Wraiths of Winter (The Haunting Ruby Series Book 3) (45 page)

“Geez Ru, what was
that
for? Stay here while I go get
it.”

With the flashlight out of arm’s reach, the tunnel
quickly grew darker and creepier. As I heard Lucas’s
footsteps shuffling forward to retrieve it, I began to notice an
eerily similar sound making its way through the passageway
to my right. An echo? Maybe, but why didn’t I notice it
earlier? I pulled my phone out of my pocket, hit the flashlight
app, and pointed it in the direction the sound seemed to be
coming from.

I immediately caught a hint of movement at the far
end of the tunnel, screamed, and dropped my phone into the
dirt at my feet. “Lucas, I need you now!” I shouted as I
fumbled to grab my phone. When my badly trembling hands
finally got a firm
grip on it, the
light revealed that my
suspicions were correct—Lucas and I were not alone.
All I
could see was a pair of dusty work boots standing less than a
foot in front of me where there was nothing only a moment
before. I was too afraid to see what they were attached to.
This time I shrieked at the top of my lungs, “LUCAS!”

I could hear the sound of what I hoped were Lucas’s
footsteps growing louder behind me.
Then strange noises
began to emanate from whoever was in the tunnel with me.

“OOOOO, OOOOO! CLANK, CLANK, CLANK!” boomed a
male voice loudly and forcefully.
It was quickly followed
by…giggling?

Suddenly furious with whoever thought scaring me
half to death was even the slightest bit funny, I followed the
light from my phone upward until I could see his face. Instant
shock.

“Clay? What are you doing down here?”

Caught in a fit of laughter, he struggled to catch his
breath long enough to answer me. Weird. Why did he even
need to catch his breath—ghosts don’t breathe!
Do they? He
seemed more and more alive to me every time I saw him.
After the scare he just gave me, I wished he
was
alive—so I
could kill him.

“Ru!” Lucas said as he came up behind me. “What’s
wrong?”

“Nothing now. I saw someone in the tunnel and
panicked until I realized it was just shitass here doing the
worst Ebenezer Scrooge impression ever.” My comment sent
a nearly composed Clay into yet another fit of laughter.

“What shitass, Ru? I don’t see anybody,” Lucas replied
as he scanned the hallway for signs of our new companion.

“Sorry, I keep forgetting he’s dead and that you can’t
see him. We are now in the company of Clay Roseman. He’s a
pesky little ghost who can’t seem to leave me alone lately.
And just why is that Clay?
Seeing you at Silver Lake, the
cemetery, and the funeral home all make sense to me—but
Rosewood? When were you ever here?”

“Rosewood? That big ass mansion by the lake? Never.
What are
you
doing here?” he asked curiously.

“Me? I live here. I’m supposed to be here. You’re
supposed to be off wandering your usual spots not nearly
giving me a heart attack in my own house.”

“You
live
here?
That figures!
First, Rachel Mason
wanted to touch me and now a hot rich girl is attracted to
me—why do I have better luck dead than I did when I was
alive?”

Just as I was about to let him know in no uncertain
terms that I most definitely wasn’t attracted to him, Lucas
interrupted.

“Ru, are you seriously talking to a ghost? Why didn’t
you warn me that it was down here?” Lucas asked angrily.

 

“Hey, who are you calling
it
?” Clay argued defensively.

“He can’t hear you Clay! And I don’t think he intended
to offend you. He’s fairly new to this whole ghost business I
have going on. His name’s Lucas—he’s my friend.”

When they both started speaking to me at the same
time, I didn’t even try to listen to what either of them was
saying. I simply yelled, “Both of you need to shut up for a
minute! Give me a chance to explain, will you!”

Like obedient puppies, the chatter stopped instantly
and they each mumbled an apology. First, I briefly gave Lucas
the details on Clay and assured him that he was of no danger
to either of us. Of course that wasn’t
completely
true.
If he
continued to pop up unexpectedly in my life, Clay posed a
serious threat to my sanity—which gave rise to my next topic
of conversation.

