Muses

by Elizabeth Andre

  “So, what was your original idea for how to get the ghosts to communicate with you?” Lily asked.

  Maya hoped her groan wasn’t audible. Shit, she thought. She’s awake.

  “Well…” Maya looked over at Lily. Her eyes were wide open, and her arms were behind her head.

  “Oh, come on. Just spit it out. You’ll feel better. I promise.”

  “We should really be getting ready for a visit from the ghosts. I’ll tell you later.” Maya felt her muscles tense. She commanded herself to relax.

  “Lame excuse. We’ve got time. Spill it.”

  Lily was clearly not going to let this go, so Maya thought that they could strike a bargain.

  “Okay. I’ll tell you the idea I had to communicate with the ghosts if you tell me what you’re going to do when this is all over. You go first.” She wanted to get to know Lily better, and she thought this would be a good beginning.

  Lily looked undecided momentarily but nodded. “All right. What am I gonna do when this is all over? Easy. I get back on track at school. I’m not off track right now, but this has made it hard to concentrate.”

  “What are you studying?”

  “Stalling with another question? Hmmm...” Lily smiled. “I think I already fulfilled my part of the deal, but I’ll allow it. I’m working on a master’s degree in biomedical engineering.”

  Maya was impressed. “You’ve got a big brain.”

  “Ha! Perhaps. I really like it.”

  Maya noticed how Lily brightened when she talked about her studies and what she hoped to do once she got her degree.

  “I’m really interested in orthopedic bioengineering. I think it’ll be so cool to design better artifical joints and prosthetics.” She stopped speaking abruptly as if embarrassed by her own enthusiasm. “Don’t let me go on. Otherwise, you won’t tell me what your idea about contacting the ghosts was.”

  Maya was a little disappointed that Lily had stopped talking about her studies, but she had more than held up her end of the bargain.

  “Okay. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I think Madeleine is fascinated by you. She pays a lot of attention to you.”

  “I guess I’ve noticed a little bit of that. And?” said Lily as she rolled over to her side.

  Maya took a deep breath. “My idea was for me to persuade Madeleine to possess me. I thought she’d go for it because she likes you. Possessing me would allow her to actually touch you. This also might have finally allowed me to talk to her, and, well, because…” Maya didn’t know how to end her story. She hesitated to tell Lily the truth.

  “Don’t stop now. This is really fascinating.” Lily was leaning forward on the bed, intently watching Maya who was sitting on the floor on the sleeping bag and other bedding.

  “Because, well,...” Maya cleared her throat as Lily motioned her to keep talking. “Okay, I’d also be closer to you through Madeleine.” She cleared her throat again and waited.

  Lily sat back against the pillows and let out a brief laugh. “You know that’s messed up, right?”

  “It’s been pointed out to me that it does lack some connection to reality.” Maya stretched out and lay back down on her makeshift bedding. She was grateful that Lily didn’t sound angry or weirded out.

  “Apart from playing on how Madeleine may feel about me, there’s the whole bit about your idea about getting closer to me through a ghost. That’s a somewhat, hmmm, circuitous route, don’t you think?”

  “I know. I know.” Maya covered her face with her hands. “This is so embarrassing. Seriously. One of my goals in life is to never act like a creepy stalker.”

  Lily moved to the edge of the bed. “That’s a good goal.”

  “But I failed miserably.”

  “No, you haven’t.” Lily slid off the bed and sat beside Maya on the floor. The space was narrow but cozy. Lily smelled of mango moisturizer and peppermint toothpaste, but there was another smell behind all that, something old.

  “You didn’t act on your creepy ghost stalker idea,” Lily continued. “That shows character.”

  Maya moved her hands away from her face and sat up. “Really?”

  Lily shook her head no in a comically solemn way that made Maya laugh.

  “Besides,” Lily said, “you don’t need a go-between. Just tell me how you feel.”

