Paranormal After Dark

by Rebecca Hamilton

  Usually, girls like them weren't in Delphic Cove. They were on the covers of magazines or in the movies. Much like dinner that night at home, William couldn't pay attention to his family's conversation. He kept looking over at Clara's table from the corner of his eyes. Before long, he noticed Clara staring at him.

  He hadn't thought that was possible. Sure, he was better than average-looking, but not good enough for someone like her to look at twice. He had looked around the restaurant, thinking that someone else had caught her attention, but there was no one. Even his sister had noticed Clara's stares. She urged him to introduce himself, pretending to find a pen on the floor.

  The whole thing was about as stupid as possible, but Clara herself was stumbling over her words as they introduced themselves. The way she was acting, one would have thought that William had been a famous actor or something.

  William smiled, remembering how quickly they had both connected and warmed up—after Clara had choked on her drink. What was it that he had said before she began choking? It was hard to remember a conversation from nearly two years before, but he was pretty sure all he had said was his name.

  That was ridiculous. Why would saying his name cause her to choke? His name was William. It's not like he had the same name as hot Hollywood actor or anything.

  He rolled over, frustrated. He groaned. He felt like he was close to something—probably sleep. He was so tired, he wasn't making any sense. Not even to himself.

  Then he sat up. After Clara had stopped choking, she asked him if William was a family name. That was a strange question. He hadn't thought about it at the time, although it did seem like an odd question. He had spent his whole life going over his family history. He thought maybe she knew something about family names.

  Maybe that was it, but at the same time, maybe it wasn't. As far-fetched as it was, there had to be something to all of this. Gorgeous Clara staring at him, choking when hearing his name, knowing that it was a family name, and now the picture of her doppelganger looking at his own doppelganger ancestor.

  It was all too much to be a coincidence.

  Chapter 4

  THE FIRE CRACKED and popped in front of Clara. She pulled the stick out and looked at the marshmallow. It was a perfect golden color, so she ate it directly from the stick, not paying any attention to the burning sensation. It would heal soon enough.

  Next to her, Natalie and Braydon were feeding each other s'mores. Clara listened for sounds indicating that William was making his way to them. Natalie couldn't find any parties, so she threw one together at the last minute herself, inviting everyone she knew out into the woods near a middle school.

  Doubtful that he would come, Clara had texted William. He had said that he would try to get out, but that he didn't hold out much hope. His parents hadn't seen him in months and had packed his week full of activities. His dad had even gone so far as to take the week off.

  Natalie caught Clara's attention and smiled. She smiled back, not feeling it, and then reached for another marshmallow. Everyone around the fire had coupled off except for her. Hanging out with a bunch of just-graduated high schoolers wasn't all she had hoped it would be—and she hadn't had high hopes to begin with.

  What had she been thinking, moving back in with the Fergusons? She should have known that she would barely see William all summer. Back when they had first met, it was like pulling teeth to get together with him because of his parents, even though they had managed a lot of dates. They hadn't made it easy, and she was sure that he had to have lied to them quite a number of times. What she should have done was to make other plans for the season so that when they met back up for school in England in the fall, they would be extra eager to see each other.

  Instead, she would be stuck in the boring, small town of Delphic Cove with nothing to do except hang out with high schoolers. She jammed the stick into the crackling fire. At least when Alexis was in town, they had been able to get out and have some real fun.

  Clara shook her head. She needed to get those thoughts out of her mind. Alexis was out of her life now and she needed to figure out what to do with herself. Maybe she should give it a few days, or even a week, and see if William would follow through and see her as often as he said he would.

  They had only been back in town for less than twelve hours. She really couldn't judge an entire summer based on that. Besides, he was probably jet lagged. He didn't have the resources that she did, and he would probably need extra sleep, especially to keep up with all the plans his parents had made.

  Was there anyone in the area that she knew? When Clara had first arrived in town, her friend Jordan had shown up and they'd had some fun toying with Alexis. Every once in a while old friends would show up, but the chances were low this time, since she didn't think anyone knew she was back.

  Bringing her attention to the fire, she pulled out the charred marshmallow and stared at it, watching it cool. She tried to block out the sounds of happy couples all around her, but a stupid piece of charred sugar on a stick wasn't going to get her mind off William. She had just had the best months of her life being away with him, forgetting about everything else.

  Spinning the stick, she thought back to life before meeting him. Clara had had plenty to forget about then, too. She always seemed to have something from her past haunting her. First it was the crushing blows from the two other times she had given her heart away.

  Both of them had burned her so badly that she almost didn't even give William a chance. She wasn't sure she could risk love again, but then Alexis had talked her into it. She had been so happy with love that she wanted Clara to have some too. In all irony, now it was Alexis haunting her thoughts.

  She jammed the burnt marshmallow into her mouth. She had to get away from the party. She looked at her phone and saw that it was pushing midnight. Reading her Kindle would be better than this. She had plenty of non-romantic, non-betraying best friend novels on there to keep her distracted. Not that being in Alexis' room would help much.

