Wraiths of Winter (The Haunting Ruby Series Book 3) (20 page)

“Come downstairs.”

Lucas was here? Why?
I bounded down the steps to
see for myself. When I got to the second floor landing, I saw
him at the foot of the steps. His face was positively beaming
and he was holding a large box in his hands wrapped in silver
paper and tied with a red ribbon.

“Merry Christmas, Ru!” he exclaimed and held the
package up for me to see.

“Merry Christmas, Lucas!” I replied as I leapt down to
meet him. “Is that for
me
?” My excitement at seeing the
present drained when I realized I had nothing to give him in
return. “You shouldn’t have—I didn’t get you anything. I’m
sorry.”

“Oh, don’t worry—it’s not much. It’s just something I
found that reminded me of you.” He handed me the box.
“Here—open it.”

I took it out of his hands and nearly dropped it. It was
much heavier than I was expecting. Obviously, it wasn’t a
sweater.
I invited him into the living room and sat down
beside the tree. Usually, I was a careful opener. You know,
keep the paper un-torn and the bow pristine.
But this time, I
dove right in
and
shredded that wrapping
paper like a
wolverine. As I lifted the lid, I caught a glimpse of what was
inside and squealed with delight. A pair of ruby red hockey
skates lay inside, their silver blades gleaming in the glow from
the Christmas lights.

“Lucas! Where on earth did you find these? They’re
so…
me
!” I said as I slipped them on to check the fit. Perfect.
“Size eight—how did you know?”

“Simple—I pay attention. Do you like them?” he
asked.

 

I hugged him warmly. “I
love
them but you shouldn’t
have! These had to be expensive.”

Lucas shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. “It was
worth it just to see the look on your face. Wanna go try them
out?”

Nodding my head eagerly, I replied, “I do!”

So Lucas
salvaged
my
wreck of a day by
gliding
around the ice with me until the sun set.
It was the best
Christmas ever.

14. Finding the Fun in Funeral

Winter break proved to be anything but a break for
Zach.
What was supposed to be a fun and carefree week for
us was
now tainted by death.
His grandmother made it
known to the family that she didn’t want a long, drawn out
affair of a funeral.
So Monday—only two days after her
passing—the viewing
and funeral were scheduled at the
Grimes
and
Loeffler Funeral Home.
As
girlfriend
of
the
bereaved, I was expected to attend. I was all for supporting
Zach but, truthfully, I would have rather eaten glass.

It was my first time setting foot in a mortuary, at least
that I could recall. I’m sure I must have been to my mother’s
and Miranda’s funeral but I couldn’t remember it. The only
other person I’d known who died was Lee and his mother
denied me
the
opportunity
to pay my
respects.
Funeral
homes were creepy enough as it was but, suffice it to say, I
was scared to death that I was going to see his grandmother
walking around amongst the family.
No, people who see
ghosts should
never
go to funerals.

Zach was solemn and composed yet I could tell from
his eyes that he’d been crying—a lot.
I held his hand for
support but my mind was definitely elsewhere. Ever vigilant,
my eyes searched the crowd for the walking dead. The place
was tastefully decorated yet masked an unspeakable level of
sorrow. How many tears did this place see through the years?
How many murders and suicides did they clean up and put on
display? I knew for a fact that these were the last walls that
held Garnet’s body and probably Allison’s, too. Was there a
chance I might run onto either or both of them?
The packed
viewing room was hot and stuffy but a frigid chill found its
way up my spine nevertheless.

Most of the faces in the room were unknown to me so
Zach did his best to clue me into their identities. Rich cousin
so and so who never came to visit, crazy uncle what’s his
name who was a candidate for the TV show Hoarders, sweet
aunt whoever who made the best apple pie ever—I heard
about all of them. Zach described them all with such detail
that they didn’t seem so unfamiliar anymore. Then I found a
familiar face all on my own.

There at the back of the room stood Clay Roseman—
plaid shirt, ripped jeans and all.
What was he doing here?
The only places I’d ever seen him were Silver Lake and
Heaven’s Gate Cemetery. The weird part was that he looked
as confused to be there as I was to see him there. As Zach
suffered a brutal round of cheek pinching from his great aunt,
I announced a trip to the ladies room and went to talk to Clay.

