Daisy Madigan's Paradise (10 page)

'Hey, wait a
minute. Nobody is leaving you,' said a cute tall guy who dragged
her back towards him. 'I sure as hell am not going to. I'll stay
until we've found him. I promise, okay?'

The others
slowly began to step towards the girl, each placing a hand on her
and nodding.

'I'm sorry,
Sis. You're right. We're all in this together. Let's go and find
him.'

Daisy seemed
to have such a connection with them, and she was so moved by what
was happening that she felt a need to help them. And she just knew
who they were talking about.

'You don't
have to go anywhere,' she said.

She watched as
they all dropped their hands from the girl and turned to face
her.

'Daisy?' asked
the girl.

Climbing down,
she walked up to them and smiled sadly, nodding, 'How do you know
me?'

'The ghosts
told us your name. I'm glad you got away.'

Smiling
nervously, Daisy replied, 'Only because of you. Thank you'.

'What did you
mean, we don't have to go anywhere,' asked the other gorgeous
girl.

'The ghost
you're looking for, I know where he is. I've been keeping him safe
for a couple of days. You called him Joe, right?' she asked.

The gorgeous
girl nodded, 'That's his name, well Josiah. Josiah Grimshaw. He
came with us from Andilyse Island last week but he seems to have
forgotten everything.'

'Can you take
us to him?' asked the dark haired girl.

Daisy nodded,
'Follow me,' she whispered as the group all began to trample after
her, careful not to make too much noise.

'What is
that?' asked the Indian boy who had appeared to her earlier as they
approached the large memorial.

'It's a War
Memorial,' said Daisy. 'There's catacombs beneath it. The main
entrance has been blocked off, but I know a secret way in.'

'Cool,' said
the first guy she'd seen as they walked around the memorial and
then off to the side under a cluster of nearby trees. A hole in the
ground had been dug and a tunnel led off towards the memorial.

'He's hiding
in there... with my Dad,' Daisy said shyly.

'Oh... okay.
Nisha... over to you,' the dark haired girl said with a smile.

'You want me
to climb down there?' the Indian girl asked a little nervously.

'It's okay.
It's not as bad as it looks. It's actually very clean, it's just
the entrance that's looks a bit dodgy,' said Daisy. 'Follow
me.'

The Indian
girl rubbed her chin and followed Daisy down into the tunnel. Daisy
fidgeted around until a light was switched on.

'I always keep
a few supplies down here,' she smiled as she held the torch
upwards. 'Can you see Josiah?'

'No, he's not
here.'

'Josiah?' she
whispered.

'He doesn't
remember his name, does he?'

'Oh yeah, I
forgot about that. Hello, is there anybody here. Anybody ghostly?
Can you show yourself?' asked the girl. 'Hello? We know you're
here. We just want you to show yourself.'

Daisy's father
mumbled something in his sleep before turning over and snoring, his
sweatshirt lifted slightly, revealing his tattoo. The Indian girl
gasped but said nothing, instead turning to concentrate on
Josiah.

'Look, we know
who you are. We know you've lost your memory. We can help you. It's
why we're here.'

'It is? You
know who I am?' said a voice in the semi-darkness as a figure
slowly started to emerge in the corner. The ghost of the young man
sat huddled up, his face filled with confusion and fear.

'Your name is
Josiah, Josiah Grimshaw. Does that mean anything to you?' asked the
Indian girl as he shook his head. 'We're your friends. You came to
London with two sisters, Lana Beth and Emma Jane Morgan. Do you
remember?' she asked. A faint flicker of familiarity crossed his
eyes and he sat up.

'Emma? It does
seem familiar to me. Where is she?' he asked.

'She's above
ground. We came here to find you. Will you return with us?' she
asked.

He waited a
moment before finally slowly nodding.

As they
prepared to go, the dark haired girl who appeared to be called Emma
turned to Daisy.

'Daisy, will
you come back with us?'

'Back where?
And what about my Dad?'

'Emma? I saw
her dad down there. He's one of us. I saw the tattoo on his back.
Which means Daisy is one of us too,' interrupted the Indian
girl.

