A Pumpkin Potion Explosion by Constance Barker

Author:Constance Barker [Barker, Constance]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Constance Barker
Published: 2019-10-25T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

Tessa sent a bolt of fire rushing toward the source of the voice before I’d even had a chance to turn around.

“Oy!” a man’s voice cried. “Were I still living, perchance that would have been my doom!”

The fire bolt zoomed, uninterrupted, in a straight line down the road. It took me several seconds to realize that I was watching its progress through a man’s torso. In fact the man or whatever he was stood right before me.

“Begging your pardon, my lady, but would you kindly remove your head from my breast pocket?”

“Oh, pardon me,” I said reflexively, jerking my head back.

The speaker was a handsome, broad-shouldered young man with long, light-brown hair that had been tied back at the nape of his neck. He wore a high-collared white shirt and overcoat and was what I can only describe as slightly transparent.

“Look at that,” Tessa said. “Turns out he’s real after all.”

“Charles Alexander Harrington the Third,” the man announced, bowing, “at your service.”

“You’re the Capless Cavalier?” Mara said skeptically, “You don’t look very...vengeful.”

Charles Alexander Harrington the Third straightened, looking annoyed until the moment his eyes met Mara’s.

“Whence is this radiant maiden, come to commune with my wretched soul?” he breathed.

Mara frowned back at him.

“Um...what?”

“Art thou an angel, come to ferry me to my eternal reward?” Harrington continued, his eyes soft and searching. “Or perhaps some servant of Hades, made lovely to deceive my heart. It matters not, for I shall follow you to whatever end!”

Tessa started to giggle. Mara’s frown deepened.

“Are you...hitting on me?”

Harrington flinched, clutching at the breast pocket where my head had been.

“I would never deign to strike a lady!” he gasped, looking scandalized. “It would be beneath my honor as a—”

“—Never mind, forget it.” Mara interrupted, holding up a hand.

Tessa was now laughing so hard that tears were streaming down her face.

“Might I be so bold,” Harrington addressed Mara, “as to ask that you grace me with your name, thou pulchritudinous nymph?”

“I’m Mara Gale,” Mara sighed. “That’s Samantha Greene. The one in hysterics is Tessa Smith.”

“Sorry!” Tessa gasped.

“Mara Gale,” Harrington repeated in a hushed voice.

“Mister Harrington?” I asked. “This may seem like a silly question, but...did you by any chance misplace a cap somewhere along this road?”

“That I did!” Harrington cried. “I lost it when those foul ruffians ran me down the night before the great race. You see, I had won every—”

“—We know your story, Mister Harrington,” I said, “and, as you are clearly a ghost, I am sorry to hear confirmation of your untimely demise.”

“Tis the past, my lady,” Harrington said lightly. “Though I daresay it is the reason you find yourself on this lonesome road on a night such as this.”

“You’re right,” I nodded. “We heard rumors that there was a vengeful spirit haunting Goodsprings. One called the ‘Capless Cavalier’.”

“Capless Cavalier?” Harrington looked disgusted. “Is this what I am remembered for in death?”

“Well, there’s that,” Mara said, “and word on the street is you’ve been riding around with a pumpkin for a hat. Killing people.

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