Ghostly (Darkly Devoted Book 1) (2 page)

“It’s one of the most haunted cities in America,” Ryder added.

Celeste leaned over the table and whispered with mocked excitement. “He’s a genius on all things spooky.”

“But it would be so cool!” Ryder exclaimed. “You know your house is haunted, right?”

“What?” I laughed.

“Your house,” he said, running his hand through his hair and wetting his lips as if he was ready to give me some really good information.

“Here we go,” Celeste whispered to me. She rolled her eyes as he continued.

“That house has been standing for over a hundred years. It doesn’t have a good reputation for sane families moving in, no offense. Or maybe they were sane
until
they moved into the house…”

“Shut up, you’re going to freak her out,” Celeste snapped and slapped him on the shoulder.

I rolled my eyes. “I don’t believe in that shit.”

“You should! It’s real!”

“Really now? And what have you seen?”

He paused for a second and then snapped his fingers. “My cousin took these pictures at a haunted cave system once, and you can clearly see someone in the background.”

“That’s all you got? Because my friends and I held a séance and nothing happened.”

He frowned. “Well, whatever is in that house affects the inhabitants. I’ve never seen anyone live there for more than three years. Not many people make it out of there alive actually and if they do, they’re lucky. You should see the books written about that place. It’s almost like it yearns for blood.”

“Ew,” Meredith said, pushing her tray away from her and crossing her arms. “That’s disgusting.”

“Odd coincidence. What else?” I leaned back and crossed my arms.

“You know, the normal stuff. Nightmares, things out of the corner of your eye, cold chills with no explanation, things moving on their own…possession…”

“Possession is
not
normal,” Meredith added.

“So, maybe you should move out of there. I’d hate for you to die,” Celeste said, eyeing Ryder angrily again. I wondered if she was always so short with him.

I refused to believe my house was haunted. There was no evidence to back it up, and I wasn’t about to fall for any tricks at the hands of people I didn’t know. 

Chapter Two

At the base of the hill, I paused and took in the old, two-story home. It stood out in the personable neighborhood and needed a paint job badly. Then it might not be so terrifying. It looked like one of those old, white southern plantation homes you see in the movies that are haunted…

Again with the movies.

I shook my head to clear the racing thoughts and let myself in. After retrieving my book and some snacks, I went into the living room.

“Choo choo!” Dillon exclaimed from his spot on the floor.

I rolled my eyes and plopped down on the couch beside him. “Where’s Dad?”

He looked up at me and frowned, as if I’d interrupted his imagination. “Study.”

“Okay, geez.” I popped a piece of chocolate into my mouth. Dad had made it clear not to bother him when he was in the “study” grading papers, so I stayed in the living room.

Dillon went back to moving his train around the tracks, and I couldn’t help but give in to the smile tugging at my lips. For the past four years, Dillon had brought a light into my life that made me laugh on the shittiest days. My parents hadn't planned on having a second child; he had been a surprise for everyone. When he was born, he quickly made our hearts swell with love. None of us could resist his immediate charm and adorableness.

I leaned over the large curve of the couch. My hair fell into a shroud around me as I reached for the closest train. “Here comes the delivery man out to deliver chocolate to Town Summers.”

Dillon laughed. “He’d better hurry. Sissy’s gonna eat it all.”

“Shhh, don’t tell,” I said seriously, eying the pile of wrappers in the floor. Oops. Maybe I’d gone a little over board.

I pushed the train until it was out of reach and Dillon took over, moving it around the set and losing himself in his imagination. Then he paused and looked past me, cocking his head to the side. He scrunched up his little nose and lowered his eyebrows as if trying to figure something out.

“What is it?” I pushed myself into a sitting position and looked out into the hallway. There was nothing there.

Dillon shrugged and went back to his train, obviously not bothered by whatever it was he thought he saw.

With a shake of my head I picked my romance novel up off the couch and tried to ignore the prickling sensation on the back of my neck. It was as if a cool breeze had blown past, but that was impossible because the windows were closed. My hand rubbed the back of my neck as I sighed and leaned against the couch.

Dillon stopped talking for a minute and then began to whisper. I kept the novel in my hands as I listened to him and tried to decipher his words.

“No, her name is Briar.”

No answer.

“No, you can’t. She’s my sister.”

Still no answer.

Dillon giggled. “She won’t do that.”

Whoever he was talking to wasn’t answering him, but I hadn’t heard anyone enter the room. I looked over the side of the couch to see who he was talking to. Dillon pointed to the empty space in front of him and shook his head. No one was there.

“Who are you talking to?”

