Page 6 of Tall, Dark and Haunted

I gasp. “All? There are others here?”

“Just a few.”

“Are they—?” I pause, unsure how to ask three complete strangers if all the other ghosts that haunt the castle are friendly. Whoever heard of a ghost being afraid of other ghosts?

“They won’t hurt you,” Topher says gently as he turns and glides towards me.

“So they’re friendly? Are you friendly?” I ask, almost panicking at the idea that maybe the three ghosts in front of me aren’t as benevolent as they seem. It would be just my luck if I were to find myself trapped in a bloody haunted castle with evil ghosts—while soaking wet and naked.

“Friendly enough.” Topher is so close now that we could almost be touching if it wasn’t impossible.

“There is one less friendly ghost,” Davy mutters, but quickly stops speaking when Topher glowers at him.

“You don’t need to worry about him. He’s locked in the basement.” As convincing as Topher sounds, I can’t help worry about sharing my new eternal home with some homicidal psychopath.

“So, did you die here?” Davy asks, trying to change the direction of the conversation. Yup, let’s talk about my death. That’s definitely a conversation stopper.

“No. I died in—” I blush. I am NOT going to tell them about how I ended up naked in the Venus fountain in the middle of Sloane Square, of all places. “London.”

“Perhaps this place has some sort of significance to you,” Topher suggests.

Yup. It’s definitely significant. “I guess…” I shrug. “You know, my parents live not far from here. Maybe they can help me.”

“Help you how?” Davy asks.

The castle begins to shake violently again before I have a chance to answer him. It feels like the whole building is about to collapse on top of us. I need to get out of here.

“I think we should leave,” I say. I would just run for the nearest exit, but I’d rather avoid giving the guys a full view of my jiggling bits and naked arse.

“Leave?” Davy frowns. “We can’t leave.”

“I don’t care how attached you are to the castle, it’s not safe!” I cry. “What if the whole place collapses?”

It’s shaking pretty badly now. The chandeliers are rattling as they sway. The floor is tilting at an angle that can’t be normal. Pamphlets fly off an end table near the front door and skid across the floor. I try to stop them, and when my foot goes right through the floor, I yelp in surprise.

“The castle has stood here for centuries. It won’t just collapse,” Topher says pompously. “Margam is structurally sound. You have my word. My ancestor used only the best stone to build it.”

“You’ve started him off now, Rhiannon,” Davy grumbles. “We’re all in for a history lesson.”

“There’s no time for that. We need to leave.” I glance toward the door in a panic as sparks of magic surround us again. But the men don’t seem to share my urgency.

Topher doesn’t seem at all fazed by the return of the magical earthquake as he goes on and on about the shifter sanctuary his ancestor created. His chest puffs out with evident pride, and I want to give him a good shake. Except I can’t even touch him. And we don’t have time for this. We need to leave. Something is definitely wrong.

More magic explodes around us in a cacophony of color and sparks.

“This can’t be normal. Can it?” I cry, panic causing my voice to gain in pitch. I’m hitting notes I didn’t realize were possible before today.

The fear in my voice seems to finally catch Topher’s attention, and he stops talking about the sanctuary. “I wouldn’t worry about it. There’s nothing we can do, anyway. We’re dead.”

“There’s nothing—” I refuse to accept that. “We need to leave! If you don’t move, I’m going without you!”

“We can’t. We’re stuck here. Trapped in the castle.”

“What?” I shriek in horror.

There’s a deafening boom and the shaking intensifies. Sparks of magic bounce off the walls. A violent force sends me spinning. Red says something, except I can’t really hear him over the sudden ringing in my ears.

I struggle to focus on the faces of the three ghosts as a blinding light fills the room, encompassing all of us. I grasp around for something to grab hold of, anything that I might be able to anchor myself to. But my hands go straight through everything and everyone, leaving me completely untethered and alone.

“We’re all gonna die!” I shriek.

All three men give me a strange look. Which is when I remember that we’re already dead. It doesn’t make me panic any less.

The walls and floor shake so violently, I’m sure the entire castle is about to come down upon our heads. It really doesn’t matter that we wouldn’t feel it or that the bricks would go straight through my incorporeal form. Nope. The reality of my situation does nothing to ease my fear. Today is definitely the worst day of my life—except I guess this doesn’t really count as my life anymore, does it?

There’s a flash of a bright purple light, and my consciousness begins to dissolve.

Perhaps I actually might make it to heaven after all… or hell…