Wraiths of Winter (The Haunting Ruby Series Book 3)

by Joy Elbel

  “I love you” was all it said. Apparently, Dad decided not to wait until morning to break the news to the Masons. When he was in trouble, the first thing his parents did was take away his phone forcing him to message me from his sister’s phone instead. I returned the sentiment then buried my head in the pillows.

  Another wonderful moment with Zach overshadowed by something horrible. The breaking point was near—I could feel it. How much more could our relationship withstand?

  26. For Whom the Bell Tolls

  I went to work on less than three hours of sleep and spent the day festering over what happened the night before. Dad was so mad—madder than I’d ever seen him before. I wasn’t a child anymore. Most girls my age were already sexually active—I waited for the right guy and got blasted for something I didn’t even do. Did he expect me to wait forever or what? The hatred he felt for Lee was only a warm up for the blazing animosity now aimed at Zach. Since I’d already promised Zach that I wouldn’t go back to the Bantam, home was the unfortunate next stop after work.

  So I drove home slowly, hoping that maybe just those extra few minutes would be enough time for Dad to be sufficiently calmed down. I was almost hopeful when I pulled up outside of the mansion. What was the worst that could happen? He could yell at me again and forbid me to see Zach. Blah, blah, blah—we already went through that last night. No more tears, I decided. He needed to see just how grown up I was.

  As I walked into the entry hall ready to explain to him what happened at the theater last night and how it affected Zach and me, I stopped right in my tracks. There stood my father holding up a skimpy white lace negligee and looking seriously pissed. A white box with a red ribbon lay on the stand beside him. It was identical to the box the scarf arrived in.

  “Is that Mason boy suicidal?” my father asked angrily, thrusting a note card in my face. I snatched the card from him and read what it said aloud. “For my bride: Last night may have been cut short but rest assured that our wedding night won’t be. Yours for eternity.”

  This had to be a sick joke, right? The scarf was one thing but lingerie? Zach never would have sent this—or Lucas either. Someone was definitely messing with me, someone who wanted to break up Zach and me. Of course the obvious suspect was Misty Landrum. The gifts were expensive— definitely her trademark. But there was no way she could have found out about last night unless she was hiding in the mansion when it happened. Petty cyber bullying, yes. Breaking and entering, no. It just wasn’t her style. Very few people even knew about what happened and none of them would have told her about it. None of it made sense. I was completely stumped.

  “Dad, Zach didn’t send this!” I declared. I may not have believed Zach the first time but this time I didn’t even have to ask—I knew the truth.

  Defending Zach only made my dad angrier. “Tell me then, who else did you almost sleep with last night? Lucas, maybe?”

  His words hit me with the intensity of a verbal slap in the face. “I’m not that kind of girl, Dad!” My no-tears declaration tore itself into little shreds as I began to cry. “You should know me better than that!”

  “Before last night, I thought I did!” He tossed the negligee back into the box. “You’re grounded until further notice—school and work only. No phone, internet, or car either. You can ride the school bus and Shelly will escort you to and from work. And if I hear that you’ve stepped out of line at either school or work, they’ll be gone too.”

  As he disappeared up the steps, Shelly popped her head around the corner of the dining room. “What’s going on in here? Ruby, why are you crying?”

  Where should I begin? The onslaught of tears had turned me into a hyperventilating hot mess. Words poured from my lips but nothing made sense. Shelly comforted me until I calmed down enough to talk. When I was speaking coherently enough for her to understand me, I briefly told her what had just transpired.

  “Stop right there, Ruby. I’m going to grab my purse and let your father know we’re leaving. You need to get out of this house. I’m taking you somewhere so we can talk.”

  I pulled the card out of the box and read it one more time. Someone was trying to ruin my relationship with Zach and it sure did seem to be working. But how did they know about last night? If I could figure out the source of the knowledge, I would probably know who was interfering with my life. Until then, I had no clue who was slowly destroying me. Shelly was a whiz with mysteries—maybe she would be able to see what I was missing.

