gathering.

  “I would not want to piss off that ghost,” Mike said. “In the beginning, I was friendly, and he gave me hell.”

  “You were too friendly. That’s why he gave you hell,” Mia said.

  “No better man,” Burt said. “I’d like to raise what’s left in my glass to Stephen Murphy.”

  “Here, here!” Mike said.

  Mia clicked her glass with everyone within reach. Her stomach growled loudly. “Oh my, my dessert stomach needs filling,” she explained.

  “Mia, you only have one stomach,” Cid said.

  “That not what it feels like,” Mia said. “I stuffed myself full of gumbo, and yet, my dessert stomach is empty.”

  Audrey got up, pulling Orion up after her.

  They walked out to their car and returned with a three-tiered birthday cake. “I thought that since we have never celebrated one of our birthdays due to scheduling conflicts and Mia not knowing when she was born...”

  “Mia was hatched,” Murphy said from the corner.

  Mia waved a finger his way. “That’s only a rumor.”

  “Back to the cake,” Audrey said, pleased that Murphy and Mia weren’t at each other’s throats. “I thought that we could celebrate all our birthdays at once. Now, Orion, where are those candles?”

  “Here,” Orion said, putting a basket full of interesting looking candles down.

  “Choose a candle, and put it on the cake. We found these at a fair downtown. The old man that sold them to us guarantees that at least one of us will get our wish.”

  “Clever way to get rid of old candles,” Glenda said, choosing hers.

  “Murphy, you too,” Audrey instructed.

  “But all my birthdays have stopped,” he argued.

  “Be a sport,” Orion said. “It’ll make Audrey happy.”

  Murphy walked over and drew out a candle. He leaned over and inserted it in the cake.

  “Who’s got a match?” Audrey asked.

  Mia cleared her throat. “Who needs a match,” she said, clicking her fingers and pointing to the topmost candle. A flame appeared, and once the candle was lit, it jumped to the next candle until all of them had been lit.

  “Neat trick, Minnie Mouse,” Ted said.

  “It’s a happy birthday to us…” Audrey started to sing.

  The group sang a verse and finished by taking a gulp of air and blowing out the candles.

  Mia laughed when Mike’s candle relit again and again.

  “Mia, stop it,” he warned.

  “It’s not me. It must be a trick candle,” she said, holding out her hands.

  “Yes, I can see you washed them. Stop lighting the candle…”

  Mia laughed so hard. “It’s not me, I swear!”

  Audrey reached over and tapped Orion on the shoulder. “Dear, please, the icing is melting.”

  “Alright,” Orion said and snapped his fingers. The candle stopped flickering.

  Mike blew it out. “Phew! That was a hard wish to get.”

  “But I’m still here,” Ted said, patting down his body.

  Everyone laughed.

  Chapter Three

  Wyatt pulled out of Mia’s mind. “I know what happened,” he said and walked over to a wall of shelves, positioned the ladder, and climbed it and selected a book. He motioned for Mia to come over to the table.

  “What did you find?”

  He turned
the page and tapped on it, asking, “Did any of the candles look like this one?” He showed her a candle with symbols etched into it.

  “I’m not sure, maybe. Why?”

  “One of the partygoers wished for this to happen.”

  “Wished me a kid? Why?”

  “No, they probably wished that they were twenty years younger. But you must pay for wishes; nothing is ever free. The candle made the person younger by reversing time. Everyone is younger by twenty years,” Wyatt decided. “The others probably don’t even know this has happened. You only know because of your gifts.”

  “This is when my gift becomes a curse because, unlike everyone else, I know what I’ve lost.”

  “True, but you can also try to fix this.”

  “It can be fixed? How?” Mia asked.

  “The person who wished this must break the candle in two. Everything will revert to the time of the wish with nothing having been changed. But it must be done before the next moon,” Wyatt said, tapping the book. He walked over to his calendar and called out, “Mia, you have two weeks.”

  “And if I don’t succeed?” she asked.

  “You’ll have to live out this timeline.”

