SWNOVELS Chapter CHAPTER 12
Two solid days! That is how long it took to cast all the protection spells we thought would help keep any menacing ghosts/spirits away. Me, Chris, Riley, Dev, Jess, Raegan and Vince have all literally just collapsed into the furniture scattered around our family room. I smile as I witness the relationships that are beginning to bloom. Riley and Raegan are nice and cozy, snuggled together on the loveseat. Jess and Vince are cuddling on the couch with Chris sitting at the far end of it.
Devon hasn’t seen Ali’s best friend Ella since Alina’s passing but that is only because she had to return to the Academy, so she could attend classes. She is planning to return once the Black Sun Academy goes on winter break. Won’t she be surprised when she sees Ali amongst the living! This thought put a smile on my face, that is, until my gaze lands on Chris. He is the only one not in a relationship and I vow as I look at him that once this whole ordeal is over with, I am totally going to work on finding him a girl! Or guy because I’m a truly awful friend and have no clue which way he swings.
Devon, though my younger brother by a year, he could pass as my twin. He’s only an inch shorter than me, not that that matters in the slightest because other than that, he dresses and acts just like me. I really couldn’t have asked for a better brother! His support for me has really helped me through my rough days. I look at him while these thoughts run through my head. Oops, he catches me looking at him, so I give him a lop-sided grin before turning my attention elsewhere. I don’t need him to think I’m weirder than he already does.
“Wow, I can’t believe it is 8 o’clock on a Friday night and I’m so damned tired that I couldn’t even fathom the thought of going out tonight” I hear Devon state with a yawn. We all agree with tired laughter. “Anyone down for pizza?”
We all mumbled or grunted ‘yeah’ so Dev ordered a couple pies for delivery. I really don’t even know if I’ll be able to stay awake until they are delivered. My eyelids keep drooping as it is. I decided I was going to go to my room and ‘rest’ my eyes until the food arrived. I didn’t want to chance falling asleep in the living room with these yahoos. Who knows what they would do to me if I stayed down there and fell asleep.
I’m pretty sure that moments after I walked into my bedroom the pizzas arrived, but I had no energy left to go back down the stairs to snag any of the food. Instead, I fling my body fully clothed on top of my bed and crash out.
I don’t stir from my sleep until about 6:30 Saturday morning. I’ve never slept for nine and a half hours before in my life. I sit perched on the edge of my bed as I flip a shirt over my head. Just as I go to stand, a glimmering essence catches my eye. I almost didn’t pay attention to it because I thought it was just sunlight trying to shine through my curtains. As I stared though, the shimmering began to twist and turn until a form began to emerge. Before I realized what was happening, Alina was standing in front of the window smiling at me.
Shock takes over and my mouth falls wide. As I look at her, she looks to be of flesh and bone. No ghostly essence to her appearance. I am almost certain that if I were to reach out and touch her, I would feel her soft ivory skin against my hand. “Alina,” I whispered in astonishment. Her smile gets wider as I make my way to her. I’m hesitant to touch her for fear she is just another dream…
“Hi Nic,” I heard her say quietly back to me. I can’t hold back any longer, I’ve got to know if she is really standing before me! I place a hand against the side of her face, and she leans into it causing me to gasp. Tears slide down my face unknowingly and I move until I have wrapped her in my arms, crushing her against my chest. I can feel my shirt becoming damp as tears fall from her cheeks too.
“H-how,” I stuttered as I looked into her forest green eyes. I don’t give her a chance to answer though because the need to kiss her consumes me. I place my lips firmly on hers and nearly die from the pleasure of having her lips against mine. We slowly break apart from each other but have our foreheads pressed together as we smile at one another. “How? How is this possible?”
“A couple of spirits in the spirit realm taught me how to do it. I won’t be able to maintain this for very long, but I wanted to give it a try.” The amount of love I see in her eyes is just, wow, my heart rate triples in speed.
“I love you so much,” I say as I gaze at her again. And then I feel it, something trying to pull her away from me. I want to scream and shout for whatever is tugging at her, to just let her go! But I don’t. I smile sadly at her and see the sadness creep into her own eyes. I nod, accepting this for now. We lean into each other one last time, kissing each other so gently. I feel the exact moment she disappears from me and sigh deeply. “I love you Alina,” I whisper to myself.
~
Sunday morning, I still feel like I’m floating. It’s been twenty-four hours since Ali visited me, and I couldn’t tell you if anything important has happened in the hours in between. I haven’t been able to focus since she left, and I just keep hoping she will be back again soon. I haven’t mentioned the interaction between Alina and I to anyone, but I think mom and dad have both started to notice a difference in my demeanor.
