by Terri Reid
Mary shook her head. “No, that’s not an option,” she said. “He stays, and you go. You got your dance. You got prom. Now you cross over.”
Julie smiled at Mary and then turned her gaze back to Bradley. “It’s time to go now,” she sang.
Like a cold, steel vise, Bradley felt pressure around his neck, cutting off the air.
“Don’t worry,” Julie said. “It doesn’t take very long.”
Mary whipped her arms in Julie’s direction, praying for residual effects, but nothing happened. And Bradley’s face was turning purple.
“No!” she screamed, running at Julie. “No, you can’t kill him.”
Mary felt the cold, but she had no impact on the crazed spirit. “Please!” Mary screamed. “Someone help me.”
“Julie.” Bradley’s voice came from behind Mary. She spun around and saw Bradley’s spirit walking across the room.
“Oh, no,” Mary cried, slowly dropping to her knees.
Bradley’s human form dropped onto the ground while Julie turned toward the voice. She smiled at him. “That was fast,” she said.
He nodded. “Are you ready to go with me?” he asked. “To cross over?”
She paused, looking skeptical. “If I cross over can I come back?” she asked.
He shook his head. “No, but we’ll be together. Forever.”
“Bradley, don’t go,” Mary cried. “Fight it. We both know you can fight it.”
He smiled down at Mary. “I’ll be a great guardian angel,” he said.
“No,” she sobbed, wrapping her arms around her stomach. “No, I can’t do this without you.”
He shook his head. “Don’t worry,” he said. “Things will be fine.”
Then he held out his hand. “Come on Julie,” he said. “Before Mary convinces me to stay.”
Julie looked at Mary and then at the spirit in front of her and nodded. “Okay,” she said with a casual shrug. “I’ll go.”
She took his hand and he led her forward. “Good-bye, Mary,” he called and then they both faded away.
Chapter Fifty-eight
Mary stared in disbelief at the place in the room where they faded away. “No,” she cried, shaking her head, sobs wracking her body. “No, this wasn’t supposed to happen.”
Then she heard a cough.
She turned. Her breath caught in her throat and she looked at Bradley’s body on the ground. “Cough. Cough. Cough.”
She crawled across the floor to him. He was breathing! His skin had color to it, and he was coughing. She threw herself into his arms. “Oh, Bradley,” she sobbed. “You came back.”
He wrapped his arms around her and held her. “I didn’t leave,” he whispered, his voice hoarse. “He came. He came before I was unconscious.”
“Who came?” she asked. “I saw you. I saw you there.”
“My dad,” Bradley said. “I heard his voice in my head. He told me to drop.” Bradley was crying, too. “My dad came back and saved me.”
She wiped her tears with her palms and shook her head. “Okay, you can’t die,” she said. “You don’t know what I just went through.” She trembled and inhaled sharply. “I really thought I’d lost you.”
He held her and kissed her. “No, I won’t die,” he promised her. “I’ll always be here for you.”
She lay in his arms for several minutes. Then she finally looked up at him. “Your dad? That was your dad?”
She could feel the rumble of his chuckle through his chest. He continued to hold her and nodded. “It was really strange,” he said. “It was like he was in my head.”
He turned and looked at her. “I didn’t know you went to his gravesite,” he said.
“Oh, well, I actually went to see Jeannine,” she said. “But since he was there…”
He smiled at her. “You thought you’d give him a piece of your mind?” he asked.
“I was polite,” she said, laying her head on his shoulder.
“He told me he was proud of me,” Bradley said, awe in his voice. “He said that he’d always been proud of me but didn’t know how to say it. And then…”
His voice broke. Mary lifted her head and met his eyes. “What did he say?”
“He said he’d been watching me and was proud of the man I’d become,” he said softly.
She reached up and kissed him. “I like your dad,” she said.
Bradley smiled. “I think he likes you, too,” he said.
Just then Mikey kicked them both, and Bradley smiled at Mary. “I heard him tell you he was going to be a guardian angel,” he said.
“Yeah, well, I’m feeling much better about that comment knowing that was your dad and not you,” she said.
“Me too,” he said, kissing her again. “Me, too.”
Chapter Fifty-nine
Mary woke up Saturday morning and was surprised to see the sun shining through her window. She glanced at the clock to see that it was already past nine o’clock. “Good grief,” she said, pushing her hair out of her face. “How in the world did I sleep so long?”
Pushing herself out of bed, she walked across the room and out into the hallway. “Bradley?” she called, still a little anxious from the night before.
“Good! You’re up,” he called from downstairs. “Don’t come downstairs if you’re not decent.”
“My sister’s always decent.”
“Sean?” she asked.
“Aye, he’s down here eating all the doughnuts.”
“Ian?”
“Yeah, he’s down here, too. Using his hypno-spells and trying to get the rest of us to do all the work.”
“Rick?”
“Honey, why don’t you get dressed, and then you can come down and see everyone in person?” Bradley laughed.
“Okay,” she said. “I’ll be down in a few minutes.”
By the time she took a shower, got dressed and put on makeup, it was a little longer than a few minutes. But there was no way she was going downstairs to a group of good-looking men without looking her best. And, she thought, when she stepped off the stairs and saw the group of them dressed in t-shirts and jeans with tool belts slung low on their hips, the wait was worth it.
“Dang,” she whispered.
“Mary,” Ian was the first to see her. He hurried over and gave her a kiss. “You’re looking gorgeous, darling. Would you care for a wee bit of breakfast?”
“What are you all doing here?” she asked.