  Oh boy, thought Maya. When she wasn’t brainstorming ways to rid the Vinette home of ghosts, she was thinking in the abstract that it might be nice to kiss Lily someday. She hadn’t actually thought of what to say if given an opportunity. Like this one.

  “How I feel?”

  “Yes. How. You. Feel.” Lily parceled her words out slowly and used her index finger to poke at Maya’s thigh.

  That sense of feeling like a tuning fork that had been struck, that hum and vibration, started deep within Maya. She felt the vibration all the way to her fingertips and toes. She could see Lily’s dimple appearing and reappearing as she spoke. She had a nose that turned slightly upward, and a small scar on her chin. She imagined Lily getting that sliding into a base during a particularly fevered softball game.

  Maya knew she probably should have stopped talking then, but she didn’t.

  “I feel helpless. I want to help you get rid of the ghosts. I like you a lot. I hadn’t given any thought to the whole ‘should I get involved with clients’ thing before I met you. I don’t want my feelings for you to get in the way of doing whatever I can to cleanse this house for you, but I already have. Refer to aforementioned creepy ghost stalker idea.”

  Maya’s words hung between them, hinting at promise and expectation. She tried to calm her breathing. They smiled at each other.

  “I like you, too,” said Lily. “A lot, but if it’ll make you feel better, I can wait until after this is over before we do anything about us liking each other… a lot.”

  Maya nodded. “Sure, we could wait.” But even as she said it, she knew she didn’t mean it. When she looked at Lily, she saw something in her eyes that told her that Lily hadn’t meant what she said, not really. She leaned in closer to Lily who smiled as if realizing that Maya’s thoughts were in synch with hers.

  “You have lovely dimples,” Maya said and kissed Lily on the lips softly.

  “Flattery will get you everywhere.” Lily’s voice was light and teasing.

  They kissed again, but that aroma Maya had noticed a few minutes ago was getting stronger. It expanded until Maya smelled burned flowers.

  Maya and Lily stopped their kiss.

  “Uh oh,” Maya said. Lily’s face fell. Before Maya could explain how much she enjoyed kissing her and that she wanted to do more kissing when all of this was over, a shrill shout of terror pierced the air. The women jumped up from the floor.

  “What the hell was that?” Lily asked.

  Maya moved toward the door. “It sounded like came from downstairs. Let’s go.”

  “You mean, from inside the house?” Lily sounded nervous, a little giddy.

  Maya rolled her eyes and groaned. “You’re so bad.”

  Another shriek of pure terror.

  Maya tried opening the door. “Damn it! It’s stuck!”

  “What?” Lily rushed to her side.

  “I can’t get it open!” Maya tugged on the doorknob, a futile gesture. She was frantic. The screaming sounded inhuman. She wasn’t sure if it was coming from her friends or the ghosts. She scrambled to her bag and grabbed her phone. She started texting her teammates. The temperature in the room dropped. She exhaled and saw her breath curling away from her nostrils and mouth.

  A shimmering light materialized in the corner of the room near the window. She wished Penny was here to get some video, but she decided to see what she could get with her phone. She began recording. The shimmering light morphed into a feminine figure. Maya abruptly handed her phone to Lily.

  “What am I supposed to do?” Lily said.

  “Just keep getting video of this!” Maya rummaged around in her bag.

  Lily held t
he phone in front of her while Maya found a plastic container of salt. She stood up, opened the container, and began sprinkling the salt close to the shimmering light.

  “What’s the salt for?” Lily asked.

  “We don’t yet know who or what this is, so it’s best to err on the side of caution and protect ourselves. Salt will keep whatever it is contained.”

  “I know what it is. I know who she is,” Lily said.

  Gazing at the figure, Maya knew, too. It was Madeleine. Her long hair was twisted into a braid. She wore an old-fashioned house coat. Her eyes were dark, hollow spaces that glistened, like they were the first time they had summoned her with a pentacle. Madeleine’s mouth moved soundlessly.

  “Is she talking to us?” asked Lily.

