The Haunted

by J. A. Templeton

  I nodded and watched as they walked out of the room. A minute later the front door opened and closed.

  Miss Akin brought me breakfast and another pain pill. I ate a few bites of sausage and eggs, and swallowed a pill. I lay down, exhausted but grateful to just be able to shut off the real world and surrender to my dreams.

  Those dreams were scattered; due to the opiates, I was sure. I woke up once to use the bathroom, and I swore someone had been standing near my bathroom door. With my heart in my throat, I felt a momentary panic that quickly faded when I turned on the light to find no one there.

  When I fell back to sleep I had a dream about Ian, and we sat on the hillside looking out over Braemar. His head was in my lap as my fingers wove through his dark, long hair. I told him how much I missed him and that I wanted him back…and he had told me he was with me. That our souls were back together, as one.

  I asked him to explain what he meant; he pulled my head down to his and he kissed me. When I opened my eyes it wasn’t Ian but Kade laying there, looking up at me. In the dream I didn’t miss a beat. “You’re the same,” I said to him, and he nodded and smiled, his familiar eyes full of love. He took one of my hands in his, placed it on his chest. “Aye, we’re the same soul, Riley…and we’re together again.”

  The same soul…which meant the same person.

  I opened my eyes, wishing immediately that I would go back to that dream. Every muscle in my body ached…but not as much as my heart ached.

  Chapter 25

  Megan and Cassandra showed up right after school.

  We sat in my room, Cassandra painting her toenails with black fingernail polish, and Megan with hot pink.

  I had considered using black polish like Cassandra, something that matched my mood, but instead decided on a neutral brown. Cassandra immediately pushed my hands away. “Let me do that,” she said, and began painting my toes.

  Miss Akin had been babying me all day, and it was nice to get added attention from my friends. It felt great to be cared for.

  “I can’t believe you fell down the stairs.” Megan shuddered. “How scary.”

  “I told you I was a klutz.”

  Her lips quirked. “You weren’t kidding, huh?”

  “Dana said you threw yourself down the steps for sympathy,” Cassandra said, blowing a bubble with her gum.

  Megan shook her head. “What the hell is the matter with you, Cass?”

  Cassandra frowned. “What?”

  “It’s okay.” I was tired of everyone tiptoeing around me about Kade.

  Megan stuck her hand out and looked at her nails, then at me. “Kade actually cornered me today in study hall and asked about you.”

  I shifted on the bed.

  “He swore to me he doesn’t remember anything about Dana. I almost want to believe him.”

  Cassandra snorted. “Wouldn’t we all like to say we didn’t remember a bloody thing? If the tables were turned and you would have shagged another guy, he would never forgive you.”

  “That’s not true.” Megan breathed on her nails. “I mean, Kade is different…and you don’t know for sure if he shagged her or not.”

  “Can we drop it,” I said, not wanting or needing the visual that came with the accusation.

  “Done,” Cassandra replied. “Hey, are you going to the game on Friday? Me, Megan and Cait are going. It’s against our arch nemesis.”

  By Friday I would definitely want to be leaving this room and the inn. “Sure. Hopefully Shane will play.”

  Megan’s eyes brightened and she crossed her fingers. “Here’s hoping!”

  “And let’s have a sleepover after,” Cassandra said, reminding me of a fifth grader. “Just the four of us girls. We can have it at my house…if Bitchzilla agrees.”

  Spending the night at Cassandra’s didn’t sound very appealing. “Or we can have it here,” I suggested.

  Cassandra looked at Megan, and then shrugged. “You okay if Cait comes?”

  “Of course.” I was completely fine with Cait. After all, she hadn’t done anything. “We just need to keep Kade off limits talk-wise.”

  “Agreed,” Megan said, starting a clear coat. “My mum doesn’t get off work until seven, so I’ll be late to the game.”

  “We’ll just meet you there,” Cassandra said.

  “Actually, I’ll wait for you,” I told Megan. In fact, showing up late and leaving early seemed like a good plan.

  ***

  I opened the wrought iron gate to the cemetery and walked the long pathway to the mausoleum.

