Ghost of a Chance

Chapter 2 The Fool

As she turned down the old road that lead to her new home she realized that she may not even be able to see her way to the house. She would have to use the headlight from her motorcycle as her guide. She came through the trees though and saw that the place was lit up like a family of fifty lived there and had left every light on in the house.

As she passed the cemetery on her right she felt a chill roll up her spine. Weird, things like the dark and the boogie man didn’t usually give her the creeps. She couldn’t help feeling though like there were a million eyes on her.

She stopped just in front of the gate and pulled out her keys. Her keys she thought with pride as she tried to untangle the lock. She appreciated the fact that the guy left some lights on for her but damn, she was going to be paying the utilities from now on and had already decided that with a place that big she was going to have to be very conservative with the electricity.

She finally got the padlock undone then realized that the heavy iron gate hadn’t been moved in five years. It took her a while but she finally got it to budge enough to squeeze herself through. She wrapped the padlock and chain around the handlebars of her Harley and locked it to the gate. There was enough light coming from every room of the house to see her way to the front door.

She started to wade her way to the house when she saw head lights flying her way. They stopped about twenty feet from the house. The taxi cab driver got out, unloaded her boxes and bags in a matter of seconds, and jumped back into the front of the car.

“Hey! Wait damn it!” She yelled after him.

“Sorry, miss. Ain’t no way I’m going any farther than this. This place gives me the heebie jeebies! Don’t worry about the fair. Good luck!” He yelled out the window all the while backing up the driveway, and then he sped off like a bat out of hell.

“Well I’ll be go to hell.” Drew said to herself with her hands on her hips looking down at the pile of her belongings on the ground. “What an ass hole.”

She grabbed her suitcase which she had packed as her first night’s emergency kit. Inside of it was a pair of pajamas, a change of clothes, some candles and soap for the bath, a bottle of strawberry wine, a carton of cigarettes and a Nora Roberts novel. She might not be much in to the whole relationship thing but she was a woman after all. She grabbed a big trash bag as well that she knew had her pillows and blankets in and started walking towards the gate again mumbling curses under her breath towards the long gone cab driver.

As she started up what she assumed used to be a stone path but was now smothered with weeds and grass, she thought she saw movement from one of the upstairs windows. She stopped and watched for something to move again but saw nothing.

“Hmm.” She said to herself. “Don’t start freaking out now Drew, else it is going to be a very long night.”

It had just dawned on her that she was going to be staying in a creepy old castle by herself. She completely believed in ghosts and spirits and voodoo and everything else that came with loving the city and history of New Orleans. She read people’s fortune’s for goodness sake. At least, she used to. She didn’t want to live with any though. She wasn’t afraid of them by any means. She just enjoyed taking a bath without anyone or anything watching her. Plus, she didn’t care who you were, you weren’t right if seeing or feeling a ghost about didn’t creep you out just a little bit.

She had finally made it to the front door without getting eaten by any snakes or alligators. She sat her bags down and dug out the keys again to unlock the front door. When she stuck the key in it wouldn’t turn at first. She tried another one, and another one. Finally, the fourth key on the key chain turned the lock and all of the lights that had been shining down from the house went off and other than the bright moon that seemed to smirk down at her, Drew was standing in complete darkness.

“Well, shit.” She said. “Good thing I brought candles.” She dug into her suitcase and brought out one of the Mulberry jar candles that she had packed. She dug in her jeans pocket for her lighter and found that she was in business.

The guy had told her that the plumbing and wiring was all new. She assumed that “new” meant that it had been put in five years ago and then never tested as it seemed there must be a short in the wiring. That would have to be checked out first thing tomorrow. The front door creaked open and echoed for what seemed to be miles inside of the house when Drew pushed on it.

The single candle that she had lit didn’t give off much more glow than to keep her from tripping over things that were right in front of her. She tried to shut the front door but it wouldn’t budge. With a growl she sat the candle down and dug in her suitcase for more. She loved candles. She had a ton of them in storage as she used to make them herself. Just like her other art projects though she never found the heart to sell them.

She found three more candles and lit them. She spread them out as far as each would let her see then stood in the middle to look around at what she could see of her new home. There were several pieces of furniture that were covered by dust clothes. There was an amazing staircase that wound up and around to a second floor that had a balcony that over looked the front room. It looked like there may be pictures hanging on the walls in the upstairs but her candle glow wouldn’t allow her to make them out. Drew froze in her tracks though when she though she saw a dark shadow move across the balcony. When she stood staring though, she saw nothing of it again.

She walked around the front room now which was bigger than her entire apartment. She uncovered what looked like an antique couch. It had a wooden frame that curved from the legs all the way up and around the back of the couch. It looked like deep red velvet with a pattern of small yellow flowers. It was the most beautiful couch she had ever seen. She saw a really big piece of furniture over in the corner and assumed it was a piano. She had learned to play a little bit when she was very young and the thought of owning her own was very exciting in itself. She ran over to uncover it.

