The Ungrateful Dead

by Rose Cooper

  She looked down at her hand with only four fingers now. There was no blood. No pain. But it looked like…well, what a hand with a recently severed finger should look like.

  She pulled on the wiggling finger but it wouldn’t budge. Harper slowly opened the door, half expecting it to be locked. It opened easily and her finger fell with a thud to the ground.

  She picked it up, amazed at how it still seemed to have a life of its own while it moved wormlike in her palm.

  Maybe it was out of instinct, or just came from watching too many late-night horror movies, but Harper placed the finger back onto her knuckle, and it locked there like a perfect puzzle piece.

  She moved her finger and it worked just fine, although there was a line around where it had been reconnected. She stepped back from the door as if it would slam closed at any moment. From a distance, she scanned the inside of the room to see if she could identify the reason for all the weird stuff that had just happened. She pushed the door open more, quickly pulling back her hand.

  The room was empty. But that book…the one that had been in the middle of the room before…it was gone. Her eyes searched the room until she spotted it on the purple nightstand by Anna’s bed.

  “Freakin’ ghosts,” she muttered. “They’ve overrun this house like termites or something….” She trailed off as she spotted something silvery sparkling next to the mysterious moving book. With a cramp slowly tightening in her leg, she shuffled over to the nightstand. A ring was there.

  She slid the shiny ring over her newly attached finger.

  “Perfect.” She admired her hand from afar and was pleased that the band concealed the line. And it fit perfectly, like it was meant for her.

  “Harper!” Tabitha yelled from downstairs. “Where’d you go?”

  “Coming!” Harper yelled back. And with a smug smile, she turned around and started running down the stairs to Tabitha’s room. She only made it halfway down before she tripped, twisting her ankle.

  Snap.

  She felt the bone pop as her foot detached and rolled down the steps, landing with a final thud.

  “Oh, this is so not good,” Harper muttered.

  “We are never going to hear the end of this,” Anna said to Eden and Archer. The three of them were sitting on the front steps of Maddsen Manor.

  “End of what?” Archer asked.

  Anna shot a look at Eden.

  “Yeah, I already did it.” Eden was careful not to mention the word “spell.” Or “ghosts.”

  Anna waved her hand toward the house. “You know, Tabitha and Harper never leaving us alone.”

  “Oh. Right.”

  Anna was thankful Archer didn’t keep digging.

  “So now what?” Eden asked.

  Someone’s phone chimed with a new text. They all pulled out their phones to check.

  “It’s mine.” Anna said. She clamped a hand over her mouth as she read the text.

  “What is it?” Eden leaned over to read the message on her screen.

  Millie: Guess who? I’m baaack!

  “Who’s Millie?” Archer asked.

  “She’s, um, my cousin,” Anna said. Admitting it was her long-dead great-aunt would totally give away her secrets.

  “That’s fantastic!” Eden turned to Archer. “She lives out of state, so Anna hasn’t seen her for a while.”

  “A while” was actually only three months, but it seemed like forever since Anna had said goodbye to her best friend.

  Anna texted Millie.

  Where are you?

  Are you really friends with Eden now?

  Don’t be like that. She’s the exact opposite of what you thought.

  I don’t trust her.

  It’s OK. She knows about you. And she’s a witch.

  So is Olivia.

  No, a REAL spell-casting, anti-broom-riding witch.

  IDK about that.

  You trust me, right?

  Of course!

  Then trust me on this. Come out, k?

  After your other friend leaves.

  K.

  “Well, it’s getting late. I think I’m gonna head to bed.” Anna stretched her arms above her head, forcing a long, drawn-out yawn.

  Eden caught on immediately. “Oh yeah, me too.”

  “Oh, okay. I guess we’ll leave, then.” Archer looked disappointed. “Want a ride home, Eden?”

  “I just texted my mom. But thanks.”

  A few minutes later Archer’s older sister pulled up. “See ya at school!” Archer said, waving, as he got into the car.