His hand flew over his mouth as he turned to look at me. I’d caught him, and he knew it. Still, he just shrugged and ignored me. Even without looking at me I could see him smile at the empty space before continuing with his game.

I lay back down on the couch; my right arm flew up to cover my face. I missed my old room and my old house. There was absolutely no trace of my mother in the large house, and it hurt.

I returned to my novel in an attempt to move on to something other than the past. Music was my one savior, one I could count on, but my phone had died, so I hummed the lyrics to my favorite song as I read. My face blushed profusely as I soaked up the love story and secretly wished true love existed.

A loud crash exploded outside of the window. I jumped up from the couch and dropped my book to the floor. My heart pounded as I tried to catch my breath. I was so immersed in the book that I hadn’t been paying attention to anything else.

“Briar! You scared me!”

I looked over at Dillon who stood with his arms crossed.

“Sorry, buddy. Did you hear that?”

He shook his head and blinked at me.

Weird.

I reached down to pick up my book, but it was gone. “Very funny, Dillon.”

“What?”

“Give me my book.”

“I don’t have it.”

I cocked an eyebrow and held out my hand. “Give me my book back. I’m serious.”

He crossed his arms and stomped his foot. “I don’t has it!” With that, he swirled around and left the room.

With a groan, I walked over to the door to find out what the sound was. I knew I’d heard something. Whatever joke Dillon was playing wouldn’t work on me.

My hands came up to cup around my eyes in an attempt to drown out some of the light from the living room lamp. I still couldn’t see outside.

“Damn it,” I muttered.

I pulled on my black combat boots without bothering to lace them up and flipped on the porch light. My feet rose up on their tiptoes as I looked through the peephole. I didn’t see anything. As I opened the door and stepped out onto the porch, I tried to avoid the increased speed of my heart. An eerie calm filled my body.

There was nothing there.

“Hello?” I called and looked around.

The wind whipped through my hair and chills rose up my spine. I hadn’t felt a breeze like that since I’d moved in. I rubbed my arms to generate some heat. There was no source for the cold. Someone was playing tricks on me. I frowned.

“Who the hell is there?”

Another chill ran up my spine as the floorboard creaked behind me. I spun around to face whoever it was with my finger in the air to go off on them, but no one was there.

“Briar.”

It was a soft whisper close to my ear, the cold breath of something otherworldly speaking softly to me. I slammed my eyes closed and bit my lip. I really
really
didn’t want to turn around. A low whine fell from my lips as I braced myself to face whoever it was. I whirled around.

There was
still
nothing there.

Except my romance novel lying on the front porch.

My heart pounded in my chest as I bent down to pick it up. I wasn’t sure how it got there, but I didn’t want to stick around to find out. Unable to keep my thoughts out of morbid supernatural scariness, I ran inside the house and slammed the door behind me. All the talk of haunted houses and killer ghosts had me on edge. I needed to keep Ryder from telling his stories. It was freaking me out.

Chapter Three

I sucked in a lungful of air; a hiss of pain rushed through my body. My leg felt as if it was on fire. Without another thought, I threw the comforter off me and jumped from the bed. I ran over to the bedroom light and flipped it on, my heart racing as I took in my empty room. I closed my eyes and leaned back against the wall to get control of my erratic breathing.

“Shit,” I said through gritted teeth. I pulled the bottom of my shorts up and looked down at my thigh.

Two long streaks of red flowed down my skin from marks on my leg. I pulled my eyebrows together and bent over to get a closer look. Scratches ran down my pale skin, looking like some animal attacked me in the night.

“Great, we’ve got fucking rats.”

I walked out of my room and down the hallway to the bathroom. Flipping the light switch, the fluorescent lights flickered on and off before staying on. I walked over to the cabinet and retrieved an alcohol pad to clean the blood off. Kicking my foot up onto the edge of the tub, I ran the cloth over it. It stung, and I cursed.

The floorboards behind me creaked loudly and stopped. I turned around to see who it was, but no one was there. If I didn’t stop letting my imagination run away with me, I would never get a good night’s sleep. I tossed the alcohol pad into the trash can.

As I stepped out of the bathroom, the floor creaked again. A figure stood in the shadows, causing fear to seep into my being. I jumped back from it just as it stepped into the light.

I let out a loud breath and threw my hand over my stomach. “Shit, you scared me.”

“Watch your language. What are you doing up?” My dad eyed me suspiciously.

I pulled up the edge of my shorts. “We’ve got some big ass rats in this junky place.”

He leaned down to look at the marks. “We’re going to have to take you to the doctor. If that’s rats, you could catch something.”