“Holy shit!” She yelled. It was a grand piano. A very old one but in perfect condition as far as she could see. She had never seen anything more beautiful. She sat on the piano bench that had been pushed underneath and ran her fingers over the keys. Somehow the piano was perfectly tuned and though it sounded beautiful, the sudden loud noise that echoed through the silence ran chills up her spine. She closed the piano and stood up to take in her surroundings.

The guy had said that there was a lot of furniture left in the place and that whatever was in the house and on the land was hers. When she had asked him what he had paid for the property he had told her that it was left to him from his grandparents who had inherited it from their parents and so on and so forth. He had been trying to sell it for 5 years since he had had some work done to it but couldn’t even get anyone to come and look at it. So, it was her lucky day he had said as the sweat beaded up on his forehead. He didn’t want the property and was glad that he was able to help someone out that needed it.

“Bullshit. If I go to jail over this deal I am going to be pissed. Now where the hell is the light switch?” She had to run her hand over the piano one more time before she searched the walls for lights.

“I may be dreaming, I may be losing my mind, I may be living on the streets with Homeless Harry tomorrow but I am going to enjoy every minute of this while I can.”

She ran her hands along the wall in search for the light switch. She looked for what seemed like at least a half an hour and couldn’t find anything. Just when she was about to give up she felt a cold chill run from the top of her head to the tip of her toes as the front door slammed shut and the lights came on in a flash. She ran for the front door but it wouldn’t budge.

“Hey!” she yelled at the door. “Who the hell is out there? You better leave my stuff alone or I will find you and kick your….”

She swore she heard a snicker then, but couldn’t tell where it had come from.

“Damn kids. I hope you get snake bit out there.” She turned around then and saw that everything that she had uncovered had been recovered.

“Ok. So, maybe I’m not here alone.”

She refused to completely believe yet that she was here with a ghost. After all it was now getting close to midnight and she had no place else to go. She could have gotten a hotel room she supposed but then she would be broke for the next few days until she got her life insurance money.

“Listen. I’m staying the night here whether you creeps want me to or not. I’ve got nowhere else to go. Maybe this was all a huge scam and now I am out my life savings and you get your kicks by scaring innocent young women. I am NOT leaving tonight!”

She dug into her suitcase again and pulled out her Ipod and eye mask. She sat them on the covered couch. Then, she opened the huge black trash bag and pulled out her pillow and quilt that was made supposedly by her great-great grandmother.

“I am just going to sleep here on this beautiful, yet covered” she said a little louder to whoever was listening, “couch and I won’t bother a thing.” She crossed her fingers over her heart and then held up two fingers, she was never a “scout” but figured that the gesture couldn’t hurt. She wasn’t sure if she was talking to the living or the dead but either way she wanted to make sure that she covered her tracks and didn’t offend anyone.

“We can talk about this in the morning.” The lights dimmed now and the piano started to play a tune that she had never heard before but it was very light, almost like a lullaby.

She looked towards the piano and saw that the back of it was still covered. There was no one there. The keys on the piano faced the wall so she couldn’t see if they were moving or not but she imaged that it was a sight that she didn’t really want to see anyway. The candles managed to blow themselves out at that point leaving her in a dimly lit room with Casper on the piano. So no candles, and no uncovering the furniture. She nodded in understanding to no one in particular.

“Well, goodnight then.” She said to the air as she put her ear-phones on and covered her eyes with her mask. Whatever was going to go bump in the night around her she didn’t want to hear or see it.

It took almost two seconds for her to go to sleep. It was almost like she was drugged. One would normally stay awake and freak out most of the night about what was hovering over them when they knew that they were in the same room with an aggravated spirit but she couldn’t focus on anything after she laid her head on the pillow. Her mind faded out from the real world and she was off to dream land in seconds.

*******

Bre ndan didn’t take kindly to strangers. There was nothing that he hated more than people invading his space. It was his house. It was his couch. He didn’t appreciate it when someone tried to come in uninvited and take over. She was the first one though in the past one hundred and fifty years that had actually spoken to him. Most definitely the first one that ever stayed longer than a few minutes (except for the very few people that came in over the years to update the house) and here she was now sleeping soundly on his couch. Without a care in the world it seemed.

She had said that she had nowhere else to go. Since when did he have a heart? One hundred and fifty years ago he realized. He had allowed the electricians and plumbers to hang around and do what they needed to do. He was curious after all. He could always sense from the people if they were planning on staying or not. He knew that the workers were just there to do their job and then they were leaving so, he didn’t bother them. That fat old geezer who hired them wasn’t standing a chance though. As soon as he had walked in the door Brendan had slammed the door behind him and threw him up against the wall. He didn’t expect the man to wet himself but that was a nice bonus. It had been at least ten years before that one since he had encountered any of the living.

