Another chapter today!
This is sorta a filler chapter…*shrug*
-Christianne
One Week Later
Nikki POV
Today was my day off.
I was sitting in my living room, fully dressed, slouching on my sofa. I had no idea what to do.
I wanted to call Sam, we always had nice conversations. Which, of course, only made him more attractive in my mind. But we'd talked yesterday and I knew Dean tormented Sam after we talked, I didn't want to put him through that two days in a row.
Jeremy, who I found out was also a hunter, was on a 'fishing' trip, and banned me from his house. His house was full of information from everything he'd ever hunted. One more than one occasion I'd showed up at his door with a few notebooks and a pen, sat in his living room and wrote down new information from his journals for the index of creatures in my basement.
And, Wendy and Travis had banned me from CJ's.
I sighed sadly about how those were the only things I had to do.
Half an hour later, I thought of something to occupy my time; developing the film from my camera.
I grabbed it from my room and headed to a large closet that I quickly converted into a dark room. I hummed to the radio as I went through the process of enlarging the negatives, dipping them into the chemicals and clipping them onto the strings I'd tacked on the wall, all by the light of a single red bulb.
I suddenly spun around, catching a glass bottle of bleach as it fell off the table. I put it back on the table and clipped the picture up on the string.
I shook my head, trying to convince myself that it was just a side effect from my magic.
I felt weird saying that; my magic.
Letting my pictures dry, I went down two flights of stairs to the kitchen, opening up a book about premonitions I'd grabbed from my shelf. As I paged through it, munching on french fries and a burger, I read about spells to get premonitions, spells to get rid of them, potions, incantations, everything. But none of it mentioned a subconscious knowledge of the future only seconds before it happened.
I sighed, resting my head in my hands as I stared at the book. I narrowed my eyes in concentration and watched as it shakily raised up several inches from the island. My head was actually started to hurt from how hard I was concentrating. I let go with a sighed, rubbing my temples. I'd looked ahead in the grimoires and saw levitation and movement of objects without a verbal or physical command. It was harder that I thought it would be.
All of this was harder than I thought it would be.
After my headache had subsided, I grabbed the herb book, a bucket, a pair of garden shears and gloves, planning to go find Jane's garden. After lacing up the boots Jeremy got me and grabbing the map from Jane's diary, I headed out into the property behind the estate.
I hadn't been out here much, there was never a need to. When I was younger and visited, Jeremy always told me to stay out of the woods, he said all the trails were overgrown and hard to follow. And dammit he was right.
It was nearly impossible to follow the path to the garden. The journal said the garden was surrounded by a wrought iron fence with an arched gate, when I found one I just about giggled with pride; I thought I was completely lost.
I pushed in the heavy gate and kicked away some brush. After I got a few steps in, I knew I had the wrong fence.
I was staring at rows of tomb stones. Rows and rows of tombstones, mausoleums and grave markers that must have been wooden crosses at one point.
I froze, dropping the bucket containing the herb book, shears and my gloves.
I remembered early in my research reading about how the death of Jane Howard was the top of the bell curve of Janesville. It went downhill from there.
And Jane's journal told me that the town's cemetery was on their property.
"Oh God." I breathed, staring wide eyed at the graves. Rows and rows of headstones and mausoleums.
The few that were closest to me caught my eye.
"Oh God." I said again when I got closer.
Jane Howard
Howard Howard
Gretchen Howard
Cassidy Hart
Cassidy Hart was Mary Hart's son. I looked into him, apparently he committed suicide not too long before Jane was thrown in the river. Jane's journal said they wanted to run away together and get married.
I felt like someone was watching me. The feeling snuck up on me and I spun around. I didn't see anything.
"Hello?" I called loudly, making a few birds fly away. I walked back to my bucket by the gate, and looked back at the cemetery one more time. When I did I gasped, taking a quick step back and tripping over the tangled brush that practically swallowed the whole cemetery whole.
There was a man standing in front of Cassidy's gravestone.