“It’s fine, Dad.”

I pushed past him and walked into my bedroom, closing and locking the door behind me. I crawled into the bed and reached over to retrieve my phone from the bedside table. Pushing the ear buds into my ears, I tried to lose myself in the soft lullaby of My Chemical Romance. It helped to calm my nerves, but I still couldn’t sleep.

“You look like death walking.”

“Thanks, you’re flattering.” I rolled my eyes at Ryder as he joined me in the parking lot. 

“Didn’t you get any sleep last night?”

“No.” My fingers moved to scratch at the marks on my leg.

“Well, why not?”

I shrugged.

“Ghosts spooking you at night?” He made a horrible impression of a ghost.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

Really, I wasn’t sure what had happened the night before. All I knew was that I was freaked out and tired. Talking about my house wasn’t something I wanted to do.

“Alright, well, do you want a ride home?”

I paused and looked up at him. He stopped beside me as other kids pushed by.

“Um, yeah sure.” It would be better than walking, and it would annoy my dad.

“Why do you walk anyway?” he asked.

“My dad refuses to let me drive the car. He’s afraid I might drive it off into the ocean.”

“Oh…”

I pushed him, and he stumbled. “I’m just kidding.”

“Oh…yeah, I knew that.” He pulled his eyebrows together and retrieved his keys from his pocket.

He wasn’t so sure what to think of me.

When we reached his truck, he opened the passenger side door for me. I slid inside and he closed it behind me, leaving me in the fresh scent of him. The black interior made the truck extra hot. I fanned myself with my hand until Ryder jumped in the other side and cut on the air.

“Sorry about the heat; I know it’s stuffy in here.”

“It’s no problem.”

We sat in silence the rest of the ride to my house. It was weird that I didn’t even have to tell him where I lived. He was familiar enough with the house to drive straight there. Pulling up to the side of the curb, he stopped the truck and turned to look at me.

“So, see you tomorrow?”

I nodded.

“Could I drive you home again?” His eyes were hopeful, and I was flattered that he wanted to.

“I’d like that.”

He smiled. “Cool.”

“Cool.” I gave him a half smile before opening the door. I hoped out of the truck and ran up to the house.

Inside, my brother was in the floor of the living room, playing with his toys. My dad stood waiting with his arms crossed.

“Who was that?”

I sat my bag down on the ground and rolled my eyes. “A friend.”

“What’s your friend’s name?”

“Ryder.”

I could practically see the fumes coming from his ears.

“Briar, we had a deal. You walk. It’s safe to walk from here. If you come home with that boy one more time, you’re going to be grounded.”

“I thought we cleared this up. I’m an adult; you can’t ground me.”

He opened his mouth to continue, but I turned my attention to my brother.

“Hey, buddy.”

“Shhh,” he said to the space beside him when he saw me. He put a finger to his lips to signal to be quiet.

I knelt down and looked at his toys. “Batman, huh?”

“Yeah!” he exclaimed and picked up the figure. “Isn’t he cool? He kills the bad guys like this!” He picked another figure off the floor and started hitting them together. Each time they collided, he made a sound effect.

“Wow, he’s tough.”

“He’s Batman,
Sissy
,” he said, unimpressed with me and rolling his eyes.

I plopped down on my bottom, crossed my legs, and reached for a figure I hadn’t seen before. It was an old action figure from the eighties. “Where’d you get this?”

“My friend gave it to me,” he said, giving me that attitude again.

“What’s with the attitude?”

“He gets it from you. I need to go work. Let me have some peace,” my dad mumbled as he left the room.

Dillon looked over his shoulder and laughed. “I tol’ you she would say dat.” He was quiet for a minute as if to listen before turning back to me. “He says you make funny noises when you sleep.”

For some reason, the figure I’d seen in the corner of my room popped into my head. A shiver ran down my spine, but I ignored it.

He looked back over his shoulder, mouth going into a frown as he turned back to me. “You made him leave.”

“I’m sorry sweetie,” I said and placed my hands on either side of his face, staring into his blue eyes. “Do you remember Binkly? You said he was a talking kitty cat?”

My brother’s eyes lit up again. “Yeah! He was so much fun! I wish we brought him, Sissy.”

“I know you miss him, but it sounds like you have a new friend now. Does that make you happy?”

“Yeah, but there are lots of new friends, not just him,” he said, correcting me.

“What do you mean?”

“Well I don’t see them
all.
I hear them, Sissy. They run ‘round the house. But
he
says I should stay away from them. The bad ones are in the basement and the attic. Can I play now?”

I placed a small kiss on his forehead and stood up. “Sure, go ahead.”

