Spiritus, a Paranormal Romance (Spiritus Series, Book #1) (9 page)

The air held a damp sulfur smell and was thick with late afternoon humidity. The dappled sun was less intense here, but the leafy canopy held the heat near the ground.

We got out of the car and stumbled long the path, stepping over holes swarming with mosquitoes. Ahead in a small clearing, despite the temperature of the day, burned a small campfire. The woodsy smoke made the smoldering day even hotter. What were these people thinking?

“You’ll be thankful for the fire.” Ally told me when she saw my expression. “The smoke keeps the bugs away.”

Billie struggled with a bright red cooler, hoisting it to the side so that she could avoid the pits in the road. “And it will be the only light for a mile here in a few hours.”

They led me to the ring of logs surrounding the fire and squeezed us in a corner spot on one of them upwind from the smoke. The smoke still burned my eyes, but at least I could breathe.

One of the boys from my Science class was roasting a hot dog on the fire for that pretty red-haired girl I always passed in the hall. Unfortunately, I didn’t remember either of their names so all that I could do was smile and wave.

“So, what do we do now?” I asked, throwing a broken acorn on the fire.

“Just give me a minute to catch my breath and we’ll go for a swim.” Billie said with an exhausted smile.

Swimming was no new task for me, in Indianapolis I spent most of the summer at the local pool, but this was something totally different. The pools I was used to were made of concrete and filled with chlorinated water that made my eyes burn, this was a hole in the earth filled with rainwater. What if there were snakes or something?

While Billie cooled off, I tried to join in some of the conversation around me, but all of them were familiar strangers to me. I knew their faces, but had no idea about the people or places that they were talking about so I really didn’t have anything to say.

I looked around, feeling very aware of my hands and feet and unsure what to do with them. Just when I thought it was impossible for me to feel more uncomfortable, I watched the boy and girl from before walk to the edge of the blunt cliff and jump off.

I couldn’t believe what I just saw. That couldn’t be the only way into the water!

Billie laughed at the look on my face. She stood up and pulled me to my feet. I told myself if she tried to walk me toward the edge I’d just run away, even if I had to walk all the way home, there was no way I was jumping.

“Follow me.” Billie ordered, taking off toward the trees to the right.

It wasn’t a long walk, but then again it wasn’t exactly a trail that we were following. It seemed like just a break in the trees with lots of itchy tall grass to walk through. There were others taking this easy downhill footpath to the water, but others took the plunge from above, screaming with fear or delight as they fell toward the water.

I watched person after person, couple after couple, take the plunge as I staggered along. Were those people insane? I kept turning back to watch those lunatics even as I followed behind Billie.

Once we reached the edge of the water, I slipped out of my dusty, sticky shoes just like everyone else and stepped carefully across the slimy rocks and into the cool water. My feet, already getting blisters from my hot sneakers, felt instantly relieved once wet. I was sweaty and miserable until I eased into the refreshing water.

It felt so different than the water in regular swimming pools, slick and more there somehow. I went deeper, lowering my entire body into the water, loving the earthy smell that clung to my skin and hair.

“How sweet is this?” Billie asked as she floated by on her back.

I leaned back and soaked my hair again, trying to get rid of that itchy sweaty feeling. At that moment I agreed with her completely. “It is very sweet.”

A loud whistle drew our attention back up to the edge high above. There, perched above the water, in her red bikini top, Ally was waving. She was nothing more than a speck leaning out over the water.

As I watched horrified, she stepped closer to the edge. I opened my mouth to scream, but before I could utter a sound, she jumped.

“Ally!” I screamed too late.

She fell for what seemed like an eternity before breaking through the glass-like surface of the water with a large spray. I held my breath until she bobbed back up laughing.

“Are you insane?” I scolded as she swam towards me. “You could have killed yourself!”

“It’s all in how you land,” she replied with a playful splash.

I couldn’t stay mad at her; I was too in awe of what she just did. I didn’t even say anything when she “had” to do it two more times. There was a part of me that wished I was the brave, but the real me watched terrified from the water as she threw herself off again and again.

At last, just as it was getting dark, Ally grew bored of terrifying me with her antics and agreed to go back up to the fires. Billie was right, the fires were the only light around by then, and they were too far away to do much good as we stumbled through the tall grass.

I tripped and stumbled, smacked at bugs, and all the while kept thinking to myself that this is what qualifies for a good time around here. What was wrong with this picture?

More people were surrounding the fires by the times we made it to the top of the hill. I took a seat near our cooler and dug through the melting ice for a soda, trying to search the larger crowd for one face in particular at the same time. In the dim, flickering light, and with everyone moving from group to group, it was difficult to tell who was who.

He told me to come. He said he would be here. So, where was he?

Billie and Ally soon joined the mix, leaving me alone on the log with no one to speak to. I couldn’t blame them. One of the boys from my English class, I forgot his name, had Billie pulled aside and was whispering something in her ear that made her giggle. Ally was following her newest crush, a boy I had only seen a few times in the hall, from group to group.