  The car was barely out of sight before Anna and Eden jumped up and ran upstairs to her room. Anna locked her bedroom door and this time turned on her iPad music to drown out their talking in case of any possible eavesdroppers.

  The air in front Anna seemed to thicken. A light shimmer appeared. Then, suddenly, she was looking at Millie.

  “Millie!” Anna hugged her, not even caring that the coldness chilled her to her bones. “I’m so happy you’re here!” A sweet smell of vanilla swirled in the air. “What made you decide to come back?”

  Millie blinked at her. “What, you mean you weren’t summoning me earlier? Asking me to knock?”

  Anna laughed. “You were there!”

  Millie nodded. Her vibrant red curly hair fell in ringlets to her shoulders. “Yes. I don’t know where you came up with those rules, but you won’t catch any ghosts doing that.”

  Anna hugged her again. “Well, we got your attention, didn’t we?”

  “What’s she saying? What’s going on?” Eden was looking right through Millie, unable to see her.

  Anna pointed. “She said—”

  Millie cut Anna off. “Hold on. It will be easier than trying to repeat everything.”

  Anna watched as Millie’s shape shimmered so slightly that if she weren’t watching she would have missed it.

  Eden let out a squeal. “I can see you!”

  “How are you able to do that?” Anna asked.

  “I can make myself visible to others if I want to,” Millie explained. “It just takes a lot of concentration and strength.”

  “Wouldn’t that have made things so much easier if Lucy had just appeared to Johnny?” Anna thought about how many problems that would’ve saved.

  Millie shook her head. “It takes a long time to learn how to do these fancy tricks. I’ve had decades of practice.” She beamed at Anna. “And it took an enormous amount of her energy just to appear as soon as she did too. It drains her strength so that she can’t appear again for a while.”

  “So the chant we did summoned you instead of Maxwell?” Eden asked.

  “No, sadly, that chant didn’t do anything,” Millie said. “I’ve been here a few days. I was just deciding when I should pop in. I had some fun with your stepsister and her friend, so I’m sure you’ll hear them whine about that soon enough. I wanted you to know it was me before you started thinking you summoned an evil spirit or whatever.”

  “Fun?” Eden repeated. “What did you do to Tabitha and Harper?”

  “I definitely scared the crazy out of Tabitha. She ran crying down the stairs,” Millie said. “But I don’t know about Harper. She didn’t seem too scared.”

  “Probably because she used to be a ghost,” Anna said.

  “For like a week,” added Eden.

  “Then she took back her body,” Anna went on. She explained the whole story to Millie.

  “So what’s the plan?” Millie asked.

  “Plan?” the girls echoed.

  Millie nodded. “You aren’t actually going to let her live in an undead body, right?”

  “We didn’t think we had a choice,” Anna said.

  “There’s always a choice.” Millie said, hovering a bit higher off the ground. “Because her body’s not really alive, it’s not so easy to reclaim it.” She twirled one of her long red ringlets. “When Harper ran after Tabitha, she tripped. And…her foot fell off. She put it back on, but…”

  Anna�
�s and Eden’s jaws dropped as they exchanged looks.

  “Okay, that’s bad,” Anna said.

  Millie floated over to her and patted her shoulder.

  “You know, I’m not used to seeing you as an actual ghost,” Anna said, thinking back to when she had first started at Winchester Academy and had met Millie. Millie had really helped her get through those first scary days at school. “Did it take a lot of energy to look like you were alive?”

  “Like you wouldn’t believe,” Millie said. “But if you want something bad enough, you’ll find a way to overcome any obstacle.”

  Anna nodded. “Well, I guess the first thing I want to do is confront Lucy. I need to find out exactly what she told Harper. There’s more to the story. I know it. But Harper refuses to talk.” She paused. “Hey, Eden,” she said, her mind speeding forward. “Do you happen to know a spell for making people tell the truth?”