I walked over to the kitchen and retrieved a soda from the refrigerator. As I walked toward the basement door, I took a long sip of it and thought about my options. Being the protective older sister, I wanted to make sure there was nothing dangerous in the house. Not like I thought it was something supernatural, but one couldn’t be too careful. I opened the door slowly, flipped the light switch, and looked down the ominous stairs.

Sure, it was creepy and needed a renovation badly, but that didn’t mean it was haunted or dangerous. Even if it did, I couldn’t leave Dillon. Ever since Mom died, Dad had been working like crazy. It was some weird way to deal with the depression. He never said it, but I thought he felt guilty for mom’s suicide because he’d been the one to initiate a divorce.

I picked up a large, rubber jack from the floor, one of Dillon’s favorites, and bounced it down the stairs. Taking the stairs two at a time, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and turned on the camera. As I hit the concrete at the bottom, I was surprised at the hair on the back of my neck standing up. Quietness followed quickly behind as I walked through the large room. Darkness cast itself into the corners but revealed nothing except for bunch of old shit left behind.

Everything that had happened to me so far had a reasonable explanation as far as I was concerned. Still, I was a little disappointed. It might’ve been cool to see a ghost. I turned off my phone and shoved it back in my pocket.

“What a let down,” I mumbled and turned to go back upstairs.

The sound of something flipping through the room made me pause. I dropped my can of soda to the floor in surprise and gripped the railing tightly. The noise came closer.

Taking a deep breath, I slowly moved to see what the sound was. Dillon’s jack bounced toward me, stopping when it hit the bottom of the step.

“Oh,
shit
.”

I reached down to pick up the jack and turned it around in my hand. It was the same old jack with nothing extraordinary about it. How had it come back to me when there was no one else there? I set it back down on the hard concrete and kicked it across the room into the darkness. Anxiety filled me as I pulled my phone back out and turned it on video mode.

For a few minutes I waited for it to return; anticipation crept up in my body as I stood there in the damp basement.

Come on. Come back.

“Are you looking for this?” a young man’s voice came from across the room.

He stepped out into the dim light, clad in a black leather jacket, t-shirt, jeans, and boots. His blonde hair fell in a mess almost to his shoulders; he had to be around my age. Twirling the jack in his hand, he smiled at me. My eyes scanned his body, taking in the way his clothing clung to him. For some creep in my basement, he was pretty hot.

I shook my head to clear my thoughts and stepped back toward the stairs to put some distance between us. “Who the hell are you?”

“Just a neighbor.”

“What are you doing in my house?” I demanded.

“
Your
house?” He raised an eyebrow and took a few steps towards me.

“Yes,
my
house.” I quickly stepped around him, so that I wasn’t trapped between him and the stairs. 

Confidence radiated off his body as he approached me. It made me want to get closer to him. My skin heated up as I focused in on his dark eyes. I hadn’t had that sort of reaction to a guy in a long time. His face was innocent and promised he was harmless, but I wasn’t so easily convinced.

“I used to live here. Well, my parents and I did.” He brushed his hair from his face.

“How’d you get in here?”

He reached into his pocket, retrieved a key, and dangled it between us. “I still have a key.”

“Oh.”
Of course, Briar, don’t be crazy.

“I just came in through the door down here.” He pointed to the doorway to the basement. “I forgot some things.”

I narrowed my eyes and looked around. There was shit everywhere, as if someone just up and left without taking their belongings. “Did you find what you needed?”

With a sweet smile, he bit his lip and reached out to run his thumb across mine. “I think I found something better actually.”

For a moment I was lost in his eyes and yearned to feel his lips on mine. They looked so warm and inviting. My body begged me to close the distance and see just what they felt like, but I forced myself to stay put. “Get your shit and get out of my house.”

“Mmm, so you’re beautiful
and
spunky, huh?”

He stepped forward, but I stepped back and pressed my body against the cold, stone wall.

“I’m looking forward to getting to know you.” His eyes roamed over my body, undressing me, and making me blush. I ignored the amused grin on his face.

“What if I don’t want to know you?” I tried to make myself sound sure, but I wasn’t. Parts of me wanted to get to know him very well.

The smile on his face dropped, and his whole demeanor seemed to change as he considered my words. His brown eyes bore into mine as if he wanted to say something important or sarcastic, I couldn’t be sure which. The corner of his lip turned back up into a smile as he stepped back from me and started to laugh.

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing really. You’re just adorable. What’s your name?”

“You first.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Briar Summers.”

“Well, Briar Summers, you should probably be more careful walking around by yourself in the dark.”