I was only alone a few minutes before a boy sat down on the log next to me. It took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust to the darkness to see Jonah’s handsome face beside me.

“So, you made it after all.” He said with one of his brilliant smiles.

“Yes, I did.” I said while twisting my still damp hair. Could I look anymore awful?

If he realized how uncomfortable I was, he was ignoring it. “Having fun?”

I guess so.” I mumbled, wondering if the zit that was just starting to show that morning was glowing bright red.

Jonah frowned, “You don’t like it here, do you?”

“It’s my first time at a rock quarry, that’s for sure.”

“That’s not was I was talking about,” he said with a smirk. “I was talking about Corydon.”

I was trying to craft the perfect response when Billie and the boy from my English class came up to get a soda. She eyed Jonah sitting next to me and smiled widely.

“How are you doing there, Becca?” She asked with a wide smile.

I was absolutely mortified. The only thing that I could be grateful for was the darkness so that Jonah couldn’t see me blush.

“I’m fine, Billie.” I replied through clenched teeth, wishing her and that boy would just go away.

The boy seemed amused by our exchange, clearing his throat deliberately. “So Becca, Billie was telling me you just moved into one of those old houses on Capitol Avenue. Which one?”

“You know the giant white one with the really big columns?”

“Oh wow.” The boy said raising his eyebrows. “So, have you seen any ghosts yet?”

I was too shocked to answer. I cut my eyes to Billie, sure she gave away my secret, but she was staring open mouthed at the boy too.

Before I could figure out how to answer him, Billie pulled him back to the furthest reaches of the fire. I could hear her talking about the beautiful night, obviously trying to change the subject. She glanced back one last time at me, giving me a wink.

At that moment I was so grateful to her and Ally. I barely knew the two of them and here they were protecting my dark secrets. I never had friends like that before.

Jonah interrupted my thoughts, “So, you didn’t answer me. You don’t like Corydon, do you?”

“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it.” I scowled, not caring what it made me look like. He smiled and nodded sympathetically.

Why was he being so nice to me? He couldn’t really care what I thought about Corydon.

I wanted to concentrate on Jonah, regardless of why he was paying me so much attention, but I couldn’t get the boy’s question out of my head. It kept bouncing around, blocking out anything Jonah might be saying.

“Who is that guy that Billie is with?” I finally just asked him straight out.

Jonah glanced over at the pair in the shadows. “Oh, that’s Chris Powers. He’s a pretty good guy.”

While it was good to hear the guy wasn’t a jerk, that wasn’t really my point.

“Why did he ask me if I’d seen any ghosts yet?” I asked as casually as possible.

I had to focus all of my attention on my words and the sound of my own voice, trying not to think too much about the handsome boy next to me or the being in my room. If I did, I would lose my train of thought.

Jonah looked away and shrugged, “I don’t know why he asked that.”

“
Yes, you do.” I scolded.

It was a little annoying that other people seemed to know something about my house that I didn’t. What if this thing that no one would take about would tell me something about the things I kept seeing?

“
You asked me that same question the other day.” I reminded him. “I want to know what it’s all about.”

He took a deep breath, turned back to me, and winked.

“
Do you like a good ghost story?” He asked ominously.

“
Doesn’t everybody?” I asked, trying not to sound too anxious.

“
Alright,” he said with one of his dazzling smiles. “But keep in mind these are just old stories that get passed around.”

“
Fine.” I agreed. I was willing to say anything to keep him talking.

“
Well, this town dates back to the late seventeen hundreds. Anytime a place has that much history, there’s going to be some stories.” He began, dropping his voice and leaning a little closer. Under other circumstances it would have been thrilling, as it was; I just wanted him to say more.

“
A Civil War battle was fought here and some people swear that the ghosts of the soldiers still fight whenever there’s a full moon.”

I could see him smirking in the firelight; obviously he didn’t believe the stories.

“
And then there are the stories about Capitol Avenue.” He said with a sigh.

“
There are ghost stories about my street?” I asked. I was trying to sound only the expected level of curious.

“
Yeah,” he said rolling his eyes. “There’s a ghost that haunts one of the houses.”

“
Which one?” I encouraged.

“
It depends on who you talk to.” He said with an amused smile. “But the story is always the same.”

“
And what’s the story?” I prodded.

Jonah leaned even closer; I could smell the earthy scent of the water on him and feel his steamy breath on my cheek. “Do you really want to know? What if it gives you nightmares?”

“
It won’t.” I assured him the best I could. How could his little ghost story give me nightmares? The nightmare was already showing itself.

“
Okay, but I warned you.” He said with a playful smile. “Supposedly, the ghost is a dead civil war soldier.”

“
If he was a soldier, why isn’t he haunting the battlefield?” I asked.

“
Because he wasn’t killed in battle, he was driven mad by the horrors of war.” Jonah opened his eyes wide and crazy-like. He dropped his voice, sounding like an old-time radio villain. “He lost his last grip on his sanity one night and attacked his beautiful and loving wife.”