As I passed the casket, a girl with brown curly hair
and glasses piped up awkwardly. “Sorry for your loss.”

I knew that girl—well, not really, but I recognized her
from
school.
Her father owned this
place and
she
was
constantly picked on for being weird.
She moped around
those hallways worse than I did and always with her dorky
sidekick, some boy named Gary, I think.

I never got a chance to meet Grandma Mason so her
death wasn’t really
my
loss but I didn’t want to seem rude.
“Um, thanks, Morticia.” I replied distractedly. Clay had just
spotted me and was waving me over enthusiastically.

The girl frowned. “You’re welcome,” she said and
turned her head.

 

“Ruby!” Clay exclaimed as I drew near. “What am I
doing here?”

I couldn’t exactly answer him while standing in a
room full of people so I motioned for him to follow me.
I
stopped in front of the door to the ladies room and whispered,
“Stay right here.”

After checking each stall for potential eavesdroppers, I
reopened the door. “Come on in.”

Clay walked into the ladies restroom and marveled at
the décor as though he were in the Taj Mahal. “Wow! I’ve
never been in a girl’s bathroom before—I like it! I guess there
are some amazing perks to being dead,” he said while
curiously inspecting the tampon dispenser.

“Never mind that! What are you
doing
here?” I said,
taking a seat on the purple velvet divan in the center of the
room.

“Why are you asking
me
? How should I know?
You
brought me here, didn’t you?

“Me? What are you talking about? I haven’t seen you
in two weeks. I certainly don’t have the power to summon
you if that’s what you’re thinking.” Boys didn’t get any
smarter in the afterlife, apparently.

“Oh.” He looked disappointed but quickly regained his
usual swagger. “I guess I’m just mastering this whole being
dead thing.”

“You’ve never been here before have you? At least not
since your….” Awkward. I was about to say “funeral” but
thought it might be in poor taste to mention something like
that to a ghost.

“Funeral?” He filled in the blank for me so I nodded
my head.

“Yeah, your funeral.” I couldn’t look him in the eye
when I said the word so I stared at the flower arrangement on
the sink instead.

Clay tucked some loose strands of hair behind his ears
and gave me a cocky smile. “Don’t feel bad mentioning it,
Ruby. I put the fun in funeral, baby!”

And with that statement, he put a smile on my face for
the first time that day. “Okay, party animal—what made you
think I brought you here?”

“Well, I was just hanging out down at the lake like
usual, you know, thinking and stuff. Then you popped into my
head and suddenly I was here. I thought you made it happen.”

Was this a sign of things to come?
Were random
ghosts
going
to start popping
up at inopportune times
requesting my assistance? “Excuse me, miss, I realize you’re
making out with your boyfriend but could you possibly help
me get a message to my wife?
Tell her the life insurance
policy is in the bottom drawer of my desk. Thanks—you can
go back to what you were doing now and nice bra, by the
way!”

Oh,
hell
no. That was more frightening to me than the
tongue-less vision of Allison. “No offense, Clay, but don’t think
about me anymore.
You
could have popped
in
at
an
embarrassing moment, if you know what I mean.”

For about ten seconds, he
didn’t
know what I meant.
He screwed up his face in bewilderment until it finally hit him.
“Oh, you should
not
have told me that! Now I won’t be able to
stop
thinking about you!”

I swatted at his arm but forgot there was nothing to
connect with.
My hand went straight through him and it felt
like I’d just stuck it in a bucket of dry ice.

“Hey, that tickles!” he said giggling.

 

“Sorry—I forgot you were dead.”

 

The giggling ceased and he got quiet. “Thanks, Ruby.
That’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me.”

If that was true, it was sad. He seemed like such a nice
guy. “You’re welcome. I have to get back to Zach now but you
can stick around if you want.” As soon as I saw the devilish
grin, I knew what he was thinking. “Just not in the ladies
room, okay?”