  I needed to see Ian’s grave. I’d wanted to visit for weeks, but today I had to. I felt drawn to it. A thousand different emotions washed through me as I scanned the area, and seeing the way clear, I removed the bolt cutters from where I’d hidden them inside my sweatshirt and cut the lock. I’d replace the lock tomorrow afternoon, after the slumber party.

  I entered the mausoleum, shut the door behind me and went to Ian’s grave.

  “I miss you, Ian,” I said under my breath, touching his gravestone, remembering the incredible time we’d had. God, how I wished for those summer days, for the easy friendship we had fallen into. For the intense conversations about life and death, and the spirit world. I had been one hundred percent myself and he hadn’t judged me. Kind of like Kade. Which made sense since they were the same person.

  I knew that with a certainty that surprised me. It was all beginning to come together. Laria’s vendetta against me. It wasn’t because I had crossed Ian over and broken the curse. Her fury was because Ian was back. He was Kade MacKinnon now, and just as Laria didn’t want me with Ian then, she didn’t want me with Kade now.

  And she would do anything to keep us from being together.

  Even if that meant killing me…or forcing us apart by other means.

  Cruel, twisted bitch.

  My cell rang, signaling I had a text.

  Pick you up in five minutes.

  I wasn’t going to text Megan back and tell her to pick me up at the cemetery. I walked out of the mausoleum and looked toward the back stone wall of the cemetery. A blast of wind shot through me, and I lifted the hood over my hair and pulled the drawstrings tighter. I crossed my arms over my chest as I looked past the river.

  I remembered reading the passage in the book Miss Akin had given me about Laria. That she’d been hanged from a tree at the castle and that her body was buried behind the cemetery on unhallowed ground. Across the river there was thick forestland. That forestland was close to the glen. I never got a warm and fuzzy feeling from the glen, that’s for sure. In fact, I’d had a couple of Laria sightings there, and I’d also seen Randall, the creepy black magic guy.

  My cell rang. I slid it out of my pocket. It was Megan. “Hey, where are you? I’m out front.”

  “You said you’d be five minutes.”

  “I figured we could stop at the store on the way to Reglin.”

  “Well, I’m at the cemetery.”

  She went silent for a few seconds and then said, “You must have hit your head really hard. That or you are completely mental.”

  “I’m mental,” I said with a smile, and started walking back toward the front of the cemetery, ignoring the sensation of being flanked by ghosts on either side of me.

  “I’ll be right there…but I’m not coming in after you, so meet me at the front gate.”

  “I’m already headed in that direction.” I clenched the bolt cutters tight in my fist, and picked up my pace. Within three more strides I felt the overwhelming sense to run come over me, but I kept my steps even.

  “Riley.”

  I faltered when I heard my name called plain as day.

  “Run Riley.” My pulse leapt. It sounded like Anne Marie’s voice.

  From the corner of my eye I saw Laria…moving quickly from one tombstone to the next.

  The wrought iron gate might as well have been a mile away. It seemed the faster I walked, the further away it got. I felt a piercing pain in the center of m
y back. Then another on my shin, and yet another on my shoulder. Laria was moving with me, her face inches from mine as her nails dug deeply into the back of my neck.

  Megan pulled into the cemetery parking lot. I opened the gate and stepped out, wincing against the pain. I reached under my sweater and shirt and felt a welt against my fingers.

  “Hey,” I said, sliding into the passenger seat, trying to catch my breath. Laria had vanished. “Do you mind if we drop by the house? I forgot my purse.”

  “No problem,” she said, looking past me toward the graveyard. “What were you doing in the cemetery?”

  “I decided to take a walk. Too many days cooped up in the house, you know?”

  She shook her head. “Actually, no, I don’t know why you would want to take a walk in a graveyard of all places. That’s just wrong.”

  We were at the inn in a minute, and I got out of the car and bolted up the steps. I lifted my shirt and looked in the mirror. Across my back there were three defined nail marks running down the entire length of my torso. The one on my leg wasn’t as bad, but the one on my shoulder and neck had drawn blood. I put a bandage over it, and considered changing into something cuter than my Oregon Ducks hoodie, but decided against it since it hid the wounds really well.