  Eden scrunched up her mouth. “Yeah. But…”

  “But?” Anna prompted.

  “I overused it a teeny tiny bit on Olivia and the spell got blocked. But I’ll have access to it again when I’m sixteen.”

  “Hardly any help to us now.” Anna sighed. “And unless we can think of another way to try to contact my uncle Maxwell, I’m out of ideas.”

  She thought back to Harper and her foot. “We have a huge problem,” she said grimly.

  “Yeah,” said Eden. “But what’s the solution?”

  “C’mon, Lucy! Show yourself.”

  Nothing. Not even so much as a shimmer of air. Or the lingering scent of lemons that usually appeared whenever Lucy was near. Since talking with Millie and Eden last night, Anna was ready to kick some ghost butt.

  “I know what you did. Stop being a scaredy-cat—er, ghost—and come out.”

  Anna threw her hands down. Why was she even bothering? Lucy was probably hiding out somewhere far away where she wasn’t likely to even hear Anna. Well, if that’s how it worked. Maybe ghosts had supersonic hearing or something. Anything was possible.

  Anna’s phone pinged with a text.

  “Aha! I knew you could hear me!” But Anna frowned as she looked at the screen.

  I need help. Please.

  The texter definitely wasn’t Lucy. The word “please” wasn’t even in her vocab. At least this anonymous spirit had manners.

  Anna quickly typed a response:

  What kind of help?

  She felt like she was working on a ghost crisis hotline. She had thought, not that long ago, that the spirits simply passed around her number. But that wasn’t the case at all.

  I can’t find my body.

  What’s your name? Alive or unsure? When did you first notice this problem?

  Mary. Not alive. Noticed this problem when my body left without me.

  A knock sounded on Anna’s bedroom door. “Yeah, come in,” she answered without looking up, while texting back:

  Where did you lose your body?

  “Did you mess with my room?” Tabitha stood in the doorway with a scowl.

  Anna briefly looked up from the screen and rolled her eyes. “Why would I mess with your room?”

  “Maybe you were snooping again.”

  “I wasn’t snooping. I told you, I was looking for my missing ring.” It had disappeared after the séance.

  “And of course you think I took it.”

  Anna shrugged. “Kind of.”

  “Yeah, I just happened to steal a ring that I would never be caught dead wearing.”

  “Obviously my mom or your dad didn’t take it, so that leaves just you.”

  “Or your friend.”

  “Eden?”

  “I bet she’s not as innocent as she would like everyone to think. After all, she is Olivia’s twin,” Tabitha said with a smirk.

  Anna shook her head. “Whatever. Eden wouldn’t do that. What else do you want? I didn’t go in your room.”

  “Maybe your mom cleaned my bathroom, then,” Tabitha muttered, more to herself than Anna.

  “Why would my mom clean your bathroom?” Anna’s mom never cleaned up after Anna. She was big on making Anna take responsibility for her room and her laundry.

  Tabitha shrugged. “She did last week. I was practically suffocating with the lemon-scented cleaner she used.”

  Anna seethed. Her mom always made her clean her own bathroom. What made Tabitha so special that she wouldn’t have the same rule for her?

  “Just stay out of my room,” Tabitha said before slamming the door behind her.

  “No problem!” Anna shouted to the closed door.

  Anna looked down at the thread of texts that had popped up during Tabitha’s visit. But then it hit her.

  “Wait a minute!” Anna jumped up. “Lemons?” If the smell of lemons was in the air, she knew without a doubt it had to be Lucy. And Lucy was lingering around Tabitha’s room. But why?

  Anna ran out of her room and down the stairs, two at a time, to the second floor and froze in front of Tabitha’s open bedroom door. Harper was in there, her back to Anna. And she was talking to herself.

  Anna crept closer, listening.

  “Yes,” Harper whispered. “That’s exactly what I thought.” Harper nodded several times. “But how do I do that?”

  Silence.

  “Are you sure that will work?” More silence. “What?” She spun around and faced Anna. “How long have you been standing there?”

