Chapter 4 of Seattle called... Seattle. Yes I know, I have the most creative chapter names, EVER!
And please note the sarcasm. I am writing this while I'm very, very tired so please excuse mistakes. I promise it WILL heat up soon. I just really needed to explain things so it made sense to you.
If you don't understand anything I will try to make it more obvious or I will answer it in following chapters. ENJOY
The first thing I noticed about Seattle when I stepped off of the plane was the weather. Seriously. Back in Carmel it had been about 90 degrees, but here it was only, like, 70-something!
Oh, and the noise! Remember when I arrived in Carmel and was telling you how peaceful it was there? That everyone was using their indoor voices? Yeah, well, in Seattle, it was more like New York again! UGH!
People are so annoying!
Mom and Andy had already shipped our furniture and stuff over here, so I didn't have too many bags to carry. I gracefully swept my bags from the conveyer belt and looked at Mom, Andy, Jake, Brad and David. Mom and Andy were helping each other get theirs. Jake and Brad were clumsily grabbing theirs, whispering to each other- although I have no idea what about. And David was trying not to get crushed by people hurriedly reaching for their belongings. Doc had finally reached his bags and was about to pick them up, when some ugly, balding 50 year old man, roughly shoved him out the way, causing Doc to fall to the floor on his shins. Now, you all know I hate being rude to the living but when they do something wrong...
Well, they deserve what they get, right? Yeah, it's like that old saying: what goes around comes around...
And that, folks, is why I went up to that man, demanding that he apologise to Doc. He simply stared at me, mouth gaping eyes wide with shock.
"Go on then. Say it. Or are you to busy trying to catch flies?"
`You'll catch more flies with honey than vinegar...`
Wow! That was pretty darn creepy. It felt like it wasn't even my thought. Well it was obviously MY thought, because it was in MY head... right? I mean, it's not as if people can just go around throwing their thoughts at people. Can they?
Ugh! Whatever. You see, this is what thinking about things does. It makes life complicated and confusing. Well, it does when that thing happens to be The Spawn of Satan a.k.a Paul Slater.
The mean dude had his mouth gaping open, but snapped it shut when I pointed it out to him. His fat face was completely crimson, as was his neck. David by then, had scurried over and was stood loyally by my side, and Sleepy and Dopey were behind me. I knew they were smirking without looking at them. I could just hear them in my head saying `wow! Go Suze! Hurray! Kick the fat guys butt! ` Only this time, I knew I was only imagining it. They weren't actually in my head.
"Well man? Hurry up!" Jake snickered from behind me.
The tubby guy looked a little more scared now. Three teenagers sticking up for someone they love? Yeah, we can get scary. I was in my favourite holey-jeans, black blink 182 t-shirt, leather jacket and my bat-girl boots. Actually-save the tee-I was wearing exactly what I had been wearing on my first day in Carmel, too.
Jake and Brad wore similar outfits: Jeans, sneakers, and a t-shirt with their favourite sports person on them- Jake's was some surfer dude and Brad's some beefy wrestler guy. I didn't recognise either of them.
The guy stuttered and I glared menacingly at him.
"I-I'm sorry, uh... Sir."He squeaked before darting to the side. I nodded seriously at David, before cracking up.
"He called you SIR! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" I laughed manically for the next 30 seconds, before calming down enough to speak properly. "You okay Dave?"
He nodded with a straight face, before grinning wildly. Jake and Brad were doing that annoying thing guys always do, where they slap you on the back. Well, at least they don't play football, or they would be slapping me on the butt...
Ewww. Seriously, why do guys do that when they're playing football? All it makes people do is think they're gay! Yuck...!
I span around suddenly to face my mom. She was trying to look disapproving, but smiled a little anyway.
"Susannah..." I must admit, when she said that my heart strings twanged a little. Jesse...
NO SUZE! Don't depress yourself!
Mom opened her mouth to scold, but ended up saying "Well, I'm actually sort of glad you did that, but would it not have been better to do so more... politely?" She looked the four of us over and smiled slightly.
Brad, Jake, Dave and me, grinned and all said in unison "nope!" Mom laughed at us and we headed out of the airport to our new home.
Wow!
When we arrived at the house, I let out a gasp, Brad let out a low yikes and Jake let out a long whistle of admiration. The house was even bigger than the last one; not huge, but definitely not small. It, like the last, looked pretty old and I hoped to God there were no ghosts living there-at least, not hot Latino ones who I was gonna fall in love with and be doomed to have to live life without them.
