Little Red Gem (25 page)

I didn’t realize I’d
started crying until Anne said, “Please don’t cry or you’ll start
me off.”

Why was I convinced that
knowing the depths of Leo’s love would release me from this land of
limbo? Nothing so far had suggested there was a way for ghosts to
set themselves free. Still, I had to try?

I had to
try
.

I felt Anne’s hand slip
into mine. Then William’s slipped into my other hand. Through me,
Anne and William were connected for the first time in centuries.
Would the three of us remain this way for the next few centuries?
Were we to spend forever with our only bubble of joy coming at
Halloween when we could officially scare the crap out of kids who
ventured into the woods?

Not if I could help
it.

“
I’m about to tell you
something that nobody else knows,” I said. “The night I died, I
came here to find out if Leo truly loved me, because a few hours
earlier, I’d discovered I was going to have his baby. My mom raised
me by herself and I didn’t want the same pressure. I came here to
find out if Leo would stick by my side, because if not, maybe I
would.” I paused as the next lot of words got stuck in my throat
“You know, maybe I’d terminate the pregnancy.”

My eyes shifted to the
floor. Ghost or not, the shame of what I’d considered doing chilled
my blood. I was positive I’d never have gone through with the
termination, but I was also positive I might have.

Anne lifted my chin with
her free hand and forced me to look at her. The empathy flowing off
her was enough to break my heart.

“
Is that the real reason
you came here?” she asked.

I squirmed beneath her
scrutiny. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

“
I get the feeling you are
holding out of us. And until you can admit the truth, you will
never be free.”

“
It’s the
truth.”

She sighed like she didn’t
believe me. “Then would raising a child alone have been such a
terrible curse to bear?”

She glanced at William and
my shame deepened. It would not have been such a terrible curse to
bear. What I was experiencing now was a terrible curse.

“
Why are you being so nice
to me?” I asked.

“
Because you seem
determined not to be nice to yourself.”

I didn’t think I could
ever repay their kindness. Then, an idea of how I could sprang to
mind.

“
Wait here,” I said. “I’ll
be back as soon as I can.”

I broke my connection with
the astral world and landed with a
thud
onto my bed. I instantly
shifted back into my physical form and ran into the living room
just as Teri switched off the TV with the remote and got up out of
the couch.

“
I need you to do
something for me,” I said, startling her.

“
I thought you were
sulking in your room.”

“
Too much other stuff
happening to sulk. I need your help, only you can’t ask any
questions till we get there.”

The good thing about
having a mom who was a clairvoyant was she had an open mind. The
bad thing about having a mom as a clairvoyant was she also had
typical mom qualities. The telltale signs Teri wasn’t confident
about trusting me were there – the furrowed brow, the shifting
gaze, the volley of complaining groans as she put on her evening
coat, the impatient tapping of her fingers against the steering
wheel as she drove following only my instructions.

“
You want to tell me where
we’re going?” she asked.

We were almost at the
turnoff to the woods. “Capers Cabin.”

“
You want to tell me why
I’m visiting the cabin of one of Providence’s founders? I take it
we’re not going for the history lesson.”

I shook my head
vigorously, almost dislodging vertebrae. “Can’t say anything till
we get there.”

Why couldn’t I calm down?
And why hadn’t I thought of this before?

“
You can see spirits,
right?” I asked Teri after a few minutes of unbearable
silence.

Her face tightened –
mistrust raised up another notch. “Why the sudden
interest?”

“
I asked you
first.”

Teri’s whole body
stiffened. “Audrey, you sound different. I guess you inherited more
of your father’s genes than I realized.”

“
You’re changing the
subject.”

Teri slapped a hand
against the steering wheel. “There you go again. If I didn’t know
any better, I’d swear Ruby had spent the past few weeks of her life
coaching you. Your father said you were talking back, and I didn’t
believe him.”

“
Okay, I’ll be
quiet.”

Easier to say than do. It
was a twenty minute drive out to the cabin and millions of question
marks swung around inside my head like monkeys. I had a hard time
controlling them. Their chatter made it impossible for me to stay
quiet.

“
When you look at me, do
you notice anything unusual?” I asked.

Teri flicked her gaze off
the road for a split second. “Audrey, honey, you’re being very
secretive and it’s late and I’m tired. Can you just tell me what’s
on your mind?”

“
It’s
complicated.”

We drove once more in
silence. If this were Mom and me in the car, we’d have fought over
the choice of radio station, I’d have told her to speed up, she’d
have told me to shift my focus onto which college I’d be attending
instead of applying for scholarships at music academies.

“
Do you still love Dad?” I
asked Teri. The out-of-the-blue question startled even
me.

Teri laughed so hard she
practically snorted her dinner over the dash. “Oh, honey, is that
what you think? That your dad is back in town to hook up with his
ex-wives for old time’s sake? He has his charming side I’ll admit,
but he’s too much of a child for me.”

I bit my lip, wondering if
I’d ever rid myself of this annoying habit. “I’m not thinking you
and Dad are gonna hook up. But I am curious. How can you love
someone one minute and not the next? Don’t answer, it’s a
rhetorical question. I mean, Leo loved Ruby, and Ruby loved Leo,
but I think he has feelings for me.”

I ignored the scowl on
Teri’s face. “Audrey, I should tell you something about Leo and
Ruby.”

I shook my head. “I’m
verbalizing. I actually don’t want Leo to have a crush on
me.”

Teri’s face washed with
relief. In the reflection of the window my face was saturated with
misery. It had been a mistake to give Leo the love potion. I only
hoped it would wear off. As William and Anne were only too happy to
point out, while I remained in this body I was not Ruby. And the
thought of Leo loving somebody else was too painful to
bear.