“For real, Clay, why are you here? And don’t go telling
me that you think I summoned you again because I didn’t.” I
folded my arms across my chest and waited for his reply.

Nothing. He said nothing. Still the obedient puppy, he
just stood there looking at me like I’d yelled at him for
accidentally peeing on the carpeting. “Well?” I prodded.

“You told me not to tell you that I thought you
summoned me, so I won’t but I don’t have any other answers
for you either. One second I was hanging out at the lake and
the next I was here. And that’s the whole truth.”

As Lucas began to ask what Clay was saying, I stopped
him mid-sentence. “Hold on, Lucas! I’ll tell you everything he
says later, okay? Just go stand in the corner or something for
a minute. I need to talk to him without any interruptions.”
After realizing how harsh my words came out, I added an
apologetic “Please?” at the end.
I could only handle one
frustrating boy at a time.

Lucas nodded his head, took a few steps back and left
me alone with Clay. “What was the last thing that happened
at the lake before you found yourself here?”

“Well,” he replied with hesitation, “I was thinking
about how weird it was that day I popped into the funeral
home. I’ve never been able to travel anywhere other than
between the cemetery and Silver Lake.
I tried to go other
places before hundreds of times but I got nowhere—literally.
That is until I met you.
The second I realized that you were
the key to my new ability, I ended up here.
I had no idea
where I was but I figured you must be close by.”

Grr! Just what I didn’t need—
another
boy following
me around and demanding my attention. I already felt like a
chew toy in a cage full of pit bulls thanks to Zach and Lucas.
Clay had to stop thinking about me. Now.

“Clay, please don’t think about me! I know you’re
probably kind of lonely and all and I promise I will come and
talk to you on a regular basis. You can’t just pop in and out of
my life when you feel like it, okay?
This has to be the last
time.”

More sad, scolded puppy dog eyes. “I’m sorry, Ruby.
I’ll try really hard not to. Scouts honor,” Clay said solemnly as
he held three fingers up in the air.

Clay Roseman was a Boy Scout? I was shocked. He
practically oozed with a bad boy persona. He was the kind of
boy I pictured beating up Boy Scouts, not selling popcorn with
them outside of the mall. He was another enigma I wouldn’t
mind solving. Just not now,
definitely
not now. As I was about
to tell him goodbye, he simply vanished.

Once Clay was gone, I called for Lucas to come back.
Even though he was a ghost, I didn’t feel afraid when I was
with him. Now, however, I was painfully aware that I was in
the tunnel with Lucas well out of my grasp.
When Lucas
didn’t magically appear by my side I called again with more
urgency this time.

“Lucas!” I shouted as I turned around quickly and
almost knocked the flashlight out of his hand again.

“I’m right here—don’t panic!” he replied as he
regained control of the flashlight. “I take it your friend’s
gone?”

“Yes, he’s gone,” I said with a sigh of relief. “We need
to hurry
up and
find your escape route and
head back
upstairs. This place creeps me out.”

“Okay, let’s get going then—while you were talking to
your invisible buddy back there, I checked out the next few
passageways. I think we might be getting close. We can talk
about something good to keep your mind off of where you
are.”

“Excellent idea—what do you want to talk about?”

 

“Are you excited for the Cupid’s Cotillion?” he asked as
he led me around the next darkened corner.

“What stupid cotillion? And why would I be excited
for it if it’s so stupid?” Geez, boys ask the
dumbest
questions
sometimes.

“I didn’t say
stupid
, I said
cupid
.
Cupid as in the
chubby
little guy who comes
at you
with
a weapon
on
Valentine’s Day. I assume you’re going with Zach—are you
excited to go?”

“Yes, I know who Cupid is,” I responded impatiently.
“But I still have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Lucas stopped in his tracks. “Boyfriend isn’t taking
you to the school’s Valentine’s Day dance?” he said with
astonishment. “I wanted to ask you myself but well…I guess I
assumed you already
had
a date. Now I wish I would have.
I
would have gladly blown off rehearsal for you.”

