Curses and Cauldrons: A Paranormal Halloween Mystery Anthology by Anthology

Author:Anthology [Anthology]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-08-31T14:00:00+00:00

Chapter Two

T he ghostly graveyard gala was hosted at Beechwood Harbor’s only public cemetery. The small coastal town was home to less than three thousand residents, and while there were two churches, each with their own small selection of plots, there was one common burial ground where most residents were laid to rest. I’d been past the graveyard many times, but had never had occasion to pass through its iron gates. Tonight, the gates were locked tight—no problem for ghosts, but a little trickier for a pair of witches.

Gwen slipped through the bars without so much as a second thought, but she stopped a few paces up the driveway and turned back toward us. “Oh! Right. Let me see, Sturgeon said he put a key for the lock in the lion’s mouth. What could that mean?”

Evangeline lifted her hand and gestured at the pair of stone lions, each standing guard on either side of the gate.

Gwen laughed. “Oh, that Sturgeon. Always so literal!”

I conjured a ball of light and tossed it toward the one on the left. A gleam caught my eye and I had Evangeline give me a slight boost to retrieve the key inside the stone beast’s gaping maw. “Clever,” I said, stepping back down to release the padlock.

“Who is Sturgeon?” Evangeline asked.

“He’s a ghost. One of the few in town who can move physical objects,” another voice answered from behind us.

We whipped around and found Scarlet Sanderson smiling at us from the sidewalk. She raised a hand and waved. “What brings you two out to the graveyard? Looking for some Samhain mischief?”

“Something like that,” I replied, grinning at her.

Flapjack, the Himalayan ghost cat, strutted around Scarlet’s legs and swished his fluffy tail as he considered the scene beyond the gates.

“Why does it have to be in a graveyard?” he asked, his whiskers twitching as he wrinkled his nose. “Was the Marriott booked already?”

“I swear, finding something innocuous to complain about is your superpower,” Scarlet groaned.

I snorted but looked away when the ghost cat’s eyes shot a glower in my direction.

“Come on!” Gwen exclaimed impatiently.

I turned back to answer her and realized that somewhere in the last minute and a half, she’d transformed. Her 70s-era floral-print romper was gone, replaced by a glittering silvery gown fit for a queen of old.

My eyes widened. “Gwen! Your dress!”

She smiled like a cat that ate the canary and did an unprompted spin, sending the layers of semi-transparent gossamer flying. I blinked a few times, wondering if it was a trick of the lighting. I swore the gown almost looked solid, instead of the semi-transparent glow ghosts had the other 364 days of the year.

“It’s beautiful!” Scarlet added, coming up the walk to join us. “How did you do it?”

“I don’t know!” Gwen replied with a happy little giggle. “It’s magic!”

Flapjack stalked past us. “Whatever it is, it’s in my way.”

“Happy Halloween to you, too,” Gwen muttered as the impatient feline swished past her. “It looks like everyone was eager to get the party started early,” she said.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.