  “I don’t know.” Maya moved closer to Madeleine to see if she could make sense of what she was saying. It seemed like Madeleine wasn’t actually aware of them. It was more likely that she was talking to someone else entirely. Maya had to bring Madeleine to her once more, but this time it had to be different.

  She knelt down to search through her bag again. This time, she came up with Madeleine’s hairbrush. “Lily, I’m gonna need your help.”

  “What do you have in mind?”

  “I’m going to summon her to me.”

  Lily was dubious. She questioned whether it was safe, especially since the earlier summoning had been so draining for Maya.

  “What else is there?” Maya hadn’t received any text messages from the team. The room was getting colder. Another scream tore through the darkness.

  “Okay. Tell me what to do,” said Lily.

  The incense was finished from the summoning earlier that day, but the candle still had enough wick and wax to burn. Lily lit the candle bringing a little more light to the darkness. Maya held her arms out and stretched out her fingers. She used her right foot to scratch away the salt and break the border holding Madeleine back. This time she wasn’t going to just summon Madeleine. She was going to bring her fully into the world of the living. Maya would be her anchor and break through whatever held her back. She hoped the fact that Madeleine was already partly here and it sounded like her sisters were busy downstairs would make it possible to fully manifest the youngest sister.

  “Come to me, Maddie,” coaxed Maya. “I can help you. I want to help you,” She spoke through chattering teeth. Her pajamas provided little protection against the ghostly cold. She felt an abrupt grip around her torso by an unseen arm. She gasped. The gripping didn’t hurt and wasn’t entirely uncomfortable, but she didn’t know how long she would be able to hold onto her.

  It worked. Madeleine stood before them, her appearance near to what it was when she lived. She appeared to be in her late teens or early twenties. The eyes of her ghostly self had hollow spaces, but now Maya could see that her eyes were brown. Maddie looked this way and that, as if surprised by her surroundings.

  Lily took a cautious step closer to Madeleine and extended her hand. “Hello, Madeleine. Um, welcome. I’ve been wanting to meet you.”

  “Is this my room?” said Madeleine. She ran her fingers down the edge of the bed.

  Maya said, “Yes. I think one of my colleagues explained this to you before, but you’re with us now. In the future.”

  “The future.” Madeleine seemed amused. “Which future?”

  “Well, ours,” Lily said.

  For the first time since she materialized, Madeleine looked directly at Lily. “What year is this?”

  Before Lily could answer, Maya cut in. “Look, Maddie, we need your help. Do you have anything to do with our being unable to open the door to this room? And making it so cold?” Maya exhaled visibly cold air for dramatic effect.

  Lily went over to the door and turned the doorknob before pushing against it a couple of times. “Yep. Still stuck.” She pulled her hand off the cold doorknob and winced.

  Madeleine stood there blinking. She was mostly solid, although she occasionally flickered. The room warmed a little. Lily tried the door again. It still wouldn’t budge.

  “I want to tell you about Allegra,” Madeleine said. “I need to tell you about her.

  “My sisters and I were always very close. We have the same father, but Eleanor and Rosamund have a different mother than I. My mother came along a few years after Father’s first wife died. Even though I’m younger than Rosamund by nearly nine years and Eleanor by eleven, we’ve always been close.”

  Lily sat down on the bed, and Maya joined her, although Madeleine was more focused on Lily than Maya as she continued.

  “They were my first teachers, utterly dependable tutors, always encouraging me to read more, learn more. My mother died when I was a little girl. Father never remarried. I think he must have thought he was bad at choosing wives. I went to a girls’ academy for most of my formal education. By the time I got there, the curriculum had become much more rigorous, thanks to Eleanor, the indefatigable. She had lobbied the academy’s board of directors hard to get a more challenging curriculum put in place because she knew that girls were capable of so much more than etiquette and ‘finishing.’ It was at the academy that I met Allegra. She was a scholarship girl.”

  Lily glanced at Maya and then back at Madeleine. “What does that mean?” Lily asked.

