Page 23 of Halloween Haunting
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Lavender pleasantly filled the bright kitchen as Caroline rested a steaming cup of tea in Grace’s trembling hands.
“Is this bright enough?” Anna asked from the threshold of the wide kitchen. The grandiose Halloween party ended abruptly – right when the partying crowds realized that the screams they heard weren’t silly recordings. Grace was incapable of stopping them, until Anna had the idea to flick on as many lights as possible. As the shadows grew dimmer, the noises dimmed, and Grace was finally allowed to simplycry.
She nodded numbly. Her three friends surrounded her at the kitchen’s island counter. For an aged mansion that had been around for quite some time, Grace was surprised to see the recently renovated kitchen, fully equipped with a kettle and no shortage of tea. But as she graciously took a sip from her comforting drink, her stomach only swirled and lurched. The moment she peered into the amber liquid, the dead body took shape, and the unforgettable scent crept back through her. Grace shuddered, placed the cup onto the counter, and nudged it away.
Caroline’s hand soothingly trailed up and down Grace’s spine. “Let me guess: no stomach for tea just yet?”
“For anything ever again,” Grace grumbled.
“Don’t say that!” Olivia’s fiery red hair bounced through the bright room as she took a seat beside Grace. One slender, pale hand sank around Grace, drawing her close. “You’ll feel normal again. Just…just pretend this is one big Halloween movie. That makes it easier, doesn’t it?”
Grace paused to consider it but she winced all the same. “Something about that makes it abitworse.” She lifted her head as Bryant passed by the kitchen door, leading a few of the remaining stragglers out of the quiet mansion. He caught her eye as he walked, giving her a double take, as though he had forgotten about her presence in the first place. “This is just a pile of baloney, isn’t it?”
Caroline lifted a brow. “How so?”
“The first party I go to inyearsis shut down by the Sheriff’s Deputy because I found a dead body. Who’s gonna invite me anywhere ever again? Who’s gonna want the weird lady in their town, who will ruin all the fun in the blink of an eye?”
“Gracie,” Caroline started, “You’ve got it all wrong.”
“What?”
“We told you before. Holiday Hollow has been in need of a psychic for quite some time. If there was anything that this terrible death showed the town, it isn’t that you’re terrible to have around.” She dipped in closer. “It’s the downrightopposite.”
Grace sullenly pressed her lips together. The ladies shared similar looks as they agreed with Caroline’s explanation. Despite what they believed about their town, Grace could barely believe any of it. She was having enough trouble trying to understand what she was capable of, much less what Holiday Hollow would expect out of her. Suddenly she was racking her brain for times this could’ve happened before, but all she came up with were a handful of times she had a moment of deja vu. Nothing compared to that night, to the feeling of touching that strangerand submitting to a glimpse of a horror she did not wish to see. And there was no way that Grace wouldeverbe able to forget the dead body, the stench, the inky blood staining her hands.
Even then, as she peered down at her paling skin, Grace could’ve sworn that the scarlet hue remained on her palms, never to leave, never to forget, never to stop reminding her.
Bryant stepped into the kitchen as the ladies quietly chattered. His appearance sent a silence through the room as he drew near, the bronze plate on his gun handle practically glowing beneath the consistent light. His bushy brow furrowed as he watched Grace. He grumbled and reached, pushing the cup of tea back toward her. And as he took a seat across from her, Grace picked the tea back up, and tested her will to sip.
Grace eyed him over the rim. “T-The man in the dinosaur costume. Was he…He isn’t actually –”
“He’s dead.” Bryant’s mouth shut when the ladies shot him a pointed look at his bluntness. He cleared his throat a few times, uncomfortably pulling at his costume’s collar, before he managed to speak again. “There wasn’t anything we could’ve done.”
She gulped and stared down into her tea, willing herself to stop imagining the dead body in the drink’s reflection.
“Grace,” Bryant said, pulling her attention back up. “If it is at all possible, I need you to go over your vision again. No details left out this time.”
“I-I hardly know if I can,” she whispered. “I don’t…I don’t think I want to see this again.”
His expression softened. “No one does. But…” Bryant pulled his gaze in the opposite direction, color spreading across his sharp nose as he struggled to find his words. Once he did, Bryant made sure to not meet her gaze. “But I –weneed your help.”
And something about that was enough to stunt her, to tether her back down to reality. When was the last time someone saidthey needed her? That they wanted her help? That she was the key to solving a conflict, to moving forward, to repairing? She almost shook her head out of disbelief, but kept the movement swallowed. They needed her.Her,of all people.
Grace Baker: military brat.
Grace Baker: divorced.
Grace Baker…psychic?
She drew in a long, trembling breath. She could do it. “I needed fresh air,” Grace recounted, the memories falling over her effortlessly. “So I looked through the halls, but before I ever managed to find the exit, I bumped into this man in a monster costume. And the vision came after that.”
There was no doubt that Bryant was hanging onto every word that she spoke. He leaned forward with a sort of intensity she had never seen before, his warm gaze flicking between her lips and her eyes. Such attention might’ve rubbed her the wrong way years ago, but it only brought a sense of ease to her at that moment. As though he was trying to tell her that she was safe, she could remember it and not fall into danger again. And if she did, Bryant would be there to catch her – as he had already done multiple times before.
“I saw the mansion’s library,” Grace continued. “And as the vision went on, I saw a pair of figures tumbling on the floor, wrestling before one silhouette beat the other, straddling the dinosaur costume man to the ground. It was then that…it was then that…”
Caroline touched her arm. “If you can’t say it, Grace, that’s okay.”