Daisy stopped
herself from telling them about her own tattoo. Although she felt
connected to these people, she wasn't brave enough to show them...
not yet anyway.

'I knew it,'
said Emma, 'Look, Daisy, I can't explain exactly where we'll be
going. Just know that you can trust us. And there are people there,
people like you and me that would happily take you in. You can
learn with us. I just know that you're meant to come back with us.
There's this feeling in the pit of my stomach and it's telling me
that you should. Your dad can come to. He'll get the treatment he
needs. I promise you, you won't regret it,' she said with her hands
on Daisy's shoulders.

Just the
thought that her father would get the treatment he needed was
enough to make Daisy jump for joy. She would finally get her father
back. She waited as the others stood slightly back, nodding.

'I have the
feeling too,' said one.

'And me,' said
two of the girls.

'I do too,'
said the Indian boy before the rest of them all agreed.

Daisy's eye
welled with tears as she looked around at the friendly faces
looking at her hopefully. Finally feeling like she belonged, she
nodded.

The group kept
quiet but their faces lit up and they all grinned at her before
giving each other high-fives. The first guy she'd seen offered to
climb down into the catacombs to fetch her father but she shook her
head.

'There's
really no need, thank you. I can do it myself.'

Within
seconds, she had vanished before returning above ground carrying
her father over her shoulder.

'Now that's
what I'm talking about,' laughed the Indian boy, who turned his
baseball cap backwards on his head as they all turned to exit the
cemetery.

As they
reached the main gates, Daisy turned backwards and took a long look
at the place that had been her home for almost a year. She watched
as a dozen or so ghosts appeared from nowhere to wave her off.

'Farewell,
Daisy. Don't forget us... we're still hopeful you can help us,'
said Elizabeth, one of the ghosts she'd met first.

'I won't
Elizabeth. I'll be back to cross you all over. I promise. Bye,' she
waved happily, knowing that she was finally going where she
belonged.

oOo

If you enjoyed
Daisy Madigan's Paradise,

be sure to get
your copy of The Ghost of Josiah Grimshaw,

the first full
length novel in The Morgan Sisters series.

Amazon
US

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UK

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The Ghost of Josiah Grimshaw, an excerpt
CHAPTER ONE

Lightning
shattered the darkness. Not even Emma's thick purple quilt could
shut out the light as it filtered through to her closed eyelids. A
low echo of rumbling thunder made its way across the North Sea
towards Andilyse Island and she shivered. Suddenly something landed
on top of her head and she shrieked. The sounds of laughter
emanated from the bed across the room.

'Lana, you
cow,' shouted Emma as she threw back the covers and tossed the
pillow back at her sister who just shook her head and giggled.

'It's only a
storm. There's nothing to be scared of.'

'There is
everything to be scared of,' she replied as she cowered beneath the
quilt again.

'Oh come on,
Sis. We're quite safe in here. This house has been standing for
hundreds of years, it's not like it's going to collapse is it?'

'It nearly did
the last time,' Emma croaked.

'That was like
sixty years ago, Em, and none of the houses collapsed. The only
thing that took the brunt of the storm was the pier.'

'And the
church.'

'Exactly.
None
of the houses. Stop being such a coward. You're fifteen! It's
a storm, it's rain, it's not the end of the world.'

'It was for
all those poor people.'

'Oh stop being
so dramatic. Things were different back in the 50s, Em. We're safe,
now stop worrying.'

The sound of
the front door slamming downstairs made both girls jump. Emma
glared at Lana before they both hopped out of bed and ran to their
bedroom door which they opened, looking down over the banister.

'Dad?'

Peering up at
them from the bottom of the stairs stood an attractive grey-haired
man in his early 50s, taking off his soaking coat.

'Shhh, we
don't want to wake Greg and Lucy,' he said as he summoned them
downstairs.

'Oh Patrick,
they should be in bed too,' whispered a voice from the kitchen as
the two girls skipped down to find out what was going on.

'You know what
they're like, Audrey,' he said as he hung his dripping coat on the
stand in the hallway. Tutting, his wife promptly removed it and
placed it in the sink in the downstairs cloakroom before going back
to give him a kiss.

