Ever After

by Odessa Gillespie Black

  Relief flooded me when I made out the shape of Cole’s shoulders.

  I scooted closer and in a half-wakened state. I reached around Cole, expecting to feel warm muscles through his clothing. He was warm, but too thin.

  “Cole?”

  Wait. Too thin. Way too thin. I pressed through the clothing.

  A sickly bluish glow illuminated his whole body.

  My heart hammered nails into my chest.

  The back of Cole’s head had no hair.

  And little or no skin.

  I scrambled back but was held by an unseen force.

  The bones beside me clinked and rolled to face me. Blue light shined through the gaping hole in Colby’s forehead. Another nightmare.

  I closed my eyes.

  When I reopened them, the skeleton was closer. Propped on one elbow, his eye sockets large and hollow, he stared at me. I screamed.

  The unseen force pinned me on my back. Tears rolled down my face.

  I was forced to watch as my left hand was pulled toward the skeleton.

  As if he were being controlled by a puppeteer, his bony fingers clamped around my wrist, forcing my fingers to straighten.

  I sobbed in horror as the skeleton slid the engagement ring on my ring finger.

  From all around me, in a mocking tone, Grace’s voice resounded. “Do you, Annabeth, take Colby as your lawfully wedded skeleton? You do? Well good. Now, Colby. Do you take Annabeth to be your lawfully wedded slut?”

  Colby’s jaws clattered together as his head bobbled up and down.

  “Of course you do. You may now bone your bride. Ah! This will never get old.”

  Hot tears streaked my face and pooled in my ears. Try as I might, I couldn’t wake from this nightmare.

  Grace’s almost solid form hovered over us. Her hair slipped over my face like worms, and her rotten gown waved like a suspended oil spill in the air above our heads. With Grace’s nose only inches from mine, her breath ripped at my stomach. Rotting. Putrid. “You wanted him, now you have him. What’s wrong sister? Aren’t you pleased?”

  Colby’s corpse rattled clumsily until it was on top of me. As his head bowed to do only God-knew-what, a tooth fell out of his jaw and bounced off my cheek.

  I sobbed, jerking my face away, but the teeth that were still intact grazed my cheek.

  “Too bad this is all you’ll ever have of him. My leftovers. I touched him in all the places you’ll never be able to. His rugged breath fell over every inch of my body until you came along.” Grace bobbed in the air a few feet above me. “You and your perfect curls, perfect little bosom, and perfect little everything. Why, look. Even in death, he can’t keep his hands off you.”

  I wrenched away from the horrid sight.

  She released an ear-splitting cackle.

  The skeleton used its thumb and forefinger to clamp a piece of my nightshirt. He tugged upward and bared my stomach. The bones in his neck ground together as he looked back up into my eyes.

  “Now let’s see. Where is it?” Grace verbalized as if the skeleton were speaking to me. “I know it’s around here somewhere.”

  The skeleton’s cold, bony fingers caressed my stomach.

  “Higher, you think?” Grace asked the skeleton.

  Hot tears of humiliation silently wet the sheets beside my bed as the psychotic, hateful bitch manipulated Colby’s body.

  “You think we should take off her clothes?” Grace asked him as if she was shocked that he would make such a suggestion, and then she immediately laughed. “You just want to see her nude body lying under yours, don’t you? Figures. Like all men. I was never good enough. She was always first choice. With Mama. Then Daddy. Everyone I ever loved, all enthralled with her.”

  My door slammed open. Shelby and Kaitlyn popped in my room.

  Kaitlyn’s hand flew up, and a cascade of different stones clinked as they bounced off the footboard of my bed. “I cast you out, Grace Rollins! You have no power here!”

  Colby’s skeleton lay lifeless, powder and bones, beside me on the bed.

  Grace turned, flew upright, and stared at the girls.

  Shivers of rage invaded me. Red flashed across my vision. Shooting up from the bed, I lunged and swung aimlessly at her. “I’m going to make you wish you were never born.”

  Shelby and Kaitlyn pounced on me.

  “Not yet, Allie. You have to stop.” Shelby braced my arms against my sides. “We have to wait till closer to the end of the lunar cycle.”

