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summary: There’s a phantom in the lavender fields.
In the wild lavender fields outside a small rural village is a strange figure that appears and disappears at random. Elodie has moved back in with her family, expecting to lose herself in mundane life there, and instead finds the mystery of a shadow figure she keeps communicating with.
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Water sloshed against Elodie’s sleeves as she fastidiously scrubbed a pan, it was a large cast iron skillet that barely fit in the sink and had last night’s pork loin stuck firmly to the bottom. A frown split Elodie’s face in two as she rubbed at the grease.
The sleeves of her blue blouse were kissing the water and soaking through, but she refused to acknowledge it.
“You’re doing it wrong,” a voice snapped at her from across the room. “Elodie, what is that even?”
“Doing the dishes,” she didn’t look up, “like you asked.”
“Yes, the dishes. Dishes from last night,” her sister loomed closer, “you’re just rubbing the grease around in circles! Use the iron wool.”
Elodie grit her teeth, “it’s fine, it’s fine. It’s getting done.” She soapy water splashed down her wrists and she scrubbed harder.
Her sister went quiet- a sign her brewing thoughts were slowly rising to the surface. “Were you even in last night?”
She grit her teeth harder, “obviously.”
“Tch,” her sister clicked her tongue, Elodie could already feel her shaking her head darkly behind her. “At what hour?”
Elodie sighed belligerently, hot air escaping her lungs. “Can I just finish this?”
She snorted, “it doesn’t look like you can.” Her sister said, this time with a teasing edge to her word. “Look, you’re just rubbing it around in circles!” She repeated.
“It’s fine!” She turned indignantly on her heels, “Lea.” She said tartly, “I need you to,” she searched the air wildly for the right phrasing. Then she closed her mouth again.
Lea, with her full lips and generous figure, just smiled mildly, “do your chores for you?” She gave a small laugh, “honestly, nothing has changed since we were kids.”
Elodie could have growled, but a series of fast footsteps pattered up the back steps before they could continue, “Aunt Elodie!” A voice squawked, “Aunt Elodie!”
Elodie and Lea paused and trained their faces back into something amiable and not “trying to bite each other’s heads off” expressions.
“Samuel?”
A young boy crashed into the back door, making the blinds rattle and his sweaty red face plunged into view. He was breathing hard and his striped shirt was streaked with mud. “She’s back!” He said sharply, his eyes wide with something.
Elodie dropped the sponge she was holding and wiped her hands down on her jeans, “are you sure?”
He nodded hard and fast. Lea put her hands on her hips, “are you two on about this again?”
“Come on,” he gestured fiercely with his small hands, waving back and forth, “before it-”
“Aunt Elodie!” Another voice joined them, this one wheezing and strained. “She’s here, she’s,” gasp, “here.”
“Margot!” Lea threw her hands in the air, “your asthma, what are you thinking?”
Little Margot just gave a pained breath and waved her hands back and forth like a sailor stranded at sea, “we saw,” gasp,“her.”
Elodie furrowed her brow, but Samuel was grabbing her hand, “do it again, do the trick.”
Elodie looked between her sister and her niece as Lea got out the little girl’s inhaler and gave it a good shake. Lea shot Elodie a prickly look: you’re the one that’s excited them like this.
Elodie let herself be dragged away as Samuel tugged at her with all his might, “Aunt Elodie, you have to that thing again.”
“Mama,” Margot struggled in her mom’s arms, “I want to see Aunt and the phantom!”
“Hush.”
They left the little girl and her mother and stumbled out the white steps of the little house into the fierce white sunlight, piercing and bleaching across their skin. Elodie wrinkled her nose, “are you sure?” She looked up at the empty fields, the sun wasn’t even halfway across the sky yet.
Samuel gave her a huge toothy grin with two front teeth missing and started running. “Follow me!”
Elodie had no choice but to jog barefoot across the scraggly grass after him. It was a softly sleepy morning with a quiet dirt road to her right and fields and fields to her left. The village itself was only two kilometers away, but with the thick oak trees and oceans of yellow grasses it often felt like they were alone out there.
Rolling hills hit small dwellings in the distance and further out were foggy blue mountains that threatened you with their teeth and hollow voices- jagged craggy outlines on the horizon. It always seemed too quiet out there for her, but Elodie liked the watercolor yellows and blues of it and the way everything felt boundless and unknown.
They walked until they came to a shallow swampy lake that was really only a lake in name and more of a soggy puddle by then. They stopped and Samuel pointed out.
A smooth, sweet scent overwhelmed them on the breeze.
Dotting the small hill were purple clumps that crowded out the yellow grasses in haphazard rolling waves of vivid color. They were chunky lavender plants that had flown away from the larger plantations and took root all on their own. Acres and acres of blooming purple flowers spread out before them.
Elodie blinked a couple times, and Samuel looked left and then right.
“Is she…?” Elodie breathed and took a few steps toward the wild lavender field. At the base of a gentle hill two kids popped up and waved at them.
“Claire!” Samuel called, “Louise, where’d she go?” The two kids were grubby, one red-haired and covered in scrapes, and the other one with brown hair that went in every which direction. They must have been around Samuel’s age, seven or eight.
Elodie readied her “nice older relative” smile and then her body froze, Louise was pointing at the top of the hill. And there she was.
Elodie’s hands fell uselessly to her side and a sensation hit her like cold water being splashed down the back of her neck. “Oh.”
Samuel started listing off when the shadow had showed up and how they had thrown salt at her and nothing happened (again). Elodie just started to walk straight ahead, “I’ll handle it.”
The phantom was pale, and whispery. She had the trappings of a person: long white-blonde hair, a silvery blue dress, and a pair of smudgy pink slippers on her feet. But she moved in a way that only things from dreams could move, bonelessly, careless.
She was a shimmering fish in the water or pliant white grocery bag caught in the wind. Sometimes when she turned Elodie swore she saw a flash of light or a dark gash in the air itself around her. She was bizarre to look directly at, like a brewing headache or a sunburn working its way through your vision. Wrong.
Elodie made her way warily upward. The sun glinted into her eyes and the figure swayed in place.
“Is your aunt going to do the thing?” The little girl asked Samuel excitably and Elodie realized they were trooping like ducklings behind her.
“Wait,” Elodie stuck her hand out. “You all wait here.” Three sets of large eyes blinked back at her, and Elodie mustered a reassuring smile. “She only likes me, remember?” More blinks. “Just,” she flinched, “stay right here.”
Her smile faded as Elodie turned to face the shifting phantom in the lavender fields, she heard rustling behind her, but Samuel piped up. “We have to stay here!” He asserted shrilly and kept his friends in place as Elodie made her way up, up, and up.
She focused her eyes on the pale figure ahead, she was a slip of a woman with spindly limbs and glowing blue veins along her thin wrists. Her back was turned to Elodie, as it always was, and her loose dress fluttered behind her fitfully.
“Hey,” Elodie stopped several paces behind her back. “Are you lost, ma’am?”
It took a moment, a pause in time that whipped around them like a stuttering heartbeat. She turned in place, and space shifted around her in unnatural shadows and bits of stray light.
Her eyes were wide frightened things, like moonless nights or dark pools of water. She had a small mouth and a crooked nose that was snug on her narrow face. Her cheeks were indented and skin almost chalky. Sometimes Elodie would look at her and think: of course this is an unnatural anomaly in the world of things. Sometimes she would look at her and think other things.
The ghostly figure parted her small pink mouth and stood up straight, her whole body shifting oddly in place and thick eyebrows twisting upward. “Hello?”
Her voice was misty and muffled, like speaking through a piece of gauze, but it was touched with inflection and worry, a pitched girlishness. Human.
Elodie reached her hand out, “Ma’am” She stared steadily into her face, “are you lost?” The girl opened and closed her mouth, Elodie put her hand out, “I can take you home.”
The girl glanced at Elodie’s outstretched hand and then back to her face. “I can’t.”
And then there was a fading, a slow sunset, a dimming of an old lamp, and scattering of color in all directions. Something was sucked from her, and then there was nothing at all.