  Shelly and I sat at one of the private booths in the back room of City Lights for nearly two hours. I wasn’t hungry at first but she insisted I order something to eat anyway. Boy was I glad she did—the more I got off my chest the more I realized how hungry I was. I told her about my argument with my dad and just kept going—everything about my dilemma with Lucas and Zach. I even told her the whole truth about the night before—that what they thought happened, very well could have.

  She listened most intently as I described the scarf and all of the controversy it spawned. Funny—I just told her that I almost slept with my boyfriend for the first time and she found the mystery gifts more interesting. Shelly deserved the Stepmother of the Year Award!

  “So neither boy is taking credit for sending it?” she queried, her mystery writer’s brain in overdrive. “Well, Lucas complimented me on it but never actually said he sent it. I thought he did but after today’s gift, I don’t think so. I think someone’s trying to break up Zach and me.”

  “Any idea who it could be?” “Misty Landrum is the obvious choice but she’s actually been leaving me alone lately. Other than that, I don’t have any other ideas.” I slumped back in the booth defeated.

  Shelly shook her head no. “I don’t think it’s her. There is a missing piece to this puzzle, though. Let me think about it for a while—I’ll figure it out.”

  Good luck. If she could figure this one out, she was a genius. “So I guess it doesn’t matter much anyway. Dad’s probably putting bars on my bedroom windows as we speak.”

  “Don’t worry about him—I’m going to have a talk with him about how he overreacted. You’re not going to totally get out of being grounded, however I’m positive that I can get your sentence reduced. Two weeks max—and I’m willing to put money on that.”

  Shelly was awesome! “Hey, thanks for being on my side. And I want to say I’m sorry for what I did last night—it won’t happen again.”

  “What won’t happen? Don’t even sit there and try to tell me that you and Zach aren’t eventually going to, well, you know what I’m getting at!”

  I gave a nervous laugh. “I don’t know what to say to that.” “Just say that when it happens for real next time, that the two of you will be safe about it. Your father may not be willing to hear it now but the fact that you guys haven’t done it yet says a lot for Zach’s character. And yours, too.” Shelly motioned for the waitress to bring her the check. “Oh, one other piece of advice—next time set the alarm in case you both fall asleep again.”

  Words to live by. While things still weren’t perfect, I felt a whole lot better about everything and I had Shelly to thank for it. On the way to the car, I put my arm around her. “In case you didn’t already know, you’re a really good mom.”

  My comment was an instant recipe for tears. “Thanks, Ruby—you have no idea how much that means to me!” She made me feel better—it was only fair for me to return the favor. So I went home to solitary confinement in the attic and no contact to the outside world. When I left for work the next morning, I found my phone and my laptop waiting for me in the hallway.

  It was kind of a good thing that I didn’t have my keys back yet. The ride to Something Wick-ed consisted of reading and sending multiple texts. According to Rachel, Zach was in almost the same boat as I was—no phone and grounded for a week. The funny part was that my dad never even called his parents—Shelly prevented him from doing that. Zach, it seemed, had confessed everything to his mom and dad the minute he got home that night.r />
  After I got the store open, I called Rachel to explain everything in detail, including the fact that I had promised Zach I wouldn’t go back into the theater. Truth be told, I was afraid to hear her reaction. As it turned out, I didn’t need to be.

  “I get it, Ruby. After what happened Friday night, I don’t blame you. You weren’t getting any closer to solving Allison’s murder anyway—just getting closer to joining her.”

  “And, hey, for all we know, Crimson may have just decided to take off on her own for a little while. NeverMore was on the verge of breaking up—she probably had a lot on her mind. I’m sure she’s just fine and living it up in LA or something.”

  I said the words but I didn’t believe them myself. I’d given up on finding her alive weeks ago. Hope was a powerful thing, though—I refused to take that away from Rachel.

  True to her word, Shelly got my dad to limit my punishment to two weeks of being grounded. I got my car back but only to drive back and forth to work and school. He actually made me surrender my keys the instant I walked through the door every day. Having my phone only helped me stay in touch with Rachel except for the rare moments that Zach could sneak me a text from her phone.

