Spirits of Spring (The Haunting Ruby Series Book 4) (24 page)

Zach and I only talked for a few minutes before I got
into bed that night. He and his dad had another blowout that
he didn’t want to discuss. I suspected that it had something to
do with the fact that I was giving him the money to buy a new
car so I didn’t press the issue.
I was completely exhausted
when I said goodnight to him but wide awake the second my
head hit the pillow.

There were so many
different
things
on my
mind.
School was getting tougher by the day and not only because of
how people were treating me, either. Every teacher seemed to
be throwing out their toughest assignments at the same time.
There were papers to be written, tests to be taken—all while I
tried to stay invisible to practically everyone. How ironic.
As
much as I hated being able to see them—Clay excluded, of
course—I now wished that I
was
a ghost.

Track practice was getting harder as well.
Our first
meet was scheduled for the following week in Graysburg and I
was nervous that I would drop the baton again when it really
counted. If we lost that race because of me, it would just be one
more weapon in Misty’s ever-growing arsenal against me.
I
simply couldn’t afford to mess things up when it really counted.

And of course, there
was
my
hasty
resignation
at
Something Wick-ed to consider. I knew that I couldn’t avoid
Rita forever, but I was afraid to face her. If I told her the whole
story behind why I quit my job, she would
have
to understand,
wouldn’t she? But then again, if there wasn’t a Misty in her
past, maybe she wouldn’t. She had such a firm grip on her
paranormal abilities—seeing ghosts was normal for her.
Right
now I was probably nothing more than her vote for Worst
Employee of the Year.

Clay. What was I going to do about Clay? I decided that
it was in my best interest to stop investigating his death but
that didn’t really solve the greater problem. He was attached to
me and honestly, I was sort of attached to him, too. I knew that
he said that he wanted to spend the night at Silver Lake but I
was
pretty
certain
that
he
had been lingering
somewhere
nearby since a few minutes after I got home but just wasn’t
revealing his presence to me. What if it got to the point where
he physically
couldn’t
separate himself from me?
There was
only one other way that I could think of to try to separate us
from each other—track down his ex-girlfriend. If she was still
in love with him, maybe he would forget all about me. Well, not
completely
forget about me—I still wanted to stay in touch with
him if at all possible.

Somewhere in
the middle of analyzing
all of
my
problems, I fell asleep. Of course, I had the usual nightmare—
but then again, when
didn’t
I? For once, though, it wasn’t the
dream that really disturbed me. No, this time waking up was
the scariest part of it all.

The dream was actually pretty tame in comparison to
what I was used to.
Rachel, Zach, and I were at Silver Lake
having a picnic. We were sitting at one of the wooden gazebos
just off the water eating burgers and chips and laughing about
all of the fun times we’d shared since we’d met. There wasn’t
anything scary about the dream at first—not even the fact that I
was so close to the lake.
Once the food was all gone and
conversation started to dwindle, I began to gather up all of our
garbage, stuffing it neatly into a plastic bag so that I would only
have to make one trip
restroom
facilities.
As
to the trash barrel back near the

I was
returning
from
my
clean up
mission, I got a brilliant idea.

“Hey, guys! What do you say we rent a boat and take it
out on the lake for a bit before we head out? I’ve never been on
a boat but it sounds like a lot of fun!”

Zach turned to Rachel and they both got strange, sad
looks
on their faces.
For a moment,
they seemed
to
be
communicating telepathically—I got the distinct impression
that they were sharing an entire conversation that I wasn’t
allowed to be a part of. Zach seemed to be the one doing most
of the “talking” as Rachel “listened” intently. At the end, she
nodded her head and they both turned to me.

“Good idea, Ruby,” they both said in unison but with
none of the enthusiasm that I was anticipating.

How weird was
that
? I brushed it aside as one of their
twin connection oddities and sprinted past them to the boat
rental pavilion.
The man working there bore a very strong
resemblance to Clay—so much so that I was convinced that he
had
to be his father. I was about to question him as to whether
or not he knew Clay or his mother when the man spoke.

“I’ve been waiting for you! There’s a very special boat
that I’ve been saving just for your arrival!”

Though his words should have felt ominous to me, they
didn’t. Instead, I got excited. A boat saved just for me? How
epic! “Where is it? I can’t wait to see it!”

I shielded my eyes from the sun and looked out over the
line of small rowboats, trying to pick out which one was mine.
As my eyes passed over each one, I grew more disappointed as
I noticed that they all looked alike. Gray.
Every single one of
them was an identical shade of gray. No colors, no designs—
just a flat, matte colorless fleet bobbing up and down on the
surface of the water.
There was
no way
to hide my
disappointment—I could literally feel the smile drain from my
face.

“There’s no need to frown, young lady!” the man said
with a laugh. “
Your
boat is over there.”

He pointed off toward the side and my eyes followed his
motion. There in the dark, murky pool sat a boat unlike any of
the others. This one
was
special—this one
was
saved just for
me. It was shiny and the sunlight practically burst into flames
when it touched this boat’s metallic surface.
The boat was
red—ruby red.

“Oh, it’s absolutely
perfect
!
Zach, Rachel—come check
this thing out!”

As they joined me at the water’s edge, I should have
noticed the eerie silence that passed between them. I should
have, but I didn’t. Far too many details in life go undetected at
the right moment.
But everything becomes crystal clear in
retrospect.

“Give us your hands, Ruby,” Zach instructed, “Rachel
and I will help you get in.”

Eager to set sail on our voyage, I clasped onto both of
them as I stepped into the small craft. I settled myself at the far
end leaving room for both of them to climb aboard.

“No!” Rachel cried, “You have to sit in the center! You
don’t want it to tip over, do you? If that happens, you’ll drown.”

