Third Time's a Charm

by Michelle M. Pillow

  Vivien didn’t consider herself super religious, but she believed there was more beyond this life. She liked to think that place was heaven. If there could be hell, there had to be a heaven.

  Maybe the difference between Glenn’s return and Sam’s was time. Glenn had only been dead for three years. She lost Sam twenty years ago. But that made little sense. Grandma Julia showed herself to Heather and she’d been gone a long time.

  Vivien slid out of bed, moving slowly as not to jar the mattress and wake her friend. She needed a moment alone. On habit, she took her cell phone with her. She pushed the notification for the motion alarm. The camera feed tried to load. She carried it with her as she walked.

  Vivien peeked into the hall, looking for William. All was quiet. She made her way toward the kitchen. She vaguely remembered Lorna saying she would pick up the mess in the living room. A broken frame lay on the coffee table, and her vases were missing. She found she didn’t really care that they were broken. The empty space looked better.

  Vivien had slept in her clothes, so she thought nothing of slipping into the pair of sandals she kept by the kitchen door leading to the backyard. Trash bags sat on the kitchen floor. She nudged them with her foot, hearing the light clank of broken ceramics. Poor Lorna probably couldn’t have gotten the bags down the steps with her sore hip.

  Vivien slid her cell phone into her pocket. The video clip had yet to load. Her muscle was still sore where Lorna had shared her pain, but it wasn’t anything to cry over. She unlocked the door and lifted the trash bags to carry them to the bins.

  The fresh night air welcomed her, and she took a deep breath. She loved walking around at night. Freewild Cove was a relatively safe town. Yes, there were some tourist-related crimes, but they mostly were drunk and disorderly charges. Sometimes there was vandalism and destruction of property, but again, usually alcohol and vacationers were involved.

  Her phone buzzed as she moved past the motion sensor camera. She automatically glanced up and smiled as she walked across the yard to the bins by the back gate. It was pointless since only she would see the recordings.

  Well, her and any internet hackers who had a fondness for backyards.

  Dropping the bags in the bin, she pulled the phone from her pocket and looked at the screen. She stopped the recording of herself and started to close the app when she noticed the earlier footage had finally loaded. A strange blue glow on the still frame caught her attention.

  Vivien played the video clip. It was the time stamp that would have woken her up. A light moved across her lawn from the house toward the back gate. At first she thought it was a lens flare, but the light paused and a figure seemed to turn, showing what looked like two arms lifting ever so slightly before again moving toward the fence. The gate did not open, but the light passed through it and then disappeared.

  Vivien glanced from her phone to the gate. Nothing was there. A chill worked over her. She peered over the backyard. As far as she could tell, there was nothing in the shadows.

  She watched the video again. It definitely looked like an entity walked across the lawn. Her hands shook, and she again glanced around. The night was quiet except for the sound of the breeze in the trees and the distant rhythm of waves.

  Vivien couldn’t bring herself to move. She felt as if she were being watched. The house stood dark and still against the sky, and the moon hid behind the clouds. Her gaze went to the security camera.

  Her hand shook as she brought up the video clip of her walking across the lawn with the trash bags. Her body was darker compared to the other one. She watched as she turned to smile up at the camera.

  On the clip, a light crept across the lawn toward her from the gate.

  Vivien gasped and again looked around before turning back to the clip. The figure had approached her, but at the time she hadn’t seen or felt anything. A hand reached for the back of her head as she continued to walk toward the bins. It had followed her. The clip ended where she had turned the recording off.

  Vivien took a deep breath, unsure of what to do. She wished Heather and Lorna were with her. Their presence would comfort her and calm her fears.

  “Is someone there?” Vivien called softly. “Hello?”

  The wind stirred, but she didn’t feel anything out of the ordinary.

  Vivien lifted her phone, this time turning on the camera app so she could look with the device. The image of the dark yard passed over the screen. She turned the phone slowly along the lawn, from the gate toward the house, and then back again. She took small steps toward the house when she saw the path was clear.

  Just as she was about to relax, the blue figure returned, standing several feet away. Vivien inhaled sharply and held the phone at arm’s length. She glanced at the figure on the screen and then at the empty yard. What was on the electronic device was not appearing to the naked eye. It moved toward her, slowly, before turning toward the gate. It again walked through the fence.

  Was this one of those residual hauntings Heather had talked about? Some spirit caught in a loop, doomed to spend eternity walking across her lawn to the back fence?

  The blue entity stopped on the other side and stood. Vivien waited, watching intently. The image took on more of a shape. An arm lifted as if beckoning her to follow.

  She again glanced to where the spirit stood, not seeing it without the aid of the camera phone. “Sam? Is that you?”

  She wanted it to be true. She needed it to be him.

  Vivien glanced toward the house, wondering if she should tell someone she was going down to the beach. But what if the entity went away when she ran inside? Besides, Lorna was recovering, and Heather was sleeping. If they needed her all they had to do was call her phone.

  Vivien took small, hesitant steps as she followed the being. She unlatched the gate with one hand and pushed it open. The entity moved farther away along the path that led toward the beach and then stopped as if waiting.

