by Iris Kincaid
*****
When Ruby’s relatives arrived from upstate New York, they were more than surprised to find over a dozen people waiting anxiously in her room. They had no idea that Ruby had so many friends.
“I can’t believe that this happened to her. Before she had a chance to reach her real potential. I know that she was a little lacking in direction, but I really had faith that she was going to amount to something,” her uncle said sadly.
“She did amount to something, something very important,” Dr. Svenson said. “She was someone very exceptional, I think.
“Doctor, Ruby was so young that I’m sure she never thought to designate a medical power of attorney. But I am her aunt so I assume that I would have that responsibility. I mean, someone will have to make the decision, won’t they?”
“Make what decision?” Zoey Proctor demanded.
“Well, we were told about her extensive brain damage and that she’s in a coma. I’m sure that she wouldn’t want to go on like that. Who would? At some point, we’re going to have to make a decision about turning the support off. And that decision will have to come from her family.”
“I speak as both her doctor and her family,” Dr. Svenson said tersely. “That decision will come from me, and I say that she can still be saved. The finest brain surgeon in the world is on his way here from Switzerland. I think there’s every reason for hope. Machines will be turned off eventually, yes, but only because she will be able to live without them.”
“The best surgeon in the world? Why would the best surgeon in the world come just to see Ruby?”
“Because she will die if he doesn’t.”
“But he sounds like a very important doctor. He must have some really important clients.”
“More important than our Ruby? How could you even think it? Now, you have made the room too crowded and you will have to go out to the waiting room,” the doctor said pointedly to Ruby’s relatives, though clearly, the witches and their fellas were free to stay.
From the far corner of the room, Lilith Hazelwood’s ghost watched the proceedings with keen interest. Her brain would live again! Her knowledge, her reasoning, her memories, teamed with a young and eager mind. The possibilities were breathtaking. “You, Ruby, are going to be the missing link that allows me to uncover the identity of the vile assassin who ended my life and deliver the painful and excruciating punishment they deserve. My long wait is over.”
*****
The surgery took some twelve hours. The Swiss doctor was sent on a plane back to Zurich where he would forever be wondering about a seventy-two-hour blackout in his memory.
In her unconsciousness, Ruby was beginning to dream. Strange, disorienting, and occasionally terrifying dreams. Normally, nightmares involved things happening to her beyond her control. Falling from great heights. Being chased by a bear or a lion down the street. Being forced to talk in front of a large, disapproving audience.
But in these dreams, she walked through the familiar streets of Oyster Cove and decided what she wanted to happen, and it happened! Babies would stop wailing, shop owners would give her free things, men would gleefully schedule midnight rendezvous with her. And people who annoyed her would often wind up in the hospital!
And whenever she caught a glimpse of herself in a window or mirror, she could no longer recognized the image. Where was her brown haired, brown eyed, five-foot five thoroughly average appearance? In this dream, she was feeling rather gorgeous.
It was enough to jar her right out of her recuperative sleep. She awoke to a full house, with the exception of her relatives. Their demanding careers could only spare one day away from home. They had left their contact numbers and were content to be informed about developments from a distance.
But all the people who mattered were there, Margo, Wanda, Zoey, Lorna, Gillian, Erin, Gemma, and Martine—hey, didn’t Martine just get married? Yes, there was her handsome groom standing right next to her. A lot of husbands and boyfriends filled the room.
Which was . . . a hospital room. And she was the one in the bed. Wearing the hospital gown. And she was hooked up to an IV. Freeway. Accident. In a moment, she had fully assessed the situation.
“Am I okay?”
She was greeted with loud, audible sighs of relief.
“You look great.”
“I feel great.”
“As I knew you would,” the doctor said.
What did he mean by that? “Did you . . . did you use Lilith Hazelwood’s blood in me?” What an exciting thought.
“No. No. Not her blood.”
Everyone exchanged looks. A little blood transfusion is one thing. Finding out that you have Lilith Hazelwood’s brain fused to your own . . . that’s not necessarily going to be welcome news.
“Well, what part of her? Not her nails?” Ruby joked weakly to the doctor.
“That joke was always in poor taste, young woman. No, it is my brain that has restored your own. My brain that bestows on you the greatest of all gifts.”
And there she was, hovering, floating, flowing, and scowling. The spirit of Lilith Hazelwood was now visible to Ruby.
Delphine could not help but notice this new connection with great alarm. “Oh, no. This cannot be good.”
“Who is that, Delphine? Is that who I think it is?”
“What you talking about? Who is what?” Margo wondered.
“Yes, Ruby. That is Lilith Hazelwood.”
This news was greeted with a moment of stunned silence.
“You can see her?”
“Yes, and she just spoke to me.”
“And I will continue to do so. Delphine, you are the most ill-suited go-between I could ever have been saddled with. But now, your services will no longer be required. I can communicate directly with this one, and she will know exactly what is to be done. At last. At long last.”
“What is she saying?” Gillian asked.
“I think she wants something from me. And, um . . . Brain! What is she saying about my brain? Dr. Svenson?”
“Yeah, Ruby, her brain. No choice, really. The damage was . . . it was bad, Ruby. It was bad.”
