Page 13 of Ghosted

Despite the situation, warmth flooded through me. Here was the woman I cared about, trying to take the high road with my evil ex.

Morticia declined, her black bob swinging as she shook her head. “No, thank you,” she replied with exaggerated politeness. Then she turned to me, her eyes narrowing mischievously. “But I’ll say this, Casper—I like this girl. If you manage to save yourself and hurt her, I’ll kill you again. Just saying.”

Tabitha looked at me and gave a tiny, nervous smile. I couldn’t help but smile back. “I don’t plan to hurt her,” I said, my voice firm. “In fact, I think we could really have a future together.”

Morticia raised an eyebrow, a dark smile spreading across her crimson lips. “A future together? How sweet. But, let’s see if you even get a future first. Now, shall we get to business?”

I cut straight to the chase. “Why are you here, Morticia? I did what you wanted. I apologized to all the women I ghosted. I’ve learned my lesson. So now will you please reverse the curse already?”

She looked at me, her blue eyes glinting icily, as if I were a child who had just asked for an early Christmas present. “Oh, darling,” she tsked, “not so fast. Yes, you did manage to pass the first test, I’ll give you that. But there’s one more left. And let me tell you, it’s a doozy, so listen up, buttercup.”

I attempted to run a hand through my airy hair and sighed. “This better be it, Morticia. Tomorrow’s Halloween.”

She gave a mock-solemn nod. “Yes, if you pass this final test, I promise you’ll be alive at the stroke of midnight. But if you don’t…” She let the sentence dangle, her smile all too pleased. “Well, we just won’t think about that, will we?”

I gritted my teeth. “Fine. Out with it. What do I have to do?”

Morticia leaned back, crossing her arms with a Cheshire grin. “Simple. You need to confess to your mother and ask for her forgiveness. I simply can’t imagine a woman like Hera Thorne raised you to treat women the way you have.”

My stomach dropped. This was absurd. “You’re kidding me. I’m a grown man! Why should I have to go crawling to my mom?”

Morticia shot off the couch, grabbing her broomstick like she was mounting a trusty steed. She gave me a playful salute. “Take it or leave it,” she said, her eyes gleaming. “But I have places to go and things to do. Toodles.” With a final finger wave and a smirk in our direction, she kicked off from the floor, swooping out the window and vanishing into the night.

Tabitha rushed over to close the window, shutting out the night’s chill. Then she turned to me, brow furrowed. “So, where exactly can we find your mother?”

I sighed. “She recently moved to Sweetberry Hollow, actually. She’s an ER nurse at the hospital.”

Tabitha tilted her head, thoughtful. “Maybe I can call her? Say I know you and I need to talk to her?”

The thought of Tabitha calling my mom made me wince, but there wasn’t really a better option. “Embarrassing, but…okay. Her name’s Hera Thorne like Morticia said, and here’s her number.”

Tabitha dialed but got no answer. “Voicemail,” she murmured, hanging up without leaving a message.

I sighed. “She’s probably working right now. Her shifts are 24 hours, so we might not be able to catch her until tomorrow.”

Tabitha’s shoulders relaxed. “Alright, we’ll try tomorrow. It’s late anyway.”

But a gnawing worry crept into me. “I just hope by the time we find her it won’t be too late.”

The morning of Halloween dawned bleak and misty, casting a grayish veil over Sweetberry Hollow that seemed all too fitting for the day’s looming deadline. I was antsy, pacing around as Tabitha sipped her coffee, trying her best to look composed while she dialed my mother’s number yet again.

“Still nothing,” she muttered, listening to the ringing, the furrow in her brow deepening with every unanswered call.

I sighed, watching the clock tick down in my mind. “It’s probably because she’s on her shift. She doesn’t usually get off until morning, but by now she should be heading home.”

Tabitha hung up, giving me a worried look. “If she’s just finished a 24-hour shift, she might not even have her phone on, let alone be ready to chat with her ghost of a son.” She bit her lip, considering. “Maybe we should just wait at her place. She has to go home eventually, right?”

I nodded, feeling a twist of dread in my stomach. Or whatever it was that now passed as my ghostly guts. “Yeah, let’s go. If she’s driving straight home from the hospital, we should get there around the same time.”

A few minutes later, we were in Tabitha’s car, the mist hanging low as we made our way to my mom’s little cottage near the edge of town. The entire drive, I could feel my nerves tightening like a coiled spring. Talking to my mother about this, about how I’d treated women, wasn’t something I ever thought I’d have to face—especially not with the stakes as high as life or death. But Morticia’s ultimatum left me no choice, and if I wanted a chance at life, I had to face the music.

“Is this really how you pictured Halloween?” Tabitha asked with a half-smile, glancing over at me as she drove.

I chuckled despite myself, shaking my head. “Not even close. If you’d told me a month ago that I’d be haunting my ex, posting public apologies online, and preparing to grovel to my mom, I’d have thought you were out of your mind.”

Tabitha laughed, her eyes crinkling at the corners. “Glad to be part of the chaos.”

We pulled up at the curb outside my mother’s small clapboard house, which looked particularly quiet and dark against the overcast sky. Tabitha parked the car and we both eyed the empty driveway with disappointment.

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