I was about fifty yards away from him now, just at the gate. He was dressed in plain brownish pants that looked like they were made of wool, and a loose fitting white shirt. His face was smudged with dirt, and his hair was mostly covered by a hat, a straw hat with faded purple fabric tied above the brim, similar to the ones farmers wore. That, along with the dirt that covered him from head to toe, made his face hard to see.
The truly horrifying part were the dark purple and black bruises around his neck.
Like he was hung.
His head tilted to one side as his eyebrows knit together. "Jane?" He asked, a slight southern twang in his voice as he spoke.
I didn't say anything, I just scrambled to my feet, grabbed the bucket with the book, gloves and shears inside and ran. I slammed the iron gate shut and ran. I sprinted back to my house and slammed the door shut behind me, locking the iron bolts. I was shaking as I dialed Sam's number.
"Hey Nikki, what's up?" Sam asked casually.
"G-Graveyard-C-Cassidy-Headstone-Ghost-Oh God, cramp!" I yelped, doubling over as I grabbed my side, still panting and out of breath.
"Whoa, slow down-Did you say ghost?" Sam asked, going from casual to concerned.
"Holy shit," I panted. "I have got to start jogging again. Maybe I'll start running to work."
"Nikki!" Sam said loudly. "What happened?"
"I-I was looking for the garden in Jane's journal, the one with all the herbs in the grimoires. Found the cemetery instead. Found Cassidy Hart's headstone-"
"Jane's boyfriend, right?" Sam quickly asked.
"Yeah, he just showed up all dead looking and called me Jane." I said, finally getting my breath back.
"What? What happened after that?" Sam pressed.
"I got the hell out of there!" I said, wondering what he thought I'd do. "I grabbed my book, slammed the gate and got the hell out!"
"Gate?"
"Yeah, yeah, gate, there's a wrought iron fence around the whole graveyard." I explained, focusing on that instead of the ghost on my property.
"If it's an iron fence he can't get out, you're fine in your house." Sam said, trying to sound reassuring.
"I know." I groaned, falling back first onto my sofa.
"You do?" Sam asked, sounding surprised.
"I'm a friggin' witch. You don't think one of the first things I read was that ghosts don't like iron?" I snapped irritably, rubbing my eyes with my free hand.
"Well, if-if you knew that...then...Why'd you call?" He asked, sounding confused.
"I saw a guy come out of a headstone. You guys deal with freaky shit all the time! Pardon me for wanting to talk to someone about this won't think I needed to be committed!" I said, pinching the bridge of my nose as I spoke quickly.
"Ok...Ok!" Sam laughed. I heard Dean yell something in the background. "She just saw a ghost." Sam answered.
"Just saw?" I asked, feeling mildly insulted. "I just saw a ghost? A Union Army soldier thought I was his girlfriend, who, by the way, is taking up residence in my soul, dropped in to say hi!" I snapped.
"Ok!" Sam laughed. "Ok, sorry!"
"Yeah...Yeah you better be..." I mumbled, heading to my fridge to get a beer.
"You sure you're ok?" Sam asked, I popped the cap off my beer and took a drink before I answered.
"Yeah, yeah I'll be fine. Hey-if I keep that gate closed, how long with Cassidy stay in there?" I asked curiously.
"If the fence stays up, forever." Sam said like it was no big deal.
"Forever? Won't he, like, pass on eventually, or something?" I asked, feeling...unhappy, about the idea of him wandering a graveyard for eternity.
"The reason he's stuck here is because he won't pass on." Sam explained. "He's gonna be there until you let him out."
"Oh." I said. I knew that, but it seemed to hold new weight when Sam told me.
"Uh, we gotta go, Dean found a lead."
"Yeah, go kill something." I said, smiling as I took another drink of my beer. "And don't forget to call me!"
"We won't Nikki," Sam groaned, I swear I could hear him roll his eyes. "Bye." 'Bye Nik!' I heard Dean yell in the background before Sam hung up.
I was still smiling as I shut my phone and took another drink of my beer.
"I am never going to that graveyard again." I said out loud.