“You’re joking,” she said. She was completely surprised, but thinking back she suddenly realized that what he was saying was absolutely correct. She had turned down several guys, but that was only because none of them were right for her.
Stefan’s voice snapped her out of her thoughts again. “No, I’m not joking. I was not going to be the loser; I didn’t want everyone to laugh at me.”
Arielle frowned. “Stefan, it had nothing to do with any particular innuendos and rubbish talk. I just didn’t want to go out with any of those guys, and so I turned them down.”
“What about me? Did you like me?” he asked cautiously.
“Maybe then, but it’s too late now,” she said evenly.
“I wish I could go back and do it all over again,” he murmured.
“I actually thought you didn’t like me at all,” she said in a low voice.
“What would ever give you that idea?” he asked, seemingly confused.
Arielle didn’t try to mask her surprise. His question was utterly absurd. “Stefan, you wouldn’t talk to me for three years, and you avoided being anywhere near me. I thought that was a pretty good indication of where I stood with you.”
“Well, like I said, I was always afraid that you would turn me down, so I stayed away from you.”
He reached out and tried to pull her closer, but she pulled away from him and smiled, letting him know that this was really not a good idea. In spite of all the bad feelings she had about him and the anger she held inside for his rejection, she was happy about this turn of events. Unfortunately, she didn’t really hold the same feeling for him anymore.
Stefan winced at her reaction. “I’ll be leaving for college in a couple of months and I wanted to find out if maybe there could be something between us now that we are out of school,” he said softly.
She smiled at him, but she didn’t find it difficult to tell him that she wasn’t interested in a relationship. He looked frustrated and hurt, but he too kept a smile on his face.
“I don’t feel anything romantic for you, but I do like you,” she said. Stefan was tall and stunningly handsome, even somewhat irresistible, but she felt sure that by the end of the summer she would probably have forgotten all about him.
As he started to walk away, she heard his voice, low but clear. “Maybe you’ll change your mind over the summer.”
Then he was gone, and she stood there staring into the night, thinking about what-ifs.
Gabby walked towards her, and Eva came back inside the house alone, all flustered, a wide smile on her face.
“What happened?” they both asked Eva.
Her smile got wider and her eyes were sparkling. “Oh, nothing, I just had a great time with Jack. He’s such a great kisser,” she said, looking as if she might drift away. Then suddenly she broke into a soft chuckle. Gabby asked Arielle what had happened between her and Stefan.
“Oh, he wanted to ask me out,” she said with a dry voice.
“Are you joking?” Eva and Gabby exclaimed simultaneously.
“No, not at all,” she said thoughtfully.
“Would you have gone out with him?” Gabrielle asked.
“I think I would have liked to go out with him a long time ago, but not now. He’s not the guy I’m waiting for.”
“I hope you told him to get lost,” Gabrielle said.
“I did, in a nice way,” Arielle chuckled. “I really don’t think of him as someone I would fall in love with,” she added. “He just doesn’t fit the blueprint of the man I have in my head. Anyway, by the time we get back from our holidays he won’t be here anymore. He’s going away to another university.”
They changed the subject, discussing the success of the party and all the gossip they had gathered during the night. They were staying overnight, so they went upstairs to get ready for bed. Arielle was happy about that. She was the first to go brush her teeth and wash her face. When she walked out of the bathroom, she saw Gabrielle and Eva sitting on the bed whispering back and forth, pretty animated.
“What’s going on?” she asked
“Eva and I are talking about witchcraft and her powers. I want to know what she can do and if she considers herself a witch,” Gabrielle said.
Arielle walked over and sat on the bed with them. She looked at Eva. “Well, do you think of yourself as a witch? I’d like to know about that as well.”
Eva was quiet for a short moment. She took a deep breath and appeared to be trying to find the right words to explain her powers. “I don’t think that I’m a witch. All I know is what I’ve learned by reading the spell books I purchased,” she said. “I’m trying to understand the powers I think I may have and try to use them to make contact with the Spirit World. Sometimes I’m in sync with some unpredictable and maybe dangerous spirits, and that scares me. I know now that there is this alternate plane that exists, parallel to our physical world. But I don’t understand it.”