  “That means, in order for me to end up with Brian and Varden, I’ll have to do everything the same. That means…”

  “Losing all you have lost. Bearing all the pain again. Stopping yourself from correcting mistakes. Every moment of your life must be the same. It is a curse, Mia.”

  “It’s also an impossible feat. I don’t remember everything I did in the last week, let alone the last twenty years, and then there’s the others…”

  “I think that’s the caveat of the candle,” Wyatt said. He rang the bell beside him.

  Nordin walked in.

  “Have this picture copied and the text dealing with the candle curse translated for Mia.”

  “Yes, sir,” Nordin said. “It will take me a little time.”

  “In the meanwhile, Mia and I will have a few games of chess,” Wyatt told his butler.

  “Very well, sir,” Nordin said and left them.

  Mia pulled herself away from her thoughts and spoke, “K, just to be clear, I can change things with impunity as long as the candle gets broken before the full moon ends.”

  “Yes.”

  “It doesn’t make any sense. It should affect the future no matter what.”

  “It would if this was science, but it’s magic,” Wyatt said.

  Mia took out a nub of a pencil and folded up an old card Ralph had sent her from her purse. She wrote down the names of those who took a candle:

  Mia Cooper Martin

  Theodore Martin

  Cid Garrett

  Mike Dupree

  Glenda Dupree

  Burt Hicks

  Stephen Murphy

  Audrey McCarthy Stavros

  Orion Stavros

  Mia sighed, tapping the card against the table. “I can already see problems.”

  “How can I help?” Wyatt asked.

  “You’re going to help me?” Mia asked, surprised. “Why?”

  “I was in your head. I know what’s in jeopardy.”

  “Your wings,” Mia said.

  “Much more than that,” Wyatt said.

  Mia got up. “I’m going to start right away. I guess it’s Audrey I should start with. She’s local. I don’t know how I’ll find Orion. Maybe my grandmother would know? But maybe my grandmother is in on this. It smells like something the Council of Women would do.”

  “So, you’ve already thought about why this happened,” Wyatt said, impressed.

  “It could be accidental,” Mia mused. “If I got the candle for example.”

  “What did you wish for?” Wyatt asked.

  “If I tell you, it won’t come true,” Mia said impishly.

  “Tell me.”

  “I wished that Murphy and I could just be friends again,” she said.

  “The poor farmer isn’t immune to your charms?” Wyatt asked, not knowing their future history.

  “I’m as much to blame as he is.” Mia stood up and said, “You may not believe me, but this paragon of feminine beauty and amazing wit isn’t appreciated by my peers. I have and will have no real friends. I will be shunned. Only one male took pity on me and let me hang around. And so, when the PEEPs arrived, and I got all that attention, it went to my head and to other places. I’d like to believe it’s my demon genes. I’d love to lay all the blame there, but Wyatt, you’re a demon, you know you can control it. I loved the attention. I loved that finally people, especially males, appreciated me.”

  Wyatt looked across the chessboard at the child with the woman’s memories who was trying to explain her life. “Go on,” he encouraged.

  “Murph is, was, and will be amazing. I can’t help being attracted to him. It’s not just his power; it’s all the little things that make up the ghost. But he’s dead. I’m not a cat. I don’t play with dead things.”

  “That last sentence doesn’t sound like you.”

  “I suppose it’s something my mother said to me when I was examining a bird who had been killed by an ill attempt to fly through plate glass. She said, ‘Child, you’re not a cat. Stop playing with that dead thing.’”

  “Funny how little remarks can burrow into you psyche,” Wyatt said thoughtfully. “So, if you knew this about yourself, why did you act this way?”

  “Oh, I had no idea why I was acting out. I think I may have laid the blame on lots of things that had happened to me, maybe also on a curse which I’d begun to wonder about. But that’s for me to deal with at another time. Anyway, yes, if I could have led a polygamist lifestyle, I may not have hurt my best friend.”

  “Mia, there’s more to it,” Wyatt said as he arranged the ornate chess pieces on the marble board.

