Heather withdrew her hand. “I’m not going anywhere. I promise. I’ll be right here.”
Chapter Five
Vivien awoke from a deep sleep to the buzzing motion alarm on her cell phone. By the lack of light in her bedroom window, she could deduce that it was in the middle of the night. She automatically reached for her phone to dismiss the notification since it was most likely William sneaking in to see Lorna. Again. If these late-night visits kept up, she’d end up disabling the damned thing.
Vivien chuckled softly. It was rather sweet. William and Lorna were like two teenagers in love. If he wanted to sneak in her window, so be it. Metaphorically speaking, of course. She didn’t actually want him climbing through the windows.
The sound of soft breathing caused her to lift her phone higher in confusion. She used the light from the screen to see who was next to her. Heather’s arm sprawled over her head, and she mumbled as the light hit her face. She still wore her jeans and flannel, but she’d kicked off her shoes. Vivien instantly lowered the light to let her friend sleep.
This wasn’t the first time Heather had crashed at her house, but seeing her reminded Vivien of the evening before. They’d tried to contact Sam. The encounter had left her weak, and she barely remembered Heather walking her to the bed.
Vivien looked at her phone. She didn’t recall putting it on the charger, but then automatically sensed that Lorna, in her thoughtfulness, had done it for her. She turned the phone in her hand. She usually didn’t pick up intense psychic impressions from objects.
Worse than the exhaustion was the feelings of fear and sadness that had settled into her chest. The emotions weighed on her heart and stomach, and each breath felt labored.
The ghost had been Sam. She’d seen his face, however briefly. He’d looked like he had before cancer ate away at him. She’d smelled the ocean on him when he’d passed over her. He’d always loved being near the water. It was one of the reasons she’d never moved away from the ocean. She felt him in the waves.
Vivien couldn’t help but think she’d fucked things up royally. Heather was right. There was no way a guy like Sam was in hell. So whatever pain he suffered had to be because they’d brought him back. Had they yanked him out of heaven? Was there even such a place?
Vivien didn’t consider herself super religious, but she believed there was more beyond this life. She liked to think that place was heaven. If there could be hell, there had to be a heaven.
Maybe the difference between Glenn’s return and Sam’s was time. Glenn had only been dead for three years. She lost Sam twenty years ago. But that made little sense. Grandma Julia showed herself to Heather and she’d been gone a long time.
Vivien slid out of bed, moving slowly as not to jar the mattress and wake her friend. She needed a moment alone. On habit, she took her cell phone with her. She pushed the notification for the motion alarm. The camera feed tried to load. She carried it with her as she walked.
Vivien peeked into the hall, looking for William. All was quiet. She made her way toward the kitchen. She vaguely remembered Lorna saying she would pick up the mess in the living room. A broken frame lay on the coffee table, and her vases were missing. She found she didn’t really care that they were broken. The empty space looked better.
Vivien had slept in her clothes, so she thought nothing of slipping into the pair of sandals she kept by the kitchen door leading to the backyard. Trash bags sat on the kitchen floor. She nudged them with her foot, hearing the light clank of broken ceramics. Poor Lorna probably couldn’t have gotten the bags down the steps with her sore hip.
Vivien slid her cell phone into her pocket. The video clip had yet to load. Her muscle was still sore where Lorna had shared her pain, but it wasn’t anything to cry over. She unlocked the door and lifted the trash bags to carry them to the bins.
The fresh night air welcomed her, and she took a deep breath. She loved walking around at night. Freewild Cove was a relatively safe town. Yes, there were some tourist-related crimes, but they mostly were drunk and disorderly charges. Sometimes there was vandalism and destruction of property, but again, usually alcohol and vacationers were involved.
Her phone buzzed as she moved past the motion sensor camera. She automatically glanced up and smiled as she walked across the yard to the bins by the back gate. It was pointless since only she would see the recordings.
Well, her and any internet hackers who had a fondness for backyards.
Dropping the bags in the bin, she pulled the phone from her pocket and looked at the screen. She stopped the recording of herself and started to close the app when she noticed the earlier footage had finally loaded. A strange blue glow on the still frame caught her attention.
Vivien played the video clip. It was the time stamp that would have woken her up. A light moved across her lawn from the house toward the back gate. At first she thought it was a lens flare, but the light paused and a figure seemed to turn, showing what looked like two arms lifting ever so slightly before again moving toward the fence. The gate did not open, but the light passed through it and then disappeared.
Vivien glanced from her phone to the gate. Nothing was there. A chill worked over her. She peered over the backyard. As far as she could tell, there was nothing in the shadows.
She watched the video again. It definitely looked like an entity walked across the lawn. Her hands shook, and she again glanced around. The night was quiet except for the sound of the breeze in the trees and the distant rhythm of waves.
Vivien couldn’t bring herself to move. She felt as if she was being watched. The house stood dark and still against the sky, and the moon hid behind clouds. Her gaze went to the security camera.
Her hand shook as she brought up the video clip of her walking across the lawn with the trash bags. Her body was darker compared to the other one. She watched as she turned to smile up at the camera.
On the clip, a light crept across the lawn toward her from the gate.
Vivien gasped and again looked around before turning back to the clip. The figure had approached her, but at the time she hadn’t seen or felt anything. A hand reached for the back of her head as she continued to walk toward the bins. It had followed her. The clip ended where she had turned the recording off.
Vivien took a deep breath, unsure of what to do. She wished Heather and Lorna were with her. Their presence would comfort her and calm her fears.
“Is someone there?” Vivien called softly. “Hello?”
The wind stirred, but she didn’t feel anything out of the ordinary.
Vivien lifted her phone, this time turning on the camera app so she could look with the device. The image of the dark yard passed over the screen. She turned the phone slowly along the lawn, from the gate toward the house, and then back again. She took small steps toward the house when she saw the path was clear.
Just as she was about to relax, the blue figure returned, standing several feet away. Vivien inhaled sharply and held the phone at arm’s length. She glanced at the figure on the screen and then at the empty yard. What was on the electronic device was not appearing to the naked eye. It moved toward her, slowly, before turning toward the gate. It again walked through the fence.
Was this one of those residual hauntings Heather had talked about? Some spirit caught in a loop, doomed to spend eternity walking across her lawn to the back fence?