  Residual hauntings weren’t aware of their surroundings. This ghost wanted her to follow it. That meant it had to be intelligent. It was communicating with her.

  Him, not it. This had to be Sam. They’d summoned his spirit just hours before, and the odds of someone else coming to visit her were unlikely.

  Or so she wanted to tell herself.

  She refused to think about the demon that had come when they called Glenn. This wasn’t the same thing. The demon had been raw hate and had attacked Lorna. This spirit wasn’t threatening or attacking.

  Vivien left the yard and moved down the familiar path toward the beach. She passed between a couple of her neighbors’ houses, using the phone to track the spirit. If this were Sam, she had no reason to be frightened.

  A few trees had been planted for privacy, but they soon gave way to tall grass and then a sandy incline. The view opened up. A weathered picket fence had been beaten by the sun and buried by sand. It now poked out of the ground at an odd angle. She knew there were wooden planks on the ground that someone had tried to make a walkway with, but without constant sweeping they had been submerged. A wooden walkover would have been more prudent, but the neighbors couldn’t get on the same page as to who would pay for the upgrade.

  “What are you trying to show me?” she asked, not receiving an answer. Now that she was in the open, the breeze from the water caused her to shiver, and she grabbed the long sweater with one hand to hold it closed. “The ocean?”

  They had spent a lot of time on the beach together. Was he trying to remind her of that?

  The figure turned and motioned that she was to continue with him. Vivien’s heart pounded, and she knew she should stop and think about what she was doing, but she wasn’t scared. She was excited. Sam would never hurt her. This was what she wanted—to be with him at all costs, to see him.

  The sand became deeper, and the undulating water louder. The beach curved, and she knew during the day she’d see across to the distant shore, but at night it blended with the water.

  Her open-toe sandal
s allowed sand to work its way beneath her feet, and the gritty texture made it uncomfortable to walk. She didn’t care as she lifted and shook her foot a little with each step. Her toe bumped into a hard object, and she stumbled. Typically, she’d stop and pick up the empty bottles people had left behind, but she didn’t want to take her eyes off the phone screen.

  The light glided instead of walked, leaving no impression in the sand. The occasional lift of an arm and the blurry impression of a head was the only indication the spirit was human—or had once been human. It did not deviate from its path toward the water.

  As dry sand turned to wet, the ground became firm and more comfortable to walk on. The spirit continued toward the water. Vivien stopped.

  “I’m not going in there,” she said. “It’s too cold to go swimming.”

  She glanced both along the beach to a distant gathering. A bonfire had been lit below the high tide line but far enough away from the vegetation to be legal. She detected tiny figures running around just as she and Sam used to do. That was where he should be trying to lead her if he wanted her to remember their past, not into the ocean.

  When she turned back to her phone, she saw that the figure was standing in the water. She crept closer. Cold lapped against her feet.

  “I don’t understand,” Vivien called out to the ghost, dropping her phone hand slightly so she could talk toward the empty water. “I can’t go in there with you.”

  When she lifted her phone hand, the figure had moved. It now stood close to the screen. She gasped and stumbled back. The image of a face tried to make itself known, the blue light shadowing in what could have been eye sockets and a nose before blurring once more.

  “Sam?” Vivien asked, her body shaking from the freezing water. “Is that you? Can you please give me a sign if—”

  Before she could finish the question, the spirit reached for her. She felt her shoulder tingle as if it made contact. The sensation took her by surprise, traveling down her arm so that the phone slipped from her fingers. She heard it thud but couldn’t move to pick it up.

  The tingling worked its way down to her left foot. She took a step forward, the movement stilted. It wasn’t that she tried to walk, but more like her nerves jerked, and she was compelled to move. The tingling spread to her right foot. She took another stiff step forward. The sensation overtook her body. Her left leg stumbled toward the water, her toes dragging as her sandal caught on the ground, and then the right foot did the same. Waves lapped up against her ankles.

  “Sam?” Vivien whispered, wanting to hear his voice. Her lids became heavy as a haze overtook her thoughts. She was compelled to take another step, not caring that it was too cold.

  “Vivien?” The sound of her name was distant, faint, and she couldn’t make out who said it through the fog in her brain.

  “Sam?” she mumbled. “Is that you? I hear you. Talk to me.”

  She took a fumbling step, then another. The tingling numbed her to the cold, and it no longer stung. Low strains of music whispered their way into her thoughts. The guitar, just like Sam used to play for her on nights just like this. Her vision blurred.

  “Save your heart for me. It’s mine.”

  Sam.

  She was with Sam.

  She took another step. The water became almost warm now as she adjusted to the temperature. It came to her knees and then her thighs. It wet her long sweater jacket and weighed the ends down. The surface of the water kissed her hands, and she swung her arms to help leverage her movements. Water engulfed her hips and made it hard to step forward as the current lifted her from the ground. Her sandals slipped from her feet.

  “Vivien!”

  The sound was still distant, but she knew it was a man’s voice. Was Sam calling her to him? Heather said spirits could be difficult to hear, often sounding like they were underwater or far away.

  Without the phone, she couldn’t see him, but she felt like he held her arm and led her forward. The current again lifted her from the ocean floor, moving her in little hops wherever it wanted. She went deeper.