  “How long have you been talking to yourself?”

  “I’m not talking to myself.”

  “Right. How long have you been talking to Lucy?”

  Harper’s face froze.

  “C’mon, Lucy,” Anna yelled out to the air. “I know why you’re not showing yourself to me. Stop being a coward.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Harper said without much conviction. “You should leave now.” She pointed to the door.

  A silver glint drew Anna’s gaze to her finger.

  “My ring!” Anna closed the distance between them in three steps and grabbed Harper’s finger.

  “What? You’re crazy! This is mine!”

  “No. You took it,” Anna said as she struggled to pull the ring off her finger, “and it has my initials engraved inside, so—”

  She grunted as she continued to play tug-of-war with Harper’s finger. She pulled harder and still the ring wouldn’t budge. “Why…won’t…this…come…off !” And with that last word the ring came off. And so did Harper’s finger.

  Anna squealed and dropped the finger as if it were on fire.

  “Great!” Harper shouted as she quickly snatched her finger off the floor. “You just had to pull that finger off. I hope it will reattach again!”

  “Again? This happened before?”

  Harper shook her head, annoyed. She managed to put her finger back on just as Tabitha walked in with two glasses of juice.

  “Anna, what are you doing?” Tabitha asked between clenched teeth. She set the glasses of juice down on the side table next to her and glared at Anna.

  “I came to talk to Harper.”

  “Yep,” Harper said, shoving her hand in her pocket. “She came down here and accused me of stealing her ring.”

  “Oh my God, Anna!” Tabitha shrieked. “Nobody has your stupid ring, so drop it already!”

  “She has it!” Anna cried. “She’s the one who took it!”

  Harper shook her head.

  “Look at her hand! She’s wearing it!” Anna pointed to Harper. If Harper was throwing her under the bus, then she would do the same.

  “You’re crazy.” Harper glared at Anna but made no move to take her hand out of her pocket.

  “Just show her your hand to prove her wrong so she will finally leave,” Tabitha said to Harper.

  Harper looked nervous, but she took her hand out. Five fingers. No ring.

  “Look in her pocket!” Anna reached over but Tabitha slapped her hand away.

  “First you accuse me of stealing, then you accuse my friend. Get
out of my room!”

  Anna stormed out. The scent of lemons followed her all the way back to her room, but Lucy never appeared.

  The next morning, Anna got a text from Eden to meet her outside near the teacher’s parking lot. “Look what I made!” Eden said when Anna got there, grinning and holding out a cupcake.

  “Nice,” Anna said. “You’ve started to bake now?”

  “Well, not exactly.”

  Anna raised a brow.

  “I might have conjured this up,” Eden whispered.

  “So it’s a magic cupcake. Will I shrink to the size of an ant if I eat it?” Anna laughed.

  “No! But it might help a certain someone remember certain things if he eats it,” Eden said.

  “What?” Anna exclaimed. “No. That’s not the memory cake, right?” Anna frowned at Eden. “I never agreed to it.”

  “Anna, I know.”

  “Know what?” Anna asked.

  “The real reason why you don’t want Johnny to remember.”

  Anna shook her head. “Of course I want him to remember. I just—”

  “Don’t want him to remember everything?” Eden finished.

  Anna looked into Eden’s eyes and slowly nodded.

  “I tried the memory spell on myself first,” Eden told her. “I thought maybe I would just remember some old childhood memories or something. But I remembered…other stuff too.” Eden scuffed the toe of her boot into the sidewalk, scraping it back and forth.

  “What did you remember?” Anna’s voice was barely above a whisper. A huge knot formed in the pit of her stomach. She knew the answer before Eden even said it.

  “I know it was me that night, not Olivia.”

  Anna swallowed. “Yeah.”

  “What do I do with that information?” Eden asked.

  Anna shrugged. “What do you want to do with it?”

  “You know the right thing would be to tell Olivia the truth.”