“Yo, bro. Get your head out of the clouds dude! We need you back on planet earth.” Devon says as he punches me in the arm at the same time. Apparently, I had fallen into a daze and allowed myself to become sidetracked as I was pouring myself a cup of coffee because I held the pot in my hand and not one drop was in my mug.
“Sorry,” I say with a dorky grin. He tips the corner of his mouth up in a contemplative way as he gives me an odd look but doesn’t push the topic. Instead, he shoves his mug in front of me, demanding I fill it up. I laugh and shake my head as I turn my arm slightly so I can fill it up for him.
Devon takes a sip of his coffee and then asks, “Have you had any other visits from that ghost?” It takes me a moment to realize he isn’t referring to Alina.
“Oh, yeah, no. All has been good since we initiated the protection spells.” I looked at him and realized we haven’t really talked to each other in a while. “How’s life been treating ya, man?” I watch as he stares at his cup of coffee for a moment before he shifts his eyes to look at me.
“Who me? Eh, my life’s a piece of cake compared to what you’ve had to deal with lately. Why ya ask?” He grins at me like he might have a secret but I’m not sure. He could just have a cheesy grin on his lips because he’s a dork too.
“We haven’t had a chance to chat in a while, to catch up, you know. I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing out on anything important that may be happening with you, is all.”
“Well… I am trying to convince Ella to come here for New Year’s Eve. I thought it’d be fun to surprise her with Alina’s return. That and then I’ll get to spend New Year’s Ever with her too. Speaking of Alina, are you planning on getting her a Christmas present? I mean, she’ll be here in the flesh by then…”
“Hmm, well, since you asked, I was thinking of seeing if Grandma Jean would allow me to give Ali that moonstone necklace that she wears from time to time. I saw Ali admiring it when she and I were at grandma’s house one day.” I mentioned the necklace to him, but I have a hidden agenda when I do get a chance to speak with her. What I want to chat with her about is still a part of the jewelry family though… “What about you?” I asked with a lopsided grin. “You planning to give Ella any presents?”
“I was thinking, well more like hoping that maybe you’d be willing to go shopping with me later, and help me pick something out for her? I’m the worst at picking out gifts for other people.”
Giving an exaggerated sigh and an eye roll, I shrug my shoulders before responding; “I don’t know man, I’m not a fan of going shopping.” Dev punches me in the upper arm, his version of begging me.
“Come on man, don’t be an ass! I’ll buy you a pitcher of beer at the pool house afterwards if you do this for me.”
Laughing, I counteroffer with, “two pitchers of beer and you have yourself a deal.” A grin the size of Texas has made its way across his face as he nods his agreement to the deal we made.
*
“Ouch, what the hell?” I looked around trying to figure out who may have thrown something at me. I can’t see anyone near me, shrugging my should thinking I must have imagined that something had been thrown at me and continue walking towards my car which is parked by one of the fuel pumps, having just gone inside and paid for gas, I still had to go back out and pump it.
Standing tank side, I undo the nozzle and place the hose in its proper spot. BAM! Something cracks me in the back of my head, causing stars to dance before my eyes. Automatically I throw a hand to the base of my head to see if it’s bleeding. Pulling my hand away, I see no blood but know it is going to leave a bump.
I click the silver tab, so the fuel can run itself and then I take another look around me. Thinking that the guys are trying to prank me or pull a joke on me, I wander around the pumps, and the few cars in the parking lot, nothing. Tugging my cell out of my back pocket of the black jeans I had on, I decided to call Devon. I figured if he was near, maybe I’d be able to hear his phone ring, I hit his name and then send; waiting for it to be answered, I listened as it rang a couple times. “Hey bro, what’s up?”
“Where are you?” I asked as I still glanced around.
“Chris and I are at the pool house, want to come and shoot a couple rounds with us? I still owe you a couple pitchers of beer, you know for helping me find those earrings and sweater for Ella.”
I shake my head, yeah, I know he can’t see me doing so. “Yeah, I’ll be there in a few minutes. Hey, do you know where Riley is?” So those two aren’t near, doesn’t mean Riley wouldn’t try to pull something by himself.
“Well, I’m not supposed to say anything, but he and Raegan are on a date.” I can hear the smile in Devon’s voice as he says this, and I smile at myself as I think about time!
“Oh. Okay, I’ll see you shortly.” I end the call just as the hose clicks, stopping itself. Putting the nozzle back in its proper spot, I hit a button on the gas station screen thing to decline the offer of a receipt and then cap my tank. Nothing further occurs before I hop in my Jeep and make my way over to the pool house.