“Her brain. You can’t be serious.”
“Not the whole brain, of course. Just some neural pathways, some brain tissue in the areas where you needed the greatest repairs. And it worked. That is the important thing to keep in mind. It worked.”
Heart. Kidneys. Bone marrow. All the previous operations were just body parts. The women who received them were the same people they were before, with a new organ. But doesn’t your brain get to the heart of who you are? And what you are? Seeing Lilith Hazelwood was one thing—and an alarming thing at that. But being Lilith Hazelwood was almost frightening enough to make Ruby want to crawl back into a coma. Instead, she summoned the courage to turn back to Lilith.
“Those dreams that I just had—those were yours, weren’t they?”
“They were my memories. Which you now have more or less full access to. Don’t resist them. They will be an invaluable resource to you. Now, while there is much to discuss, there’s too much commotion and distraction here. I give you this day to spend time with your friends and get all that sentimental claptrap out of the way. But I’ll come to you tomorrow. And then we will begin.”
Ruby should probably have asked, begin what? But did she really want to know?
After everyone had had a chance to hug and cry and reassure themselves that Ruby was going to be okay, they left her to get dressed and start her release proceedings and convened in the waiting room. Delphine stayed behind with her.
“You must be on your guard with Lilith,” Delphine cautioned. “There were limits to the extent to which she could command and manipulate me, and she knew it. But she views you as an instrument to fulfill her agenda. And she will not hesitate to take advantage. Please do not hesitate to ask me for any advice or assistance. I will always be happy to help.”
“I have a feeling I’m going to have to take you up on that. So, that’s
my talent? That’s my witch power? Being able to see and talk to Lilith Hazelwood?”
“Oh, not only Lilith. You can see her because you can see the dead. That is your talent, Ruby. You can see the dead. I can speak on this matter with some authority, as I share the same power. I must say, of all my abilities, this is the one that I would gladly dispense with.
“You will primarily see and hear those who are in a state of unrest, like Lilith. Those who have unfinished business, the angry, the unhappy, the disappointed, and the unfulfilled. Those are the ones who are most likely to make themselves known to you. And goodness, do they ever like to chat.”
Great. Just great.
CHAPTER THREE
In the waiting room, Ruby’s friends worried about the implications for her future.
“I always wanted to see Lilith and be able to speak to her. Kind of. Sort of. Maybe,” Margo mused.
“I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ve heard enough about Lilith to never have need for the opportunity to see her,” Lorna confessed.
“This is a whole lot for Ruby to handle. She’s going to need all her friends around her,” Gillian said.
“You know what? I think I’m going to cancel my trip out of town just in case she needs me,” Erin Sweeney said.
Oh, Erin, don’t do that. This trip is too important. And Ruby wouldn’t want you to. Don’t worry. There are lots of us here to keep an eye on her,” Zoey assured her.
Erin, who had been adopted into a family, had managed to track down her biological family. They were in New Orleans and she had been looking forward to meeting them for some time.
“No Erin, you can’t cancel your visit. We can let you know how things are going. The worst is over. She’s alive, she’s fine, and we’re going to give her every bit of help and support that she needs. So, you go, or we shall be really mad at you,” Martine urged her.
Erin reluctantly agreed. But she had great faith in this little community. Of course, they would look after Ruby.
As Ruby’s friends escorted her out of the hospital, she had her first opportunity to confirm Delphine’s pronouncement. Most dead bodies are removed from the hospital as quickly as possible, but they were still recently deceased individuals and their ghosts were now quite visible to Ruby. And not only could she see them, but they quickly became aware that they were being seen, and it took a number of them by surprise.
One elderly ghost was surrounded by a large family, crying and grieving over his recent loss. He noticed Ruby staring at him from the hallway and approached her with great agitation.
“You can see me. Can you hear me? Yes, I see that you can. You have to talk to my family. Tell them that I left $40,000 cash in a safety deposit box and that the key is in the red piggy bank in the baby’s room. You must tell them. Otherwise, they’ll never find it.”
“Yeah, but how I will explain to them how I know?”
“You must tell them!”
“All right. All right. What’s your name?”
“Ted Aikens.”
Ruby timidly approached the somber, grieving crowd. This is going to seem odd. This is going to seem odd.
“I’m so sorry for your loss. I just needed to let you know that Mr. Aikins left the key for a safety deposit box inside the red piggy bank in the baby’s room. And you’re gonna want to look into that really fast because there’s $40,000 cash in there. Okay. That’s all. Sorry for interrupting.”
And then Ruby ran out of the room and urged her friends to scurry down the hallway, as she was truly not prepared to answer any questions.
*****
Back in Ruby’s apartment, everything looked exactly as she had left it. Which felt impossible. How could it look the same when everything about her reality had changed? Her bed had taken on a very ominous feel, however. She didn’t know what dreams it would bring, and she was pretty sure she didn’t want to find out.
But exhaustion won out, and the dreams came. Again, she took on the persona of a creature who wanted to be feared, who loved to flex her magical powers and who would shatter the glass of a storefront window of a rude shopkeeper. Who’d turn the ink of a cop writing her a ticket into invisible ink. Who’d tell incredulous bank tellers to take another look at her balance after the decimal point had magically been moved one decimal to the right, and $1600 became $16,000, ready for withdrawal.
