Beneath the Elder Tree (7 page)

- CHAPTER EIGHT -

Trouble

I watched Laura climbing out of bed that morning and quickly realised that something about her had been altered. Her thoughts and emotions were different than they had been the previous day. She was more confident and there was a rebelliousness boiling behind that tame exterior of hers. How could someone go through such a drastic change in personality so quickly? Nobody could change overnight without experiencing some dramatic or traumatic event. Then I realised she had been through a dramatic event - the bonding. It must have been what brought about the change in her.

   She was actually showing signs of my personality. I’d always been reckless in the way I lived, and I’d always been a very confident person, if not a little arrogant at times. A part of me must have been imprinted on Laura when we made the spiritual connection.

   I too had gone through a transformation of sorts. I could read her thoughts much more clearly now and I was able to sense her feelings in a tangible manner, as if I was actually experiencing those same emotions. I was in no doubt, we were now joined forever.

   She padded barefoot across the room, sat at her desk and opened the book that she’d been reading the day before. As she read, Laura was picturing the scenes in her head and I was able to see these images like a slideshow that explained the book perfectly for me. Emily had been right. Mirror world wasn’t all that dull at all.

   The novelty of being able to see her thoughts soon wore off though, and I grew bored with the novel. To my surprise, Laura was also getting bored. Was I projecting my will onto her?

   She swivelled her chair around and lifted her acoustic from the floor and rested it on her lap. I watched with great interest as she made a chord with her left fingers and began strumming with her right hand. She created a riff and played it over and over. I was stunned as I listened to the tune. She was playing one of my favourite songs. No doubt remained. The bond between us was firmly in place.

   After a while Laura’s fingertips grew too sore to continue and she put the guitar aside. She leaned back in her chair with her hands clasped behind her head, staring at the ceiling and asking herself: ‘What to do…? What shall I do today…?’

   Oh, just do something exciting, I thought. Don’t go back to sitting there and reading about love struck vampires.

   Laura folded the book shut and smiled.

   ‘I think I’ll do something exciting today.’

   I was astonished. It was as if she’d heard my demands. Even more stunning was the possibility that she might obey them. Emily had said I would be able to influence my chosen. I didn’t expect to manipulate her as directly as this, though. How far could it go? Could I actually influence the course of her life? Could I mould her into a more streetwise individual? A person who would not be kicked around so much? A girl who could forge her own path in life and not just follow the one she’d been forced to walk?

   ‘Do something about the way you look for starters,’ I said to her. ‘You need to look more intimidating.’ I sat on the desk and inspected the plain girl before me. ‘You really need a make-over, sister.’

   Laura drummed her fingers on the desk and I could tell she was contemplating a change of image, and also that she didn’t quite know what to do with her appearance. This was something new to her. She wasn’t part of a group of friends who dictated each other’s image. Laura would have to get creative. She would need inspiration.

   She stared at the cover of the vampire novel for a long while and a devious smile grew into her face. She was looking at one of the two figures on the cover, a girl, a little older than herself, who was a gothic vampire.

   ‘No, Laura. Don’t do that,’ I moaned. ‘Anything but that!’

   It was too late. The impulsiveness that she’d gained from me took hold and my influence waned. She grabbed hold of the book then sneaked into the hallway and darted to the bathroom. I passed through the wall and watched her sifting through the various make-up items that her mother left strewn about the shelves and sink. She took black eye-liner, black mascara brush, white foundation and numerous coloured lipsticks. This would not end well. She then slipped into her mother’s room, not worried that she might be woken; Grace was in a deep alcohol induced slumber and was snoring like a donkey. It would take a nuclear blast to raise her.

   Laura scouted to the wardrobe and began rummaging through the dresses, skirts, jumpers and shirts. When she’d found what she was looking for - a jumper with black and red stripes, black jeans and olive shirt - she carried everything back to her room and bolted the door. I passed through the plaster wall and sat on the end of her bed and watched as she pulled a standing mirror from a shelf and stood it on the desk in front of her. She sat and laid out the make-up on the desktop and she began excitedly. A little too excitedly for my liking.

   Laura had never applied make-up before and the results were disastrous. After her first attempt she looked like a scary miniature clown. The second attempt was even worse, this time she ended up looking like a demented geisha. After a very long hour she got the hang of it and much to my dismay she began to look like a proper goth. She proudly examined this new person in the mirror and smiled. Her face was ghostly white - even whiter than mine - her eyes were circled deep black and her lips were dark red with a thin black outline.

   Her appearance didn’t quite meet with my approval. I figured, though, that this was no bad thing. She was at least breaking free of the constraints of society. She was becoming an individual. It was important for the living world to have people like Laura, people who would bring light and life to the dreariness of their surroundings. The living world was intended to be a home for individuals, not clones.

   She took a long look in the mirror and nodded with approval. ‘Much better,’ she chirped to her reflection. ‘I’m not going to be treated like a child anymore. It’s time I showed everyone who I really am. I want a new life.’