“Okay,” he said following me out. “And by the way,” he
said pointing to the mortician’s daughter, “Her name’s not
Morticia—it’s Martina.” Clay slipped through the wall and
disappeared.

I felt like such an idiot. Of course her name wasn’t
Morticia! Though it was a clever nickname given her father’s
profession, it was cruel nonetheless. I had to apologize.

Before returning to Zach’s side, I stopped by the
casket. “Sorry, Martina—I thought that really
was
your
name.”

Martina ran her hand nervously through the mass of
curls on her head. “That’s okay, Ruby, I forgive you.”

She acted like I just asked her to sign my yearbook or
something. Oh well, I knew what it was like to be picked on.
If calling her by her real name made the girl happy, who was I
to judge?
I sat down
beside Zach to play
the
role of
comforting girlfriend again knowing that he wasn’t the only
person I made feel better today. Knowing that made
me
feel
better, too.

15. Not So Stupid Superstition

In the days leading up to New Year’s Eve, the mood
was somber at best.
With the death of Grandma Mason, the
Mason home had all the festiveness of a hearse.
When I
stopped at Something Wick-ed to pick up my paycheck, I
found Rita down in the dumps as well. Since she was the only
member of S.P.I.R.I.T. willing to investigate on a holiday, their
weekend trip was postponed.

“Oh well, I’m used to spending holidays alone by now
anyway,” she sighed, obviously
not
okay with it at all.

 

When I complained to Shelly that everyone we knew
was absolutely miserable, she agreed.

“I know, Ruby. When I talked to Andy earlier, even
he
was depressed. There’s just something about being alone at
this time of year—it really affects people.”

“I understand
why
everyone’s unhappy—I just wish
there was something we could do about it.” For the first time
in my life, I was the happiest and most well-adjusted person I
knew. Now there’s a scary statistic.

“Maybe there is,” Shelly mused with a far off look. “I’m
going to give your Dad a quick call. I’ll get back to you on
that.”

Five minutes
later, Shelly
returned
to
the
kitchen
where I still sat sulking. “I know it’s last minute but how do
you feel about a New Year’s Eve party? Nothing big, just us
and our closest friends. Are you up for helping me plan one?”

“Am I? We should have started five minutes ago!” I
replaced the ice cream I was about to devour back into the
freezer. No need to eat to take away the boredom for me.
I
had a party to plan.

“Let’s start with the guest list, shall we.” Shelly
snatched the magnetic pad of sticky notes from the front of
the refrigerator. “On our end I’m adding Diane, Garrett and
Andy. She’s your boss—how do you feel about inviting Rita?”

“Totally. You guys met but you don’t really know her
that well. I know you’ll like her, though.”

 

Shelly added Rita’s name to the list. “Now it’s your
turn. Who do you want to invite?”

“Zach, of course, Rachel and Boone, too. I’d like to
invite Chloe and Chelsea but Chloe’s mom doesn’t approve of
them dating. She’ll only allow her to come if she thinks she’s
here with a boy.”

“So invite another boy then. Chloe must have a friend
she could ask.”

I hit a brick wall. “I don’t know if she does. Zach was
her fake boyfriend before and I’m not willing to share him.
And besides, they fake broke up.” Then brick by brick that
wall began to disintegrate. “Lucas can be her fake date,” I
announced proudly.

Shelly put down her pen and gave me a disapproving
look. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? He and Zach aren’t
exactly the best of friends, you know.”

“I know that, Shelly. But he won’t be here with
me
,
he’ll be here with Chloe. Zach will understand.”

 

“I don’t think he will, honey. I want you to think it
over before you ask Lucas, okay?”

“Okay,” I mumbled. But it wasn’t okay. Lucas was my
friend and Zach needed to let go of his jealousy over the
matter.
Besides, when the clock struck midnight, I would be
in Zach’s arms, not Lucas’s. There wasn’t any other way I
would want to ring in the New Year.

Shelly agreed to call my friends’ parents with their
invites. It was the perfect time for me to sneak off and invite
Lucas. Without explaining Chloe’s situation, I let him know
that he was invited but that I needed him to pick her and
Chelsea up on his way.