Once Lucas said the word “dance,” I vaguely recalled
seeing posters hanging in the hallways at school but frankly, I
was too preoccupied with every other problem in my life that
I never really paid attention to them. Now I wished
I
would
have. Zach knew about my bad luck on Valentine’s Day and
swore that he would break that curse for me this year. But
come to think of it, he hadn’t even mentioned the stupid
holiday in quite some time. I was in for another gift-less, kissless, romance-less day. I knew it wasn’t like him to forget
about something so important. It figures—the one day when I
needed it the most, Mr. Romance was going to be anything
but.

Not wanting Lucas to know that Zach forgot all about
celebrating with me, I instead told him about my hatred of the
holiday. If he thought it was my choice not to go, he would
back down. And
I
would change the subject.

“My brother and I may have been a lot alike, but I
never would have let you down on a day like that. Never.”

I had the perfect opportunity to throw his favorite
saying back in his face so I took it. “Never say never, Lucas,” I
stated without emotion. Tough to do considering the fact that
I was crying on the inside. How could Zach forget?

Thinking that he would have a comeback, I struggled
to come up with an even better one for myself. Instead, he
shined the flashlight over my
shoulder and
simply
said,
“Look!”

I turned around to find that we were standing on the
threshold to the room we’d been searching for, what
remained of the rope ladder still hung from the ceiling. There
it was—the
trap door
Lucas
needed to exit
the house
unnoticed.

Excitedly, we ran
over to the spot of escape and
plotted exactly how we would pull it off.
I would find an
excuse for not wanting to drive myself to school—which I
didn’t want to do anyway just in case Jackson came looking
for me. Once Shelly’s car was out of the garage, Lucas would
be able to climb up and open the hatch with ease. Since the
ladder was thoroughly unusable though, we searched and
found an old stool that was sturdy enough for him to stand on.
He tested the plan and found that it was workable so we
headed back up toward my room completely satisfied with
our ingenious scheme for escape. That is until I set one foot
inside my bedroom.
Once again, we were no longer alone.
And the figure I found hovering near my closet door was the
most frightening one I’d encountered yet. I was about to die
an agonizing death.

35. Snowballed

“Ruby Rose Matthews!
Where have you been?” my
dad shouted as
I walked out of the closet and into my
bedroom. “And what have you been doing?” he added in an
accusatory tone. “Lucas, if you want to live to see graduation,
you’ll leave this house right now!”

Without hesitation, Lucas mumbled, “Yes, sir,” and
flew out of the room like his pants were on fire.
I was so
alone.
And I was
so
screwed.
Suddenly, I was praying for
Jackson to show up armed with a samurai sword—anything
to divert the attention away from me.

“Dad, you have to let me explain!” I pleaded
desperately. “Lucas was only here to protect me! Someone’s
trying to kill me!”

His face was so red it was almost turning purple.
“Stop it with the lies, Ruby! I’ve heard enough.
Give me your
phone, your car keys, and your laptop. You’re grounded until
you turn eighteen.” He stood there with his slightly trembling
hand extended as he waited for me to surrender. “NOW!”

There was no way I was going down without a fight. I
knew
exactly
what he thought Lucas and I were doing here
tonight but he was wrong. So very, very wrong. I folded my
arms across my chest in a display of defiance and stated as
calmly as I could, “No, not until you listen to what I have to
say.”
Once those words were out of my mouth, my dad
redefined the definition of the word “furious”.

He didn’t scream, he didn’t shout. Instead, his face
turned an even more unnatural shade and he spoke firmly. “I
don’t have to listen to anything you say. As a matter of fact, I
would prefer that you not speak another word. I let Shelly
talk me into reducing your punishment after I caught you in
bed with Zach but not this time. She swore to me that she can
tell when you’re telling the truth and when you’re lying so I
decided to believe her.
You sure do have her snowballed,
don’t you? Well, I’m not falling for any more of this crap you
keep dishing out. And I’m not backing down when she comes
begging me to be lenient with you either.”