Elodie swallowed thickly and let her hand fall to her side, “of course.”
“Woah!”
“Oh my Gosh!”
“Samuel, Sam, what did your aunt just do?”
And it was like it always was. The girl, the phantom, disappeared.
-------------
There was a coolness touching the land by dinner time, a breeze that snaked in between the trees and had them propping open all the windows and exhaling gladly.
Elodie had been sweating behind her knees for hours by then, and it was nice to sit by the window and let the twilight sink into her. They put out iced sodas and the kids banged around upstairs as they tried to get the dog to jump through a hoop for them.
Elodie closed her eyes and took deep breaths, Carl would hate this. She smiled sadly to herself, or love it like a fool.
She was considering this when more footsteps came through the door, Elodie peaked her eyes open to see her sister: long green dress, plump waist, and black hair tied up in a bun. Her eyes were glimmering shards that caught the light as she took people apart with them.
“So,” she cleared her throat, “you entertained the kids for a bit.”
Elodie rolled her eyes, “it’s… nothing.”
Lea winced slightly, “give them nightmares with that ghost talk.”
Elodie looked away, “phantom.” She corrected absently, “and you’ve seen her before too.” They all had.
“I’ve seen a person wandering around the lavender fields,” she said dismissively, “nothing new.”
Elodie just sighed, you haven’t seen her disappear though. Elodie frowned, and reappear.
“I’ll try not to scare them,” Elodie reassured as she rested her head back and stared at the ceiling, “besides,” she gave a shrewd smile that shone like a new coin. “They know I can handle any phantom out there anyway.” She flexed one arm to show off the muscles.
Lea rolled her eyes, “I did the dishes tonight you know.”
Elodie wiggled her toes in the carpet, “thanks.”
She sniffed loudly, “and if you go out tonight-”
“Look, it’s not like-”
“Don’t leave your bottles in plain sight like some sort of vagrant slob.”
They exchanged a sharp, angular look, like they did as kids before they tried to wrestle the other one to the floor and smush her face into the dusty carpet. Elodie drew a deep breath, “you’re one to talk…” The storm was brewing. “When’s the last time you even left the property?”
“I don’t know, when’s the last time you did your laundry?” They glared.
A soft cough came from the nearby doorway.
“Girls,” a voice wheezed, “girls, no fighting in the house.”
“Mom,” Elodie sat up completely straight and Lea whipped around.
“We thought you were asleep already.” Lea’s eyes were huge and fixed on the darkened doorway as a figure hobbled through the arch and stared at them through crusted eyes.
A tiny woman stood there in her nightgown, hunched over and with withered hands and deep grooves in her skin like gnarled tree bark. She blinked at them unseeingly.
“Mom?” Elodie was the first to get to her feet, “mom, how’re you feeling?”
The woman turned to her and gave a dry cough, “don’t let it touch you.” She said with a sneer, “never let it touch you.”
Elodie took a few rapid steps toward her, “let what touch me?” She reached to take one of her shaking hands.
Their mom simply tilted her chin up and her expression softened, “Daniel?” She asked weakly, “Daniel, I don’t want to take a bath right now.”
Elodie took a deep heavy breath and she could feel Lea untensing behind her. “Come on mom,” Lea strode over to take her other hand, “let’s get you back to bed.”
The sister’s gently guided their aged mother back to her castle of pillows and large bed where her monitors blinked and a note lay on the bedside table from the day nurse: Evelyne was a little foggy today, but nothing to worry about! She took her night meds and booster. I’ll see you both in the morning.- Love Tina.
Elodie didn’t look at her sister as they eased their mom back into bed and sat around her in a small circle until her breathing evened out.
Lea flattened her skirts down, and she kept glancing at Elodie. Maybe she feels bad about what she said, Elodie pondered, though of course Lea would never admit it.
“I’m going to go put the kids to bed.” Lea finally said offhandedly. “Tell me if mom stirs again while you’re down here.”
“Of course.”
They parted ways and their mother seemed to fall into a deep slumber. Elodie prepared to go out for the night.
----------------
Contrary to her family's belief Elodie did not walk all the way into town to spend her nights at the bars making idle chit-chat with strangers and sometimes allowing them to take her home. In fact, contrary to her family’s belief Elodie did not even go into town at all most nights.
That would involve transport, and money, and making sure her wallet was still on her by sunrise. She did not go into town.
Elodie swayed back and forth as she walked along a dirt path, “ladybug, ladybug,” she sang to herself, gently, “fly away home,” she took a deep sip out of her canister that smelled of fresh sharpies and what holy water must be to demons. “Your house is on fire and your children are gone!”
The kids at Elodie’s first job taught her that song, back when she thought she would travel the world as an au pair. They had sung it to her in delight as they jumped rope and pointed at bugs to her on the lawn.
Elodie smiled at the memory, and then took another swig of vodka.
“Ladybug, ladybug,” she did a spin in the dirt and her senses blurred together like a kaleidoscope. It was better at night like this, the battery acid running through her veins and not having to be cooped up in her bed, waiting. “Fly away home!”
She hiccuped and kept walking, she never chose a real direction, just walked until she couldn’t feel her teeth and the burn in her muscles pierced through all the groggy alcohol in her system.
“Lea thinks,” she snorted to herself, “pfft. Bars are for,” she hiccuped, “bars are for,” she stumbled away, away, away, under a canopy of trees and toward the chirping crickets. The first thing she discovered out here was that the countryside just kept going. It drew a deep breath and it’s emptiness only seemed to expand. “Bars… are not.”
She swayed and sipped until the bottle was nearing it’s halfway point, and then she stumbled to the ground and in a blip she was flat on her stomach. She closed her eyes for a moment. The grass was soft and damp against her cheek and she heard a voice in her head: this again, my love?
“Alright,” Elodie shook herself, “can’t let Lea win. No Lea win.” She pushed herself upright and staggered into the soggy light of the pale white moon. And then she blinked and there was the smell as full and striking as a cold glass of water on a hot day.
Lavender, soft and fragrant hit her across the face, Elodie dropped her bottle and made her way toward the scent. This was usually when she turned around, satisfied with her attempts to get absolutely smashed, and walked home.
“The fields…” She mumbled, the wild lavender spread in all directions, huge and expansive, it was lit by the dripping white half-moon and endless purple patches rolled into the silent treeline. The sight ballooned in her chest like an affectionate caress to the cheek. She stumbled further out into the fields and tried to yank out her phone from her pocket.
It took her a good minute to open the camera app, she hiccuped slightly. “Who’s shtupid now, Lea?” She rasped and drew her phone up to take what she assumed would be a perfect vision of a photograph in the morning. “Gonna be… gor-goush.”
She snapped, once, twice, and then tapped on it to see the results. Her eyes went huge. There was a pale glowing figure in the middle of the fields, in the middle of the image itself. Elodie jerked her head up and a young woman was standing before her, head tilted to the side and eyes vacant.
“Phantom,” Elodie swallowed thickly, nerves jangling together as the girl glowed eerily in front of her. It was one thing to find her during the day, but another thing to run into her completely alone in the deep of the night. “I,” she took a stiff step backward, “I didn’t know you… you could come at thish time too.”
She said lamely, her words slurring together and world tilting sideways slightly as she stared too long at the figure.
The phantom furrowed her brow together, “hello?” She said in her small, muted voice, flighty and baseless. Elodie studied the phantom’s face, empty and tense all at once.
She took a deep breath, remembering herself. “Are you lost, ma’am?” She asked gently, fighting against the self-inflicted fog in her head.
The girl paused in place and for the first time she met Elodie’s eyes, honing in and seeking her out, every hair on Elodie’s arms stood up. Her heart pulsed faster and she pinched lips together, “are you lost, ma’am?”
She repeated the words passed from children to children to tell the phantom, to return her to where she came from and away from the fields.
The girl’s dark eyes continued to focus carefully, had she always been so close? And then the girl drew a deep breath, “are you?”
