celiabreslin

“He-e-e Ha-a-a.” Max cackled like a wild man as the boat veered off, rooster-tailing water spray and slamming turbulent waves into the raft.

Trembles shook my hands and body. What the hell is wrong with him?

I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths to relax. Warm tingles thrummed against my sternum from the quartz on my necklace, giving me a heads-up that my ghost friends were near.

“He’s gone, little missy,” Martin said. “Off to the other side of the lake.”

Gloria’s fingers clasped the stone through her blouse. “Is your stone vibrating like mine? I touched it, thought of you, and here we are.” She stared at me.

I climbed the ladder and sat across from them, stretching my legs in front of me for the warm sunshine. “I’ll have to try touching my stone and thinking of you. See if I can call you to me.”

She nodded then turned to Martin. “When’s the last time we sat by water?” Gloria slid her body closer to him.

“Now, girl, don’t you be gettin’ any crazy ideas.” He chuckled and wrapped his arm around Gloria’s shoulder then turned his attention to me. “We want answers about what happened. Neither of us remembers it, nothing other than a truck rammed into the back of the Olds. It scared the heck out of us, so we turned off the main road and drove down a dirt path into the woods, hoping to hide. Then we saw lights coming fast behind us.”

“It’s a constant loop we live over and over, ending with the truck following us and crashing into the back of the car. The sound is like a grand clap of thunder.” Gloria sniffled, but there were no tears. Ghosts didn’t cry real tears. Martin rubbed her back.

“We blackout or something.” Martin looked across the water but seemed unfocused. “I wake up outside the car, and a few minutes after, Gloria is beside me. We got stuck next to the Olds, doing the same thing over and over.”

Apparitions didn’t usually possess recall of being stuck in a loop. They simply lived it over and over as if for the first time, every time. What was different for these two? Maybe our crystal connection brought the change in their loop and opened their acknowledgment to it?

“I’ve got a friend coming to stay with me. He’s got mad internet skills. I think he can help research, figure out a few things. Maybe find out who followed you and why.”

A boat motor revved behind me, I folded my legs to my chest, preparing for impact.

“Kyle, wanna ski?” Max hollered. He zipped past and stopped next to Kyle’s dock.

Kyle stared in my direction and waved, and I waved back. Max sneered.

How long was Kyle out there? All he saw was my backside while I chatted with Martin and Gloria. When I turned around to pick up where we left off, Martin and Gloria had disappeared.