He had had countless tricks, numerous ways of scaring people out of his house for good. But it had been a hundred and fifty years since anyone had stayed the night in his house besides himself. The servants just seemed to have disappeared after his death, leaving their belongings behind, and with his sister passing just before himself, there was no one left. Now, as he stood looking down over the quilt covered body he wondered why he had let her stay. He moved the blanket off of her head so that he could get a better look at her up close.

He was annoyed when he saw the mask over her eyes. The contraption that she had tucked into her ears was playing some very loud annoying music. That was going to have to go immediately. He threw it down and stomped on it until it was silent, another one of those amazing things that had entered the living world since his passing. He moved the mask up over her forehead and stared at her in awe.

“An angel.” He whispered. He looked up at the ceiling and said, “Finally. After one hundred and fifty years of being stuck in this house you send me an angel…with pink hair.” He said when he looked back down and noticed the stripe of pink that ran down the front of her beautiful, flowing blonde hair. “And she sleeps.”

Of course she wasn’t an angel, he thought. And she would be gone first thing in the morning. He walked away back up the stairs where he spent most of his time in his library, alone.

******

As the sun shone through the tall windows of what Drew would call the living room area of the castle, she woke up feeling completely refreshed. She had had an amazing dream the night before of a tall handsome gentlemen and herself dancing in a ballroom. She wore a long flowing dress just like Scarlett in Gone with the Wind. In fact now that she thought about it, it reminded her of the scene from Beauty and the Beast, minus the singing tea pot of course. She figured it must have been a dream because she had never danced with a man in her life and had absolutely no intentions of ever doing so. For some reason, in the dream, it made her feel like flying.

Once she sat up and her eyes had adjusted, she realized that her mask was lying on a small table beside the couch and her I-Pod was in several small pieces beside it. The front door was standing wide open with her suitcase and bag, that now had her pillow and blanket stuffed back in it, waiting for her in the door way. It was halfway out the door as if whoever moved it wasn’t going any farther or putting any more effort into helping her find her way out.

“Well, I guess that is as about as frank as you can get.”

She stood up and stretched and took a better look at her surroundings now that it was daylight. The place was absolutely gorgeous. The chandelier that hung above her head must have been made of real crystal the way that the colors changed in the sun. It had to have at least 50 layers from top to bottom. If it wasn’t for the cobwebs hanging from every nick and cranny the place wouldn’t seem that creepy at all. The piano was still covered along with all of the other furniture she noticed. There were several doors that led out of the living area and of course the beautiful stair case that looked like mahogany as did the trim around the ceiling and walls.

“Absolutely gorgeous.” She said aloud.

It was time to check out the rest of the house. She debated where to go first. She decided on the door to the right.

“You can’t go wrong with right.” She said as she started to sprint in excitement towards the doorway. The dining area was huge. There were two tall pieces of furniture covered by dust clothes on each end of the room and what she assumed was the very long dining room table and chairs in the middle that were also covered with a dust cloth. The chandelier in this room was made of iron and held what looked like at least thirty candles that had been used quite often at one time. She could actually imagine a family sitting at the table in their fancy dresses and expensive coats. She wondered what they talked about back then, evidently not about the latest movies or whether the stock market was rising or falling. “How ‘bout them Saints?” She said laughing.

She had to see what was underneath the cloths. She slowly lifted the cloth off of the tall furniture that was against the wall closest to her. It took her breath away. It was a beautiful cherry wood china cabinet filled with very expensive looking dishes, real china she presumed. Plates, cups, and bowls were neatly stacked in the cabinets. It was absolutely amazing. Everything that she had seen so far looked practically brand new yet it was so old.

Drew started to lift the cloth to peak at the dining room table when she immediately felt a presence in the room. It should have given her the chills from head to toe. Instead she just felt annoyed.

“I’m just looking.” She said to the air. “I promise I won’t hurt anything.”

When nothing happened she bent back down to peak again at the table. Just as she had suspected it was a deep cherry wood just like the china cabinet that she had just looked at.

“I don’t know why you keep it all covered. I know that you can uncover it, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to play the piano.”

There was still no answer from her invisible friend.

“It is absolutely beautiful. Can I see the rest of the house?” She said again to the air.

Since she didn’t get a response she continued to the swinging door that lay on the far side of the dining room. She stepped into the most remarkable kitchen she had ever seen in her life. She could see, and was absolutely mesmerized with how antique the oven and the cabinets were. There was an adorable little island that stood in the middle that had pots and pans hanging above it. She imagined what once was fresh grape vine were entwined between the hooks that the pans hung from.