  The water hit her face and shoulders, and she coughed in surprise.

  Suddenly, something substantial gripped her arm to replace the tingling of Sam’s touch. She was kept from going under, pulled away from the warmth into cold hard reality.

  “I got you. Don’t worry, Vivien. I got you,” a man said.

  Why did the voice sound like she was in trouble? She was fine.

  Vivien didn’t have the energy to fight as her legs dangled before her. She was towed through the water. When her feet finally touched the ground, she stumbled on the uneven terrain. Soon she was falling. Her back hit the firm, wet sand. Freezing waves lapped her legs.

  Vivien blinked in surprise as Troy crawled on the ground next to her. His hair and clothes were wet. He breathed hard as if he’d run across the sand to get to her. He leaned over her, his head blocking out the night sky as he looked into her eyes.

  “Good, you’re breathing.” He nodded and stared at her chest as if to confirm his own statement.

  Vivien tried to speak, but she was too weak to answer. Her eyes didn’t want to stay focused.

  “You’re shivering. We have to get you inside. Can you walk?” he asked, not giving her time to answer as he lifted her into his arms. He cradled her against his chest as he carried her away from the water, away from Sam.

  “No, wait,” Vivien demanded, trying to grasp to any sliver of sanity she had. She struggled against his hold and pushed at his chest, forcing him to drop her feet.

  Vivien hurried as fast as she could back toward the waterline, searching for her phone in the sand. When she found it, the device was dripping wet. She shook it a few times and tried to make it turn on so she could use the camera.

  “Vivien, you need to get inside where it’s warm,” Troy insisted.

  “Wait, no. I have to see…” She shook the phone harder, willing it to get dry enough to work. It didn’t. “Do you have a phone?”

  “Not on me. It’s at the house.” Troy pulled her by her elbow, forcing her to walk with him. She fought for a few feet before finally giving in. The breeze caused her clothes to sting as they slapped against her flesh. Her teeth chattered.

  Troy looked like he wanted to say something but held his tongue. It only was when they’d made it onto dry sand that she realized she no longer wore her shoes. The numbing sensation that had made the ocean feel so warm and inviting started to drain from her body.

  She must have looked like a complete lunatic trying to walk into the ocean in the middle of the night.

  “Nice night for a swim,” she said through her chattering teeth, trying to make a joke.

  “Seriously? What the hell were you thinking?” he demanded under his breath. He slipped his arm behind her back to continue to force her to walk alongside him. “Were you trying to kill yourself?”

  “Why would I want to kill myself?” Vivien countered in surprise at the question. Of course that’s not what she was doing. “I love me.”

  “Are you drunk?” he persisted.

  “Not that I know of,” she said, even though she felt a little dizzy. “Why? You offering to buy me a drink?”

  His frown deepened. “This isn’t funny. You could have died.”

  “I know how to swim. I don’t think I was in that much danger.”

  “Do you know how dangerous the water can be at night?” He suddenly stopped and looked around. “Where’s that roommate of yours? Is she out here too? You should know better than to be out in the water at night.”

  Even though she was freezing and wanted nothing more than to get inside out of the breeze. Vivien rotated away from him to roll out of his hold. Her eyes narrowed. “Did you just chastise me? I’m sorry. Do I look like some teenager you caught out after curfew? I’m a grown-ass woman, and you can kiss my ass if you think you have any right to lecture me about what I do.”

  The argument might have been more convincing if her teeth weren’t still t
rying to chatter, and if a strand of her hair hadn’t plastered itself to her chin. She swiped at it a few times before managing to unstick it from her face.

  “Well, I—” he began.

  “If I want to swim naked in the middle of winter, that’s on me. I appreciate you coming in to get me because you were worried, but I don’t need the lecture.”

  “You’re drunk,” he concluded. “I will assume your meeting today had something to do with this?”

  “I haven’t had a drop,” she insisted.

  “You’re slurring your words,” he said, his tone completely calm and rational, “and your friends already mentioned you were drinking margaritas tonight.”

  Vivien lost her train of thought at the slow drawl of his words. She did feel a little like she was drunk, but that wasn’t possible. “I’m not…”

  His lip twitched to the side as if he weren’t taking her seriously, and he couldn’t quite decide if he wanted to yell at her some more or laugh at her.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked.

  “I’m fine if you want to keep berating me for rescuing you, but maybe we should do it inside?” He gestured toward the houses. “I’m freezing, and you’re turning blue.”

  “I am cold,” she admitted, trying to rub her arms with chilly hands. She still held her phone, but the device hadn’t turned on. The haze from her mind was beginning to clear the farther she walked away from the water. “Maybe I can berate you later?”

  “It’s a date.” Troy slipped his hand behind the small of her back. He was gentler than before as he guided her up the slight incline to the path.

  “What were you doing out here?” she asked.

  “Walking the shoreline. It’s peaceful, and I sometimes have trouble sleeping,” he said. “The fresh air helps me clear my mind.”

  They passed between the trees. Her back gate had been left open. She fingered her phone, wondering if the spirit had returned and was walking through the fence even now.