Spirited Wishes
(Includes characters from Ghost Guardians)
By S. Peters-Davis

Kyle tapped on the walk-out sliding glass door, and I waved him in. He wore a black cape and had slicked his blond hair back. His big smile showed the vampire teeth capping his eye-teeth.
“Ahhh, Count Kyle, let’s eat, I’m starving.” My stomach growled as if on cue. “Pizza, beer, and Gramps’ Halloween cupcakes.” I swept my hand toward the goods.
“What is that?” Kyle pointed at the strange, ancient-looking glass jar candle on the coffee table as he removed those crazy teeth.
“Doesn’t it look spooky and old? I found it in Luke’s room. He brought some things with him when he moved in.” Luke, my best friend through school and college, was now more like my brother. I flipped the gas on for the fireplace, and Kyle dropped onto the couch.
“Man, it’s pretty crappy outside. Hardly any kids came for candy. The rain just won’t quit.” And to prove it, lightning shocked the sky, and reverberating thunder shook the windows.
“It’s a dark and spooky night.” My voice trembled in an eerie laugh.
Kyle uncapped the candle and lit it.
A woosh of wind gusted through the room, the electricity went out, and the candle flame flared tall. A chill swept across the room, even though the fireplace cranked out heat.
“Who calls upon me?” A plume of gray smoke rearranged, forming into a haggard elder woman with a bent nose, bushy brows, and unsettling sharp teeth exposed by her thin-lipped grimace.
Kyle and I glanced at each other, our wide-eyed gaze matching.
“Is someone here, Bri?” Kyle reached for my hand, not gifted with the ability to see spirits like me.
“Yes, and I believe that candle brought this upset woman here.” I stared at the woman, her face wrinkling as if angered.
She scoffed, “As if you didn’t know I’d arrive to grant you a wish, but understand with that wish comes sacrifice. I take something in return.” She scanned the room and drifted down the hall.
Kyle squeezed my hand. “You appear concerned. Is she still here?”
“She just wandered out of the room.”
“Should I call for back up?” Kyle let go of my hand to grab his cell phone from his pocket.
“I’m sure the gang is busiest on Halloween night wrangling ghosts, don’t you?” We worked for S.P.I., Spectral Paranormal Investigations, and I mostly guided ghosts into the light while Kyle kept me grounded.
“Is this woman good or evil?” Kyle pocketed his cell and rose from the couch. “Do we need supplies?”
I shook my head, not understanding what this freak show might have in store for us. “Whatever you do, don’t speak a sentence with the word ‘wish’ in it. Got it?”
“Like, I wish—”
Before Kyle finished, I slapped his mouth to stop him. “Not one word,” I whispered. The scary spectral suddenly stood beside Kyle.
“Fine specimen.” She eyed him. “He’ll do in a pinch.” Her body shook from the eruption of a guttural chuckle.
“We don’t require your services, whoever you are. Please go back now.”
“Are you making a wish for me to leave?” Her eyes widened as her tongue slid out and licked over snarling lips. Her hands reached for Kyle.
“Don’t touch him,” I screamed.
Kyle jerked back, stumbling over the coffee table and nearly sprawling into the fireplace. He jumped up fast, shaking his hand. “Damn, burnt my fingers.”
The woman shot out a horrifying cackled, creating a wave of goosebumps down my spine. “I’m taking him.” A wind gusted me aside, and Kyle froze in place, only his wide eyes scanning the area in front of him.
“I said, don’t touch him!” I pushed my way through the gale of air, chanting protection mantras for Kyle and me.
The woman melded into another image—a human-sized grub worm, pustules coating its wrinkled skin, and it moved in front of Kyle. The worm opened along its center, showing grizzly insides lined with pointy teeth. It shuffled closer to Kyle.
Kyle’s eyes moved wildly.
I grabbed the sage and lavender smudge pack I’d forgotten to use before Kyle arrived, lit it, and waved the smoke as I ran toward the entity. “Archangel Michael, I call upon you to take this entity of darkness where mother earth and father sky can best direct its beneficiary properties,” I repeated three times.
As my words ended, a hole opened beneath the vermin, and boney hands reached out and grabbed the lower section of the grub, hauling it down into the fires.
I stood between the entity and Kyle.
His arms slid around me, drawing me back as if he had an inkling of what happened in front of me.
“You’re back, unfrozen.” I entwined my fingers with his.
He kissed the side of my face from behind my shoulder and whispered, “What just happened?”
The grub disappeared, screaming in a high-pitched shrill, and in a stinky puff of smoke that sounded like a nasty belch, the flooring settled back in place as if nothing had occurred.
“All I can say is the spectral turned into something else, supernatural. I don’t know about dark entities, other than ghosts. This thing wanted to eat you, Kyle.” I turned toward him inside his arms. Our lips met as tears rolled beside my nose, leaving a salty taste as I pulled away. “I didn’t know if I could stop it.” My stomach dropped. The thought of losing Kyle ran rampant through my head.
“You called in Archangel Michael. Impressive.” He smiled, showing his even teeth. “You know more than you think when it comes to stuff that goes bump in the night.” He kissed me again, taking his time, and I let him. Then he asked, “So, can I say the word—”
“—wish? Yes. Let me do it for you. I wish we were in bed, right now.”
Kyle lifted me into his arms, carrying me toward the bedroom.
“Wait!” I dropped to my feet and ran back to the coffee table, capping the candle. “No more mishaps, not while I have my way with you.” I grinned.
Kyle grabbed my hand and rushed me toward the bedroom. “I believe that’s my wish, not yours.”