Elodie’s mouth fell open, what? She knew the script sometimes shifted, that the words and places and times all fluctuated. But this was different. Elodie was held there by something that felt like it could see her, witness her drinking herself into oblivion in empty fields.
“You should turn back.” The phantom said flatly, voice echoing in her skull and flavoring her thoughts. “Or you’ll be lost too…”
And then she began to turn, her whole body rotating in places and the light and shadows morphing unnaturally around her- twisting and convulsing. Her image flickered gently and eyes dragged over Elodie one last time before she began to evaporate.
“Wait!” Elodie scrambled to reach for her, her battered mind pushing on her to move, to act. “Wait, who- who-”
Elodie grabbed for the figure, for something, she thrust her hand into the mist just as the image was dispersing. A pain like ice so cold it burned ran up her arm and blazed with a fiery vengeance, pinpricks that lit up every nerve.
“Ah!” A bloody scream was ripped from her vocal chords and tears sprang to her eyes.
But the figure waited, her eyes similarly huge and something like anguish contorting across her thin features. “Hello?” She asked, voice clear and silver- singing and bright against the dark air.
Elodie toppled to the ground and crushed her left hand to her chest as if to protect it. The second she let go of her the pain fizzled out and fled from her mind like walking into a room and forgetting what you went in there for.
She hyperventilated and looked straight ahead at the lavender plants, “oh.” The girl’s voice said from far above. “Aren’t you strange.”
Elodie tried to look up again, but her vision started spotting black and her eyes rolled back into her head.
The world was wordlessly extinguished.
--------------------
Elodie woke with a pounding in her head and the taste of fertilizer in her mouth like it was trying to plant it’s own community garden on her tongue. She lapped at the roof of her mouth and tried to turn over in place and block out the searing on her eyelids and throbbing between her ears.
“Mamaaaa!” A voice whined, “Mama, here, here. I found her.”
Oh no, Elodie jerked upright and her entire body recoiled from the sudden movement. “Oh God,” she cradled her head in her hands and curled up on the sodden earth.
“Aunt Eli,” someone poked her shoulder, “it’s time to wake up now.”
Elodie cracked her eyes open and pushed through the commotion in her frontal lobe. Don’t be a baby, she chided herself and forced her arms out, unbending her legs with a deep groan that vibrated through her bones.
Her niece poked her again, “you smell bad.”
Elodie squinted at Margot in her wide sunhat and neat overalls. She opened her mouth to respond but was overcome with a wave of nausea. This wasn’t how she usually liked to spend her mornings, she usually glugged a lot more water before she passing out most nights.
And it wasn’t usually on the ground.
“Elodie,” she heard her name called across the way, it wasn’t loud or even very sharp. It was however low and silky in a way that crawled across your spine and held your soul hostage.
Elodie swallowed thickly, her tongue a tangible piece of rotten fruit in her mouth. She lurched forward and forced her legs under her to try and stand.
“You need a bath,” Margot repeated as she looked up at her with morning-glory blue eyes.
“I do,” she said with a mustered shallow smile, and then her sister was beside her.
“Elodie,” she repeated her name in the same dark way. Elodie refused to look at her, Lea patted Margot’s head. “Thank you for finding your aunt, Margot, now run along.”
Elodie’s shoulders pinched together and her head pounded like a construction sight. Ugh, Carl would be saying “I told you so” right now.
“Okay,” Margot took Elodie’s hand instead and tugged her towards the house, “but Aunt needs to clean up first.”
Elodie exhaled through her nose and was grateful she wouldn’t have to be alone with Lea just yet. Lea saddled up next to her and her arm in an iron grip. She whispered into her ear, controlled and even. “I know you’re still processing everything,” she hissed, “but what the hell are you doing?”
Elodie hung her head and looked at her worn shoes, covered and dust and flower petals. She knew how this looked.
Divorcee can’t handle her shit and walks away drunk and hopeless into the forest. She sighed as her sister dug her nails into her flesh.
I met a phantom Lea. And she said something new. Elodie didn’t say that either.
---------------------
“I knew the drinking was getting bad,” Lea walked back and forth across the kitchen, angrily picking up a stray dishware or washcloth and then putting it down again. “But this was just absurd!”
Elodie looked miserably down at her lap as she cradled a cool glass of water in her hands, the sun glinted low and somber off in the distance. She had almost slept the whole day away when she got home. And now this. “I know, Lea.”
“Absurd! You hear me?”
“Yes,” Elodie bunched up into herself, the kids were still out playing and Lea and Elodie’s mother was buried deep inside her own head off in her room. “I know.”
“You know?” Lea fumed, “You know how this looks to my kids then? What I have to explain to them?”
Elodie flinched and looked away, “this wasn’t supposed to happen.”
Lea took a deep breath in through her nose, put her washrag down, and flattened her skirts. “Elodie,” she said in a composed tone, “I know it’s only been a couple of weeks…”
Elodie’s eyes sunk low, “I know, I know, I’m sorry, I know how this looks.”
“Do you?”
“I can,” she swallowed thickly and her eyes stung, “I can get my things-”
“No,” Lea shook her head, “I’m angry,” she tutted, “not heartless.”
Elodie pinched her lips together and took another deep sip of her water, her skull was still shaking with a fragile headache. Usually she handled this better, usually she kept her shit to herself.
“Elodie,” Lea continued when Elodie didn’t respond. “I’m worried about you.” She closed the distance between them and leaned over her younger sister. “Listen,” she said softly, “I know Carl leaving will take… time to process.”
All the muscles in her body tensed up, “I’m processing, I’m processing,” she said quickly, “this was just… nothing. It was something weird.”
Lea bent over and looked her directly in the eyes.
“You’re stronger than this,” she rubbed her shoulder, “I’ll tell the kids you’re sleeping walking again. Like when we were kids.” Elodie just nodded back, “and then I’m taking your stash. No more booze in this house.”
“What?” Elodie’s brow folded neatly inward, “that’s not yours to take! It’s my money, my things.”
Lea wiggled a finger back and forth, “it’s my house.” She said carefully, “and I think you should try sleeping the normal way.” She snorted, “you might like it.”
Elodie jumped to her feet, “you think I do it for fun?” She growled, “that I just… just drink myself silly and exhaust myself like that for a good time?”
“Maybe,” she shrugged, “you always did things for the thrill of it. Wasn’t that how you married Carl in the first place?”
“I,” Elodie set her glass of water down and bunched her fists up, they looked at each other across the way, heated and taut. Something simmered just beneath the surface. “I’m going for a walk.” She whipped around on her heels and stomped toward the door.
“Don’t you dare drink while you’re out there!”
“Lea, I see this with all sisterly sincerity,” she called over her shoulder, seeing red, “get stuffed.”
Elodie was halfway toward the door when she saw a shadow looming by the stairs, “ah!” She jumped violently as a bony hand reached out and a cough followed. Elodie clutched her chest, “mom!”
The old woman shuffled closer with her walker and stared ahead, “Danny.”
“I, uh, Lea and I didn’t mean it...” she whispered, mostly for her own sake and not for her mother’s ears.
“You let her,” she clucked and shook her head, “you shouldn’t have let her.”
Elodie frowned loudly, “please, mama,” she tried to guide her, “let’s get you back to your room.” Elodie grabbed for her hand.
“Don’t touch me! Don’t touch me,” Her mother drew back as if burned, “fool. You already let her.”
Elodie stood their uselessly, all the energy in the world sapped out of her. “Fine.” She spat, “Go to Lea then.” She flung the front door open before jogging toward the end of the property. She could have screamed.
For a moment, just a moment, she thought the phantom was there, glimmering in the evening sun and a shadow of the great trees. Waiting for her.
But then it was just her, alone, swallowing down the frustrated wails and cursing herself.
----------------
Elodie was awake. Her eyes were itching and the night was heavier and larger than it had ever been around her. It was the second night awake, the first was nothing but a smear and a few lost hours, this one was sharp and ugly.
It stretched and prowled and a pain buzzed behind her eyeballs. She blinked slowly, and often, something wiggled and clenched in her chest. It wasn’t supposed to be this way, she pressed a hand to the back of her neck, it wasn’t.