The neatest thing of all was the old stone fireplace that was built next to the clearly new sink and refrigerator. She didn’t like the look of the refrigerator and sink in this kitchen. It didn’t belong. Maybe someday she could find a way to build them into the wall so that they were hidden. They were obviously necessary, but they stuck out like a sore thumb.

Feeling kind of silly now she turned to go back into the living room. She stopped when she noticed that there were two other doors in the kitchen. They blended in so well with the wall that she almost missed them. She walked around the table and pushed on one of the doors. They must have been servant rooms as they held no more than a single sized bed, a very small chest of drawers, and a wash stand with a pitcher and bowl.

Whatever had been in the room with her must have stayed back as she no longer felt its presence. She figured that as long as they weren’t bothering each other she would keep looking. She was even more curious about the house now than she had been before. Whoever lived here in the past just up and left things behind it seemed. Whoever had updated must not have realized that an antique dealer would have hit the jackpot here.

She turned around and went back through the kitchen and dining room area. When she reached the bottom of the stairway on the other side of the living room she looked up towards the top and decided that she would check out the other room first. Something told her that walking up those stairs might wear out her already not so welcome.

The doors on the other side of the staircase were closed. They were beautiful, heavy French doors that were engraved with dancers and music notes. As she swung the doors inward she felt her legs go weak beneath her. The room that lay before her was the exact same ballroom that she had dreamt of the night before, and she was very certain that she hadn’t gone past the living area last night.

The room was huge. It had four chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. Two were made of crystal and the other two were filled with candles as the dining room had been. There was another grand piano that was set upon on a small stage. The floor was made of a light oak that in her dream was polished to a perfect shine. It was now covered with dust that made her want to find a broom and feather duster immediately. She was determined to have this place dust free and shining in no time. Due to the eeriness of seeing the same ballroom as in her dream the night before though, she felt that she would have to worry about cleaning it another time.

She was through searching the downstairs for now, even though there were a couple of doors underneath the stairs that she hadn’t checked out yet, and a long hallway that she hadn’t noticed the night before that ran back behind where the piano was sitting, she thought that she may as well check out the outside and bring the rest of her stuff in that the cab driver had just thrown out in the driveway.

As she started to walk towards the door she heard a car driving down the gravel.

“Liza!” She yelled and took off running out of the door and towards the gate.

******

The girl was a very curious one, Brendan thought as he watched her make her way through his house in a black shirt that sparkled, some type of pants that didn’t even go past her thighs (that were quite beautiful actually), black boots and white socks. Her wavy blonde hair with its pink stripe was bunched up in a crazy knot that still allowed the back of it to hang almost to her hips. She was quite stunning. And as he had thought the night before she looked very angel like only without the grace.

He almost stopped her from getting too nosey when she obviously felt his presence and stopped to talk to him. It was strange. No one had ever really talked to him before unless you counted screaming as they were running out of the front door. Well, all except for his cousin Mary Ann who thought she was going to inherit the place. She took the liberty of jumping out of the back sitting room window. He wished he had waited to throw her skirt up over her head to scare the crap out of her until she had been upstairs.

As he watched the girl roam through the house with such a look of wonder on her face, he wasn’t quite sure how he was going to get rid of her yet. He didn’t want to hurt her for some reason, buthe didn’t want her in his house either. He was quite used to being alone and he had no intentions of letting someone come in and take over his things.

He wasn’t quite sure what “Liza” meant but it reminded him entirely too much of his Lezetta. It had been so long ago when he had lost her and it had been quite a while since he had even thought of her that he was surprised to learn that the pain didn’t seem to reach quite as deep as it used to.

Brendan watched the girl run across the lawn, trip, and then get right back up and start running again without even wiping herself off.

“Strange girl.” He said to himself out loud. He almost frightened himself when he heard his own voice in the silence. It had been a very long time since he had spoken out loud as well.

******

“Damn it!” Drew said as she tripped over a stone that had been over turned in the yard. She was definitely going to have to get busy on the yard work. She loved being outside so she was actually looking forward to it.

As the moving van came through the trees, Drew damned it as well. She was really hoping that it was Liza. The van was moving pretty quickly she noticed and hoped that they saw her standing in the middle of the drive.

They came to a screeching halt just before they hit the pile of her things in the drive in front of her. The driver looked like he was probably in his mid-thirties.

“Lady, I don’t know what the story is, but my boss told me that I wasn’t to unload anything until I knew for sure that you really wanted the stuff here to stay.”

“Well, of course I want the stuff here.” She said aggravated. “I asked you to bring it didn’t I?”

“Ya, well, I guess our company has been asked to move stuff out here several times and no one ever stays long enough to unpack. Then we always got to go back in and get the shit. So, are you sure you want the stuff here or not. I’m not really in the mood to load, unload, and then load the same crap in one day.”

