Page 25 of Gift for My Ghost

“Jessica, are you all right? What is it?” Leo appeared, worry etched on his face.

“Something… touched me.”

She shuddered again and he immediately wrapped his arms around her, warm and comforting, the familiar scent of apples surrounding her.

“I don’t want you down here by yourself anymore,” he said firmly as he too scanned the shadows. “Maybe it would be better if you stayed with Wendy–”

“Absolutely not. I’m not going anywhere without you.”

He looked down at her fierce expression and smiled.

“All right, sweetheart. Whatever it is, we’ll face it together.”

His smile vanished as a ghostly form began to take shape in the shadows. It was indistinct, more of a suggestion than a fully realized apparition, but his reaction told her everything she needed to know. His eyes widened in recognition, and she saw a flicker of old pain cross his features.

“It’s Tim,” Leo whispered, his voice tight with a mixture of anger and fear. “My half-brother.”

She gave him a shocked look.

“Your murderer? Why is he here?”

“I don’t know,” he said grimly. “Didn’t you say that if a spirit isn’t tied to one place, it’s usually because it’s searching for something?”

“Yes, but what?”

“I don’t know. Unless…”

“Unless what?”

“Unless he’s gaining strength too as Halloween approaches.”

“The ritual,” she whispered, her voice trembling. “What if the ritual doesn’t bring you back? What if it brings him back instead?”

The words caught in her throat, the fear of losing Leo threatening to send her spiraling into panic.

“We won’t let that happen,” he promised, but she could see the uncertainty in his eyes.

She glanced back at the shadowy form of Tim, which seemed to be growing more substantial by the second. Would he be able to materialize enough to interrupt the ritual? The air around them crackled with malevolent energy, and she suspected they were running out of time.

She jumped when a chair toppled over, and a water glass followed, shattering into a thousand glittering shards on the hardwood floor. She flinched, instinctively stepping closer to Leo as chaos erupted around them.

Tim’s shadowy figure flickered in and out of vision, his features growing clearer. He might have been handsome once, but the malice on his face turned it into a grotesque mask of hatred.

“What are you doing here?” Leo demanded, pushing her gently behind him.

The lights flickered and dimmed, casting eerie shadows across the room and raising the hair on the back of her neck.

“Owe me…”

The words were little more than a moan but they filled the room, sending shivers down her spine as the suffocating weight of panic began to settle over her, constricting her chest andmaking it hard to breathe. She clutched Leo’s shirt sleeve, trying to control her breathing.

“I don’t owe you anything,” Leo growled. “You took my wife, my money, and my life.”

“Land…” the voice moaned again, and then it was gone.

Tim’s form disappeared, along with the heaviness that had filled the room.

“He’s gone,” Leo said, but she shook her head.

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