  Clara nudged Natalie. "I'm going to get out of here."

  Natalie looked surprised. "Already? Wait. You can't walk home. It's too far. We won't be much longer. I'll take you back."

  "You know me. I'll be fine."

  "Yeah. I suppose you will. Well, be careful. Okay?"

  "As always." Clara got up and ran out of the woods. Just running helped her to feel better and get her mind off things. Once she was out of the woods, she looked around, deciding where to go. She wasn't tired, and really didn't feel like going back to the Ferguson's yet.

  Not a lot would be open, so she kept running, not even breaking a sweat. She saw a coffee shop open. The sign on the door indicated they sold ice cream, which sounded really good. She slowed her pace down to a walk, fluffed her hair out, and then went inside.

  She went to the counter and placed her order. When she had a bowl of ice cream and a mocha, she looked around for a seat. She made eye contact with someone in the back of the room. He smiled at her, and she nodded.

  It was Tobias, also known as Mr. Foley, the teacher that every parent wanted to stay away from their daughters.

  He waved her over, and she groaned, but went. At least it should be an interesting discussion.

  She sat, not saying anything. She had never hidden her disdain for the guy.

  "What are you doing back in town, Clara?"

  "Just making sure it's in one piece. Glad to see it's not burned to the ground."

  He smiled, looking amused. Even though she couldn't stand him, she could understand why all the girls fell for him. He was definitely a looker. But she wasn't going to melt at what Alexis had called his 'Hollywood smile.'

  "Have you seen Alexis?"

  "Nope." She took a bite of her mint ice cream.

  He looked around. "I haven't seen her since that night."

  "Me neither." Clara took another bite, looking away from him.

  "You haven't?"

  She shook her head.

  "Why not?
"

  "Haven't wanted to. I'm guessing you didn't want to see her with her happy little family."

  Tobias shook his head. "No. I was going to say goodbye before I left, but I couldn't bring myself to."

  "I doubt she needs us."

  "Do you know if she's okay?"

  "She's living her happily ever after. I'm sure she's fabulous."

  His face darkened. "Her parents died that night. Didn't she lose her best friend, too?"

  "Yeah, because I won't speak to her."

  "I meant her other friend. Brooke?"

  "Oh, her. Yeah, apparently she died too." Clara hadn't meant to sound so callous about Brooke dying, but she wasn't going to apologize to Tobias.

  "You know, we don't have to be enemies."

  "Whatever."

  "That's what it was all about. We were on your side."

  She took a sip of her coffee. "How was your school year? I'm surprised you weren't chased away from the high school."

  A sad smile spread across his face. "I nearly was. But I had enough people vouching for me that I had been with them all summer."

  "But you were the last one seen with Alexis before she disappeared. Weren't people suspicious?"

  He nodded, sipping from his own cup. "As I told everyone else, she was upset and ran off. I tried to stop her, talk her out of doing anything foolish. You know, what any decent teacher would do."

  Clara raised an eyebrow. "Right."

  "I couldn't convince her, and I couldn't hold her against her will, so I let her go."

  "That's a good story. I like it."

  "Well, I'm still here, teaching. That's all I could ask for."

  "Not dating any more students?"

  "We didn't technically start dating until after she graduated."

  "Interesting how that worked out for you."

  "Is there something you want to say to me, Clara?"

  "Isn't there always? Why did you wave me over here? You know I've never been your biggest fan."

  He grinned. "You've never been my fan, period."

  "Why, then?"

  "I thought you would have heard from her. That's all."

  "Nope. Not after everything that went down."

  "I'm sorry about your parents."

  She shrugged. "It is what it is. I didn't lose as much as some people did. How are all those other parents doing? You know, of those dead kids who were under your watch?"

  He sighed. "Most of the kids under my watch, as you put it, are still alive and well. It was the other ones who weren't so lucky. I warned them all what would happen, but they wouldn't listen to me. When they broke away like they did, no one wanted to hear what I had to say, even though it would have saved a lot of lives."

  Clara raised an eyebrow. "But still, most of them were just kids."

  "They knew what they were getting into. If they would have listened to me, they would most likely still be here today. In many cases, their families knew what was going on. They knew the risks."

  "Whatever you have to tell yourself, Foley."

  He looked toward the door. "You don't have to stay here. I'm not holding you hostage. Like I said, I was just hoping you had spoken with Alexis."

  She took a sip of her mocha, deciding whether to tell him anything or not. "Last I saw her, she was doing quite well. I wish I could say so much for her sister, who was traumatized by the whole thing."

  "Francine never should have involved her, but she didn't care who she hurt. If it weren't for her, the entire night of bloodshed would have been avoided."

  "I don't want to talk about that night anymore. There were too many lives lost, and nothing we can do will change that."

  He looked her in the eyes. "You have nothing to feel bad about, Clara. You saved Natalie's life."

  She shook her head. "It wasn't enough. I should have known Francine would have gone after her and used her as leverage against Alexis. I should have been there to prevent Natalie from getting involved in the first place."