  “Yes. I needed to protect Murphy and I from the retribution the universe would inflict if we became intimate. He would be hunted down, sent to the Dark World. I would either end up dead or in an asylum somewhere. You would think this would keep us in line,” Mia said. She looked down and saw that Wyatt had given her the white pieces. She selected a pawn and moved it on the board.

  Wyatt move a pawn before he spoke. “You have the opportunity to reenter a relationship with Murphy without hurting Ted. Ted’s somewhere else…”

  “Kansas.”

  “He’s a teenager in Kansas. He doesn’t know you exist. You’re free to pursue Stephen Murphy when you’re old enough.”

  Mia looked up from the board. “I may be a twelve-year-old on the outside, but my mind, heart, and soul are thirty-two years old. I’m in love with Ted. I think even now my heart hurts because of the absence of him and my children. All my children, not just the blood ones. Also, my friends… you and…” Mia stopped talking and moved her bishop out.

  Wyatt watched as a thick tear moved its way down her face. He wanted to capture it. It was pure anguish born from love. His friend and wizard Quazar would pay a pretty penny for it. Once it was revealed who the tear came from, there would be a bidding war, and Quazar, if he sold it, would become a rich man. Wyatt forced his thoughts back to the game. He moved another pawn.

  “Mia, I’ll help you all I can. I may have fallen from grace, but I sense what is happening right now affects both sides of the equation. If we fail, we’ll deal with the consequences. But you’re not going to be alone in this.”

  “Careful, Wyatt, you’re letting your angel show,” Mia said and moved her queen across the board, taking out Wyatt’s queen. “Checkmate.”

  Wyatt looked at his only move which was to take out her queen, but that was guarded by her bishop. “How did you do this without sacrificing any of your men?” he asked.

  “Your mind wasn’t on the game,” Mia said. “Life has taught me that sometimes you have to sacrifice something to win.”

  “But that’s not how you played this game,” Wyatt said. “Mia, I believe this is an omen, a good omen,” he said quickly. “You may be able to accomplish
the task set out before you. Time will reset, and all will be well.”

  “I never remembered optimism as being your thing,” Mia said.

  “Maybe the world wore me down.”

  “If I had my arsenal of powers, which includes a set of wings, I’d be more confident of success. All I have right now is the ability to see ghosts.”

  “And your memories of the people involved,” Wyatt said, tapping her card. He turned it over, picked it up, and read, “Hippo Birdie Two Ewes.” He opened the card. “Don’t let life get in the way of enjoying it to the fullest! Love, Bernard and Ralph.”

  “They are my godfathers. They estimated when they thought my birthday was and sent me this card. And yes, it had money in it. I haven’t spent it all, which is a good thing because I’ve got to purchase bus fare to Wichita, Kansas.”

  “You don’t find it peculiar that you chose this to write your list on?”

  “It was in my purse,” Mia said, brushing it off.

  “Mia, look at me,” Wyatt commanded.

  She looked over at the old man with the demon eyes. She liked his eyes. They reminded her of… best not to go there. She concentrated and kept herself in the moment.

  “Mia, you can do this. I’m confident that you can. I think you need to visit each person on the list, and I’ll track down Orion for you. I know a guy. It’s this guy we need to see after we get permission from your parents. How do I explain to your mother and father that an old man and his butler would like to be in charge of their twelve-year-old daughter for two weeks and get them to agree to it?”

  “Does it matter? Can’t I just disappear? My parents are distracted with each other. They may not miss me for a few days.”

  Wyatt opened the card and turned it around to face her. “But these guys will, and they will cause trouble. It may stop our progress. Remember, you may have to live out this timeline, and I don’t think a stint in juvie for being a runaway will be the way to start it.”

  Mia picked up her pieces and placed them back on the board. She picked up Wyatt’s queen and looked at it before handing it to him.

  “That’s it!” he exclaimed.

  “What is?” Mia asked, worried that the old demon was having a heart attack.