Even if they all warned me it would be.
She heard a soft knock at the door, Elodie considered pretending to be out. Pretending to be gone and passed out in the lavender fields for good this time.
Another knock came to the door.
“Yes?” She croaked with a voice swollen from crying.
“Aunt Elodie,” a voice piped up, “we brought you this.”
Elodie oozed across the floor and to the door, she tugged it open and checked the hallway left and right before sticking her head out. “Ah,” she said with a small smile, “disobeying the law I see. Small fugitives.”
Margot gave a laugh behind her little hands and Samuel grinned widely, “it’s not much.” He shoved a plate at her, “but mom said we could put it aside for you.”
Elodie snorted, “warden approved. I accept.” They laughed together and Elodie took her plate from them, “thank you, I’ll give you piggyback rides or something tomorrow.”
Samuel smiled, “we’re too old for that auntie.” He said briskly, “but you could come out to the fields again. Mama says you can.”
Elodie looked away blankly toward the wall, “I don’t think… I don’t think the fields would be a good place for me right now.”
“What if she pops here?” Margot made a face, “she could… eat us. Like the stories.”
Elodie just shook her head, “don’t worry.” She rubbed the little girl’s head, “we’re safe. She stays in the fields.”
Samuel and Margot just exchanged a look and then Samuel tilted his head, “could you do the trick again?”
Elodie took a step back, “I’ll have to do my phantom trick some other time.” She said plainly, “I need some rest for now.”
“But-”
“I’m sorry, little ones, thank you for my illegal treat.” She closed the door and they both groaned.
“She’s being no fun.”
“Can the phantom really not get us here?”
“Of course.”
-----------------------
It was the second night Elodie had decided to “retire” to her room for awhile. She hadn’t seen her mom or her sister in that time, she had mostly studied the scenery out her window and the screen of her phone. She hadn’t slept at all.
Elodie leaned on her windowsill and spilled her eyes over the dark night, this was supposed to fix things. Her shoulders fell, it was all supposed to fix it.
She came to the countryside to “recover” herself, but nothing was ever that easy.
The night hours dragged on and toiled away, sometimes she considered sleeping, but any time she lay down the thoughts tumbled around her in a hungry avalanche. You’re the reason, you’re the reason, you ruin everything around you.
Elodie sat back up again and busied herself with the view outside and endless buzzfeed quizzes online. This used to be easier.
And that’s when she peered into the night and her breath caught in her throat: “you.” She swore and then was on her feet, “you!” She shoved on a pair of sneakers and dashed down the dark stairs by feel alone.
She tried to quietly burst into the night and cross the long grasses that tickled her calves.
“You!” She pointed at a trim woman lost in the moonlight, “you did something.”
The woman cocked her head to the side and swayed in place, “hello?”
“Ugh!” Elodie threw her hands up, “of course. Of course I’m just going crazy.”
“Hello?”
Elodie strode up right toward her face, “you’re a real problem here you know. Don’t give me that look.” She snapped to make herself feel better.
The phantom looked Elodie up and down, “were you the one drinking so much the other night?”
Elodie froze, her thoughts grinding to a halt with a jarring lurch. She looked back at the phantom who moved so strangely and disappeared at will. “Excuse me?”
“You were drunk,” she said bluntly, “slurring your words.”
Elodie’s mouth hung open, “you… you, saw that? Or uh, understood it?”
“Of course,” a faint smile played across her lips, “how could I miss it?” Her voice was somehow clearer, grounded in something.
Elodie ran a hand through her short hair, trying to process a spirit-being speaking so lucidly. “This is… different.”
“I mean, I’m sure plenty of people do it. Maybe not so much though,” The phantom said, and blinked a couple times. “Why were you drinking so much?”
“I got a divorce,” Elodie suddenly felt the need to defend herself, “and I have... trouble sleeping.”
“That’s too bad,” the young woman lifted her face toward the scattered moonlight, “Sleep is hard sometimes.” Her strange face morphed into confusion, nose wrinkling and lips tugging down. “I think… I think it was.”
“Are you,” Elodie searched the air, “who are you?”
“Oh.” The woman looked back, “I’m Romy.” She said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, “that’s what I’ve been calling myself.”
Elodie’s mouth was still open, “do you know where you are?”
The woman, Romy, hummed deeply. “I’m here of course. What’s your name?” She asked, eyes glowing in the night.
“Elodie,” she responded carefully, “Elodie Paquet.”
“Ah,” the phantom spoke softly. “I knew that.”
Elodie’s eyes went wide, “what are you doing here?”
Romy shimmered and wobbled in place, her entire form wavering. “I think I knew once.” She took a step back and the shadows and lights morphed around her, “but… I’ve forgotten.”
“Romy,” she said in a strained tone, “do you know what’s happening? Where… where are you from?”
Romy’s turned her face toward the east, “you should go inside.”
“What?”
“You’re the reason I’m allowed here,” Romy spoke flatly, “but I think…” she frowned, “yes, go in.”
“No,” Elodie took a step toward her, “what did you do to my hand last night? What was that?”
Romy’s eyes flicked down, “you tell me.”
Elodie glanced down and her whole head spun, her hand was… wrong. It was shifting among the light, the shadows hugged it and something twisted strangely around the digits.
“What did you-”
“AAHHH!” A scream came from within the house.
Romy started to flicker away, “I told you.”
“No!” Elodie whipped around and sprinted back toward the house, dread flushed through her system and thoughts racing: evil ghost, demon creatures, phantom devils. She had brought this.
“Hello?!” She yelled through the front door and Lea was already bustling down the stairs and headed toward the corner room on the first floor.
“Mama,” Lea dashed forward with Elodie hot on her heels.
Their mother was yelling, clutching her sheets and crying out louder than she had been able to in years. “The dead, the dead,” her chest heaved, “the dead are here.”
The two sister’s tried to calm the old woman down just Elodie’s heart pounded in her chest: Carl, what have I brought on us?
Their mother said little else before disappearing again into a troubled sleep.
--------------------
Elodie flipped over a hot pancake on the griddle, it splattered across her hand and the counter. She hissed through her teeth. “Dammit,” she moved the pancake around and then wiped up the drips.
She sprinkled in blueberries to the batter and poured five glasses of orange juice into their cracked mugs and one good crystal glass. She placed a flower from the garden in the center of the table.
It had been a long night.
“Pancakes!” She heard a squeal from the kitchen doorway.
Elodie smiled over her shoulder, “Good morning, little bug.”
Margot clapped her hands together, “I want whip cream with mine.”
“Of course.”
She called for Samuel to come down and help her set the table. Elodie turned away from the kitchen entrance when a heavier set of steps arrived.
“You’re up early.” Lea commented dryly from behind her.
I never went to sleep.
“I hope you don’t mind Lea,” she said softly, “I used all of the eggs.”
A sigh followed, “you’re dealing with them when they’re on a sugar high.”
Elodie smiled over her shoulder, but the expression pinched as she saw the shadows under her sister’s eyes. “Should we…” Elodie hesitated, “should I make some for mom?”
Lea didn’t even twitch, “of course.” She humphed, “but first we’ll let her sleep a little longer.”
“Was grandma scared last night?” Margot ran around her mother’s skirts. “Will she be alright?”
Lea herded her daughter toward the table, “she had bad dreams.” Elodie turned back to her pancakes, scowling at the fluffy, browning results.
They had agreed it was night terrors, something the whole family was prone to. But… Elodie flipped the pancake onto her growing plates.
But Elodie had been there. Elodie had been talking to something that was surely not
Church-sanctioned or physics approved. And then her mother had briefly lost it.
She placed the syrup on the table and Margot cheered as she got the first two helpings of food.
“Samuel!” Lea called upstairs, “we’re sitting down.”
The little boy joined them just as Elodie placed all the plates in a circle and Grandma Evelyne still hadn’t appeared yet. Lea hadn’t gone to wake her, even as they set the fifth place.
Night terrors… Guilt panged deep in Elodie’s chest and she gripped the children’s hands tightly.
