You're Not Alone

Chapter Twelve

  Chester showed up a half hour later. He did use the story Mr. Princeton told us he prepared and ended up leaving the premises with the police. He said the police asked about Mr. Princeton’s car. He told them it was a vintage car he had just bought and was storing it at the cemetery until he managed to clear enough space in the very full cemetery barn. After the police ogled the car, they followed Chester out of the cemetery. Chester said he drove down the street to the neighborhood bar.

  “I waited a half hour before I came back, just to make sure,” he told us.

  Mr. Princeton drove us home after we set the time for the séance. I was finally in my apartment by five thirty. Exhausted from the night’s escapades, I took a long shower and collapsed onto my bed. I hadn’t been to bed this late since my college days.

  I couldn’t sleep, which only added anger and frustration to my already volatile emotions. My apartment was disturbingly still. The locket was still on the dining room table, devoid of any picture. My heart ached. I felt like I was losing Matthew all over again and now guilt took a seat next to all the feelings that were churning inside me. I had just dug up Matthew’s grave. Defaced his coffin. That was enough to keep anyone from sleeping.

  I never did ask Mr. Princeton how long he thought it would take for the spell to work. “It has to work,” I said softly to myself. I sat up. “Listen to me. I cannot believe I am actually considering this, this crap to be true,” I scolded myself.

  I felt a light breeze brush my lips. I snapped my head in the direction it came from and froze. An apparition was suspended above the floor. It evolved into the vague shape of a person, but I couldn’t be sure. There was no real definition. The outline of the spirit faded in and out of the shadows in the room produced by the moonlight. The moment it started to move toward me, I kept my body still and quiet. I was mesmerized as it floated effortlessly in my direction. Surprisingly, my body relaxed. I wasn’t scared.

  I knew it was Matthew.