“Sorry, I didn’t know,” I said as I moved into the center
and sat back down. I’d never been on a boat before but I
instantly noticed that something was missing. “Hey,” I shouted
to the man at the pavilion, “We need the oars for this thing. I
don’t want to get lost at sea!” I said semi-jokingly. While there
wasn’t really a way to get lost on a body of water the size of
Silver Lake, getting stranded in the middle of it wasn’t exactly
on my agenda either.

The man either didn’t hear me or didn’t understand
what I had said because instead of responding to me, he smiled
and waved.
Suddenly, with a violent jerk, the boat began to
rock.
Frantically, I grabbed onto both sides of the boat to keep
myself from pitching overboard.

“Zach! Rachel! Help me!”

 

“Goodbye, Ruby,” they chimed in unison as they gave
the rowboat a shove and set me adrift on the lake.

 

“How am I going to get back?” I pleaded in desperation.
“How am I ever going to get back?”

 

“You won’t,” Zach replied softly, “but we’ll see you on
the other side.”

Why did they do this to me? How long would it take for
me to get to the opposite shore?
And would they really be
there to greet me when I arrived? I sat there motionless in the
boat, afraid that even the slightest movement might cause it to
tip and send me into the depths.
I watched as they walked
quietly away, their forms growing smaller and smaller as I
drifted further away from the shore. As they disappeared into
the distance,
another recognizable form
appeared at the
water’s edge.

“It’s just a dream, Ruby!” Clay called out to me. Though
his words were barely audible, I could see that he was shouting
with all of his might. Just a dream? Suddenly, the lake began to
swirl as though someone had pulled the plug from the drain.
My boat whipped around in circles as it followed the water
downward.

I woke up dizzy and paralyzed.
Totally and utterly
paralyzed.
It was similar to the way that I felt when I woke up
from the dream where Zach never existed—only worse. I could
still feel the movement beneath me as though my bed, too, was
twirling down with the water. My hands were clutching at the
sides of the mattress but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t
release my grip. Something like this had only ever happened
once
before in
my
life—while Scarlet was
haunting
the
mansion. But Scarlet crossed over months ago and there hadn’t
been any more unexplained incidents here since. Some other
strange force was at work here. But what—or who?

I lay there unable to move for what felt like ten minutes
but was probably actually more like ten seconds.
Slowly, I
regained control of my body and was able to relax my grip. As
soon
as
I was
fully
mobile again, I reached over to my
nightstand and flicked on the light. There wasn’t anyone in the
room with me—dead
or
alive—and I didn’t sense that anything
else had been, either. I was alone. Completely alone. Or was I?

“Clay?” I whispered softly. I knew that I couldn’t keep
leaning on him in tough situations. I knew this had to stop but I
didn’t know what else to do. I was almost an adult now—far
too old to climb into bed with Dad and Shelly.
But there was
something about his appearance in my dream that raised a
difficult question in my brain. Could my suspicions be true?

Just as I expected, Clay didn’t appear directly before
me—he
walked straight through the
wall separating
my
bedroom from my living room. He hadn’t spent the night at
Silver Lake like he said he was going to—he’d spent the night
here only in secret. It was just as I’d feared. The bond between
us was growing stronger by the day. Perhaps stronger than I
ever thought possible.
I was afraid to ask the question so I
didn’t.

All I said to
him
was
this—“I had another weird
nightmare.”

 

All he said in response was this—“I know. I was there.”

There were a lot
of
things
on my
agenda but I
immediately moved one of them to the top of the list.
I had to
find a way to mend fences with Rita. She was the only person I
knew who could help me with my newest set of problems. As
soon as track practice was over, I drove over to Something
Wick-ed prepared to swallow a whole plateful of my own pride
of idiocy. Since I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel after
talking to her, I even cancelled my date with Zach for the night.
He understood completely because he thought I was going to
the candle shop to beg for my job back. Although that wasn’t
the reason for the urgency, I didn’t tell him otherwise. If he
knew that Clay was now somehow invading my dreams, I was
afraid that he would totally freak out.
I know
I
was totally
freaking out.

I tried hard to stay positive. I flung the door open and
made my triumphant entrance. The shop was empty except for
Rita who was standing behind the counter with her back to the
door.
I could feel a wave of anxiety welling up inside of me.
What if she refused to help me?
Who else on earth could I
possibly turn to for help?
This was one bridge I never should
have set fire to. While I was replaceable as her weekend help,
she was irreplaceable to me. When I quit my job, I messed up
big time.
I needed to extinguish the blaze I set before it
engulfed the entire bridge.

“Rita?” I said as I nervously fidgeted with one of the
displays, straightening the sign like I still worked there.

She turned around slowly but wouldn’t look me in the
eyes. “Ruby,” she replied with no show of emotion—good
or
bad.
She simply pronounced my name as though I were a
stranger whose name she happened to somehow know.

Awkward silence. I was expecting a reaction of some
sort—either anger or excitement, I suppose. Something black
or white not this questionable shade of gray. Oh, how I was
growing to despise the gray areas in life!

“I’m sorry about quitting my job on such short notice.” I
didn’t see a “help wanted” sign in the front window so I
assumed that my job was no longer up for grabs. “I hope my
replacement is more reliable than I was.”

More awkward silence. Apparently, she wasn’t even
going to let me
try
to repair the damage. Truthfully, I couldn’t
say that I blamed her. My hasty notice probably ruined either
the ghost hunt of her dreams or a fun trip with Andy. Either
way, I would be mad at me, too.

Not knowing what else to say or do, I began to inch my
way toward the door. I hadn’t ventured very far into the shop
so at least I didn’t have far to go to make my not so triumphant
exit. I lingered for a second with my hand on the door, hoping
that she would stop me.