Not thinking of anyone in particular...
"Wow, mom. How the hell did you get something like this?" I asked, awe-struck.
"Well, when we moved here, I got a promotion to an even better station than the last." Mom could barely contain her excitement at revealing the news to us all.
"Oh, mom! That's excellent!" Jake exclaimed.
"Yeah mom. Well done!" I hugged her.
"Wicked, mom!" Brad said, grinning happily. Although I now saw Brad as a little nicer than before, I still knew he was a teenage boy, who liked popularity. I could practically see his small brain whirring at the idea of owning a house like that. He was probably thinking 'yes! It's sooooooo party time!' Or something.
"Congratulations', mom!" Doc- as per usual- was being very formal. Although he spoke formally, he was grinning like a mad man. He turned his head, discreetly winked at me and asked mom "What year was it built?"
I wasn't quite too bothered if there was a ghost there. I would just have to help him move on. So when mom looked over and saw me nod, she hesitated for a second and said "1750's, I think. Is that correct Andy."
"Indeed it is. I don't think this one had as many deaths, and no murders. Just some old servants that passed away." Andy confirmed.
Smirking, but still playful, Brad added, "Yeah, so I doubt this one should have any more ghosties for Doc to look out for." Doc flashed crimson but smiled anyway, looking at me.
We all turned back around to look at the house again: White walls, black gable roof, and a large-ish door which was coal black. The place seemed nice to me but I kept shivering whenever I thought of Paul or Jesse. The Jesse shivers were because I missed him and wished he could have died nice and peacefully- even though that meant I probably would not have met him. And the Paul shivers... well, they're obvious. I mean, come on, the dude left me and his little brother for dead up in the shadow land! That isn't really something that can give you the fuzzies for someone, is it?
As I was gorming, everyone else had grabbed their stuff and was heading up to the door. Beside the house was a humongous black gate, with spikes on the top. No, I'm really not kidding. It looked like something from a prison!
"You coming' Suze?" Jake had noticed me stop.
"Oh, uh, I'll catch up. I wanna go look behind there." I pointed to the gate of doom and began walking up the long drive to the gate.
"Okay then. See you later."
Our new back yard was PRETTY big. Roughly a mile back was another house. Well I say house but what I mean is mansion!
Literally! It was colossal! The houses exterior was a lot like ours, just bigger and a hell of a lot fancier. A field separated the two and going through the middle was a stone path way. Off to one side was a little river which had a well a few feet away and a bridge over the top. It was a really pretty place to live. My eyes were dragged back over to the mansion and, using my extra-awesome-eyesight, I noticed a really old, carved in sign, on the house. Looking around me quickly, I decided it couldn't hurt to take a closer look. Right?
A few minutes later I was standing outside the humongous building, practically trespassing. Ah well. If they caught me I could easily get out of it. upon closer inspection, I could easily see that the sign said κτήμα, τσιφλίκι του, από o πλούσιος, ταλαντούχος.
Underneath was another carved in note, saying, manor of the rich. As I was thinking to myself who would need to have that very obvious piece of information spelt out for them, I saw something move at the window. I watched a second longer, before turning around and heading back. I mean, I was on someone else's land. Although I should have known better, I kept my eyes to the side, so I could partially see behind me. The thing I saw however was not some snobby butler, or some rich pompous lawyer. Oh, no. What I saw, were 3 ghosts, who looked a little... curious? Well, that's new.
"Who's that?" a tall albino-ish one asked. He was pale with white hair - like CeeCee's – and shockingly pale blue eyes. Without thinking, I found myself comparing them to Pauls, before internally scolding myself.
"I dunno. She isn't familiar." a shorter one answered. He had dark blonde hair, spiked up into a sophisticated spiky style. His eyes were blue-green and looked similar to that of Adam Mctavish.
"Guys, can you sense that? She seems different to the other girls we've seen-and I mean that in a totally non-cheesy way. Can't you feel it?" the last questioned. His hair was black, with little dark blue highlights. It really was quite a cool look and contrasted well with his stormy grey eyes. "Hey. You. Can you hear us?" he yelled.
I froze and spun slowly, pretending I hadn't heard them before. "Uh, yeah. I can." I said awkwardly. The blondes face lit up, making him look like he had something he had wanted for ages.