  “I’m taking her down. She doesn’t know misery.” I shook and shuddered.

  The smile fell from Grace’s face. A momentary flash of fear replaced it. She disappeared.

  I jumped from the bed. Right. Left. Behind me. She was gone.

  “What are you doing? You’re going to get yourself killed.” Kaitlyn grabbed my arms and held me.

  I shuddered. The spot Grace had last hovered was filled with dark, silvery floating dust. “I’m tired of her. My life will no longer revolve around Grace. If this stone doesn’t work, I’ll find a way.”

  “No. Remember.” Shelby’s gaze bore into mine as she took my hands and squeezed painfully.

  Cole would hear.

  No wonder the poor farmhand had taken his own life. If tonight had been any indication of what he’d gone through on top of losing the person he loved the most in the whole world, I couldn’t say I blamed him.

  Without hands, Shelby took the sheets from each corner of my bed. She pulled them up over the remains of Colby Kinsley.

  “Allie.” Kaitlyn shook my shoulders.

  I was in danger of finding Grace’s body and tearing it to shreds.

  “Allie.” Another shake.

  “I’m fine.”

  “Can you control yourself for two more days?”

  Reluctantly, I nodded. “It’s time he was laid to rest.”

  “There’s nothing you can do to lay him to rest. These bones are a hollow shell, Allie. The part of him that matters is somewhere else,” Shelby said.

  “I didn’t necessarily mean putting him in the ground. He needs closure, and Cole needs to be free of being tortured.”

  “The only way Cole and Colby will be free is for you to say you love them both.” Shelby looked to her sister.

  Kaitlyn looked me squarely in the eyes. “And you know Cole will never allow that.”

  As if I hadn’t been confused before.

  The white bundle on my bed held some ultimate truth. The hair on my arms rose, and my chest tightened. I’d inherited him too.

  Shelby and Kaitlyn hugged me.

  Kaitlyn put her cheek to mine. “We’ll put his bones in the ground. I didn’t mean we wouldn’t. We’ll hire someone to come out tomorrow and bury him where he was supposed to be buried originally.”

  I swayed. Shelby steadied me without using her hands.

  I flashed her a look of surprise.

  She smiled. “We’ll do a more ceremonial burial later. Cole will kill us if you get another mark on you, so could you please rest now.”

  “Speaking of Cole, by now he’d normally be in the house ranting and raving about how irresponsible I am. Where is he when you need him?” I turned away from the bed.

  “Calm down. He’s probably in the woods somewhere hunting,” Kaitlyn said as if the answer was inconsequential.

  “You know he can get diseases from that.” I shook my head, my stomach turning.

  “It’s no different than ordering your steak rare.” Shelby shrugged. “And to be fair, he’s being drained of every ounce of energy he has, so he’s doing the only thing he can.”

  Holy crap. “Is that where all the dead carcasses under the house came from?”

  “Yup,” Shelby said, making the P pop.

  “Why on earth would he put the carcasses under the house?” I felt nauseated again.

  “Compost pile? Maybe he planned to do some gardening.” Shelby giggled as we walked behind her.
>
  Kaitlyn groaned.

  Shelby floated Colby to the family burial grounds.

  “So, does he really have low iron?” I asked.

  They winced.

  “Sort of. Grace has made it so the only thing that keeps him alive is eating large quantities of red meat. We figure iron deficiency is part of the problem when he gets weak the way he did the other day, and to an outsider, there’s no other way to explain it.” Kaitlyn shrugged. Coming from Shelby, I might have called her crazy. Kaitlyn wasn’t smiling.

  “Wow. So he’s not just acting out some weird fantasy.” My insides quivered.

  “You’re his only fantasy, my dear Allie,” Shelby said with a raised brow.

  They may have thought they could read his mind, but Cole had made it clear there would always be someone else.

  * * * *

  The next day, all day, visions I couldn’t explain plagued me in every room. They put me in the past during a time with no electricity, surrounded by a bunch of people I should have known but couldn’t place.

  Out beside the pool, I had the best luck at staying away from the alarming scenes.