  “Her parents couldn’t afford the school. Someone else paid for her to attend. We weren’t really supposed to know who the scholarship girls were, but everyone always knew.”

  “How would you know?” Maya asked. She pulled a blanket around her. The room was warming up, but it was still chilly.

  “Well, a girl who lived on our street, Grant Street, would never have been a scholarship girl. She wouldn’t have needed a scholarship.”

  “So Allegra lived on the wrong side of the tracks,” Maya said.

  “Her family wasn’t the poorest, but her mother could never have afforded to send Allegra there without help. Allegra’s mother was a widow. Allegra’s father died in what everyone said were mysterious circumstances, but Allegra told me one day that he had committed suicide. Her brother volunteered to fight in the French Foreign Legion when war broke out in 1914. He survived only just. She says he refuses to talk about his experiences. He takes long walks, sometimes staying away for days at a time. Allegra thinks one day he’ll take a walk and she’ll never see him again. I tell her not to say such things. She mustn’t think like that.”

  Maya was fascinated by the fact that Madeleine spoke in the present tense about people who had been dead for so long. Then she fell silent. She looked like she had gone wandering in her memories. Maya had to bring her back. She didn’t want to lose her. She was anchored to Maya, but that tether was fragile. It could break at any time.

  “But it didn’t matter to you that Allegra was a scholarship girl, did it?” Maya said.

  Madeleine gave Maya a shy smile. “No. It didn’t. I liked her from the start. She wasn’t like any of the other students at the academy, whether they were scholarship girls or not. She never shied away from speaking up for herself and didn’t let the snobbier girls make her feel bad about not having as much money as they did. She wasn’t afraid of anything.”

  “And you became friends,” Lily said.

  “The best of friends. We were the same age, only a few months apart. She spent lots of time here. She would have spent more time here with me only she felt like she couldn’t leave her mother and brother alone much. So I’d go over there. Eleanor liked it much better when we were here, then she could keep an eye on us.”

  Maya thought this sounded promising. She thought that whatever happened between Madeleine and Allegra was the key to understanding a lot about why the sisters still hung around this house.

  “Why did Eleanor feel like she needed to keep an eye on you?” Maya glanced at Lily who gave her a thumbs up. Maya liked sitting next to her on the bed.

  “Allegra’s my best friend. She’s the smartest girl in school, and it shouldn’t have mattered. None of it should have mattered.” Madel
eine’s tone was defensive. Her grip on Maya’s torso tightened. Maya gasped for air, but she didn’t want to let go. They were close to a secret.

  “Maya?” Lily sounded apprehensive, concerned.

  “I’m all right.” Maya tried to give Lily a reassuring smile, but it was difficult to be in the moment with both Lily and Madeleine.

  She wondered what was going on downstairs and hoped her fellow ghost hunters were safe. A sound like breaking glass echoed through the house, but she had to concentrate on getting more information from Madeleine.

  “You can tell us anything, Maddie,” said Lily. “We won’t judge you. We want to help you.”

  Madeleine took a deep breath. Her grip on Maya loosened slightly. “As I say, she is my best friend. I love her like a friend. I love her as much more than a friend. Do you understand that? Do you know that kind of love?”

  Lily and Maya nodded. Madeleine’s brown eyes bored into them every time she said the word “love.”

  Madeleine turned to Lily. “She has hair like yours, the same auburn color. I didn’t really understand at first. No one else understood. Nelly doesn’t understand. I think Rosie would if she had more confidence in her own intellect.”

  Maya asked, “Did Allegra understand how you felt?”

  Now Madeleine grinned. It was a grin that only a first true love could engender. “Oh yes. She understands completely, and she feels the same way about me. I wish we had more time together.”

  “What prevented you from spending more time together? Was it your sisters?” Lily asked.

  Madeleine hesitated before answering. “In a way, yes. They weren’t pleased, of course. They don’t lock me up and forbid me from seeing Allegra. They make it … difficult for us to see each other.”