"You can see us! That means you can help!" he cried, gleeful.
They all looked about my age and none of them really seemed horrible or dangerous. Although, the one with the dark hair seemed to have something about him that said watch your back, I strike when unexpected! I could tell, just from that quick glance that they were popular-before they died, I mean. The albino looked like he was a swimmer or something from his build. Blondie looked more like a basketball player and highlight guy appeared to be a wrestler. Funny how I knew all this from one look, right?
I smiled brightly, deciding to get this over and done with. "Uh, sure, I can try and help, but I'm afraid I can't bring you to life-that isn't part of my job." I shrugged apologetically, hoping that if I played good little mediator, they would leave faster. I could also tell that they hadn't been dead very long. Whenever I tell ghosts I can't resurrect them, they usually blow up at me and tell me I'm useless and ask what good I am. I've learnt not to take it personally, and pretty much always expect it. So I got a little surprise when he spoke next.
"Oh, alright. We were just wondering... uh, well..." he sighed looking down awkwardly. "Long story short, we were murdered and are hoping you can lead the police to the right guy." Oh.
Well, that was simple. He looked a little guilty but I didn't know why. I lowered my voice, remembering I was still on someone else's property and whispered, "I'll do everything I can, but would you mind coming over to the river to talk to me? I don't really want the new neighbours to think I'm a mental case, ya know?"Wow. I was astounded by my friendliness. I guess I just wanted to make a fresh start with the whole helping-ghosts-without-using-my-fists-thing a go. Ugh, I spent too much time around Father Dominic, didn't I?
"Uh..."the albino mumbled casting a sideways glance over to highlights boy. "Can we maybe sit somewhere else? I really like the spot over by the... uh... tree. Over there." I totally knew that wasn't why he didn't want to sit by the river. He knew that I knew that that wasn't why he wanted to sit by the river. But I let it slide, hoping I'd find out some other way.
"Sure thing," I responded. They nodded and briskly began to float over there, me following behind.
When we got there, I plonked myself down on the grass and they followed suit.
"So..." Blondie began, "How come you can see us but the others can't? I mean, I'm assuming they aren't ignoring us and that it's not special effects when we walk through them!" he joked half-heartedly.
I was asked this question all the time, so I was pretty good at explaining. "Well, I'm Suze Simon and I'm a shifter-`I inwardly cringed as I thought about how lucky these three were that they came to me instead of him`-my job is to help spirits-like yourselves-to pass on to wherever it is you're supposed to be." Usually this inspires a gasp or 20 questions, but they just nodded in understanding, which I found odd- then again, they were teenage boys and dead or not, teenage boys aren't really that talkative.
"Oh, okay then, Suze. I'm Sam Whitwell," said Blondie. Pointing to the albino he said "This is Matthew Shore. And he-`he indicated to highlight boy who nodded nonchalantly`-is Zack Rutland. Before we... died-`he spat the word out uncertainly, glancing at the other two and looking pained`-we all attended St Christopher's High School, here in Seattle. The 3 of us were pretty popular, but mainly stuck with each other cause we've known each other since kindergarten. (A/n-is that what Americans call preschool?) I was on the basketball team; Matthew was on the swim team and Zack the wrestling team." He seemed to like talking but I was sort of delaying going into my new house, for I was afraid I wouldn't like it.
Nodding, I cautiously asked Blondie-or Sam as he introduced himself-the question most ghosts hate telling me about, "Uh, great. So... how did you die?" I was sure to maintain eye contact with Sam because I was getting a far friendlier vibe from him, but what I asked seemed to suddenly make him wary. When I doubted any of them were going to speak, I carried on, "Come on guys. You can't expect me to tell the police without knowing who it was and how it was done, right? I mean, I've tried it once before; it did not go well!" they still weren't speaking so I decided to try and be all friendly. "Well? Come on, I won't laugh at you or anything. This one time, I had a grown man come to me and say he fell asleep in his bathtub and I still didn't laugh!"
This time, Matthew looked at the other two and spoke directly to me, not even glancing at the others as he did," We were murdered at a house party. THAT house party, actually. We were all a little bit drunk and someone just went and decided to off us!" he indicated to the mansion.
Now, he looked kind of mad. Finally, I get a rational response! Actually, even Sam did. So, being extra careful, I pried "So... who was it? That... offed you I mean?"
