When You Hear the Knell of a Requiem Bell by Flashbeagle
Disclaimer: MUST I bother with this?
In this chapter: Kim just wants to be free from Gracey Manor forever, but it's not through with her, and it's her own fault…
Chapter Six
I'm speeding, but I don't give a shit. When I get to the city, I'm going to go talk to Ben, go to the hotel and pack, and then I'm going home.
You don't get kissed by a ghost who thinks you're his dead wife and be expected to stick around.
I don't believe this. I don't. None of this is even possible. I can barely even register a coherent thought. I wasn't just creeped out back there, okay. I was scared. Really scared. Frightened! Horrified! How can a ghost have a body? How? Okay, so I know now that can sort of happen, but it shouldn't! It shouldn't! Ghosts shouldn't be able to touch people! Ghosts shouldn't even be able to talk to people! I felt him touch me. Worse than that, I felt him kiss me. I-I don't even know what to think anymore.
I did slow down when I got to the city. Ben told me that he'd be at the Westbridge Hotel, which was exactly where I was headed. Ben, I saw, was finishing up with his interviews as I entered the hotel. As he walked away from them, I shouted,
"Ben!"
He took one look at me, and ran over with a look of concern. I must look seriously disturbed.
"Kim! Kim, what's wrong?"
"I'm going back home." I said decidedly.
"What? Why?"
"I can't stay here. I can't."
"Why?"
I stared up at Ben, my best friend.
"It's too weird. You'll think I'm crazy." And trust me, Ben's heard a lot of crazy stuff from me over the years.
"Kim, tell me."
"Come with me to my car. I'll tell you there." I said.
Once we were safely in my car, with the doors locked, I started.
"So okay, I'm there at Gracey Manor, and when I get there, Mr. Gracey is just like, waiting for me. He says something like, how he doesn't know anything about me. And then he asks me to go talk to him in the banquet hall, and he asks me all these questions and he's like, like, like,"
"Kim, calm down." Ben said, putting a hand on my shoulder.
I took a deep breath. "Ben, it's like he knew everything about me already. And then I totally got away to go do my research, and then he was there, waiting for me." I hesitated again. "Then he takes me aside, and he kisses me, and calls me Katherine!"
"Katherine, the girl in the painting who looked exactly like you?"
"Exactly. So I ask him why he'd want to kiss some girl who looks like his relative or whatever, and then he says no, but that his wife is a different story!"
Ben's eyes are wide. "Go on."
"Then he tells me who he is, and I realized he's a ghost and he tells me I have a lot to learn about ghosts and," I shivered. "And then I tried to run away, but the butler came to try to stop me, and then I fell and then I ran and then I left and well, here I am now and you think I'm crazy, don't you?"
"No." Ben said thoughtfully. "I think he's the crazy one, Kim. He sounds seriously disturbed. I'd be careful, if I were you."
"I'm gonna call John when I get to the hotel, and tell him that I quit." I said. "I don't care if I have to do another stupid article on the stupid Alamo. I have to get away."
"When are you gonna go back to San Antonio?"
"ASAP. I don't care if it's a red eye flight and I'm surrounded by screaming kids. I'm leaving."
Ben sighed. "Too bad. You know what tomorrow is, right?"
"Mardi Gras!"
I blinked twice. How could I have forgotten?
"Yeah."
"Crap." I moaned. "This is just not fair. But I can't stay in New Orleans!"
"I know. It's just not gonna be any fun without you, Kim."
Suddenly I was filled with much hatred for Gracey Manor. Thank God I'm never going back.
I dropped Ben off at the hotel and then I went to McDonalds for something to eat. (For someone just traumatized, I sure ate a lot.) When I finally got back to the hotel, I let myself in and reached to my side to get my purse, I could call and bitch at John. There was nothing there. (My car keys had been in my pocket, and my money and hotel keycard were on the passenger seat of the car.)
"Shit!" I cursed. "Shit, shit, shit! What did I do with it?"
I ran, frenzied out of my mind, downstairs to the parking lot, and I practically tore apart the car looking for my purse, but nothing was there.
Oh wait. My purse is in my backpack. Duh.
Another search through my car, and at the end of it, I can't find my backpack.
Crap. I KNOW I had it this morning.
Then a chill wracks my body.
I see a vision of myself dashing out of Gracey Manor with no backpack.
I see myself walking down the stairs with no backpack.
I see myself arriving in the attic, putting my backpack on the floor, next to the trunk.
Oh no.
Oh no.
No, no, no, no, no!
My backpack, with my purse, is leaning against a giant black trunk in Gracey Manor's attic.
I can't go back there!
I can't!
But I have to! I mean, it's not like it's just some pens and notebooks and other crap like that, it's my purse.
My purse. With my cell phone. And my wallet, with my driver's license, all my vital information, my credit cards, a good amount of money….My checkbook's in there, too, along with an address book, some tubes of lipstick, tweezers, and a pack of gum, plus my press pass, which I crammed into it when I got to the attic.
Oh my God. How could I have been so stupid???
Now I have to go back there. There's no way I can just let that stuff stay there. I mean, my driver's license? Thank God nobody busted me for speeding! THANK GOD!
My stomach flipped. My nerves tensed. I can't do this. I can't go back there. I CAN'T.
But I have to.
End Notes: I missed my vendredi (Friday) update, so you get THREE chapters today, Saturday.