Lilith loved to shock, provoke, frighten, and play pranks. The commoner citizens of Oyster Cove were like props to her. Playthings. And she had wanted no one to be in doubt as to who was in charge.
Ruby awoke with the alarming and immediate understanding that these were not the dreams of imagination—they were true and remembered events. The memories of someone else’s life were now embedded in her. It felt so very unnatural, very wrong and very disturbing.
After a long night of disturbing dreams, the last thing one really needs is to awaken to a witch ghost hovering impatiently in the corner of one’s bedroom. But this was Ruby’s new normal.
“Rouse yourself, girl. There is work to be done. Delphine is one to beat around the bush. I am not. To begin with, are you aware of what a sorry state you were in? Your friends may have spared you, but I think you’ll benefit from the true depiction. Your brain damage was irreparable. Your body was being kept alive by a machine.”
“Like Gemma’s,” Ruby said..
“Worse. Far worse. Her mind may have been full of self-pity and despair, but your mind was closed. It was gone and irretrievable, had it not been for the strength and power provided by my own brain. More than any of the others, I hope you know the role I have played in the fact that you are still alive and not as a vegetable.”
“I do. I really do, and I’m so, so grateful.”
“May the I rely on that gratitude for your assistance?”
“Assistance? Oh, you want me to help you figure out how you were killed.”
“Working in tandem, we will not fail. You will have access to my history, my memories, my battles, my enemies . . . and the strength of my mind will be reinforced by your youth and native intelligence. I have become aware that I now experience a cloud of amnesia around the hours of my death. With our combined resources, we can blast through that fog and uncover my killer.”
“Right. Right. And then?”
“And then justice. Does not every murdered individual have a right to justice?”
“They do. They absolutely do.”
“So, may I rely on you? To leave no stone unturned?”
“Yes. I’ll do everything I can. I really will.”
This was the very thing that Lilith have been waiting for. Though she had often poked fun and derided the integrity and conscientiousness of others, she could now only rejoice in getting Ruby’s promise of help. Lilith knew the young woman would not go back on her word. The hour of satisfaction was almost at hand.
*****
At Lilith’s insistence, the first order of business was to arrange a meeting with Lorna Sinclair, one of the transplant witches, and her fiancé, Maximilian Crowe. It was Maximilian whom Lilith took the greatest interest in, as she had killed his mother, Arabella Crowe, a very powerful practitioner of the dark arts. And in the search for Lilith’s killer, it seemed only reasonable to start with the one person who had the greatest motive.
“I don’t understand,” Ruby said. “You killed Arabella. She’s dead, and she died before you. How could she be responsible for your death?”
“You see how I seek vengeance from the other side of the grave. I have no doubt that she wanted to do the same. She would have needed earthly assistance, perhaps from another witch who is still living. Or even a commoner. Whether she enlisted their help or commanded them against their will, she may have sought to punish me for her death.”
“What if that turns out to be true? That means your murderer is already dead, and there can be no retaliation, no revenge. You already killed her once. And even killing her once was . . .”
“Spare me your morals. Her family and
mine had shed one another’s blood for centuries. It was either kill or be killed. I have no apologies to offer. Now I only seek the truth. Your friendship with Lorna will smooth the way. Otherwise, Maximilian Crowe has little reason to cooperate with us. Just the opposite.”
She had that right. Ruby rendezvoused with her friends at the outdoor patio of their favorite tapas restaurant, Barcelona. After the greetings and hugs and well wishes, and a multitude of inquiries after her wellbeing, Ruby had to summon up the courage to bring up the very sensitive and bizarre reason behind their gathering.
“Have you seen Lilith’s spirit since the hospital?” Lorna asked.
“Actually . . . she is here with us right now,” Ruby confessed.
“What is she doing here? What does she want?” Max growled fiercely.
“Max. I know what she did to your mother. It was cold-blooded murder and absolutely indefensible, and you have every right to hate Lilith.”
“Hey! Have you forgotten whose side you’re on?” Lilith scolded.
“In order to reach him, I have to be able to see things from his eyes. He has to know that I’m on his side. Which I am, although that may seem contradictory to you. I’ve always liked Max. He’s good guy, and he and Lorna are so wonderful together.”
“Drivel! What is this affliction of romance that affects you all?”
“Just let me try this my way. It is better to ask him to help me than to ask him to help you. Lilith, you killed his mother!”
“Get on with it.”
“Max, I do know you probably hate Lilith. Why wouldn’t you? But she has been killed. Maybe you think that she deserved it. Maybe she did deserve it. But the fact is that your mother’s murderer has been punished for whatever evil actions she did in this world. That has to bring you a little bit of closure.”
“It would if I knew that she was gone. But apparently, she lingers, and I do find that very disturbing.”
“That’s why I need your help. You don’t want her to linger. No one wants her to linger. And if we can only solve the question of who murdered her, then she will be free to move on. And then you’ll truly be rid of her. Isn’t that worth any amount of discomfort right now?”
