Haunting

Chapter Nineteen

“Shannon,” he said, the relief evident in his voice, even over the phone.

“I’m so sorry daddy,” Shannon said, her voice cracking, cutting off whatever Harrison was going to say next.

“Oh, baby, don’t cry,” Harrison said soothingly. “It’s not your fault.”

“I just feel like there was something I should have done,” Shannon said. “Something that would have helped.” This wasn’t exactly true, but it was the best way of explaining her guilt to her family.

“Shannon, don’t you ever, ever, blame yourself for this,” Harrison said, his voice almost a growl. He sighed and sniffed as though he was holding back tears. “To tell you the truth, baby girl, we have known that this was a possibility for a while, there was absolutely nothing anyone could have done.”

Baby girl. Harrison hadn’t called Shannon that in a long, long time. Not really since he had met and married Fiona. He only ever called her that when he was feeling particularly sad and wanted to feel close to his little girl.

“What?” Shannon squeaked.

“Yeah, there was something wrong in one of his first ultrasounds. We didn’t want to worry you, but there was a chance, even this late in the pregnancy, that something could go wrong.”

Shannon’s steps faltered. The first ultrasound would have been when all that shit with Jess was going down. That explained a lot.

“I’m so sorry, Daddy.”

“It’s not your fault baby girl,” Harrison said. “Now, who was that girl at the house?”

When Reggie and Shannon walked in the house, Kelly, Missy, Ben and Flick were sitting on the floor playing Uno in semi-darkness.

Releasing Reggie’s hand, however reluctantly, Shannon sat down and curled around her siblings, and they relaxed back into her their playing cards abandoned along with any pretence of maturity. They both buried their faces in her stomach and cried. They didn’t know what happened, they couldn’t understand it, but still they knew it was worth crying over.

Surprisingly, their vulnerability steadied Shannon and for the first time since she walked downstairs to see her mother lying in a pool of her own blood, Shannon felt like she could breathe again.

Shannon gestured to Reggie who sat down beside her and rested her head on her shoulder. “Can you do something for me?” Shannon whispered into Reggie’s hair.

“Anything.”

“Can you get the book for me?”

Reggie’s brow furrowed. “The book?” she asked.

“You know,” Shannon said with emphasis. “The book.”

Reggie got it. “Oh, right. That book.” She stood up and started for the stairs. “Do you know where it is?”

Shannon shrugged and picked up one of the discarded hands. “In my room somewhere.”

Reggie rolled her eyes. “Of course it is.” She said. “You know Shan, you’re going to have to start picking up after yourself now that I can’t just walk through the crap on your bedroom floor.”

Shannon smiled at her broadly. “You can’t start a relationship hoping to change someone.”

“Says who” Reggie said and stuck out her tongue before walking up the stairs.

After a few minutes and a few arguments about the rules of Uno Reggie appeared at the bottom of the stairs.

“So who’s winning?” Reggie asked and passed the small, time warped book to Shannon.

“Flick,” Shannon said and turned around. “Can you play for me? I want to.” Shannon waved the book.

Reggie nodded and sat down behind Shannon and pulled her into her lap. Shannon relaxed into Reggie’s embrace as the others played, their voices blurring into nothing as Shannon stared at the unfamiliar words became as recognisable as English. This time Shannon started at the beginning.

Shannon lost track of time as she poured over the words. They blew her freaking mind, and as she read, tears welled in her eyes as the massive weight of guilt lifted from her shoulders. Right there, written in black and white were the words she had hoped to read, but didn’t think she ever could have. It wasn’t her fault.

A spell such as this requires a loss of life, as do all revival spells. However unlike the arcane spells of the dark witch, this spell doesn’t require a sacrifice. The loss does not need to come at the hands of the practitioner, nor does the spells recitation take the life. A natural death opens the way for a soul to reclaim its physical foothold in the living world, and the power of our sisters recreate the soul’s living vessel. The spell will only be successful if the powers deem the soul worthy of a second chance at life and the motives of the sister are pure.

Reggie ran a finger across Shannon’s cheek and wiped away the tear. “What’s wrong Shannon?” she asked softly so she didn’t disturb Kelly or Missy, who were snoring softly with their faces in Reggie and Shannon’s laps.

“It would have happened anyway,” Shannon said, holding back a sob. Then she remembered the feeling, instinct really, that she had before she cast the spell in the first place. She had forgotten about it in all the drama. That feeling came back with a vengeance.

“What?” Reggie asked, all the while doing that really distracting thing where she trailed her fingers up and down Shannon’s bare arms, causing goose bumps to rise all over her skin.

“It says it right there,” Shannon said and pointed down at the page after the spell that brought Reggie back. The page she was sure wasn’t there before.

“I can’t read that,” Reggie said, and pressed a chaste kiss on Shannon’s neck. “And I don’t know how you can read it either.”

“It’s magic, just like you,” Shannon said and tossed the book onto the floor.

“So, are you not sad anymore?” Reggie asked.

“No,” Shannon whispered back. “I’m still sad, I’m just feeling a little bit less guilty.”

Then the front door flew open and Jordan pranced into the room. “Fear not, my children” he sang, dragging a resigned looking Joanie behind him. “We come bearing sustenance. A delightful cuisine, native to the lands of the far east.” He took a dramatic bow and deposited a couple of bags of takeout containers in the middle of the card game.

Ben scratched his head and stared at them. “What?” he said at the same time as Flick asked, “Is he high?”

Joanie sighed and shoved Jordan hard enough that he fell over. “We bought Chinese food.”