  Cole made few appearances. When he did show his face, he only nodded, barely making eye contact. And then he bolted in the opposite direction.

  Did he know about the skeleton incident? He didn’t seem to. Or he didn’t care.

  The girls pretended to be on a stroll minutes after I got comfortable in a lounge chair, but they eyed me like a hawk.

  “I’m not going AWOL.” I eyed them over my book.

  “We’re on assignment,” Shelby said. “We’re not to let you out of our sight.”

  “I love how he seems so concerned but can’t seem to muster the common decency to speak to me himself.” I looked back to the words on my book, but after reading lines over and over, I still couldn’t absorb them.

  The girls made good on their promise until bedtime. They followed me up to my room.

  What were they gonna do? Make pallets on my floor?

  “See you in the morning.” They waved. And entered the room beside me.

  Inside my own set of suites, the way the crown molding met the wall looked familiar. Like not from now familiar, but from some earlier time. Flashes of now and the 1800s flip-flopped back and forth. The old furniture was suddenly not scary at all. It was as shiny as it had been when the owner had ordered it. Candelabras used to sit on the long old dresser instead of modern lighting. Weight pressed on my chest. Not the scary kind. The kind that told me, “It’s okay to remember.”

  * * * *

  The next morning I slipped out. The local newspaper database had nothing on my new house. The Shelby County library was my only option.

  A scary woman with a face so old it looked like crumbling pastry sat behind the desk. She slid her glasses down her nose at me. A chain suspended them from her neck. Classic librarian.

  “I need to see the local newspapers from 1879,” I said.

  She slid the glasses back up. “What are you looking for exactly? We could narrow your search.”

  I cleared my throat. I hadn’t planned to divulge that information. “Deaths or disappearances at Rolling Hills Manor.”

  “Honey, researching that subject is going to be tedious. Every newspaper article is stored on microfiche. We’ve archived them. I’ll have to pull them from the back.”

  “I have time.” Two days, to be exact.

  I leaned on the dark wooden counter as she disappeared around the corner. The three-story library had endless walls of books that brought back unsettling see-through memory/visions.

  A guy and girl were wrapped tightly in an embarrassing embrace on a sofa right where the wall of nonfiction was supposed to be. The librarian I’d talked to walked toward an even scarier librarian. The cool wooden counter held me up.

  The visions would go away. I just had to give them a few seconds.

  The love scene on the sofa deepened in seriousness.

  The two librarians left their post and walked down stairs marked basement. Except for the occasional glance at the apparitions, I kept my eyes closed. Geez.

  “The old microfiche machine is still in working order. This may just be your lucky day.” The librarian jarred me.

  Leaving the half-naked couple, I headed for the basement stairs. After a long blur of black, white, and yellowed pages getting to the proper year, the first article on April 14, 1879 finally appeared.

  Engagement Party at the Rolling Hills Manor

  * * * *

  Jensen had waited while I was in the library for nine hours. He’d never complained. He let me out at the front steps at dusk.

  “Thank you, Jensen. You’re a dear.” I grasped the papers in my hand and slipped in the front door.

  Shelby and Kaitlyn paced the living room. They rushed at me when I walked in.

  “Where have you been?” Kaitlyn almost tripped her sister. “You can’t leave like that and not tell anyone where you’re going.”

  “I didn’t mean to worry you.” The leather plushness of the sofa welcomed my tired body. Though only sitting and thinking all day, my back ached.

  “We can only hear a mile away. With the Amiante in the house, and it so close to the end of the crescent moon, we can’t hear a thing. Cole’s been a wreck,” Shelby said.

  “I was at the county library reading in peace. No need to worry over me every second. I’m learning to handle myself. So, where is he?”

  The girls exchanged nervous glances.

  Shelby said, “He’s in his cottage. We’re to call him as soon as you get here.”

  “No need. I’m fine.” I stood. “Remember. The woods. You’ll have to be far away tonight. Be ready to hold him with all the strength you can muster plus some. I’ll let you know when. Excuse me, I have a few things to see to.”

  I left the girls staring after me.