“So… are you saying that spirits come to you even if you don’t call on them?” Gabrielle asked.
“Yes, that’s what makes me uncomfortable about this whole thing.”
“What can they do to you?”
“I don’t know, but I’ve read that some spirits are very manipulative, and they may seek to use me for their own ends.”
“Oh my gosh…” Arielle muttered under her breath.
“I want Eva to do something with her powers,” Gabrielle persisted, looking at Arielle as if for approval.
“Gabby, I thought we were going to help Eva stop doing spells and witchcraft. I’m sure that isn’t a good idea,” Arielle said.
“Come on, Arielle, aren’t you even a little bit curious? I’ve been thinking about it ever since that day on the beach. We are together, so how bad could it be?”
Arielle had to admit that she was a bit curious, but she was also scared. She looked at Eva, who was looking down at her hands. “I don’t want to do anything that might bring my visitor back. I’m a little scared of her, even though she has never done anything to hurt me,” she murmured.
“How can you be scared when you are spending so much time at the cemetery alone and summoning dead people?” Gabrielle pressed.
“That’s my father; I’m not scared of my father.”
“Come on, Eva, we are all here together. Nothing is going to happen.”
“I don’t have any of my spell books, and I can’t remember any of the spells.”
“Well that’s that, let’s just talk about other things,” Arielle said, standing up. She wanted to change the subject.
“Wait…” she heard Gabby saying as she jumped out of bed and sprinted to Arielle’s closet. “I know you have the Ouija board we used when we were kids. Let’s just use that. There are no spells involved, and it may not work at all.”
“I’m not sure I like that idea either,” Arielle said. “That board starts out pretty innocent, but soon it becomes addicting and you can’t stop. I remember talking to a lady in St Jean de Luz who told me that it’s very dangerous to use this board as a portal to communicate with the dead. She said there are spirits out there that are prowling around, looking for innocent people, waiting to devour their minds. I don’t want to do that. I’m scared.”
Eva looked toward Arielle as Gabrielle rolled her eyes and moved to pull the board out of the closet. “That’s absurd. Tons of people, and especially kids, use this board all the time. Come on, you guys, I’m bored to death,” Gabby said. She was relentless.
Eva was now sitting on the floor. Arielle moved reluctantly and sat down next to her. Gabby set the board on the floor in front of them, lit a couple of candles that she took from the dresser, and set them on the floor. She turned the lights off and sat down across from them. They gazed at each other in silence, and Arielle could feel tension building as she heard their thoughts, full of speculation.
“Why not try?” Gabrielle persisted in a low voice.
“Are you sure?” Eva said. She too was reluctant.
“Yes, I’m sure. Come on, Eva. Let’s see what you can do!”
Arielle was filled with a kind of quiet dread. She really didn’t think any of this was a good idea.
“You guys have to stay quiet, plus there may be a considerable change of temperature in the room,” Eva said. “Just try to stay calm and don’t be surprised.” She took a deep breath through her nose, exhaling slowly through her mouth several times.
“Concentrate on my visitor, and I’ll call for her,” she said.
They put their fingertips lightly on the heart-shaped planchette, closed their eyes, and tried to think hard about Eva’s visitor. After a few moments of silence Eva chanted a spell three times in a soft whisper.
“Guardians of the spirit realm, hear and guide my plea.
When the witching hour rings true,
Bring the girl that hunts me through.”
There was deafening quiet in the room for a long time as the candles flickered, but nothing happened. They opened their eyes and looked at each other but stayed silent, waiting in the shadowy candlelight. Arielle was just about to get up and turn the light back on when suddenly the candles went out and then came back on again with bigger and brighter flames. Then they went completely out. All three girls gasped in disbelief as a cold breeze blew across their faces and the curtains moved wildly in and out through the open window. Arielle stopped breathing and she could hear Gabrielle and Eva panting hard.