“Yes, please take them to the room on the left of the living area with the French doors. I will decide what to do with it all from there.” She said, then added, “and be careful not to scratch the floor either.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He said. She watched as he struggled with the Iron Gate for a moment then shook his head as he realized what he was going to have to drive through. The other two guys that had been riding along in the van were nice enough to get out and put her things that were in the middle of the drive in the van and haul them up to the house for her as well.

As soon as the van reached the house she saw Liza’s husband’s truck come through the trees. Drew felt like a kid at Christmas time. She was so happy that her friend had come that she was standing there jumping up and down clapping her hands together.

Liza pulled to a stop and rolled her window down. “Do you have any idea how ridiculous you look standing there doing jumping jacks like a child?” She said.

“I was not doing jumping jacks.” She laughed. “Please tell me that you love me and you brought a weed eater and lawn mower.”

“I do love you, and yes I did, but I think that you are going to need a tractor and a brush hog.”

They both stared at each other in silence for a moment.

“Drew, it is probably the creepiest yet beautiful thing I have ever seen. I still don’t understand how you got it for only $5,000. It has to be a scam.”

Just then the girls heard the doors slam almost simultaneously on the moving van and then the van peeled out and headed back towards the gate.

“You want your crap? You come and get it from the storage shed. You got thirty days free storage. We are getting the hell out of here.” And they peeled out again, in a hurry leaving Drew and Liza standing there with their jaws dropped to the ground.

“What the hell was that?” Liza asked wide eyed.

“Hmmm. They must have met my roommate.” Drew said biting her lip.

“You’re what?” Liza asked.

“Well, it’s a long story. Bring the truck up and we will get the lawn equipment unloaded then I will give you a tour of the house while I explain.” Hopefully before you find out for yourself, Drew thought.

Liza’s mouth dropped to the floor again as soon as she walked into the front door. “This place is unbelievable, Drew. I still don’t understand…”

“You know what? Let’s go back outside its really stuffy in here.” She said and pushed Liza back out the front door.

“Don’t I get to see the rest of the house?”

“Well,” Drew was saying as she hurried to shut the front door. “Let me get the place cleaned up and get rid of all of the dust clothes first, and then maybe next week you can come back and have a better look at the place.”

“Drew, what the hell is going on?” Liza said, worried about her friend. “How many times have I helped you move and clean up your new apartments?”

“Nothing! Nothing is going on. You know what a clean freak I am, and this time I just want it to look really nice when you see it for the first time.” Drew laughed.

“Honey, you don’t have the first clue as to how to use a dust cloth.” Liza said still worried.

“Well, I am changing. I want this place to be perfect,” and not so hostile, she thought. “when you really get to see it.”

With a huff and a shrug of her shoulders Liza backed away from the house. The girls got the riding lawn mower unloaded as well as the weed eater, a tank of gasoline for the mower and a mixture of gas and oil for the weed eater.

“Plea se remember which fuel goes to which equipment! Tim will kill me if you break his stuff, and I will be back in one week to pick it up. Okay?” Liza warned.

“Got it! I love you! Thank you so much I will call you tonight!” Drew said as she practically shoved Liza back into the truck.

“Okay. Are you sure that everything is alright, Drew?” “Things have never been better.” Drew smiled a very honest smile then as she knew what she had just meant to be a lie was actually the truth. She had never been happier in her life.

She decided that she was going to have to have a serious talk with whoever was left behind in that house. Whoever or whatever it was, was going to have to straighten their act up and learn to share. Putting a dust cloth over their head and coming towards her and her friend was not very hospitable. Things were going to have to change because she wasn’t going anywhere, and she imagined that unless she hired an exorcist neither was her new friend.

It took her almost three hours to mow and weed-eat the yard area. She was exhausted. There was a lot of acreage, but she chose to just mow about two of them. She still needed to mow up towards the road, but that was going to have to wait until the next day. She was feeling sick and realized that it was probably because she hadn’t eaten anything since the day before.

She remembered that she had packed some granola bars and a couple of diet sodas in her emergency pack. That was going to have to do until she could shower and then go to the market place. It dawned on her then that she had more exploring to do. She had yet to find a bedroom and she had snuck out behind the privacy fence to pee earlier that day since she hadn’t found a bathroom yet and hadn’t been in the mood to deal with any ghostly arguments. That reminded her… she was anxious to see what kind of shape that swimming pool was in as well.

As soon as she walked up to the house she found that her bags were stuck back in the door way again. She shoved them back inside and shut the door.

“Persistent are we?” she asked.

She dug into her suitcase and found a matching cotton t-shirt and shorts to lounge in, some shampoo, soap, a razor, towel, and rag. She grabbed the box of granola bars and the diet sodas as well and headed towards the kitchen. She hoped that whoever had ran off without all of their furniture had left a glass in one of the cabinets and some ice in the freezer.