“Lord, thank you for the meal.” Lea said firmly and Elodie squeezed her eyes shut and made a prayer that slipped away just as quickly as she formed it.
It was hard to form prayers around ghost girls and the strange stomach-churning movement around her left hand last night. Please, she tried again with her head bowed, let this all pass.
They let go quickly to start eating and Lea didn’t look up as she spoke, “and Elodie?” She said evenly.
“Yes?” Elodie hunched her shoulders, preparing herself for the next confrontation.
“Could you go get groceries after breakfast?” She asked perfectly calmly, “we’re out of eggs now.”
Elodie just smiled unevenly, “yes.”
They didn’t address the night before, just as their mother slept through breakfast.
---------------------
Elodie held her bike helmet in hand and wheeled her bike along the dirt path. Normally, she would ride into town with her cheeks flushed and legs pumping.
However, the front tire was low on air and the morning sun wasn’t too hot yet for a slow walk and a little time alone time with her sluggish thoughts. She studied the tree branches overhead and waved lazily at the one blue truck that passed her along the way.
The air was sweet and bird songs criss-crossed overhead as she moved slowly toward the nearest grocery store.
Elodie kicked stones as she wheeled her bike along. “What would you say, Carl?” She asked her shoelaces and then tipped her head all the way back to let the sky settle over her face. “An idiot. Yeah. I know.”
Her shoulders slumped down and hoped she brought enough cash for bonbons for the kids when she finally got there.
“Who’s Carl?”
Elodie nearly jumped entirely out of her skin as a voice addressed her, “ack!” She cursed and looked back and forth so quickly it felt like her eyes might fall out.
“Here.”
Elodie’s entire face went slack and she stopped in place. There was a frail girl standing next to the trees just beside Elodie, she wore the same pale blue dress and distant expression. Elodie glanced toward the morning light and then the ghostly girl.
She opened her mouth and then closed it open. Romy.
Her face folded into a threat, “what the hell did you do to me last night?”
Romy picked her way closer to Elodie on the path, “nothing.” She said simply. “What are you doing now?”
Elodie threw one hand up, “what did you do to my mom?”
“Nothing,” she repeated, “her mind is just… Adrift. She’s open.”
“And does that even mean?” Elodie was about to strangle a ghost.
“She’s okay now, yeah?” Genuine concern seemed to ring through the girl’s tone. “She just remembered.”
“What does, ugh,” Elodie groaned, “I can’t believe I’m trying to get reason out of a ghost.”
“Is that what you think of me? Huh.” Elodie spoke softly and then turned up the road. “Will you take me to town?”
“So you can haunt more people?” She shook her head with forlorn.
Romy spun in place, “I don’t think that will happen again.” She leaned toward the bike, “take me to town?”
“No.” Elodie took a step back, “go back… go back to where you come from.”
“I don’t want to.”
Elodie ran a free hand through her hair and tugged, “you come here to fight or something?”
Romy gave a loose chuckle, “not really.” She watched Elodie closely, “who’s Carl?”
“Oh my God,” Elodie started walking, “don’t follow me.”
“Are those your kids from before?”
“You stay away from them!”
“Wait,” Romy chased after her, “no. They’re… the other ones.”
Elodie made a strangled noise, “you know I can’t touch you, but… I will start singing. Badly. Or I’ll scream.”
Romy tipped back and forth on the balls of her feet, “I’ll scream with you if you like.”
Elodie wrinkled her nose, “fine. You know what?” She walked faster, “Maybe I was going to try and help you before. But now that’s definitely not going to happen.”
“You were not,” Romy smiled blithely. “Thank you though. Things were… blurry before.”
Elodie slowed down at that, her bike wheels rolled to a stop. “Blurry?” She wrinkled her brow, “where do you usually go?”
“Nowhere.” Romy studied Elodie’s face. “Do you have any food?”
Elodie’s eyebrows rose, “can you eat?”
Romy smiled simply, “just as much as you can.”
“This is so weird,” Elodie lamented. “My life is punishment for everything else I did.”
Romy tittered, “oh, it wasn’t that bad.”
“Did we,” Elodie struggled, beginning to walk toward the village again, this time more slowly. “Did you, uh, absorb me I guess? When I touched you?”
“No,” Romy laughed again, “do you want to be absorbed?”
Elodie scuffed her shoes across the dirt and hung her head, “I mean, sometimes.”
“You are,” she hummed for a long moment, “What is it called? A sad sack?”
Elodie huffed indignantly, “now I’m really not helping you.”
Romy walked on the other side of the bike with her, smiling serenely. “You’re the one out drinking in the fields.”
Elodie jutted her chin out petulantly, “well maybe I would have processed my divorce somewhere else if I knew you were stalking me.”
Romy’s feet crunched on the dirt road and it seemed odd, “did you like being married?”
Elodie frowned as she asked, what kind of question is that?
Romy continued, “I promised a boy I would marry him once. But he had such terrible breath in 6th grade that I don’t think I could ever really go through with it.”
“How old are you?” Elodie asked in concern, “how do… you remember things?”
“Like you do,” she said with placid smile, “and I’m 22.”
Elodie whistled, “so young…” So young to die.
“You’re… twenty six?”
“Barely,” Elodie grumbled, “twenty six. Divorced. Barely employed.” She continued her laments, “If mama was lucid she would never let me hear the end of it.”
Romy threaded a hand through her long blonde hair, “it happens.” She side-eyed her, “was it fun? Marriage?”
Elodie shrugged, “for a time… when you’re 19 and in love everything is fun.”
“Huh,” Romy nodded, “my mother married at 19 too.”
Elodie studied the ghost for a long moment, “do you remember where you are now, Romy? What’s been happening to you?”
Romy simply frowned, “I think so… be careful with your hand by the way.” The crunch of dirt under car wheels sounded from behind them. “And the lavender fields.”
Elodie’s eyes went wide, “will my hand get worse?” She swallowed, “fall off?”
Romy just laughed, “no! Oh my gosh.” She snickered, “I don’t think what happened to me will happen to you.”
“Uh,” the back of Elodie’s neck prickled, “Romy…” She said softly, “do you know what happened to you? Did someone… do this to you?”
“No.” Romy gave a slim smile, “no one’s done anything. Not yet.”
“What?”
“I would like an orange.” She announced, grabbing the bike basket and stopping the bike in place. “Buy me an orange please. And I’ll keep you company.”
“I really don’t want that.”
Romy shrugged, “then I’ll leave you alone.”
Elodie laughed and was about to confirm that deal, and then someone beeped at them from behind. “Don’t walk in the middle of the road, girls!”
“Oh, sorry,” Elodie waved behind her and danced off to the side of the road. “We should be more careful,” she chuckled, “wouldn’t want you to double-die.”
She looked back to the place Romy had been, but the phantom girl was gone again. “Oh.” Elodie blinked at the empty space and for an odd moment her heart sank at the sight. Then she got on her bike and quickly sped away from the spot- low bike tire or not.
The birds chirped overhead and the village appeared, Elodie reflected on her own mortal soul, oranges, and the way her mother’s eyes looked the night when she stopped recognizing their faces.
-----------------------
Elodie was staring at her left hand, flexing it, examining the fingertips and the mole on her pinky and scar on her right middle finger from a frisbee accident. She swore the light shifted unnaturally around the skin and shadows clung to it.
It might have all been in her head though, it might have been a slow descent into something unnamable and as threatening as teeth in the dark. Did him leaving really make me lose it this far? Am I ruined?
The house was quiet that day, the kids were playing over at a neighbor’s house and Lea had been out in the garden digging up weeds. Only the dog had been making much noise, and they still hadn’t talked about their mother and her outburst the night before.
They hadn’t talked about much at all.
Elodie puttered around the two story house until she located a small grey bag and filled it up. She slunk outside just as the sun hugged the horizon. Lea watched her from the garden, but neither of them said anything.
“Mama,” Lea finally addressed Elodie’s back, “mama wanted me to tell you something.” Elodie turned and raised an eyebrow, Lea frowned delicately, standing among the tomato bushes. “Keep your feet under you.”