Their faces went blank with confusion for a second, before Zack the highlight guy growled in a deadly low voice "You expect us, to remember? Babe-`he laughed hollowly`-we were all hammered! We're 17, we like us our alcohol. Well, we did, until we were KILLED FOR NO REASON!" He bellowed the last bit in my face and Sam shot me an apologetic look, trying to calm him down. I stayed stock still until he moved and noticed he looked slightly sad as well as immensely angry.
"Dude, look. Get a grip. I just need to know everything that could help me, and most tend to know that already. Okay? Good. Now, due to your lack of knowledge on your killer, this will be sorta difficult. What do you know about them? Or what do you suspect?" I questioned losing my temper slightly at his outburst. After all, I was only trying to help.
Zack seemed shocked at me so I assured him that I dealt with angry ghosts all the time, and, thin lipped, he sat back down. Sam mouthed sorry at me behind Zack's back but Zack said in a perfectly calm voice "Don't bother Sam. We all know you just wanna get on her good side..."
Turning slightly red, Sam retorted "Well, at least I ain't hitting on a girl who moves on to other guys' a.s.a.p and doesn't know I even exist anymore!" and then he added "Oh and I'm not hitting on her! I want to leave this stupid half-life!"
Turning red with anger, Zack shouted "Just shut the hell up Sam! You don't know anything!" He was absolutely livid!
I looked over at Matthew and he signed to me to stand up. I did so very slowly. Meanwhile, Sam and Zack were having quite the argument. I didn't hear what, but Zack said something which caused Sam to snap his fist back and make it smack strait into Zack's nose. Ouch!
"God... sorry Suze they do this all the frickin' time! I'm gonna grab Zack to get him off, do you think you could maybe get Sam? I don't think he's quite as powerful as Zack, but be careful, his fist still hurts." I nodded and we both surged forward to grab the ghostie boys.
When I got a hold of him, he accidentally elbowed me in the stomach, causing me to let go and he rushed forward to Zack so they could carry out their brawl. I was kinder mad that he'd done that, which is why I did what I did. I could vaguely hear Matthew ask if I was okay, but I didn't listen. I hopped up and stalked over to the two boys.
"Stop it! Now!" I yelled. They didn't listen, which really peed me off. "Oi!" I bellowed, grabbing handfuls of their collars and yanking them back. Sam seemed to give up, but Zack struggled trying to flip me off.
"Are you bloody deaf or something? I told you to stop!" I shrieked.
Unfortunately-for Zack-he then called me a name I really don't think I deserved, which earned him a fist to the side of the head. Ouch!
He spun back swearing. I sniggered a little at his weakness, before feeling bad. But why should I feel bad? After all, it was HIS fault for being an idiot.
"Wow, Suze. Didn't think you had it in ya! You pack quite the punch for someone so... petite!" Matthew laughed. "She sure showed you up man! God, I think you need some more practice with the wrestling!" he said, directly to Zack, who scowled at all of us.
"Well, I just weren't expecting it is all. If I knew her fist hurt so much, I would have got her off me quicker; I didn't think she would really hit me! Most normal girls wouldn't dare! To afraid of messing up my handsome face." Zack retorted snidely. I knew he meant the normal think as an insult, and it did kinda hurt, but I just smiled and replied,
"Oh! Why thank you Zack! I'm glad you think I'm so above average! And yeah, I ain't ya average girl; as previously mentioned, I'm a shifter- you know the saying, right? Not just a pretty face? Well that made little quotation marks in the air to prove that I wasn't stating my opinion, just repeating what he said before`-because your dead." harsh but necessary. His cocky demeanour was reminding me a little too much of someone I desperately didn't want to think about...
"You. Little-"Zack began, but Sam cut him off.
"Look dude, this is the only way we're getting out of here, and if we ain't nice she ain't gonna help us, is she? No she ain't. So unless you wanna stick around here for all eternity, we better not be too... nasty. Got it?"
Still scowling horribly, Zack nodded. I asked them again if they knew absolutely anything or if they had any suspicions.
"All we know, as in solid evidence, is that we were drowned in that river, right over there." Sam pointed to a little section of the river right in between the two houses. It was a particularly nasty looking part of the river.
"When did it happen? Do you think it was someone that lives there?" I questioned, looking directly into Sam's eyes.