  ***

  The game had already started when we arrived. Cait, who had driven with Cassandra, motioned us over. I was happy to see Shane playing. My dad had told me earlier that he would try to make it, but I didn’t see him in the stands, nor had I seen his car in the parking lot.

  Shocker.

  I tried to ignore the tall, handsome, dark-haired star player, but it was impossible. Gorgeous, ripped, and so athletic, he put every other player to shame. I kept thinking over what he’d said to me, the dream the night in Edinburgh, and Laria’s vendetta. The pieces of the puzzle were fitting.

  Kade kicked the ball straight to my brother, who in turn kicked it and scored the first goal. The crowd came to their feet and I was so happy for Shane.

  Cassandra got on a roll with stories about her stepmother and the Italian gardener who was half her age. I didn’t know if the stories were fact or fiction, but they were entertaining. So entertaining Megan snorted pop out her nose once, and she hit Cassandra like it was her fault.

  We all laughed, and I even got the giggles. By the half, I was feeling more like my old self. When the teams headed off the field into the locker rooms Shane looked up at me and waved. I waved back…and so did all my friends.

  I could feel Kade’s gaze on me as he walked off the field.

  “For what it’s worth, he’s happy you’re here,” Cait whispered under her breath, no doubt terrified to say the words too loud in case Cassandra heard. She’d been very careful not to say anything about Kade.

  “We’re headed to the bathroom. You want to come with?” Cassandra asked.

  “No, go ahead,” I said, having no desire to have another run-in with Laria in a bathroom. She’d proven she didn’t care if she had an audience any longer.

  The girls weren’t gone two minutes when Madison slid onto the bench beside me. “Hey you.”

  Her hair was in a lopsided ponytail, and she wore two different colors of socks with pink sweats. “Hey. What have you been up to?”

  “School and stuff.” Fiddling with the charm bracelet at her wrist, she glanced up at me. “I heard you and Kade broke up.”

  The last thing I wanted or needed was to get into a conversation about Kade with his twelve-year-old cousin.

  “I will never understand men. That’s why I’ll never have a boyfriend.”

  I had to laugh. I couldn’t help it. She sounded wise beyond her years.

  She actually scowled at me. “What are you laughing about?”

  “No, nothing. You mean to tell me you’re not crushing on any guy at school?”

  Her brows furrowed. “No,” she said a little too quickly. “Well, Andrew Donovan had a growth spurt over the summer, and he’s so hot…but he doesn’t know I exist.”

  “One day he will.”

  “How can you be so sure?” she asked.

  “Because you’re special.”

  She rolled her eyes.

  “I’m not just saying that. You are special.”

  “We’re special. Both of us, Ri…because we can both see spirits. Not everyone can, you know?”

  How sweet. She was trying to make me feel better. “Yeah, I know.” I wished I was one of those people who was in the majority and was oblivious that spirits walked the earth. My life would be a lot less complicated that way.

  “Laria’s dangerous, Riley. Much more dangerous than you know.”

  I knew exactly how dangerous she was, but I wasn’t going to tell Madison about my experiences with Laria.

  “Hanway says she’s a master of deception. That she caused Kade to do some stuff he wouldn’t normally do.”

  My heart pounded loud in my ears. “What stuff?”

  “Like make Kade think he was with you when it was really Laria masquerading as you. She wanted everyone at the party to see Dana and Kade together, and for them to assume he was going out on you. So while everyone else was seeing Dana, Kade was seeing you.”

  She had just confirmed what I’d been wondering. “Hanway told you this?”

  She nodded. “Yes, and he wants you to know the truth. He doesn’t want Laria to win.”

  And that’s exactly what she was doing…she was winning by keeping me and Kade apart.

  “He says she can manipulate people,” she said, and I could hear the fear in her voice. “Lots of people. She’s strong and growing stronger by the day. She can take over a person…without that person realizing it. I mean, what will she do next?”