“Okay?” Elodie stared at Lea for a long moment, but she didn’t have anymore energy for this.
She made her way to the edge of the property and walked until the house was just a white block on the horizon. She let her thoughts fade away until she came to a brimy lake that was a lake only in name alone. She turned to a low hill and surveyed the thick purple field.
She had decided to face this all head-on.
Elodie took a deep breath, “Romy?” She whispered, “Romy.” She lifted up the bag, “I have something for you.”
She waited for a long minute, the shadows dragging across the ground and crickets leaped out of her way as she strode into the lavender-scented undergrowth.
“Elodie,” a voice sang in return, “I know you.” Elodie whipped around, and the phantom was both tangible and smiling at her. “Hello.”
They stood several paces from each other, lavender plants surrounding them on all sides and the sun disappearing over the blue mountains.
Elodie exhaled, “here.” She took an orange out of the small bag and tossed it, her eyes trailed after it carefully, and to her deep surprise Romy caught it in between her pale hands. Elodie scowled, “how?”
Romy brought the fruit up to her face and sniffed it, “smells like summer.”
Elodie tugged at her hair, “should I get a priest?” She barked, “do you need a priest or a detective? We can solve this Romy- we can let you rest.”
Romy felt the orange in between her fingertips, “it’s been a very long time since I’ve eaten anything.”
“I bet.” Elodie said dryly.
“Or maybe not that long?” Romy’s face clouded over in confusion and then she started peeling the fruit. Citrus sprayed and her fingers dripped with juice.
Elodie stood very still as she watched the display, and she glanced down at her own hand- was it moving strangely again?
She watched the phantom finish peeling the orange.
“Did you… do something to my hand- or my mom?”
Romy shook her head, “I can’t do much.” She peeled an orange slice and plopped it into her mouth.
“Okay,” Elodie took a strained breath in through her nose, “then what happened to my hand?”
Romy chewed thoughtfully, “I wish I knew.” She finally said, “it’s… hard. It’s hard.”
Elodie studied Romy closely, and then she placed her bag down on the ground and settled into a cross-legged position on the ground. “Fine. What year were you born? Who were your parents? What’s your last name?”
Romy gave a faint smile, “you really want to do this?”
“I want to move on. And I can’t if I have… all this on my mind.”
Romy’s gaze misted over, “it’s too late.” She said soberly, “but I understand why you’re here.”
Elodie quirked her mouth to the side, “why?”
Romy pointed down, “it might be fine.” She nodded at Elodie’s hand. “Or maybe it won’t be.”
“What did you do?!”
“Nothing.” She sat across from Elodie, “can’t we just have a nice meal?” She asked sweetly, “tell me your favorite memory.”
Elodie leaned back on her hands, “I’m trying to help here.”
Romy smiled brightly, “then help me. My favorite memory was when I was seven.” She forged on ahead, “my brother had just stolen my new Mrs. Sally dolly. He was laughing his head off, he was the worst kind of brat. Your son-”
“Nephew.”
“Yes, him, is so much sweeter, I’m jealous.”
Elodie couldn’t help but crack a smile, “you should be.”
She waved a hand in the air, “he was running all across the farm with Mrs. Sally while I cried and tried to come after him. But! Just as he was teasing me he ran straight into a pile of dung!” Romy’s face broke open and she started laughing.
Elodie laughed too despite herself, and shook her head. “I respect your favorite memory.”
Romy gave a sneaking smile, “I thought you would.”
Elodie sat up straight, “tell me when you were born.”
“Years ago.”
“Ugh.”
Romy just smirked, “now you. Tell me a favorite memory.”
Elodie sighed and started to speak, “it was the first month of my au pair job and the whole family was taking a trip to a water park, a real water park with rides and giant slides, and the biggest pool I’ve ever seen…”
If someone had told Elodie she shouldn’t converse with spirits she would have believed them. If someone told her right then to stop doing it- she probably wouldn’t have either.
----------------
It was well into the night when they stopped chatting, Romy was evasive as she had ever been. And Elodie was yawning.
“And then,” she rubbed at once of her eyes, “and then Lea said ‘but it’s not my fault!’ And mama just made her clean up the living room anyway!”
“You were the worst!” Romy spouted in joy.
“Oh yes,” Elodie beamed, “a terror.” She covered another yawn, but this time with a smile.
“I can tell,” Romy gave a small smile. “It’s too bad you’ve calmed down now.”
“Have not,” Elodie said briskly, “I’m out here, aren’t I? No calm person goes chasing ghosts.”
“Not a ghost,” she commented dryly and leaned forward, “but you should sleep.” She looked up at the dark sky, “your sister really might kick you out if you pass out here again.”
Elodie waved a hand through the air, “it doesn’t matter. I can’t sleep anyway.”
“Why?” Romy asked in her usual curious way.
“Runs in the family.” She said simply. “It helped when I used to watch kids. I was always up with them then.”
“Huh,” Elodie nodded, “did you always want to be a nanny?”
“Au pair,” she corrected tartly, “and… not really? I just wanted to be paid to travel and live in a nice house.”
“Ah,” Romy grinned with a rich laugh, “an opportunist.”
Elodie rolled her eyes, “it was going all according to plans until I gave into my damn self, or love, or whatever it was.”
Romy frowned, “Carl?”
“He was charming… at the time.” She said with a sigh, “I should have known, everyone warned me about him. He was twice my age and already dating someone the family actually approved of at the time.”
“You were young,” Romy said carefully, “I would… be easier on yourself.”
Elodie’s head bent down, “he was a doctor you know. Paid for everything, helped me with my sleep problems, bought me nice things…”
“But a jerk doctor.” Romy said loudly.
Elodie snapped her head up, “you don’t know him.”
“Alright, but I bet he was a jerk!”
Elodie couldn’t help but smile, “he kind of was.”
“I bet he chewed with his mouth open!”
“No, no,” Elodie said and snickered, “he did always like runny eggs though. Really runny, he got it all over his beard when he ate, it was terrible.”
“Gross,” Romy nodded, “and his feet stank.”
Elodie just giggled at that, “you sound like an eleven year old at a slumber party. I’m over it now you know.”
“Are you?”
“I mean… no.” Elodie relented, “but I will be.”
Romy leaned forward with a cheeky glint to her eyes, “and I bet he was terrible in bed.”
Elodie snickered behind her hand and couldn’t help but beam at the phantom, “he had his… faults.” She leaned forward to whisper, “he tired so easily.”
Romy cackled like a young girl, “oh Elodie, I missed this.”
Elodie twitched at that, “missed what?”
Romy shook her head, “I wish it wasn’t like this.” Her shoulders rose.
“Yeah,” Elodie nodded, “it might have been nice to meet you in a normal way.”
“Oh, but what fun would that be?” Romy smiled sadly. “Don’t worry about it.”
“I can still-”
“Tell me about your high school days, I bet you were a right rebel.”
Elodie gave a small yawn, “I wish I could help you Romy.” She said and tried to peel open the enigma a little more.
“You have.” Romy reached out her hand, pale and strange in the night air. “If you want…” She said carefully, “you could do it again.”
Elodie’s eyes went huge and she drew back, “you mean…put my hand…?” She shook her head, “that hurt like the devil.”
Romy withdrew, “I know.” She looked sheepish, “sorry.” She started to fade, her edges smearing and colors draining like they were dipped in bleach. “I won’t ask again.”
“Wait,” Elodie whispered, “there must be something else I can do for you.”
Romy shook her head, “go home Elodie. Sleep.” And then she was gone, and Elodie was alone again.
She didn’t know why her chest tightened at that. She didn’t know why the best conversation she had in months was with something that couldn’t possibly be real.
She still didn’t sleep that night.
-------------
Elodie sat upright, her eyes drooping and thoughts myopic in her head- circling round and round with no end and no beginning. The fan was on high and the day was reaching an apex of dreamy, muggy heat.
It was not a day for doing things.
“Oh,” a light voice said nearby and noisily turned a page. “Of course.”