"It happened a month ago and no, we're fairly sure it wasn't the dude that through the party. He was sound but he barely spoke to us. He had no reason to." He replied.
"Yeah, that was a rockin house party before it happened. I have a suspect, but he had no reason to actually want to kill me! Or the others! They hadn't ever done anything wrong!" Zack yelled the last line.
"Yeah, Zack thinks it might be Max. He was hot for Zacky's girl." Matthew spoke quietly, making sure only I could hear him. "Max goes to St Christopher's and he used to really hate us when Zack started going out with Rose, his ex. And when we all died, he gave up on chasing her because she moved onto some guy her mate introduced her to."
I gasped, starting to really hate her. A rather unflattering name popped into my head, but I chose to ignore it. It was Maria De Silva and Felix Diego all over again! I mean, that's exactly what she did! Diego killed Felix, like how Max-or so they suspected-killed Zack. Then Maria moved onto some other guy strait away, just as Rose did! I REALLY started to hate her when I felt a twang in my heart remembering Jesse and what we could never have; for three reasons: Seattle is too far from Carmel, Paul won't let me and oh, yeah, HE'S DEAD!
"Suze? Suze? Are you alright?" Matthew was snapping his fingers in front of my face, bringing my attention back to the present. I realized I had completely zoned out.
"Oh, yeah, I'm good. Sorry dudes, day dreaming." I spoke quickly shaking my head, as if this alone would get rid of my thoughts of Paul.
"Alright then, we best leave you to your new house. Will you meet us out here tomorrow? We'll be here, by the tree." Matthew said. I nodded and made my way back to the house.
"Hey, An- uh, dad? Whose is the massive house? You know the one behind here?" I asked. I decided to make a special effort to make Andy feel better about dragging me to Seattle. After all, the boys call my mom, mom, so why not?
"Oh, that humongous mansion thing? It belongs to some rich surgeon. Back when the house was built, this used to be the servants quarters, as well as a storage place for clothing and what not. But now, it's just a house. They have two kids I think. A younger one who's about 8 and an older one, around yours, maybe Jakes age. The people who used to live here said they were no trouble though. But no matter how nice they are, Suze, be careful while your walking around out there. If they think your gonna steal something, they'll call the police and I'm fairly sure they'd believe their word over yours-uh, no offence though, Suze." He said seriously. I nodded and told him it was beautiful out there, and he agreed
When I got to my room, I noticed with a smile that mom had decided I could have purple for my room this time instead of pink. I still had the canopy bed, but the walls were an elegant looking purple, which I knew CeeCee would love. My bedding and curtains were a light mauve and had white flowers snaking up them. They looked magnificent! There was a soft knock on the door and my mother called my name.
"You decent, Suze?" she called. I told her to come on in and she did.
"Do you like your new room, Suzie? I thought you might like the purple better than the pink."
"Yeah mom, I love it. Purple is definitely my preferred colour. The view out of my window looks amazing! I cannot wait for the sun set. It will look amazing from in here. I took a look outside and it's really pretty. I love rivers. They're really... calming, aren't they?" I smiled up at her. We had moved over to the window seat and were both sitting on the edge. Because my room was at the back of the house, I had a perfect view of the mansion and the landscape. Sitting here, it seemed as though we were in a different time. So calm...
That is, until I saw a ghost waving manically at me from next to the biggest of the trees, grinning like a mad man. I jumped and fell off the window seat with a squeal.
With a worried gasp, mom helped me up. "Are you okay? What happened?" she questioned, worried by the quick shattering of serenity.
"Uh, there was a bug. A spider. Big. Black. With lots of legs!" I lied. Mom knew I hated bugs and so did she. "It's okay though. It's outside. I saw it crawling down the outside window pain."
She seemed to believe me and turned to leave. Before she did, she added, "Oh, Suze! I forgot to mention, you, David, Jake and Bradley all have school tomorrow. You'll all be attending St Christopher's. Dinner is in an hour, so you might as well unpack." She left.
Damn! I'm going to the Ghosties School!
Please review! I swear Paul is going to be in the next chapter! I am about to start writing it!
I would really like to know what you think about the ghosts and which of them your favourite is! I am kinda busy with the warming up of the weather but I'm desperately fitting in time for my writing!
And as I am giving up valuable sunbathing time, please give up a minute of yours and... REVIEW PLEASE!