“Hey man, grab a pitcher of beer,” I heard Chris shout to me as I entered. Before I acknowledge him, after I walked into the open space of the building, I hang my jacket on the coat rack and then saunter up to the bar which is fashioned after the humans ‘wild west’ saloons from the 1800’s. Leaning against the lacquered wood, I order a pitcher as requested from the bartender. I rapped my fingers against the bar counter as I watched the plastic pitcher being filled up. Mitch handed me the very full container and thanking the guy, I turned away from the bar to make my way over to the boys.
They met me around the table that they claimed, and we all chugged a class before Dev went to set up another round of pool. Chris won their last round so he was allowed to break this round. Dev and I watched as he racked the balls and lined himself up to break.
Leaning against another pool table, I ran my hand back and forth over the green velvet cloth that lined the table. Glancing over at Devon, I decided to tell him about the strange incident that occurred in the gas station parking-lot. He chuckled at me and was getting ready to spout a joke about it, but when he looked into my eyes, he realized I wasn’t kidding. “Right here dude, feel it.” I exclaimed, pointing to the back of my head.
Walking over to me, Dev placed his hand over the fairly large lump on the back of his head and his mouth fell opened, surprised. “Holy crap! Did you figure out who threw it?”
“That’s the thing,” I said perplexed. “There wasn’t anyone around. The people that were there, were in the station, not outside.” In shock, Devon just continued to stare at me in wonder.
“You don’t think that rotten spirit was able to do that to you, do you?”
“Honestly, I don’t know w --”
“Yo, you guys gonna play pool or not?” Chris was leaning against his pool stick looking as bored as can be. I walked over to the pool table and lined my stick up to take my turn. My solid-colored ball should have gone into the far-right corner pocket. So, when it doesn’t, I am super confused as to why it didn’t, but it suddenly stops rolling as though someone had put their hand out forcing it to come to a standstill.
“Hahaha, sucks to be you!” I heard Devon jokes in between laughter. He smirked at me and then we watched Chris take a shot and then I’m back up. I align my stick up against the cue ball and have another go at it. And just like before, Boom! as though it has slammed into a brick wall, the solid orange number 5 ball hits an invisible barrier, bounces against it and then rolls right back to me.
“What the freaking hell?” I grumble as the ball comes rolling back towards me. Now I have both Chris and Devon laughing at me. I glared at them both and told them to ‘shut it’. Chris goes again and if this strange occurrence continues to happen to me, he will win the game. Finally, I got the solid green number 6 ball into the left corner pocket and then chaos ensued.
All of the pool balls started shooting out of the pockets, hung sticks began to pop off of the walls, the triangles flung themselves across the room like frisbees.
The guys and I stood frozen in a state of disbelief watching it all happen. Only when things began to start flying right towards our heads, did we realize that we were being physically attacked by something.
“Oh, shit!” Chris shouted out as a ball just narrowly missed his head. “Get under the pool table.” I see him dive under the one closest to him and immediately I do the same as a pool stick comes flying across the room like someone threw a javelin.
“What in the flipping world is going on?” Devon yelled from behind the bar where he was crouched down, peeking through the entrance of the bar counter.
“I don’t know man, but we’re going to have to figure out a way to retaliate,” I shouted back to him from my hiding spot. He nodded at me and stood up. Throwing both arms out, and a flick of his hands, everything comes to a standstill as all pool related items freeze mid-air, along with the menacing spirit that is somewhere in the room. “Okay, now we just have to find where the spirit is before it sorts out how to release itself from your spell Dev.”
Chris, having just stood up beside me, nudges me with his elbow before lifting his left arm and pointing towards the mirror that is set behind the bar. “Look,” he whispered, “do you see the ripple, haze-like area over to the left end of the mirror?”
“Yeah, do you and Devon remember that spell that forces unwanted spirits back into the spirit realm?” They both nod and say ‘yeah’ as I look between the two. One voice at a time starting with Dev, we begin the incantation. Chris and I each chime in so that each of our voices can be heard yet sounds like an echoing affect.
’Spirits that threaten me, fought by water with water
and fire with fire, banish ye thee soul into nothingness,
removing thy power until no trace. Let this evil being flee,
through time and space!’
Suddenly, all floating items fall to the ground, the air doesn’t seem nearly as dense as moments prior, and we all begin to look about. “Is it gone?” I heard the bartender question in concern. I nodded hesitantly that I thought it was and we all began to move around the room.
“Dude, we totally have to tell mom and dad what just happened to us. I don’t know if your cursed or if the spirit is lashing out at you because of something to do with Alina on the other side or what, but we need to apply some spells of protection on you specifically, man!”
I hated to agree with him, but I knew Devon was correct in what he was saying to me. Muttering a ‘yeah’, we all began to help the bartender clean up the whirlwind of a mess that was the pool house.