  Tobias put his cup down. "Hindsight is twenty-twenty. You did as much as you could. We all did."

  "It wasn't enough. We should have done more." Why was she opening up to him? They had nothing in common, aside from technically being on the same side that night in the woods.

  "Every death is on Francine and George. They're the ones who brought all of this on everyone. She was the one who wanted all that power. It was her who lured everyone into the woods. Francine promised power and riches to all those kids, making them believe that it would come to them easily if they just followed her."

  Clara felt a headache coming on.

  "Francine used them, knowing most of them would get killed. She wanted to make sure that there were so many others no one could touch her. Thankfully that much backfired on her, because she's dead."

  "At the hand of the one she wanted to kill." Clara nodded. "You're right, Tobias. Every death that night is on her, because not one person would have been there had she not orchestrated the entire thing. We should probably be glad that it didn't end up worse."

  "It easily could have, Clara. She had rounded up others who were waiting for her word. They would have joined in had she given the word. Let it all go. You can't spend the rest of your life reliving the horrors of that night. Move on with your life and enjoy it."

  "That's what I've been doing, but coming back here has thrown it all back at me. Natalie's still dealing with it, Alexis is gone, and their parents are crushed. It's written all over their faces."

  Tobias put his hand on Clara's. "It's over and done. We can't do anything to change a single detail. Don't let yourself remain tortured. If anything, let your feelings remind yourself that you're one of the good ones."

  Tears sprang to her eyes. As much as she hated to admit it, it was nice to have someone to talk with about everything, and even better, someone who was used to being a teacher. He spoke with the right mixture of authority and kindness that his words hit her to the core, actually helping her to believe what he was saying. "Thank you."

  "It's obvious how much you care. If you could have prevented everything, you would have. But there's nothing you could have done. Everyone there against Francine tried to stop it. When evil is determined, people end up hurt."

  "And dead." She took a sip of her drink, feeling a burden lifted that she almost hadn't noticed until it was gone.

  Chapter 5

  WHEN WILLIAM WOKE up, the house was quiet. It was after ten, so his mom was probably at the country club and Kathryn was either sleeping or at some lesson. They never truly had a summer break. Their parents always had them learning one thing or another, even on Christmas day. That was why his dad was taking him to the office after lunch on his vacation.

  He poked his head out of his room and looked around. He didn't see anyone. Keeping his ears open for any sound, he made his way to his dad's study. It was empty, thank goodness. William went in and grabbed the album. He sat on the couch and stared at the picture. That girl really could have been Clara. Not just someone who looked like her, but actually her.

  Of course it was difficult to tell for sure, given the fact that the picture was probably taken with one of the oldest cameras in existence and that the girl was hiding in the background. It was nowhere near as clear as the pictures on his phone.

  His eyes started playing tricks on him as he continued to stare at the old photo. He flipped through the pages of the album, trying to clear his mind. He also hoped that there might be another clue, but the chances were minimal. Once he got past Liam's grandkids, he knew that Liam would have already died, and so would have the Clara lookalike.

  He strained his eyes looking for her in the pages that held Liam's children and grandchildren. He couldn't find Clara's twin in any of the other pictures, not that he actually expected to. One could hope, though.

  Could finding the picture of the girl mean something? Maybe that he and Clara were meant to be. What if their ancestors had been unable to live out their love because she had b
een a witch? That was heartbreaking to think about. What if his namesake had been forced to marry someone he didn't want to because of the beliefs about witches of the day?

  Could he and Clara somehow make right the wrongs of the past? Or was that ridiculous?

  William shook his head, again thinking that he should consider a career as a novelist rather than an attorney. He was concocting some strange stories that were only fitting for fiction. What were the chances of their ancestors being in love, but forced apart?

  He went back to the first picture. The feeling that he was staring at his girlfriend wouldn't leave him. Obviously, he wasn't looking at Clara, but there was a reason for him seeing that then. His father had looked at the pictures his whole life, as had his father, going all the way back as far as the album had been put together.

  Sighing, William flipped through the pages, this time going further. He stopped at another William who looked a lot like him. He went by Wiley, and his pictures were clearer. He didn't look as much like a twin as Liam, but they could have easily been mistaken if they had been alive at the same time.

  "What the—?" William stared at a picture of Wiley, again noticing someone hiding in the background. This time, it was a girl again, but she was hidden even better. Her face was partially covered, but she looked like Clara.

  Chills ran down William's back. Either he was losing his mind, or something strange was going on. The two men in the album who looked just like him both had a picture of someone who looked like Clara. How was that possible? What did it mean?

  He flipped through the rest of the book, studying each and every picture. It was only those two that had the girls—or girl—hiding, and both times, she looked like Clara and his relative looked just like him.

  William rubbed his temples. What was going on? Had he entered the Twilight Zone? Was he being Punked? Had someone photo-shopped the images? He looked around for hidden cameras, but didn't see any. He then looked around for Clara hiding. Obviously, he didn't see her either.