by Vivi Anna
The ghost didn’t make another appearance until three weeks later when I woke up to find him standing at the end of my bed. This time I didn’t scream because it seemed like screaming made no difference.
I scrambled out of bed, threw on a sweatshirt and ran downstairs. It was five a.m., two hours earlier than I normally got up, but there was no point going back to sleep. It would be impossible with an apparition watching me. Besides, I’d been having the strangest dream about swimming deep underwater…like a mermaid, and I was chasing a song, like it was a school of fish. It probably harkened back to my childhood when, according to my mother, I’d watched The Little Mermaid ad nauseum.
Though the details of the dream were sketchy, I’d woken up with the song running on ‘repeat’ through my brain; Meet me in the Promised Land, where all our dreams come true, meet me in the Promised Land, I’ll go first and wait for you… It’d been so long since I written a song that, ghost or no ghost, sane or insane, I had to get it down before I lost it.
I sat at my grandmother’s piano amid the rest of the furniture which still had dustcovers draped over them. I guess I hadn’t taken the covers off because I still felt like the house didn’t belong to me, but now, in the dim light, the whole room appeared as if it was some crazy set for a horror movie.
I turned on all the lights and had the cloths stripped within minutes, leaving a pile of dusty linens in the middle of the room. Although the room looked more lived-in, the furniture was old and still had a sort of creepy vibe. Maybe it had something to do with the apparition who sat down in one of the old chairs.
I don’t know if it was the hour, the lure of the song or the fact that I was starting to get used to having a ghost as a companion, but somehow I managed to ignore his presence as I played the tune that had materialized in my sleep. Within seconds a familiar transformation came over me and I suddenly felt like I was doing something deliciously naughty. For me, writing music was an aphrodisiac and I played until I’d completely forgotten about the eerie old furniture and the presence of a ghost in the house. I was so engrossed in working out the wonderfully haunting melody, it took a grumbling stomach for me to realize it was fully light outside.
I checked my watch. Seven o’clock. Dammit! I had to be at the school in an hour and I still had to shower, eat and dress.
Forty-five minutes later I was tearing out the door, grabbing an apple to eat on the way. I was too rushed to be nervous about my first day on the job. Even though it was on the other side of town, it only took me ten minutes to drive to the James Ellis School. When I arrived I was greeted by a grinning Paul Pettigrew, the Principal. “Joss Jones! I can’t tell you what a pleasure it is to have you join our team.”
With a receding hairline and the physique of an ex-football player, tall, broad, with a little extra around the middle, Mr. Pettigrew looked like he was in his mid-forties.
“Mr. Pettigrew,” I smiled, turning on the old Joss Jones charm, “the pleasure is mine.”
He led me back into the office, past two secretaries who stopped what they were doing to watch me pass. Once I was seated in his office, he perched himself on his desk and continued to grin like a lunatic. “I have to confess, when I heard you were looking for work, I was floored. The Joss Jones, teaching music at James Ellis School – it’s a little surreal.”
I smiled in response because, honestly, there was no other response to give.
Suddenly, Mr. Pettigrew frowned as he stared over my shoulder. I glanced behind me to see my ghost standing there.
“Er, Ms. Jones…” he paused, looking uncomfortable.
Was it possible he saw the apparition standing behind me? Was it possible I wasn’t crazy?
He pulled something out from the inner pocket of his suit jacket and unfolded it. “I wonder if you’d sign this. It’s for my daughter.” He handed me a photo of a girl with long, silver blond hair wearing a silver, sequined dress, singing onstage. It was a promotional picture of me from my Just Be Tour seven years ago.
“My daughter was such a fan.” He cleared his throat and chanted hoarsely, “Just be you, I’ll be me, be yourself, it’ll set you free…” He chuckled. “She used to play that song over and over again.”
I kept my smile plastered to my face. “What’s her name?”
“Kaylee.” He spelled her name and then added, “She started college this year.” He shook his head. “They sure grow up fast.”
It’d been years since I’d performed, yet wherever I went it was the same thing. In fact, the only way I’d managed to attend college was by keeping to myself and encouraging my reputation as stuck up and aloof. I’d hoped things would be different here in Bandit Creek. What was the point of living a normal life if you weren’t treated normally?
Mr. Pettigrew stood. “Here’s your schedule, why don’t I give you a tour of the school, let you get settled in. Tomorrow you can start classes.”
For the rest of the morning Mr. Pettigrew, or Paul as he insisted I call him, showed me around the school, starting with the music room, the gymnasium, the lunch and staff room. We finished the tour back at the office in front of the trophy case. He pointed to a picture of a football team from the 1980s. “Can you believe that was me? I was a freshman the year we won our state division.” He glanced at me and added, “Your mother was a senior that year. She was on the cheerleading squad.” He pointed to another picture and sure enough, there was my mom, with pompoms raised high and a huge smile lighting up her face.
A fist tightened around my throat.
“I was shocked by her tragic passing.”
I couldn’t look at him. Instead I simply nodded.
“I understand you haven’t performed since…”
Suddenly the hair on the crown of my head stood on end.
My vision clouded and I felt like I’d been sucked into a tunnel where Paul’s voice echoed from far, far away.
“Are you okay?
I blinked.
“Joss?”
I pointed to the picture of a too familiar face standing tall and proud in a basketball team photo. “Wh-who is that?”
“Who? Him? That’s Kyle Copeland. One of Bandit Creek’s biggest mysteries.”
“What do you mean?” I asked quietly, never taking my eyes from the image of the smiling boy in the picture.
“He disappeared, I don’t know, nine or ten years ago. It was his senior year.”
“What happened to him?”
“I don’t know. Some think he ran away to Seattle. His parents think he was abducted, or worse. Either way, no one’s seen him since.”
My eyes wandered to where my apparition stood beside Paul. I quickly turned back to the photo, then slowly back to the ghost.
I gulped.
Paul was wrong. Someone had seen Kyle Copeland.
Me.
I was looking right at him.
BIO
From an early age, Vivi loved to make stuff up. Just ask her mother. Now she gets paid to do just that. Author of more than 12 books, including the award winning Valorian Chronicles from Harlequin, Vivi has plenty of stories to tell. An avid reader, talker, walker, and movie watcher, Vivi’s always on the look out for the next big thing. A lover of teen horror films, Vivi also writes screenplays and hopes to one day be the next Wes Craven. And just to confuse issues, she also writes YA under the name Tawny Stokes. Speaking of books, she reads mostly YA, urban fantasy, horror, and some thrillers. You can find her often procrastinating on twitter. If you find her there, she will help you procrastinate as well. Did she mention that procrastinating is also one of her hobbies?
@authorViviAnna
http://www.vivianna.net
MORE VIVI ANNA TITLES AVAILABLE
Nina Decker series:
GLIMMER
DAWNING
ENCHANT – coming soon
Bad Wolf series:
BAD TO THE BONE
HUNGRY LIKE THE WOLF – coming October 1, 2011
Valorian Chronicles:
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br /> BLOOD SECRETS
DARK LIES
VEILED TRUTH
MAHINA’S STORM
BEWITCHING HOUR
THE VAMPIRE’S QUEST
THE VAMPIRE’S KISS
HER DARK HEART
A WOLF’S HEART – coming soon
The Fallen series:
HEART OF THE HUNTER
RELEASING THE HUNTER – coming soon
SEDUCING THE HUNTER – coming soon
PROTECTING THE HUNTER – coming soon
Young Adult books writing as Tawny Stokes:
STATIC
FULL METAL DEMON – coming soon
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