The scene in the kitchen was a bit disturbing. Every one of the cabinet doors was wide open. She imagined that if she had that little kiddie alphabet magnet set for the refrigerator they would say LEAVE NOW. She rolled her eyes, and yelled, “Is that all you got? Dust clothes over your head and cabinet doors standing open? Please, I’ve seen scarier stuff on the Disney Channel.”

Just then all of the cabinet doors started slamming around her. Drew jumped and covered her ears. Goose bumps climbed her body from the tips of her toes to the top of her head. It was trying to scare the bejeezus out of her. It was working, but she couldn’t back down, no matter what!

“Stop it!” She yelled. The cabinets stopped and they remained closed. “All you are doing is giving me a headache!” She waited a beat and hoped that it had used up all of its energy for the day.

When she finally got to the refrigerator she realized that it was brand spankin’ new. It still had the stickers on it. When she opened it though she found that it wasn’t even working. She thought that she would check out the plug in. She pulled and shoved until she could get to the back of the refrigerator.

“Well, damn. It’s plugged in. There must be another short or, it could be the fuse box.” She said out loud.

Well, she wouldn’t be getting any ice, but she was determined to find a hot shower. She remembered the hallway on the other side of the living area. Surely there was a bathroom that way. Drew grabbed her shower things off of the couch where she had left them, and stuffing her mouth with granola headed towards the hallway.

There was very little light shining in from what looked like a patio door in a room at the end of the hall. It was quite dark down there. She found the light switch finally after feeling the wall with her elbow, but nothing was happening.

“Great! I guess I need to call the ele ctric company after all. No refrigerator, no lights, what next?” It dawned on her then that there was probably no water either. A couple of nights stay in a hotel room was starting to sound pretty good after all.

It was still early enough that she could call the utility companies and with any luck have them out there that day. She would have to call information.

After she got off of the phone with the electric company she had been ecstatic. They would be there this afternoon as long as she was able to pay the cash deposit to the electrician. The water company hadn’t been so nice, but when she told them the address they said that the water had never been shut off and they would be happy to switch the bill into her name.

She decided to check out what was in the hall way via candle light while she waited for the electrician. The first door that she came to on her left was a very large bedroom. Of course everything was covered up, and with only candle light to see she was pretty much in the blind as to wait lay in the room. However, she could tell that there was a small desk and chair that sat in front of what looked like window covered by a huge, thick curtain.

She made her way across the room to open the curtain, letting some light in. When she turned around it took her breath away. There in front of her was a gorgeous canopy bed with curtains that were tied together, a very old claw bathtub that had been updated with a shower nozzle, and a new sink took up residence in the corner of the bedroom. There was also a huge chest of drawers, an ancient trunk at the end of the bed, a very large stand-up mirror, and a vanity. This was going to be her room she decided. It was way more girly than what she was used to, but to her surprise she loved it.

She started to sit on the bed, and take it all in when the curtains over the window jerked shut. This was starting to get a little old she decided. “This will be my room.” She said aloud, and watched the stand-up mirror go crashing to the floor.

Drew didn’ t know that much about ghosts, but she didn’t think that they were supposed to have that much power. This one was evidently pissed and packing some energy. The thought of sleeping another night under its roof was beginning to make her a little uneasy. If it had enough power to move things, to slam things, could it have enough power to hurt her? Of course it could, but would it?

She went back to the hall way and found another door on the opposite side. She assumed that it was another bedroom, but when she opened the door she found that it had probably been a walk in closet at one time and was now a completely updated bathroom. Good, a toilet and a stand up shower, she had begun to wonder. Again, the stickers from the store were still on the shower doors.

There were two more doors, one on each side of the hallway, they were both bedrooms, and were just as lovely as the first one. When she came to the end of the hallway she stood in another sitting room, a little smaller than the front room and much more personal it seemed. The light that she had seen was coming from two large glass doors that led to the back yard.

Her ghost must have tired as she didn’t feel it following her anymore. Maybe it was a demon, she doubted that though. Did demons play the piano and dress up in dust clothes? She doubted that as well.

Through the two glass doors she found the swimming pool. It looked like it had been redone as well. She could tell that even though the original stone had been used around the top of the pool, the inside of the pool and the fact that it had a new filter (with a sun faded store sticker) had to have been done in her life time. It had been covered at one time, but part of the cover had been blown up from the wind letting a little rain water in the shallow end and lots of leaves. That was going to be a nasty slimy mess to clean up.

There was some beautiful patio furniture that looked like it had been made of a very heavy iron. The whole area was astounding. How someone could have the money to put into building a home like this was beyond her imagination let alone fixing it up and never even getting the chance to live there.