  School was absolute torture. Zach and I stole moments together every chance we got but they weren’t enough. Lucas ignored me altogether. I was once again the lunchroom pariah sitting alone at a table big enough for six. Teachers piled on the homework until I was practically buried alive in it. The only saving grace was not having to go back into the Bantam. At least not while I was awake anyway.

  The nightmares struck almost every night, always similar but never exactly the same. The one thing that remained consistent was that each time I was caught in some dire circumstance and then had to decide whose advice to follow—Lucas’s or Zach’s. For some reason, I always woke up before the situation was resolved. Until the next nightmare came—the one I wished I hadn’t gotten to see the ending of.

  Saturday night—dull, quiet, and boring. The exact opposite of most Saturday nights I’d spent lately. I stayed up late writing, practically setting my laptop on fire. Sleep beckoned for hours before I finally gave in and went to bed. If I’d known what was in store for me, I would have vowed to never sleep again.

  I was in the Bantam, of course, but Zach and Lucas were nowhere in sight. In fact, I was utterly alone. The sound of my heels echoed through the theater as I walked down the aisle. Suddenly, they weren’t the only sounds.

  Muffled screams became audible from the balcony above. A dark figure was standing over a girl dressed in white, pinning her to her seat with its knee. In one hand it held a serrated hunting knife, in the other—the girl’s tongue. Back and forth with gruesome precision, the figure hacked until it came free of her mouth. gushed forth and her screams gurgling sound. As the figure moved out of my line of sight, I saw that its victim wasn’t Allison. I couldn’t be certain but the bloody girl appeared to be Crimson, instead.

  An instant rush of blood were replaced by a sick The figure stood behind the girl and shouted, “All I wanted was for you to be my bride!” It placed its hands on the sides of her head and with one quick snap, her head fell forward limply onto her chest.

  I stood still in my tracks, watching the most realistic horror flick ever. It seemed real yet it didn’t—at least not until it spoke to me.

  “Will you be my bride?” the figure called down to me, its face still hidden but the crimson stained knife in its hand clearly visible. The voice was familiar yet I just couldn’t put my finger on who it belonged to.

  Filled with terror, I ran back down the aisle and pushed through the lobby doors to what I thought was safety. But then, the scenery changed. I wasn’t outside the theater I was in front of a church. And splayed out on the concrete steps before me was the body of a girl, bloody and broken.

  She was gone—I knew that. There was nothing I could do for her now. As I ran past her lifeless form, her arm shot out and grabbed me by the ankle. When I looked her in the eye, the church bell tolled ominously. The girl on the steps was me.

  I’d woken up from countless nightmares in my time— enough to know that this one was different. Daylight hadn’t yet crept into my windows but I dove out of bed and turned on the lights. I had to get to that church. There was a body there—I just knew that there was. Hurriedly, I threw on some shoes and my robe and reached for my keys.

  Dammit! I was still grounded—my keys were hidden in one of my father’s pockets somewhere. There was only one other way. Grabbing my phone, I dialed Rachel’s number.

  “Pick up!” I pleaded through clenched teeth. Rachel better not be as heavy a sleeper as Zach was! Just as it was about to go to voicemail, her groggy voice came through.

  “Ruby? What the hell? It’s o’ dark thirty in the morning! Go back to sleep!”

  “Rachel!” I shouted, afraid that she was about to hang up on me. “You have to come pick me up, now—I think I know where we can find Crimson!” “Oh shit! I’m on my way!” she exclaimed and the line went dead. Five minutes later, Rachel flew up in front of the house and I got inside the car. She was disheveled and still wearing a pair of fuzzy, pink bunny slippers. If the situation hadn’t been so urgent, I would have taken a picture of the worst fashion statement I’d ever seen her make. As it was, though, I was no runway model myself.

  “Tell me where we’re going, Ruby!” she demanded.