Elodie glanced up in irritation, she sat in her mother’s bedroom where the woman was sleeping off a minor fever with a cool wet cloth across her forehead. Elodie promised to watch her. The day nurse, Tina, sat on the other side of the bed, a book was propped open in her lap and eyes darting down it’s page.
Tina was a willowy girl with hair twisted up in elaborate hair-dos, she wore too many bracelets, thick glasses, and had a perfume that smelled sweetly of peaches.
“Listen to this,” she said, unbothered by Elodie’s flat looks. Tina cleared her throat, “’the increase of disorder or entropy is what distinguishes the past from the future, giving a direction to time.’ Isn’t that fascinating?”
Tina was a trained nurse in school to be something else altogether.
“Sounds great Tina.”
“Isn’t it, oh, and this one,” she flipped to a new page, Elodie knew Tina had already read this book before, “’God abhors a naked singularity!’ It’s so poetic.”
“Stephan is a genius for a reason,” she responded listlessly.
“He sure is,” she turned back to her book.
Elodie didn’t dislike Tina, she was young and bright and didn’t mind coming to the house four times a week to look after a woman who called her by a boys name every morning. The only problem was how quickly she smiled, and much she reminded Elodie of what she used to be.
Elodie could use a drink.
She was drowsily slumped over in her chair, it had been another long night chatting with the enigmatic spirit of the lavender fields.
Tina tittered from her chair, “I have to send this.” She took a picture of a passage from her book and quickly typed away, “Mike will love it.”
Elodie gave a half-hearted smile, “that your sweetie?” She tried to pass the time as they watched over her slumbering mother.
“Oh yeah,” Tina grinned, “Mike and I have been dating for years.”
“That’s nice,” Elodie tried to say genuinely, “how did you meet?”
Tina didn’t look up as she typed, “online.” She said simply, “he works in IT right now in Silicon Valley, in America.”
“Huh,” Elodie felt done with the conversation at that point.
“I’m going to join him once I’m done with school, oh,” she glanced up, “not that I would stop coming for miss Evelyne.”
“It’s fine,” Elodie said as she raked a hand through her hair. “Mama is… well, she’ll miss you in her own way. But you’re fine to move on whenever you need to.”
“She’s doing better,” Tina said earnestly, “honestly, I heard her saying new names yesterday- and she held her own spoon!”
“Yeah,” Elodie took a deep breath, “she’s… yeah.”
They both just nodded awkwardly at each other and Tina turned back to her book, “ooh. Listen to this Miss Elodie, the universe doesn’t allow perfection…”
It was a long slow afternoon, but Elodie paused once, her heartbeat striking into her chest. Her mother opened her crusted eyes and looked directly at the mirror on the wall.
“Romy,” she whispered, “Romy, why won’t you leave?”
Elodie paused and her whole world crashed down around her.
---------------
Elodie didn’t sleep well that night, she rarely did, but it had been days by that point, and this was pushing it even for her. She didn’t even slip away into unconsciousness as the sun rose. She didn’t slip away at all.
Romy…
“Carl,” she spoke to the ceiling, and scowled. “You would know what to do with that, wouldn’t you?”
She wasn’t sure, the ceiling did not speak back to her.
Romy…
Elodie clasped and unclasped her left hand, staring at it to try and make sense of it, it hadn’t hurt or tingled since that first strange night she tried to touch the phantom. Now it just sometimes looked out of place, different.
Romy…
She said the name out loud this time and for a moment she expected the specter to simply appear before her. But no, Romy didn’t work that way.
“Carl,” she said instead and grimaced, “Fuck you.”
She got up from bed and took a long walk. Romy didn’t appear then either.
-------------------
Elodie balanced high up on a thick tree branch, her back bent over and her body scrunched into a ball. The sun was blinking into view between the fluffy white clouds and the air smelled of baking dirt and a hot day to come.
A voice echoed in the distance: “eleven rocket ship, ten rocket ship, nine rocket ship…”
Elodie gave a small smile and settled onto the branch, she had even worn a faded green t-shirt that day to blend in and climbed behind a thick bunch of leaves. Her sleep deprived body protested the initial climb, but she managed all the same.
She crouched low on the branch.
“What are we doing?” A voice whispered into her ear.
“Ah!” Elodie scrambled to hold on tightly as a figure materialized beside her. “Jesus.” Romy’s form stitched itself together from nothing, first the outline and then the folds and details and colors bleeding together. She was similarly crouched on a branch across from her and staring straight ahead, the branch immediately bounced lightly under the new weight.
“Is this another cry for help?” Romy asked casually, “I’m impressed it’s so high up.”
“No, it’s not a cry for help, sshh,” Elodie waved a hand in the air and whispered harshly.
“Is it for-”
“Sshh! We’re playing hide and seek.” She interrupted in order to quiet her, “Samuel insisted I make it hard this time.”
Romy covered her mouth and giggled, “I bet you just like winning.”
Elodie waved her hand frantically again to hush her as a loud voice burst from nearby: “one rocket ship…. Lift off!”
Elodie held her breath as the grass rustled and he seemed to run in the opposite direction. She exhaled as he sprinted away.
“He always wins,” she explained coolly as she turned back to Romy, “he’s very disappointed in me he says and it’s no fun if I don’t try.”
Romy met her gaze, “you’re very good with them you know.”
Elodie shrugged and looked away just as a small smile crept across her features. “It’s nothing. They’re easy…”
Romy peaked out between the leaves toward the ground, “what happens when he wins?”
Elodie tilted her chin up, “he gets my desserts for a night.” She wagged a finger in the air, “and if I win he has to carry me to bed like a princess.”
Romy snort-laughed, “have you ever won?”
Elodie scratched her nose, “well it would help if I wasn’t being actively haunted.”
“Ooh,” Romy wiggled her fingers in the air. “Yes. Satanic spirit come to ruin your hide and seek games.”
“Yes. I’m being punished for something, remember?” She clicked her tongue and Romy’s shoulders shook with small laughs. Elodie smiled despite herself, and then wavered. She studied Romy up and down, “have you been speaking with my mom? She said your name earlier. Romy.”
Romy leaned forward on the branch, “there are many Romy’s. And I’ve only spoken to you.” She scrunched her nose up and Elodie tried not to notice that it was rather endearing. “And it’s been a long time since I’ve spoken to anyone at all.”
Elodied hunched over even more, “will you tell me now where you’ve been? Where you go?”
“Nowhere.” She repeated as she always did.
Elodie sighed loudly, “well. Either way, I’m sorry to hear that.” She looked down at the grassy forest floor. “It must be very lonely.”
“I guess.” She said blankly, “and you?”
Elodie looked up, drooping slightly under the rising heat. “Me, what?”
“You must be lonely too,” she whispered, eyes focused on her. “I’m sorry as well.”
“Ugh,” Elodie leaned back, “even the undead feel bad for me. I should have mentioned that in my divorce hearing as a future undo emotional burden.”
Romy smiled again and it was a nice sight. “It’s alright. I don’t mind you being a sad sack, it works for you.”
“It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it,” she joked, but some of the light had left her eyes. Romy’s hand wandered up and out, and for a moment- just a moment, it seemed as if she might touch her, but instead she simply held onto a branch higher up.
“I wasn’t always,” Elodie looked past the other girl’s thin wrists to the sky, “I wasn’t always like this. Lea would say it’s growing up, but I never imagined it would be this way.”
“What did you imagine?” Romy asked breathily, “I always thought I’d have my own practice by now.”
“What practice?” Elodie asked quickly, eyes wide.
Romy shook her head, “For animals.” She said dreamily. “It doesn’t matter now, tell me what you imagined. Though I will warn you it may increase your sad sackiness.”
“What, do you expect me to say a lost princess or something?” She said irritably.
“No, more like forlorn waif in a lighthouse,” she grinned, “waisting away her youth on a lost love by the ocean side.”
Elodie rolled her eyes. “I’m fine with being a lonely waif in a lighthouse, but I’m done with the whole love bit.”
