Ghost of a Shadow Read online

  “Marj! Marj! Are you all right?” Frank yelled, trying to push past the officers at the door. “Let me in. I’m her husband. This is my house. Please let me see her,” he begged, sobbing.

  The police blocking Frank looked toward the car, where their colleagues held Finn by both arms. That’s when they’d allowed Frank to push past them and into the house.

  Hey, there, kiddo, Finn heard, as he sat in the hard-plastic chair. It’s a pleasure to see you again…and in such a royal setting as well.

  “Hello? Are you really here? I’ve called and called for nearly a year, and now you come back?”

  That’s how I roll, buckaroo. Better get used to it.

  “Do you have any idea what I’m doing here instead of being in my own room?”

  Sure do.

  “Well, spill it then.”

  Silence.

  “Please?”

  That’s better. I know you have the game down.

  “Yes, I know…I’m quite the actor, but why am I here? I did everything you requested!”

  Not everything. I advised you to be smarter than they were. It turns out you’re worse than stupid at hiding your journal of pretty pictures.

  “I am smarter,” Finn growled with shrinking conviction. “Wait, what about my journal? They couldn’t have found it. I took care of that.”

  Then why are they the ones comfortable at home, while you’re at the police station in serious trouble?

  Finn didn’t answer. If this was the way the Voice meant to talk to him, then the Voice could just piss off.

  The Voice, whatever it was, took the hint…and Finn was alone again.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Best Friends Forever

  Thank goodness today is over. Sadie shuffled toward her locker. I don’t think I could have taken one more second of English class. It’s bad enough just being at school. Now I have to deal with more trouble, just like at home.

  She turned the combination for the umpteenth time that day and shoved her books inside. Lockers opened all around her, many of them decorated with a blur of bright colors and photos, things she couldn’t see clearly.

  She spotted a realistic charcoal drawing of a windmill the next locker over. She reached over to touch it with her fingers but then thought better of it. She recalled when she used to place her art on her locker door, back when school was fun. She remembered looking forward to study hall so she could hang out with Melanie Greene and their friends.

  I can almost touch that time, and I miss it. I miss you, Melanie.

  “Where should we go today, Sadie?”

  “Let’s go to the swing tree.”

  Melanie and Sadie had hopped on their bikes and raced down their street toward the tree.

  Legend had it that a mysterious stranger had tied the tire swing to a hundred-year oak so the neighborhood kids could play. Everyone remembered that he wore a funny black hat—that was the only detail anyone ever gave of the man.

  It was just an old tire swing, but all the kids were drawn to its enchantment. Today Sadie and Melanie got lots of time in without anyone else there. Later, when a few others came, that was their cue to leave.

  “Okay, Sadie, let’s get back. Dad should be home soon, and I don’t want him to worry.”

  “Can we make caramel corn and milkshakes when we get back?”

  “But of course, Noodle Head.”

  Melanie called Sadie “Noodle Head” because of her ever-present pigtails.

  “Lead the way, Melbell,” Sadie chirped as they both climbed back on their bikes.

  Melanie got her nickname from the bell-shaped birthmark on her neck—plus it rhymed.

  They headed toward Melanie’s house. “You make the best caramel corn. I could eat it every day.”

  “Then you’d be ginormous, Sadie. I wouldn’t want to have to change your nickname to ‘Six-Ton Sadie.’”

  Sadie rolled her eyes. “Nice, Melanie. Real nice.”

  They both laughed. Melanie and Sadie had been best friends since age five. Melanie was slim, leggy, and almost as tall as Sadie. She had cropped blond hair and sky-blue eyes. Her family had moved into the neighborhood, and the instant the two little girls had met, they had become a pair, going everywhere together. When Melanie’s mother passed away after a long battle with cancer, their friendship grew even tighter.

  “Hey, you staying over tomorrow night?” Melanie asked, after they’d gorged themselves with caramel corn and chocolate shakes.

  “Just need to check with Mom, but it should be a go.”

  “Cool. See you tomorrow then, Six-Ton.”