  “The church! The church where they found Allison’s body!” As we drove, I filled her in on my dream. You know how I knew for certain that Rachel was my best friend? The fact that she didn’t even question that I had dragged her out of bed before the sun was even up to find something I’d only seen in a dream—that’s how.

  There wasn’t a single car on the road so we were able to make really good time. The sun rose up over the horizon behind us, chasing us the whole way there. The steeple of the Baptist church was visible on the skyline long before I could see anything else. My heart raced. Please let me be wrong! But somehow, I knew I wasn’t.

  And as we pulled down the narrow backstreet and the steps of the church were in plain sight, I had my proof. Something was lying on those steps—something red and white. It was a body—just like in my dream.

  Rachel rammed her foot against the brake and the car slid to a stop. She didn’t even bother to turn the car off. The engine continued to purr as we flung open the doors and ran toward the motionless form. One ankle stuck out from the bottom of her dress, bluish-purple in color. It was the color of death.

  Rachel cowered behind me with her hand shielding her eyes from the horrors before us. “Is it her? Is it Crimson?”

  The girl was face down on the cement, a veil covering her head from view. Delicately, I pinched the lace shroud between my finger tips and gave it a tug. One lock of red hair popped out. Crimson red hair.

  Rachel screamed and the church bell began to ring, its peals hanging ominously in the rosy light of dawn. Crimson was gone but the bell wasn’t for her. I was going to be the next victim—the bell was tolling for me.

  27. Avalanche

  The death knell resonating from the church bell tower was soon drowned out by sirens as police cars and an ambulance flooded the small street. The church pastor soon joined the throng of people gathered around the body. Rachel and I remained in her car crying in our flannel pajamas. The cops hadn’t spotted us yet but when they did, we had some serious explaining to do.

  Two girls in their pajamas—one sporting fuzzy bunny slippers, no less—usually don’t drive around town in the early morning hours discovering bodies, now do they? They were going to want to know what we were doing there and we couldn’t tell them the truth. I had to act fast.

  “Listen, Rachel,” I said, wiping the tears away with the sleeve of my robe, “We need to come up with a good excuse for why we’re here and how we found the body. The police are going to start asking us questions, you know. We have to come up with a story and stick to it.”

  Rachel nodded her head an
d blew her nose. “Any ideas?” No. Think, Ruby, think! What could we say we were doing out here? What would bring two teenage girls out at this time on a Sunday morning? A plan began to take shape in my brain.

  “So what if we told them I was thinking of running away and you were trying to talk some sense into me? I have been fighting with Dad a lot lately. It wouldn’t be that far of a stretch for someone in my position to want to run away from home, would it?”

  “I guess not—but what if they tell your parents? You’ll be in some serious hot water then!” True, but it was way more believable than the truth though, wasn’t it? It was definitely worth the risk. A good enough excuse was in place and not a moment to soon.

  Tap! Tap! Tap! A stern looking officer rapped on my window to get our attention and motioned for us to get out of the car. “Let me do all of the talking,” I hissed to Rachel before opening my door. Wrapping my robe around me, I stepped out onto the sidewalk beside him.

  “Are you the girls who called 911 to report a dead body at the church?” Captain Donaldson, his name badge read. Just my luck. I decide to lie to the police and I get the police captain himself. Where was the sympathetic young rookie when I needed him? If this were a movie, I would be talking to the newest member of the force, flirting and charming my way through my fictitious story. Damn you, Hollywood, for being so misleading.

  “Yeah, that was us. We were just driving past when we saw her lying there. We checked to see if we could help her but it was obvious that she was already dead. So we called 911 and waited in the car.” The temperature was well below freezing but a nervous sweat crept over me.

  Captain Donaldson’s eyes swept over our attire. “What were you girls doing out here?” Don’t panic—just stick to the story! “I had a big fight with my dad and I was thinking about running away. I called Rachel to come get me and she did. She’s just been driving me around, trying to talk me out of it.”

  His facial expression remained stony and unemotional as he turned to Rachel. “Is that what happened, miss?”