They were in complete darkness but for the dim light slithering from the night’s gibbous moon occupying the dark sky. Suddenly the wind ceased and there was absolute stillness in the room. Arielle shivered, thinking it was about to turn dangerous. At the same time, she was curious to find out if Eva’s spirit was really present. She could read Gabrielle’s and Eva’s minds, and they were both scared to death, but also completely intrigued.
She picked up the lighter and lit the candles one more time. Then Eva asked, in a faint voice, “Are you here?”
Their fingertips barely touched the planchette as it glided slowly but steadily, with the pointer stopping at the word “Yes.” Arielle’s body stiffened. She knew her friends felt just as frightened.
“What’s your name?” Eva asked.
The pointer moved slowly to the letter J, then moved slowly around the board, gradually spelling the word “Juliet.”
“Can you show yourself?” Eva asked in a quivery voice. There was a short lapse of time and the pointer moved again, this time to the word “No.”
The tension in the room was thick, and they knew that Eva’s visitor was in the room with them.
“Why not?” There was no answering movement on the board.
“How old are you?” Eva asked. The pointer moved to the numbers one and then eight.
“She’s eighteen years old,” Arielle whispered. “What does she want from you?”
“What do you want?” Eva asked reluctantly.
The planchette moved slowly this time, clearly forming the words “I’m waiting.”
“What are you waiting for?”
The pointer moved again, forming the word “Jasper.”
Arielle felt a cold chill run down her spine. Her veins felt fused and her stomach was churning as if she might throw up. Looking at Eva and Gabrielle’s faces didn’t make her feel any better. They were all wondering who Jasper was and why Juliet was waiting for him.
“Show yourself,” Eva demanded.
The pointer moved to the word “No.”
“Juliet, show yourself!” Eva’s voice demanded again, in a stern tone Arielle had never heard before. Their hands left the board and they reached out toward each other, intertwining their fingers as stony silence fell in the room. Arielle heard Gabrielle draw in a deep breath as her own breath seized up in her throat, and her body started to tremble from fear and anticipation. She felt a cold shiver as if the temperature in the room had dropped to below zero in a blink of an eye.
Suddenly a light breeze blew through the open window, moving the curtains ever so slightly, but rapidly it grew stronger and stronger, and the curtains flapped wildly against the wall. There was a crashing sound that made them jump in fright, and their eyes widened as they watched the papers on Arielle’s desk being swept up and whirled around the room. Small objects were violently thrown off of the end tables by the sofa and scattered all over the floor. The candles went completely out, letting darkness fall around them like a curtain of death. For a moment, there was silence, and they stopped breathing altogether.
Suddenly, there was a brilliant circle in the center of the room, glowing like a bright sun. A pale-faced young girl dressed in a beautiful white gown was standing in the center, wrapped in the glow. In place of her eyes were two dark holes; her long blonde hair was blowing in every direction, as if the brilliant circle was a wind tunnel. Blood was dripping slowly out of her mouth, down her neck, and onto her white gown, turning the front of it completely red. Tears were pouring out of the holes where her eyes should have been, and her hands were stretched out toward the girls. One of her hands was clutching a chain with what looked like a pentagon at the end of it, illuminated from the bright light of the circle. The girls gasped out loud, and Gabby let out a low scream. Arielle wanted to scream but she couldn’t, and she couldn’t move any part of her body. The girl was chanting words that had no meaning at all, but she looked distressed, suffering, clearly looking for Jasper.
“What do you want? I want to help you,” Eva said softly. To Arielle it sounded like Eva’s voice was coming from miles away. The young girl looked startled by the words. Suddenly, her face changed, the black holes filled with two beautiful blue eyes. Her tears had stopped flowing, and there was no blood anywhere to be seen. A beautiful smile covered her small white face and she looked peaceful and content. She opened her hand slowly and the pentagon fell on the floor with a soft thud as she and the bright circle disappeared into thin air.