  I’d been asking myself that same question for days. I thought of Shane telling me about his blackouts, and how his friends were telling him things he had done. Things he couldn’t remember. Kind of like Kade…but Laria had gone a step further. She had made Kade believe he was with me that night of Tom’s party. What else had she done to Kade, I wondered? Who else that I cared about had she messed with?

  Madison glanced around and lowered her voice. “I’m scared for you, Riley.”

  I put an arm around her shoulder and gave her a hug, and she hugged me back.

  My friends returned and Cait’s brows furrowed as she looked at Madison. “What are you doing, squirt?”

  Madison released me and stood. “Just sayin’ ‘hi.’ I’m gonna go now.”

  I grabbed her hand. “No, stay.”

  Madison glanced at Cait, who shrugged and gave Maddy’s ponytail a playful tug. Megan sat down beside me, and Cait and Cassandra in front of us. The opposing team ran out on the field, and our players were right behind them.

  My heart leapt at the sight of Kade. He had been played by Laria, just like I had been. We were both suffering because of her cruel acts, and Hanway was right…we couldn’t let Laria win.

  Once Kade got to the center of the field, he looked up at the stands, straight at me. This time I didn’t look away. I smiled, and I saw the surprise on his face. His lips curved into a huge smile, and he didn’t turn away until the referee blew the whistle signaling the game was starting.

  Cait glanced back at me and grinned.

  The second half flew by. Many of the students had left with fifteen minutes on the clock because our school was so far ahead. It was a blowout. Megan checked her watch. “We should head on out of here before the game ends. Maybe pick up a DVD for tonight.”

  “Sounds good,” I said, ready to get home and hang out with my friends.

  “We’ll be there in about an hour, all right?” Cassandra said. “I have to stop by the house and pick up my jammies.”

  “You can always borrow some of mine,” I said.

  Cassandra’s brows lifted. “Like I could fit into your skinny-ass pajamas. Thanks, but no thanks.”

  Cait laughed under her breath. “Maybe we’ll snag a bottle of something from Bitchzilla while we’re at it.”<
br />
  And after my conversation with Madison, I might just have a drink of whatever they brought back. “See you in a bit,” I said, following behind Megan.

  “He’s looking for you,” Megan said, eyes on the field. “Bloody hell, he’s so obvious.”

  I could feel Kade’s stare. I could feel him. Madison’s words had given me a huge sense of relief, and now I knew for sure that Kade hadn’t knowingly gone out on me with Dana. For the first time in days I felt like I could breathe.

  Chapter 26

  We could hear the roar of the visitors’ bleachers as we pulled onto the highway. “Kade MacKinnon does it again,” Megan said with a laugh.

  I smiled; I couldn’t help it. Seeing him tonight had stirred up all the feelings I had for him. Now that I knew the truth about the night of Tom’s party, I was ready to have a conversation with him. Maybe it was time for me to come clean about everything as well. To let him know about my abilities, about Laria, about Ian…even about cutting.

  I glanced at Megan. “Thanks for taking me. I’m glad I came.”

  “I’m glad you did, too. You needed to get out of the house.”

  She wasn’t kidding there. In the past few days the inn had become both a prison and a sanctuary. Dad had stayed close by, and Miss Akin even closer. I was relieved I had my friends staying with me tonight. I could use some comic relief.

  My phone rang, signaling a text message. My heart leapt seeing Kade’s number.

  It was good to see you.

  “Oh my God, is that Kade?” Megan asked in disbelief.

  I nodded, pressing my lips together so I wouldn’t smile.

  She shook her head. “What do you want to bet that he’s probably texting from the field.”

  I smiled at the image. I started to text back when she reached for my hand. “What are you doing? Give it a few minutes. Make him work for it, for God’s sake.”

  The truth was…I didn’t want to wait.

  My phone rang again and Megan snorted.

  “It’s Shane.”

  Tell Miss A I’ll be home late.

  No mention of Dad. I couldn’t blame him. Why hadn’t he even attempted to make the game? It’s not like it was that far from Braemar.