Looking back at the house, Drew was beginning to understand a little more why no one wanted to live there. Just being out from under that roof gave her a sense of aloneness that she didn’t have when she was inside of the house. There were eyes on her in there, very angry, irritated eyes.

She uncovered the pool the rest of the way and found some pool supplies including a net in a little shed near the pool. The shed was new and so were the pool chemicals and electric pool cleaners that were stashed in the shed. Whoever had bought this house had sure spent a lot of money updating it. She imagined that they just didn’t want to share. She still couldn’t believe that she bought it for only $5,000 though. The guy must have been really afraid of her roommate. She knew that he had lost a whole heck of a lot of money by selling it to her that cheap.

She decided to run through the nasty slimy water, which was luckily only about ankle deep, with a net and try to push it down to where the drain was. She had also found a broom and a water hose to help clean as well. Since the pool hadn’t been too dirty it only took her about twenty minutes to get it clean enough to start filling it up. She figured that she would let that little funny crawling pool cleaner suck on the bottom where the leaves had stained the pool once she had the pool filled up. She found the plug for the drain in the shed as well and had just turned on the hose when she heard a doorbell ring.

The noise just about made her jump out of her boots, which were slimy from the pool now. She kicked them off at the back door and headed through the hallway to the front of the house. The man at the door looked a little uneasy. He had a paper for her to sign and she had a check already made out to the power company. They shook hands after a little small talk and after only about five minutes Drew’s world lit up like a bonfire. Just as it had been lit up the night before, she thought. So her guest had some pretty powerful tricks up his or her sleeve.

She heard the air conditioner kick on and blessed whoever had installed central air in the place. It hadn’t been too bad the night before, but she had had her work out that day and the air conditioner was now a God send.

She was hoping that the ice maker in the freezer would kick on soon. She put a diet soda in the freezer though in hopes that it would be nice and chilled when she got out of the bath. She realized that she was going to have to wait a little bit for some hot water though and opted for a nap first. She still had a lot of cleaning to do (and some uncovering and exploring as well). The ghost hadn’t bothered her since she left the bedroom. She figured that it was either brewing up some trouble for her or had finally given in. Either way, she would take whatever it was going to throw at her. They were going to have to lay some ground rules, and one of them was that the furniture would be uncovered.

Drew could hear the crunch of the leaves under her feet. The smell of autumn was all around and even for New Orleans there was an eerie magical air about her surroundings. There was a man holding her hand though he had the same face of the man that she had danced in the ballroom with, there was something different about his eyes… something evil in the way they watched her. They were walking through a wooded area, only she wasn’t herself. She didn’t feel right. Her hands were much darker and were splattered with blood. Her heart even felt colder if that was possible. She could feel someone staring at them, almost surrounding them, and it made her smirk. She was jealous of whoever was watching them somehow, and it made her very happy to know that holding the man’s hand was making their watcher very angry. Their watcher was no longer of this world, and there was nothing it could do about it anymore.

When Drew woke she was in complete darkness and covered in sweat. She must have been completely exhausted to have slept until night time. When she pulled her phone out of her pocket she realized it was almost midnight. She sat up and a cold chill made her shiver, shaking off the meaningless dream that she had just had. She used her phone as a night light to find a light switch in the living room.

As she searched for the light switch she swore that she saw something pass in front of the light that was beaming from her phone. It made her stop dead in her tracks. Shedidn’t know why the thought of actually seeing whatever it was that was living (if you wanted to call it that) with her seriously creeped her out.

“Hello?” She said. “I know that you are there. I would really appreciate it though if you wouldn’t show yourself. Talk to me, move the furniture around, make the lights go off and on if you want to just please don’t make yourself appear all of a sudden.”

She started walking again when she got no response and finally found the light switch. It made her feel a little better once the light was on. She decided that it was finally time to get that bath in and to get moved into her bedroom. First, that diet coke that was probably now exploded in the freezer was calling her name.

As she flipped the light on in the kitchen she remembered that she had left the water running in the pool earlier that afternoon.

“Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!” She said as she ran to the freezer. She took the frozen yet somehow still whole soda out of the freezer and put it in the sink, then took off running through the house towards the back door.

She almost tripped and fell on her face as she reached the back sitting room then ran out through the patio doors. The pool was definitely full. It hadn’t been that way for very long though, which was good. It looked absolutely beautiful. There were lights shining at the bottom of the pool that made the entire thing glow. She almost forgot to turn the water off again as she was mesmerized from the sight. The trees that surrounded the fence made peculiar shadows that reminded her of dancers bowing over and over again as if they had just put on the show of their life. She was half expecting to see roses thrown any minute.

She couldn’t believe that she had her own swimming pool. She had her own castle. She had her own everything. Yet she still felt like there was something missing. Of course, there always had been hadn’t there? She walked over to turn off the water then jumped in.

