A time-traveling romance filled with ghosts and smut.
Lilith Perkins is a girl lost in the modern world and the craziness of being twenty-something with no future in a fast-paced life. Taking a family vacation with her mother and sister in the olde...
Ups! Tento obrázek porušuje naše pokyny k obsahu. Před publikováním ho, prosím, buď odstraň, nebo nahraď jiným.
My breath hitched in alarm as I was left frozen on the stairwell. My mom and sister stopped to look at me before my sister suddenly said,
"Wow, did someone just turn the AC down or what? Burrr." She clutched herself and shivered before continuing on up the stairs. My mom stayed still, eyeing me warily before she asked me quietly,
"Do you have gas too?"
I frowned before stammering out,
"No, it's not that. I just got a weird chill again."
She smiled and replied casually,
"This place is old and spooky. You know what would be fun? A ghost tour! How about we take one tonight?"
I blinked at her a couple times before I realized that could actually be kind of fun.
The strange voice I had heard before went away and I began to believe I was just imagining things as I followed my mom and sis up the stairs to the opulent ballroom of the Lightner Museum.
Smooth mahogany floors greeted us at the top of the upper landing. Soft notes from a piano filtered up from down below in the center of the ballroom where the famous Alcazar pool had once been. Now, a small resturuant was running successfully down in the empty pool area.
My eyes roamed around the large room in awe. As I walked around, I found myself drifting away from my mother and sister. I stared at countless historical paintings and sculpted busts of people from centuries ago and I began to wonder what life must have been like in this city over a hundred years ago.
What would it feel like to fall back into a different time, an entirely new and alien way of living? No cars, wifi, or smoke shops...it must've been terrible.
My eyes centered on one singular, very large painting that was hanging on the back wall near the large set of bay windows that overlooked St. Augustine. I gasped quietly as I stared at it, transfixed. It was of a girl who looked eerily...exactly like me.
I checked the name of the artist on the golden template beneath the framed painting.
Artist: Aaron Starling Circa: 1890 Titled: Charlotte With Stars In Her Eyes
"That's sweet." I murmured to myself, staring at the plaque with a strange sense of fondness.
A deep, unfathomable sadness fell over me as I stared up at the painting. As I looked back into the green irises that reflected my own, I felt as if my heart were oddly breaking. Tears stung at my eyes and I jerked my head away, wiping at my face with a perturbed frown.
It was then that I felt the tingling sensation of someone's eyes on me. I quickly turned my head to see who was burning a hole into my backside with their gaze, yet no one was there.
Girl, you need to lay off the espresso.
I thought to myself as I walked away from the portrait. I began to look for the restroom then.
