Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust

Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust chapter 21.5

Chapter 21.5

That evening we went to mass and sat and listened as Fr McGuinness talked about good and evil and how good will always triumph.

That and vampire blood. I thought quietly to myself.

Dimitri sat to my left with his hand in mine, his attention on the priest as he prayed for the Holy Spirit to come down and turn the bread into the body of Christ. And bit by bit I felt myself truly start to relax for the first time since Dimitri and Mircea had given me the news that had brought me home.

What else could I need? The thought of going home – our home – after mass was finished and eating dinner with our friends and family and looking forward to our wedding day filled me with a kind of giddy happiness.

Unfortunately I was so full of happiness I missed the rest of the service and before I knew it Father was giving us the final blessing and walking off the altar.

Maybe I shouldn’t relax just yet. Isn’t that when the girl dies in the movies – when she finally thinks the dangers gone and she relaxes. So not going to happen with me. I had a wedding to go to in a couple of days.

The congregation swamped Dimitri and myself as we made our way out of the beautiful chapel, people I hadn’t even spoken to when I did live in this town where coming up and chatting to us as though they we had been best friends.  Those who I did know where staring at me as though they were trying to figure out what was different. I smiled and squeezed Dimitri’s hand as he talked to the locals.

Suddenly I had the feeling of someone staring at me. Which was odd in itself as there was a lot of someone’s staring at me already. So why was the hair on the back of my neck suddenly standing on end?

Twisting around I scanned the alcoves and the shadows cast by the pillars and arches along the balcony….. And there for a second I could have sworn… But no, that was impossible.

***Are you alright?***

***Hmm?..Um yeah. I just thought – never mind.***

***Just thought what?***

I scanned the balcony again, but I already knew I wouldn’t see anyone. The feeling of being watched had left and so had whoever the hell I had spotted.

***I thought I saw a ghost.*** I gave Dimitri an uneven smile and shook off the coldness that had seeped under my skin.

Dimitri raised a single eyebrow and stared at me for a while before looking away. ***We’ll talk about your ghost when we get home***