“Holy shit!” She screamed as she shot up out of the water. “That shit is freaking cold!”

She jumped back out about as quickly as she had jumped in. Somehow the shadows looked like they were shaking from laughter now, if that was possible. It was definitely time for a hot bath. She shivered her way into the bedroom that she had claimed to be her own, not even caring that she was getting the floor sopping wet all the way through the downstairs. She turned the knob on that had a big H in the middle and cussed again as brown water came out at first.

She waited a few seconds and then as soon as the water turned clear she jumped in. Who would have thought that the pool water would have been so cold? It was Louisiana for Christ’s sake! Nothing was cold in Louisiana especially not in August! The steaming hot bath water felt so good. She reached for her shampoo then realized that she had left everything on the bed. She also realized that she still had her clothes on.

She stepped back out of the bathtub and stripped off her clothes then grabbed her soap, towel, shampoo, and razor. She was just getting settled back in the tub when she had that strange feeling that she was being watched.

“Not cool!” She said out loud. “Some things are private. Go away!”

Then as if her invisible friend had heard her she felt the presence leave just as quickly as it had come.

“Thank you.” She knew that this time she was only talking to herself.

So she had had a nice long nap, a freakishly cold swim in her pool, and a very soothing hot bath (once she was alone). She was now starving and remembered that there was still no food in her house. She wondered if there was any place still opened that would deliver for her. She doubted that they would come out that far even if there were. She decided on another granola, and to visit the supermarket in the morning. She was also going to have to make a phone call to the cable company. There was no way she was going to make it through another day without television.

When she came out of the kitchen with an ice cold diet Pepsi (the refrigerator was working great) she noticed that her bags were no longer in the living room. She was going to be really pissed if she found them outside the front door again.

She looked out the door and didn’t see them.

“Alright, what have you done with my ba gs? I am starving and there is a granola bar just waiting for me in one of them!”

No answer of course.

“Fine.” She started to head back to her room when she noticed that there was a light on in one of the upstairs rooms. “So, that’s where you are.” She said.

She started to climb the stairs when all of a sudden the light that she had seen on just seconds before had switched to off. She felt a sudden gush of freezing cold air and then felt herself flying up against the wall behind her. The force almost knocked her out and it took a moment for her to realize what had happened.

She tried to gather herself before speaking. When she opened her mouth to speak someone else spoke instead. It was a man’s voice. A very gruff voice that should have chilled her to the bone, instead made her head spin and released a feeling that she had never before in her life felt. She wanted to hear more of it.

“You are not welcome here!” She thought the voice said but although she knew it was right in front of her it sounded as though it was a million miles away..

Although she saw no one, she could feel his hands on her arms… very strong hands.

“I’m sorry. I won’t go upstairs if that is what you want. I bought this house. I need this house. I will share it with you!I know that it was yours first but I just can’t leave. I have nowhere else to go. You have to understand that, and it is so beautiful here.” She felt tears welling up in her eyes now. They were sad tears, tears of pain, tears of humiliation, and tears from a feeling that she couldn’t explain all boiled into one. Tears of anything and everything but fear.

“You are not welcome here!” The voice said again, louder this time, with a slight Irish accent, and more annoyed it seemed. She swore she could picture teeth being clinched together and she felt his grip tighten in anger as he spoke. He let go of her when she grimaced, and she felt him move away from her.

“What is your name? Mine is Drew. Drew Taylor.” She said, rubbing her arms and trying not to cry. When she didn’t get an answer she began to speak anyway.

“You don’t scare me you know. I would however, like to respect your wishes. You have to respect mine too though, and we have to lay some ground rules. I won’t go upstairs and you stay out of my bedroom and bathroom whenever I am indecent. I imagine that you came from a very proper time and so I would appreciate it if you would respect the fact that I am a woman and need my privacy.”

Still no answer.

“Well, I am going to bed. We can talk some more in the morning if you want.” She started to walk to the room when he spoke to her again only much quieter and only slightly annoyed this time.

“I said that you are not welcome here girl. We have nothing more to talk about.”

“I heard you clearly eno ugh, sir, and I am not going anywhere.” She said, staring at the empty room before her then turned back towards the hallway, lifted her chin and went to her room. She shut the door quietly and leaned against the door as if it would keep him out. She wanted to cry for the first time in a very, very long time. She wouldn’t let it out though. She couldn’t.

It seemed that the tarot cards were coming true after all. The wheel of fortune had brought her to this place and though the house was everything she could have ever imagined she knew she was a fool for ever thinking that it could be hers and hers alone. As she listened to his footsteps pace over and over again on the floor just above her, she drifted off to dream again about the ballroom and the same handsome stranger with the strong hands and the enchanting green eyes.