  The banister railing was a little dusty, but the carvings were as beautiful as they’d always been. Always. Now I knew how long that had been.

  A staff member walked by.

  “Excuse me. Could you see to it that these are polished from top to bottom tomorrow.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” She gave me a little curtsy. I liked that. Very traditional.

  “Thank you.” I thought of one more thing before she was out of sight. “Miss?”

  “Yes’m.”

  “Thank you for your devoted service here.” I gave her a warm smile.

  Outside, across the spacious, lovely grounds, the rose maze stood taller in the night sky. I couldn’t pass up the chance to smell the roses. I’d missed the opportunity so many times. The red ones had a richer aroma than the more fruity floral pink ones. Against my cheek, the darkest red bloom was cool and fragrant.

  Colby had built this to impress his true love. I smiled.

  Farther across and down the property, the cottage lights were on. It was the last night and Cole was at home? He should have been obsessive-compulsively inside the house, ordering me around like he always did. How I wasn’t locked in my room was a mystery.

  It was dinnertime. I would definitely need my energy for the night’s upcoming events.

  In the kitchen, Nancy turned.

  “Why, child, I’ve been waiting for you all evening. I kept a plate warm.” She rushed to the oven.

  “I’ll take it in my room.” I was famished.

  She flashed a look of embarrassed surprise. “Oh.”

  She’d grown accustomed to eating with me.

  “I mean, I’m feeling a little under the weather this evening. Nothing serious. Just tired.” I smiled and squeezed her shoulders. “We’ll have all three meals together tomorrow.”

  Plate in hand, I retired to my room.

  * * * *

  Shelby and Kaitlyn stood at the bottom of the stairs. The back door opened as I opened the doors to my suite of rooms.

  “What’s with her?” one asked the other.

/>   “I’m not sure, but something’s off.”

  “I’m staying at the bottom of the stairs for the rest of the night. If you two hear her try to climb out the window, alert me.” Cole’s tone was so stern, so serious. How cute. There was no need for the protection detail.

  Chapter 20

  It was time.

  All the air in the room thickened when I pulled the garment bag from the closet. The yellowed wedding dress fit perfectly, but as soon as it was on, scenes from the 1800s bombarded me.

  Inside Colby’s embrace, we stood in a small, dark, musty room. A broom closet maybe. A candle stood on a small ledge behind us. The flickers sent strange shadows over Colby’s profile.

  “I should be mad at you, but all I want to do is call myself your wife,” I told Colby. I folded myself into his arms.

  “I’m lucky you’re speaking to me, much less marrying me. Your sister is going to be furious, you know. We have to handle this with delicacy.” His voice was slightly different, but Cole’s spirit was there. The present-day Cole was the beaten down version of the man in my arms.

  “Ooh, delicacy. Such a big word. That education she got you is very alluring.” I squeezed myself to him firmly.

  “I did have a brain before she ever toted me to school.” He tilted my face so he could see that I took him seriously. “You have to focus. She’s going to come down the stairs tomorrow in a wedding dress and think she’s marrying me. When she finds you in a wedding dress, too, she’s going to be furious. Your mother and I have the men from the asylum in waiting. All the guests will think she’s crazy. And when she realizes what I’ve done, that will be her final breaking point. You have to be ready to run from her. Do you hear me?”

  “This doesn’t feel right.” I pulled back.

  “She’s not well. Every day she gets worse. You know this. If we don’t have her put somewhere, she’ll never have a chance to get better. One of the workers witnessed her killing his chickens, we’re pretty sure she killed my father’s litter of hound pups, she’s hung dead animal skins on the outskirts of the property, and one night I found her standing at the edge of the house, staring at the moon with blood smeared all over her. Annabeth, she was nude. Standing out where anyone could see her. Mr. Rollins’s reaction was to have her dress maid bathe her and let her sleep it off. This illness isn’t something you can sleep off. Your safety is my concern. You know as well as I that Marshall won’t allow her to be taken away. He’s going to have to be forced to make the decision. If all your family is here to witness her lose her mind once and for all, your mother can have her cousin, Dr. Bridges, take her away.” He let his forehead rest on mine.