“Well,” Sean said, grabbing a chocolate-covered, Bavarian cream-filled long john from the doughnut box and bringing it over to her. “We’re going to fix your kitchen today.”
She looked at the group of smiling eager men and shook her head. “I really hate to ask,” she said, “because I love you all for doing this, but does anyone here know what they’re doing?”
“Don’t worry, girlie,” Stanley said, coming around the kitchen entrance in a pair of baggy overalls and a flannel shirt. “I’m in charge here.”
“In charge of sitting around and chewing the fat,” Ian teased.
Bradley came over and kissed her. “Don’t worry,” he said with a wink. “We’ve got this covered. The guys got here early, and we watched a video on youtube.”
She laughed aloud. “Well, if you watched a video, you’re pretty much experts,” she said.
“Aye, and next we’ll be rewiring the house,” Ian teased.
She looked around for a moment.
“What are you looking for?” Bradley asked.
“Um, Mike,” she said. “I’m hoping he still has contacts with the fire department.”
“Sweetheart, don’t worry,” Bradley said. “What could go wrong?”
She looked at him and felt a surge of love flow through her. This man, this wonderful man, was her partner in every sense of the word. And she knew, he would never, ever let her down.
“Nothing,” she said to him, love shining in her eyes. “Nothing could go wrong.”
“Do you want to watch?” Sean asked as he pr
essed the electric screwdriver to make it rev up.
She grinned. “Maybe I’ll go to the store and get things for lunch.”
Bradley kissed her again. “Great idea,” he said. “Thanks.”
“Okay, you whippersnappers,” Stanley called. “Let me show you how a real man uses power tools.”
Mary giggled and shook her head. “I better get out of here before the testosterone affects the baby,” she said.
Bradley helped her stand up. “I love you, Mary Alden,” he said.
“And I love you, Bradley Alden,” she replied.
Chapter Sixty
Snow was falling, a light dusting that turned the empty farmers’ fields into a winter wonderland. Mary turned off Highway 20 onto Browns Mill Road. She drove past the entrance to the Stephenson County Convention and Visitors Bureau building, with a parking lot filled with people traveling to Galena for the Thanksgiving weekend, and continued a little farther up the street.
The new SUV they bought several weeks ago was four-wheel drive and handled well on the gravel road she pulled into, and the snowy ground didn’t affect the traction at all. Mary parked off the road and slipped her gloves on before she climbed out of the vehicle.
The stone marker next to the drive had “Gund Cemetery, Established 1850” carved into its face. Mary walked past the marker and underneath the ornate, wrought iron archway into the long and narrow strip of hallowed ground.
She’d been coming here for the past few weeks, once she had learned the history from a friend in German Valley. In the late 1800s a town had been established a little north of where the cemetery stood. But when the cholera epidemic struck, the entire town had been hit hard — so much so that all the survivors could manage was a large, mass grave in the center of the cemetery, the sole marker being an ancient oak tree.
During Mary’s first visit, several small children had come over to talk to her. They were open and trusting, and she had no problem teaching them how to look for and walk into the light. But now, most of the children were gone, and she was working with the adults. It was a slow process, but she felt that she was beginning to gain their trust.
She walked over to the oak tree, its leaves brown and leathery, still attached to the branches. As soon as she got within the canopy of the oak, the spirits began to appear.
“Good morning,” Mary said to one of the women she’d seen before.
This time the woman approached her. “I need to show you something,” she said, motioning urgently to Mary.
Mary followed, interested to see what the woman wanted to show her. They walked to the edge of the cemetery, and the woman pointed out into the distance. “Do you see her?” she asked, her arm raised. “There in the field?”
Mary squinted her eyes, and sure enough, the air seemed to vibrate and then solidify. She could see the spirit of a young woman standing in the field, looking around. The spirit glided around the area, as if she was searching for something, and then turned and looked the other way.
“She’s not one of us,” the spirit standing next to Mary said. “She’s only been out there for a little while. And I think she’s lost.”
Pulling her cell phone out of her purse, Mary dialed Bradley’s number. “Hi, it’s me,” she said when he answered. “I think you need to come out and meet me at Gund Cemetery. I have a feeling I may have just stumbled upon a homicide victim.”
# # #
About the author: Terri Reid lives near Freeport, the home of the Mary O’Reilly Mystery Series, and loves a good ghost story. She loves hearing from her readers at [email protected]
Other Books by Terri Reid:
Mary O’Reilly Paranormal Mystery Series:
Loose Ends (Book One)
Good Tidings (Book Two)
Never Forgotten (Book Three)
Final Call (Book Four)
Darkness Exposed (Book Five)
Natural Reaction (Book Six)
Secret Hollows (Book Seven)
Broken Promises (Book Eight)
Twisted Paths (Book Nine)
Veiled Passages (Book Ten)
Bumpy Roads (Book Eleven)
Treasured Legacies (Book Twelve)
Buried Innocence (Book Thirteen)
Stolen Dreams (Book Fourteen)
Haunted Tales (Book Fifteen)
Mary O’Reilly Short Stories
The Three Wise Guides
Tales Around the Jack O’Lantern 1
Tales Around the Jack O’Lantern 2
The Order of Brigid’s Cross (Sean’s Story)
The Wild Hunt (Book 1)
The Blackwood Files (Art’s Story)
File One: Family Secrets
PRCD Case Files: The Ghosts Of New Orleans -A Paranormal Research and Containment Division Case File
Eochaidh: Legend of the Horseman (Book One)
Bearly in Love