   She sprang out of her seat, pulled off her pyjamas and grabbed the clothes she’d borrowed from her mother. I twisted around, embarrassed to be watching a naked person standing a few feet away. I shouldn’t have been affected by it, but there was still some things about being a guide that I needed to get used to. I allowed her some privacy and faced the wall for a few moments. This wasn’t made any easier when she plonked herself right next to me on the bed. I sat there staring at the wall without realising that I had made the first big mistake in my time as a spirit guide.

   I’d tried my best not to look while she got dressed and failed to see what was coming next. Laura had plucked her cell phone from the floor, and as soon she was finished putting on her jumper, she held it out at arms length and took a snapshot of her new self.

   She gasped when she looked at the photograph, then dropped the phone like it was a hot coal and hurtled out of the room.

   What had just happened? It seemed like something frightened the life out of her… Then I remembered that Emily told me to stay away from cameras because sometimes they can pick up traces of a spirit. I’d been sitting right next to her when she took the picture.

   I left the bed and crouched over the phone. On the digital screen was an image that would have scared the life out of the hardest folk. Laura was sitting and smiling at the camera and just over her shoulder was a partially blurred shape. It was the shape of a girl who was lifeless. It was only then that I realised how menacing I actually looked. I was worse than what was depicted in most horror movies. There was something altogether unnatural about my appearance. I was a being that didn’t belong in the living world or in the minds and eyes of those who occupied it.

   I cursed myself for being so neglectful. It was the first piece of advice Emily had given me and I had forgotten it. How could I be so foolish? This one moment of carelessness could alter Laura’s entire life. As a guide I was supposed to protect my chosen and to steer her away from harm, not to scare the hell out of her and give her a belief in phantoms from the afterlife.

   I was supposed to be living on a higher level of existence to all living things, yet here I was, outsmarted by a camera phone. It would take all my new powers to straighten out this mess. I really didn’t need Laura creating a stir with the image in her phone. That could totally change her life and bring me to the attention of the shepherd, which was the last thing I needed.

   I left the bedroom and found Laura leaning against the bathroom sink and sucking in deep breaths. Her mind was racing and I could clearly see her heart was beating hard against her ribs.

   ‘There are no such things as ghosts, Laura,’ I said to her. ‘It’s ridiculous. You’ve never believed in them and you’re not going to start now. It would be childish to believe in such things.’

   ‘It’s childish,’ she panted. ‘There are no such things as ghosts.’

   ‘That’s better. It could have just been something wrong with the camera.’

   ‘It has to be the camera,’ she told herself. ‘That phone is pretty old. The lens in it must be broken. It’s the only logical explanation.’

   It was working. I could have a direct influence on her. I’d planted a seed of doubt in her mind. That was a good start. Now all I had to do was force her to delete the picture and this little storm would soon blow over and I could return to my task of guiding her.

   ‘Best not to tell anyone about this photograph, Laura. They’d only laugh. You don’t want to give them more ammunition to use against you.’

   ‘I better not tell anyone about this.’

   ‘That’s better.’

   ‘I should examine it in closer detail before I tell anyone.’

   ‘No!’ I pleaded. ‘No examinations - detailed or otherwise.’

   Laura pushed herself from the sink, unlocked the door and returned to her room. She entered cautiously, then scanned the room for any sign of the hideous creature she’d seen on her phone. She even dropped to one knee and peered into the shadows under the bed before she was comfortable enough to close the door. I followed her inside and sat on the bed with my face in my hands.

   She stood in the centre of the floor and looked intently at the phone between her feet. She knew that the wisest course of action would be to delete the picture immediately by pressing her finger on the cancel button. Laura was an inquisitive soul though, and she had to fight hard against the urge to further investigate the image.

   ‘Just delete it, Laura. Get rid of that picture because it’ll drive you nuts. It’s just a broken camera.’

   She knelt and took the phone in one hand. She fully intended to banish the image forever but she wanted to gaze upon it once more, just to be certain it wasn’t something as simple as a piece of dirt on the lens. She clicked a button on the face of the phone and the screen lit up. The image was still there and she stared at it for a long while, without any apparent fear.

   ‘It could have been the movement of my hand that created a distortion of a shadow,’ she whispered to herself, ‘or a piece of dirt.’

   ‘It could be anything! Just delete it!’

   ‘It could be a ghost. There’s only one way to find out.’

   ‘Laura, delete it!’

   She lifted the phone in front of her face and in one movement she pressed the capture button again. A flash went off and she took another picture, and another and another.

   And I was standing right in the middle of the room, smack-bang in front of the camera. Instinctively, or stupidly, I had raised my hand to shield my eyes from the bright flashes, even though I didn’t have human eyes and I could stare at the sun for hours on end without being blinded.

   ‘I knew it,’ she cheered as she scrolled through the photographs on the screen. ‘I knew it was a ghost. I knew there had to be more to life than meets the eye.’