Teri pulled up in front of
the cabin. Everything was covered in darkness so the cabin and
trees blended together to form a giant black blob against a sky
dimly backlit by the moon bleaching through heavy patches of cloud.
I didn’t give Teri the chance to question me; I got out and walked
immediately up the steps.

She followed and once we
were inside I said, “You should be able to see the ghost who haunts
this cabin.”

Teri sucked in her breath.
I took this as affirmation.

“
The ghost who lives
inside the cabin is Anne Louise Montgomery. Outside is another
ghost by the name of William Tisk. They are lovers who were cursed
by a witch to spend their afterlife never permitted to be in the
same room. I figure, if magic got them into this, magic could get
them out.”

Teri’s eyes were filled
with disapproval. “I can detect spirits, but I can’t break curses.
I don’t even believe in curses. And this sounds more like a fairy
tale anyway. Young lady, you have some explaining to do. Why are
you socializing with the dead?”

“
I’m not. But I know
they’re chained to this cabin and I figured you could help them.
Every curse can be broken. Right?”

Teri’s face paled.
“Audrey, honey, you’re scaring me. These past few weeks, you’ve
been acting so strange and I’m doing my best to stay cool, and
while I really do not want to admit this, your dad may be right.
Maybe you do need to leave Providence for a while.”

I held my hands in front
of me in defense. “Whoa. Let’s not get crazy. It’s just been a bad
few weeks.”

Teri stabbed a finger at
me. “There. Right there. You never talk back. You’re a good girl,
Audrey. You’re a good student. Yeah, so what you don’t help around
the house as much as I’d like, but insolence is not your style.
What is going on?”

The truth pulsed through
my veins, up into my muddled head, along my still-mending arm,
pushing inside my never-to-be-whole-again heart, bursting to be set
free. But I couldn’t tell her what was really going on.

“
Nothing. I just want to
fix things.”

“
Fix
what
things? I have no idea what
you’re talking about.”

When I burst into tears,
Teri rushed to me. She wrapped me in her arms and stroked my head
while uttering soothing words. Nothing could stop the tears. I
couldn’t even say why I was crying, despite her begging me to tell
her everything.

Maybe I knew that it was
time for me to stop playing games, time to stop the lies, time to
accept that my reward for doubting the light of Leo’s love was that
I would spend eternity as light’s shadow.

Chapter
Eleven

Waking up the next
morning, it was like I was a different person. The sun streamed in
through the curtains, annoying me yes, but for once my impulses
didn’t gear toward slamming closed the blinds so I could return to
dreaming about Leo. This morning my mind was flooded with images of
the Reach For The Stars audition which began in four
hours.

A new day. A new me. And
all I could think about was what I was going to wear and how four
hours was not enough time to get ready.

I pulled everything out of
Audrey’s closet and had a mild aneurism when I saw there was
nothing suitable to impress Leo, whom this whole fiasco was
dedicated to. Audrey had no clothes I deemed worthy of impressing
the thousands – okay, hundreds, this
was
only a small town – of friends
and family members who would dutifully turn up to watch a bunch of
kids either humiliate or outshine ourselves. And there was
certainly nothing in her closet to impress the judges.

By the time Natalie picked
me up at ten o’clock I was still frazzled but dressed in a
deep-green velvet dress with a flowing skirt that sat slightly
above the knees. It had sleeves lacing up from wrist to the
shoulder. I’d borrowed the dress from Teri’s store after Audrey’s
closet full of jeans and joggers spurred in me a desperate need to
wear something pretty.

Sliding into the passenger
seat, I wished I had time to go back and change.

Natalie smiled and slammed
her foot hard on the accelerator. “That dress is
divine.”

“
Thanks. You look
awesome,” I added begrudgingly. I was jealous. She wore black jeans
and a billowy white see-though top with ties at the elbows and the
neckline. She was the image of Cool Rock. Next to her I looked like
Celtic Rock.

With music blasting in the
car we headed to Shanessa’s house to collect her before we pulled
into our next, yet by no means last, destination, Rock-A-Lilly’s.
The studio was the busiest I’d ever seen it. A mix of noise seeped
out of the vents in the walls and roof. Small groups had spilled
out into the parking lot and were practicing. Rock was grilling
sausages and bacon for the hordes of patrons, shouting at everyone
to grab their food.

“
You girls can use Studio
3 for thirty minutes,” Rock shouted, in between flipping a hundred
pieces of bacon.

Studio 3 had the grand
piano. I practically ran there with the girls following close on my
heels. Shanessa beat me into the room and she raced to the piano,
where she lifted the lid and placed her entire head
inside.

“
I’m in love,” she
squealed.

Natalie paused in her
reach for a violin and said with a sympathetic nod at my wrist,
“Not many instruments can be played one handed.
Tambourine?”

“
What song have you chosen
to perform?” I asked, hoping I sounded casual when inside I was
bursting to take over their project.

Shanessa played a few
notes and I recognized the piece as one of ours. “Natalie reckons
we should play
Every Night
and I reckon we should play
Nocturnal.
” Without looking up she
added, “What if we play both songs and let Audrey
decide?”

No time for pleasantries.
I stepped up to the piano and removed sheets of paper from inside
my dress. “Actually, I wrote a song. If you’ll give it a go I’m
sure you’ll love it.”

Shanessa’s hands paused
above the keys. Her head turned inches at a time until she looked
at me like she was about to eject a poisonous web from her eyes and
trap me in it. I shifted my gaze to Natalie; the note on the violin
hovered, the same way her suspicious gaze hovered. Before either of
them could object, I sat the sheet music to the song I had written
in the middle of the night on the piano stand.