'What's
happened, Dad?' asked Emma as she sat huddled up to her sister on
the bottom step. A clap of thunder made her jump and she shivered,
her eyes wide open with apprehension. Lana rolled her eyes and put
her arm protectively around her sister.

'Let's have a
cup of cocoa,' Audrey said, recognising the look on her husband's
face. There was bad news.

While they
waited for the milk to heat up on the stove, Lana went into the
lounge looking for candles as the lights continued to flicker,
constantly threatening to go out for good.

'I've found
some,' she said, setting them down on the kitchen table with a box
of matches, 'just in case,' she smiled. 'So what's going on, Dad?
Why did you have to go out so late?'

'He's the
Chief Constable... it's his job,' answered their mother as she
poured steaming milk into the four mugs, before stirring them as
quietly as she could.

Lana stood
beside her, adding a spoonful of sugar to her own mug before
passing the calming drinks to her family, who stood sipping the
chocolatey goodness silently for a moment.

Rubbing his
forehead, Patrick put his cocoa down on the table just as the rain
began to clatter loudly on the roof tiles.

'Oh no,'
whispered Emma as she pulled her feet up towards her bottom and
rocked back and forth in her seat.

Patrick put
his hand on her shoulder, 'it's okay sweetheart. It's just a storm,
it'll pass. Everything will be all right.'

'Well then why
did you have to go out in it, Dad?' she asked.

'I was called
out to the old Grimshaw farm... Josiah was seen wandering close to
the pier again.'

'What? In this
weather? Does he have a death wish?' said Lana without thinking as
her mother tutted, glancing towards Emma. 'Did you find him? Is he
okay?'

'I'm afraid
he's nowhere to be seen. And in these conditions, it's impossible
to send out a search party. We can't send out the lifeboat without
risking the lives of everyone else, I'm afraid. He's a silly old
man, he should never have been left alone in this storm. Everyone
on the island knows how it affects him.'

Audrey patted
her husband's hand, 'there'd be no stopping him, love. He's just
looking for her.'

'Well, maybe
he's finally got his wish.'

'Daddy?' said
an innocent child's voice from the stairs.

'Oh we've
woken the kids,' said Audrey as she stood up and went to check on
her two younger children.

'Hey
sweetheart. Sorry we woke you. Come on, let's go back to bed,' she
said to her family. 'There's nothing we can do now. We should all
try and get some sleep.'

oOo

'You awake,
Sis?' asked Lana later that night.

'Of course I
am. There's no way I can sleep in this,' said Emma as she snuggled
deep into her quilt.

'It'll be over
soon.'

'I hope so,
it's been going on for hours. I just hope old Mr. Grimshaw is
okay.'

'Yeah I know.
Do you know why he was out?'

'No, I haven't
got a clue who he's looking for. I was going to ask Mum before Lucy
came down.'

'We'll find
out tomorrow. Try and sleep, Em,' Lana said as she rolled over and
closed her eyes.

Emma let out a
deep sigh and pulled the cover back over her head. ''Night
Lana.'

The next
morning Emma sighed as she peered over the edge of the cliffs
towards the view below, wondering if Mr Grimshaw had been found
yet.

The beach was
scattered with pieces of driftwood, big and small, and masses of
seaweed covered the expanse of sand and pebbles. The calmness of it
all belied the furious storm that had battered the island the night
before.

Squinting, a
breath halted in her throat as she spotted something unusual among
the debris. 'Oh my God,' she whispered as she turned back up the
garden path to the house and ran as fast as she could, shouting,
'Dad! Dad!...'

Patrick
appeared from the back door, putting on his coat, his eyebrows
knitted together, 'What is it? What, love?' he asked as she bounded
towards him.

'There's
someone... someone on the beach. It looks like a body, Dad.'

'Stay here
love,' he asserted as he ran towards the cliff edge to take a
look.

Sure enough,
there was a body strewn on the sand below. It wasn't moving.

'Is it Mr
Grimshaw, Dad?' she cried from beside him.