  “Hope you forget about that one, Melanie, or I’m gonna have to give you a new name too. Be afraid…be very afraid.”

  “Ha-ha. Okay, Sadie. You win…this time. See ya.”

  The next night, after dinner, Sadie headed over to Melanie’s. Sleepovers at her house were the best, especially because her dad was really nice. He would set up a movie screen in the backyard when the weather was clear.

  “Melanie, you’re one lucky girl,” Sadie confided, as they sat in lawn chairs, waiting for Melanie’s dad to set up the screen.

  “I know, Sadie, but so are you. You have both your parents.”

  “Yeah, I know.” Sadie wanted to say something helpful but didn’t have the words. “What are we watching tonight?”

  “I think Dad said Princess Bride.”

  “Oh, great. I love that movie.”

  They all watched the movie, reciting favorite lines along with the story. At the end, they rose to their feet with a round of applause.

  “It reminds me of The Love Story of Christopher and Sadie,” Melanie teased, once her father had gone into the house.

  “Yeah, sure. I just need to get Christopher to say all those things to me and I’ll be set.”

  “Ha, I’m sure you can, Sadie. He’s totally into you.”

  Sadie blushed then turned away, but in the next moment she was back, smiling.

  It was a calm night by the fire pit, so they hung out and talked for a while.

  “So, Noodle Head,” Melanie said, “I heard two weird stories about the Fletcher house all in one week.”

  “Tell me.” Sadie leaned closer.

  “I heard another family lived there before the Fletchers. A family nobody talks about.”

  “Really? Sadie asked, her eyes larger. The pitch of her voice rose higher. “Who were they?”

  “There’s not much to tell, only that they died in a car crash right outside of town.”

  “That’s disturbing. How come this is the first we’re hearing about it?”

  “Don’t know, Sadie. That’s all I could get out of Dave.”

  “You’d think he’d know more about it. He knows everything about everyone.”

  “Not this time.” The girls got up and collected their empty cups and plates.

  “It’s funny,” Sadie mused. “The Fletchers have been gone for a long time, and I still can’t call it anything but the Fletcher house.”

  “Gone? That’s putting it mildly!” Melanie exclaimed. “Mr. Fletcher lost his mind after their son disappeared.”

  Both girls found their seats again.

  “Then he shot her in the head and shot himself. Nobody found them for days until the mailman called the police. Apparently there was an awful smell coming from the house and a pile of mail stacking up.”

  “Kids are always talking about how that house makes people do strange things.” Sadie shivered, hugging her knees to her chest.

  “Yeah, I stay way clear of that house.” Melanie shuddered slightly as well.

  “Me too. For sure.”

  The old Fletcher house, as it had come to be known, stood at the loneliest corner of its triple-acre lot. It was past the cul-de-sac, after the modern-day neighborhoods ended. The wooden slats barely hung together in most places, and errant tree limbs had broken some of the windows. It once had been a respectable farmhouse, but long lacking in care, it was now worn down.

>   The woods behind that house appeared to go on forever. No one in the neighborhood really knew how vast they were. Parents were too busy working to care. Kids didn’t have the nerve it took to explore and find out just how far back those trees extended or where they led.

  “Anyway,” Melanie went on, “the last I heard of anyone living there was this group of girls about ten years ago. They were from out of town, and they rented the place for that summer. They had no idea what they were in for, but I overheard my sister telling my mom that she was at the grocery store the other day, and one of the girls came back to town and spoke with the cashier about her experience there.” Melanie paused to catch her breath, then continued.

  “She hinted that some really weird things happened, and did he know anything about the house before or since? The realtor never mentioned a thing to them. The girl was curious now because back then she was too afraid to ask. So the cashier told the renter girl about what happened to the Fletchers, and my sister said the girl turned white as paste.”

  “And then what happened?” Sadie prodded.

  “The cashier asked her what was wrong, and she told him that all the girls had heard strange noises and felt cold breezes blowing past them throughout the house. One night, while she slept on the couch, she woke up and saw an old man’s face floating right above her. It was craggy, bearded, and half its face was missing. She said it looked like it was about to speak.”