   She took the phone and connected it to an old computer that she had in the room, then downloaded all the images from the sim-card to a folder on the desktop. The last five photographs would be the holy grail for any ghost hunter or paranormal investigator. Even the sanest and most pragmatic of scientists would be astounded by them.

   It was proof of life after death. They were images of me. Images of a spirit from the other side of the great divide. The camera had somehow glanced through the barrier that separated my world from Laura’s. This was going to change everything.

- CHAPTER NINE -

The Ghost with Blue Eyes.

Laura opened each of the photos in different windows and closely inspected one after another. I stood at the back of her chair and gazed over her shoulder at the screen. I’d been busted on a monumental scale. The first image had been bad enough. The other four she’d taken, of me lifting my arm to shield my eyes from the camera flash, were catastrophic. Even the most stubborn of sceptics would find them hard to discredit. They depicted a blurred image of me, an elongated figure with a sweeping mane of black hair, standing in the centre of the bedroom with my eyes glowing blue and gradually moving my arm up to cover my face.

   They couldn’t be explained by dirt on the lens or a fault inside the phone. There was only one explanation: A spirit had been caught on camera. A very dim-witted spirit. Emily would be cursing me if she was still around. I got caught out by my chosen on my first day on the job. Unbelievable.

   The only positive thing to come out of all this was that Laura’s reaction was of fascination and curiosity, not fear and loathing. Or was that good? If she’d been frightened she might have felt compelled to delete the images. Because she was so enthralled, she would dwell on them and seek to investigate them further.

   ‘This is so sick,’ she breathed. She zoomed in on the first of the images, focusing primarily on my vivid blue eyes. ‘I can’t believe this is happening. There are such things as ghosts. And one is following me around. Why? What would make one want to haunt someone as boring as me?’ She moved her face closer to the screen and squinted. ‘And who is this ghost?’

   Laura clicked to the next image and zoomed in before panning upward. My blurred, shadowy head was enlarged so it filled the computer screen. At first it looked like nothing more than a dark smudge with two blue holes in it. Then, as Laura adjusted the contrast of the image and then the levels of colour, a face slowly emerged from the dark shadow. My face. Not in the way I imagined it, but the way it truly was. The reflection that I cast into the living world showed me as a girl who had lost her life. All vitality had vacated me. I was dead. I did not belong near the living. I looked like a ghoul.

   I turned my back on the computer screen and went to sit by the window. Emily was wrong when she said sadness had no place in the mirror world. The fact that I could feel so frustrated meant that these feelings did have a place in the afterlife. I missed my friends. I missed my family. My real life had been replaced by a prolonged death.

   ‘You look miserable,’ Laura said softly as she turned from the computer. ‘In this picture you look like you don’t have a heart. What happened to you?’

   Although I wanted to reply, it was best to remain silent and keep my thoughts to myself. Communicating with her might lead to further strife, and I’d gotten myself into enough trouble for one day.

   ‘I can’t blame you,’ she continued. ‘It must be lonely being a ghost. I wish you could talk to me. I’m quite lonely most of the time. There has to be a way for us to communicate. Why don’t you just show yourself so we can talk? We could be like spiritual sisters!’

   The situation was becoming precarious. Laura knew I existed and that I was haunting her, and now she wanted to establish contact. It was almost as if she knew I was alone and needed the company. Somehow she was aware of my weakness.

   I wasn’t sure if I could remain silent for very long, especially if I discovered a way to contact her properly and to engage her in some sort of dialogue. I really was feeling lonely and really did want to talk to Laura. I’d have given anything to have been able to sit next to her chat about meaningless, everyday things. I needed a spiritual sister even more than she did.

   That was all forbidden and with good reason. If I was to interact with her I would long to be part of the living realm again. I was a spirit guide. My place was in mirror world and it was my duty to observe and guide her, not to engage in small talk and certainly not to reveal that there was an afterlife, and how strange and fantastical it really was.

   ‘Please, just show yourself if you can,’ Laura went on. ‘I’m not frightened of you. I know you mean me no harm. You wouldn’t have been hiding yourself from me if you did.’

   The situation was getting out of hand. I’d been without Emily for less than a day and I’d made a total mess of things.

   ‘I know you’re still here. I can feel you.’ She got up and slowly crept across the floor, her eyes darting left and right. ‘You are here. I can prove it!’

   Laura grabbed her phone and pointed the lens to the centre of the room. I did what I should have done in the first place: I made a hasty exit by passing through the wall into the sitting room.

   Laura remained in her room taking snapshots of thin air. Nothing would show up on the images this time and I thought that might help to discourage her. It was best to stay away from her for a few hours at least, just until the initial excitement of seeing me in the photographs faded.

   Although I was in the next room, I could still sense every thought that went through her mind. She was bursting with delight. Her mind was running over so many possibilities and fantasies that had been inspired by the sight of the blue eyed ghost.

   I could do nothing but keep my distance. I certainly wasn’t going back into that room, not while she was clicking like an amateur paparazzo. I’d just have to find something to occupy me for a few hours.