Chapter 3
THE CANDLES WERE BURNING again, the temperature in the room went back to normal, and the room looked as if nothing unusual had happened there, except for the papers that were spread all over the floor and the small items that had fallen off the table. Where a minute ago the girl had been standing, now only the chain and the pentagon were left behind.
The girls sat in complete silence for several minutes. None of them made a move to pick up the pentagon. Gabrielle and Arielle were trying to process this powerful experience. Eva had experienced it before, so she seemed to take it in stride. Arielle was trying to dispel the fear of insanity that had immediately come over her with the appearance of the girl. They had seen a ghost. She knew that it was an utter impossibility. It couldn’t be real…but yet the experience she’d just had proved her wrong… I must be going out of my mind, she thought.
Eva was the first to move. She picked up the pentagon, walked across the room, and turned the lights on. She examined the pentagon, twirling it between her fingers and bringing it close to the table lamp.
“There’s writing on here,” she said. “Juliet Garner 1982 – 2000.” She turned the pentagon over and read, in almost a whisper, “Juliet, wait for me. I love you, Jasper.” Eva looked at them, her eyes tearing up.
“She’s waiting for someone and she can’t move on. How can we find out who this Jasper guy is?”
“Maybe we can search the computer under the last name Garner and see if something comes up about her family and what happened to her. That would be a good place to start,” Gabrielle said. But she also sounded sad.
“Guys, I think I’ve had enough for tonight. I do want to help, but I’m tired, and honestly, I’m a little scared about this whole thing,” Arielle said. “I mean, messing around with the dead…” She was trembling like a leaf in a windstorm. Gabrielle and Eva nodded agreement. It was a bit scary, and they all knew it.
They also now knew that Eva’s visitor was an eighteen-year-old girl named Juliet who needed help finding the person she was waiting for – someone by the name of Jasper. Arielle pr
essed her lips together as she picked the board up, put it away in its box, and threw it into the very back of her closet.
“I was sure this board didn’t work,” she muttered.
“Well, you were wrong,” Gabrielle said matter-of-factly.
“Now I know why she has been coming to me all this time. She needs help. But I’m not sure how I can help her,” Eva mumbled.
“I truly feel bad about her and I want us to help. We can start looking on the Internet tomorrow and see what we can find,” said Gabrielle.
“How do we know what place to check in the search engine? What if she’s not from Brighton?” Eva asked.
“Hmm, good point,” said Arielle.
After a short pause Eva suggested that they could first search for Garners in their town. Then, if that didn’t work they could check places around Brighton within a couple of hours drive since Juliet had to have lived somewhere in the surrounding area. That sounded like a logical plan, so they decided to go to bed and talk about it more in the morning. But Arielle sensed that Eva was still tense.
“What is it?” she asked, holding Eva’s gaze. Eva soundlessly inhaled and smiled tensely.
“When I was doing all the spells I felt the heavy burden of all the problems I was receiving from different spirits,” Eva said. “I want to help this girl, but after we find out who she is and what exactly she wants, I don’t want to do this anymore.” She was biting her lower lip, and Arielle could see that her thoughts were running a mile a minute.
“All right, we’ll start on this tomorrow. And when we’re done, we’re not going to do this again. I’m going to throw that stupid board out tomorrow,” Arielle said. She was pretty frustrated that this senseless idea had ruined the rest of the night for them. This Juliet girl was now invading all of their thoughts. She tossed and turned for a long time, and when she finally fell asleep it was a restless, fitful sleep.
First thing the next morning, even before breakfast, they sat in front of the computer. They searched the Internet by putting in Juliet’s last name and her age. Then they moved from place to place, from family to family, checking the names under each household, and spent several hours without any results. They took a couple of breaks for lunch and dinner and continued their search until late Sunday night. They were tired and were planning to quit after pulling up Southampton, the last search for the night. In Southampton there were only three households with the name “Garner.” When they saw the name “Juliet” listed in one family group, they were startled and excited. The address was around fifty-five kilometers away from Arielle’s house.
Arielle Immortal Awakening (The Immortal Rapture Series Book 1) Page 3