  “Wow. That’s creepy.”

  “I know,” Melanie agreed, inching back a bit from the fire. “She said she screamed until she couldn’t scream anymore. Then it disappeared. She thought she was dreaming, but now she knew she wasn’t. She said after that happened, she couldn’t go back in the house or anywhere near it. Now, years later, curiosity got the best of her, so she came back to town to find out about the house’s history.”

  “So weird. I’ve never heard that story before, but I’ve heard about people staying overnight on a dare. They threw parties and wrecked the inside. But eventually they stopped going.”

  Melanie raised her eyebrows. “So…I’m thinking we should go check out the house.”

  Sadie shook her head. “Uh, no way, Melanie. Are you out of your mind?”

  “Sometimes, ha-ha.”

  “Yeah, me too, but not that much.” Sadie couldn’t tell whether Melanie was relieved that she’d said no, or if she was trying to think of a way to convince her to go.

  “Well, speaking of ghosts, how about some Ouija?” Melanie suggested.

  “Ooh. Okay. I’m up for that.”

  “Are you sure? You still look pretty scared. I’ve never seen you that shade of pale before, and it looks like you’re sweating up a storm.”

  “I am not. I’m not scared. I’m sitting up straight as straight can be. See?”

  “Oh, we’ll see about that all right…after some Ouija.”

  The girls got up and went into the living room to say good night to Melanie’s dad.

  “Good night, girls.”

  “Good night, Dad,” they replied in unison.

  They headed upstairs, took out their sleeping bags, and set up their bedroom camp. Then they sat on the floor with the board between them.

  “I wonder who we’ll be talking to tonight.”

  “How about Mr. Fletcher?” asked Melanie.

  “Oh, I hope not. I heard he wasn’t very nice to begin with. And if the house did make him psycho, I definitely don’t want to talk to him.”

  “Well, then, I’m gonna say ‘some nineteenth-century dude.’”

  “I don’t think they called them dudes back then,” Sadie quipped.

  “No? I thought guys were always dudes.”

  “Ha-ha, that’s funny, Melbell.”

  “Okay. Let’s get serious,” Melanie proposed, her smirk transforming into a straight line.

  “Okay. Let’s.”

  They placed their fingers on the pointer.

  “No pushing.”

  “I never push.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Really. No pushing.”

  “Geez, Melanie. Just say it already.”

  “Okay, okay. Spirits from beyond…what message do you have for us tonight?”

  The big lights were off, so they used a small desk lamp. They wanted it to be super spooky in the room. They always freaked themselves out, but it was still fun despite their fear.

  First letter: H, followed by E, then L. Melanie and Sadie looked up at each other, outwardly nervous. The pointer zoomed straight for P.

  “‘Help.’ You promised you wouldn’t push, Sades.”

  “If I was pushing, the last letter would’ve been L. So there.”

  “Very funny. Ha-ha. Okay, I guess it really is ‘Help.’ Hmm.”

  Shaking a bit now, Sadie had trouble holding her fingers steady on the pointer. “Uh, okay, spirit. What are you trying to tell us?” Fingers back on the pointer. First letter I, then A, then M.

  “‘I am’ what, spirit?” Melanie asked.

  The letters started flowing again: A, T, then T, H, E.

  “‘I am at the…’? Where are you, spirit?”

  Once again the pointer took off in short order: B, O, T. It paused before it quickly zipped to T, O, M.

  “‘I am at the bottom…’”

  They looked at each other nervously, thinking the same thing: Should we finish?

  They didn’t realize they hadn’t spoken that out loud; then Melanie answered the unspoken question. “I think we have to now.”

  O, F, T, H, E. “‘I am at the bottom of the…’” After some hesitation, they put their fingers back on the pointer. The flurry of letters now in the past, the pointer moved excruciatingly slow. B, E… They were sweating now. Cemented in place after what seemed like an interminable moment, they watched as the pointer landed on D then stopped.

  “Bed!”

  “Oh, my God. He’s at the bottom of my bed! Ahhhhhhhh! Hurry, Sadie. Get up!”

  Sadie froze in place. Flashes of red that looked like heat lightning appeared by her feet and nearly struck her toes.

  “Come on, Sadie! Run!”

  Sadie couldn’t move. “Sadie!” Melanie grabbed her shoulders and shook her out of her trance.

  They both screamed and ran out of the room…right into Melanie’s dad.

  “Okay, girls. Calm down. Get back to bed.”

  “I don’t know if I can,” gulped Melanie.

  “You girls are always scaring yourselves. Come on. I’ll take you in.”

  Melanie’s dad looked around the room. “See? There’s nothing here.”

  “Buh…but you didn’t look in the closet, Dad.”

  He opened the door. “Look, nothing’s in here.”

  “Are you sure?” Melanie asked, as she peeked around her father’s broad back.

  “Yes, Melanie.” Her dad sighed. “All’s well. Time for bed.”

  “Uh, okay, Daddy.”

  Once he had gone and they had settled into their sleeping bags, Melanie flipped on her flashlight, shining it directly at Sadie, and whispered, “Sadie, what happened? It’s like you weren’t even here. Do you remember anything?”

  Sadie put a hand in front of her eyes to block the blinding beam. “I remember seeing the red lights.”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Red lights? What red lights?”

  “There were red flashes at the end of the bed. You didn’t see them?”

  “No, I definitely did not. I think the Ouija board messed with your head, Sades.”

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Sadie stared at the floor at the end of Melanie’s bed, thankful the red lights had vanished but frustrated that Melanie hadn’t seen them.

  “Come on. Let’s try to get some sleep.”

  “Okay.” Sadie’s voice quavered as she hunkered as far into her sleeping bag as she could.

  “Good night, Noodle Head. Sleep well.”

  “Good night, Melbell. You too. No scary dreams for us.”

  �
��Yeah. No scaries allowed.”

  A short while later, Sadie heard Melanie’s breathing change and knew she had fallen asleep. She wasn’t as lucky. Even though she’d said so, she wasn’t sure the red lights had been her imagination.

  The locker in front of Sadie slammed shut, and she was jolted out of her daydream.

  It was Melanie and her new best friends. Their own friendship had ended a few weeks after Gramma had passed. Melanie had been there for her a little while, but then things had taken a bad turn.

  “Come on, Sadie. Snap out of it,” Melanie had told her. “Are you just going to sit here in your room all day? All the time? I know what happened to Gramma Rose has been awful. Believe me, if anyone understands what it’s like to lose someone, it’s me, but you have to come back. Let’s go for a walk. We can go to the park or the swing tree. Anywhere but here in this room. It’s been weeks, Noodle Head.” She sat on the bed beside Sadie and hugged her neck. “Come on, Sadie. Let’s get out of here.”

  “Leave me alone. Please just leave me alone,” Sadie begged, pushing her friend away and lying down again, her back to Melanie.

  “Sadie, look at you. You can’t keep going on like this. Everyone at school is talking about you…about how you’ve ‘weirded out.’”

  “I don’t care.”

  “Well, you should care. Everyone talks about how strange you are. You bump into desks and people. You knock over their stuff and never pick it up or say you’re sorry. You never smile or talk anymore, and when you do speak, you’re always sarcastic. What are people supposed to think? You’ve alienated everyone. I’ve tried telling them that you aren’t like this, but they don’t want anything to do with you.”

  “I don’t care about anything,” Sadie said into her pillow. “Not that horrible school. Not those stupid kids and not stupid you!” She sat up, grabbed the nearest book, and threw it at Melanie, barely missing her. “Go! Just go and leave me alone!”

  “Geez, Sadie. You really are a freak.” Melanie left the bedroom, slamming the door behind her.

  Sadie crawled deeper under her covers, crying uncontrollably. “I don’t care about any of them. They can all just leave me alone…”

  Sadie’s locker reverberated from the force of Melanie’s slam. “What’s the matter, Sadie? You’ve been staring at your open locker for like ten minutes. Were you dreaming that Christopher is coming back to save you from yourself?” The two girls next to her laughed.