Romy tilted her head to the side, “but that’s the best part.” Her eyes looked Elodie up and down, “I bet you were a romantic once. I can tell.”
“Ugh, I guess,” she looked away, “I mean, I had all these ideas about love as a kid, obsessed over it, dreamed about it- I was one of those fools, you know? But I’m never doing anything like that again.”
Romy met her eyes carefully and the humor died down, “was it that bad? When it ended?”
“It was bad,” Elodie’s voice wavered, emotion gathering in her tone. “But it’s not a big deal. Plenty of people go through divorces.” She looked at her hands and tried to swallow as a lump formed there against her will.
Romy leaned close and Elodie smelled lavender and fresh mountain air, “you were so young when it started… It must hurt now.”
“But it’s over now. I mean, I think it’s over. I really want it to be over,” she bunched her shoulders up and a wave of dread ran over her as she realized something prickly and red was spilling over. “God.” She sniffed loudly, “It’s just, what if I never get over this? What if I’m ruined? And like, never alright again?”
It’s broken Carl, it’s all broken. And you broke it. She let the tears zip down her cheek and then gave a mighty exhale. And I broke it.
“It’s okay,” Romy was reaching out a hand again. “You don’t have to be alright, you don’t have to be anything at all. I’m sorry if I’ve been teasing you. I think you’re the most interesting person I’ve come across.”
Elodie blinked through her stinging tears and pale fingers ghost close to her cheek. She swallowed her next whimper, “I want to be better.”
Romy was very close, radiating something hushed and strange. “Here. Close your eyes.”
Elodie hunched over and tightened her group on the branch. “Okay?” She closed her eyes and waited. “They’re closed.”
“Three, two, one,” a burst of cold air ran across her face and tiny pinpricks of cold settled on her cheeks.
Elodie popped her eyes opened in surprise and the air was sparkling with something. She touched her cheek and it was wet. “Snow?” She looked at the glittery white substance. “Snow!?”
Romy lifted her chin up proudly. “It’s my blessing. You’re going to be okay, that’s a promise.” She nodded, “and my blessings are good, I am a satanic being that interrupts hide and seek games after all.”
Elodie was still gawking at the snow melting on her fingertips, “what the fuck.”
Romy cupped her hands and frost glittered on her fingertips, “I have more if you like, as much as you need.”
Elodie stared openly at her, “I feel as if I am being pranked. Perhaps by my brain, or the universe.”
Romy sighed heavily and swung her legs back and forth, “only if you believe it.” She looked away, “but don’t worry, I won’t use the powers to hurt any of you. Duh.”
“I know,” Elodie touched more snowflakes that settled in her hair, “I’m not sure about any of this, but thank you.” She gave a tentative smile, “I accept your blessing. I’d give you a hug if that were possible.”
Romy’s expression pinched together, her features contorting. Distress seemed to radiate through her whole body, “I would like that.” She looked down, “I really would.”
Elodie’s heart thrummed in her throat and for a second she was reaching up too, considering the strange phantom in front of her. She imagined for a moment, just a moment, she was a real girl, in a real tree, hiding together and blowing snow on her face.
She imagined. And then she closed her eyes and let her hand fall to the side. When she looked up again the branch across from her was empty. Her muscles untensed, “see you around Romy…” She closed her eyes again.
Several minutes later a voice called up to her.
“Aunt Elodie!” A voice cried and knocked on the wood. “I found you. You were too loud! I heard your voice.”
Elodie peaked over the side of the branch and smiled down, “it took you thirty minutes to find me anyway!”
“Nuh-huh,” he shook his head, “twenty-nine minutes. You still lose!”
She laughed and nodded, “alright, alright,” she carefully made her way back to the trunk and slid toward the ground. “You can have my desert.”
He tagged her and Elodie’s face dried, and something tightened and released in her chest. She followed Samuel hand in hand back to the house and some weight on her shoulder tops shifted.
She imagined she saw frost on her window that night, and Romy’s reflection in the glass.
She touched the reflection briefly before falling into a deep and dreamless sleep.
------------------------
“You shouldn’t drink.”
Elodie scowled as she heard that familiar voice again, “this is water.” She turned toward a large tree to her left. “And it’s nine in the morning.”
A girl in a blue dress stepped out onto the dirt road with her, she liked to accompany Elodie to the town- it seemed to be her favorite time to appear. She dusted off her pristine skirts, “I was just checking.”
Elodie made a face at her, “I’m not that much of a mess.”
Romy gave a cheeky smile, “you sure?”
“Fine,” Elodie stuck her tongue out, “you’ve convinced me, maybe I will go to the bars on a Tuesday and forget my own name.”
Romy laughed gaily, “don’t,” she sang, “you said you do bad celebrity impressions if you’re too drunk. I won’t be held responsible for encouraging a public menace.”
Elodie wrinkled her face up, “I shouldn’t have told you that.”
“Too late!” She laughed again.
“Well,” Elodie cleared her throat, “I know you don’t know how to jump rope. That’s much worse.”
“It’s too complicated!” Romy defended, “and I never learned, Yvonne and her friends were little caesar’s, they wouldn’t let me join as a kid. That’s number two on my list of crimes against me.”
Elodie laughed this time, “crimes against you list?”
“Yes,” she stated, “starting with my brother, and Yvonne, and now you. For bringing this all up.”
“True pain,” Elodie giggled and watched Romy’s smiling face for a long second, “seeing young girls in school yards must hurt you to this day.”
She leaned close and Elodie’s breath hitched. She could smell the soft lavender on her and count her long fair eyelashes. Her traitorous heart sped up, don’t do this to me. She begged, I can’t drown like this again. I won’t survive it this time.
She reminded herself this wasn’t real.
“Yes,” Romy smirked in a way that felt real. “Much like the hurt school children must feel when you do a poor impression of Asterix.”
Elodie pulled away and forced herself to look up at the sky instead, “Oh hush, do you want oranges today or not?” She tried to channel Lea’s grumpiness as she said it.
Romy smiled merrily and opened her mouth to confirm whatever treat she wanted that day, and then her features froze. Her body shimmered in place- an oddity of color and depth. “You should go home.”
“What?”
Romy took a step forward that was too large for a human girl, “go home!” She screeched.
Elodie had just a moment to question that, but seeing the shadows on her friend’s face and the fear there struck in her heart, she turned. She took off toward her house with Romy on her heels, “go, quickly.”
She ran all the way home, sweating and gasping for breath as she reached the property. She knew something was wrong the second she saw both Samuel and Margot shooed outside on the porch.
“Aunt Elodie!” They waved, “mama said-”
Elodie didn’t stop though, she just dashed into the house. Anguished wheezing came from the corner room, “mom!” She streaked into the next room and gasped, “Lea.”
Lea and Tina surrounded a wheezing old woman as she clutched at her chest, spittle gathered at the corners of her mouth and her watery eyes bulged out of her head as she struggled for air.
Lea glanced over her shoulder. “We’ve already called for the ambulance.”
Tears pricked at Elodie’s eyes, Lea was already holding their mother’s withered hand as Tina searched through her instruments for something.
“What’s going on?” Elodie came to the edge of the bed and winced at each pained breath from her mom.
“Her vitals were off and she just started doing this,” Tina said with her eyes wild. “I think it’s her lungs.”
“Not now,” their mother wheezed and they all turned toward her. “No, I can’t! Not now.”
“It’ll be alright, mom, the doctors are coming.” Lea stroked her hand.
“No, not now.” Elodie’s blood ran cold, their mother looked off into nothing. “Please,” she struggled, “tell her I’m not ready, Romy Durand. Tell her to stop!”
Elodie looked to her left and her eyes landed on the last thing she expected. Romy had followed her all the way into the tight bedroom.
The phantom stood in the corner- looking pale and stiff as a board. For the first time Elodie felt a strike of fear through her system by the sight of her. Their mother stared at the strange phantom in the corner and repeated her name.
“No!”
The ambulance came up the lane.
------------------
Romy. Romy Durand.
That was a real name, a real person. That was someone.
Elodie came home from the hospital that night, chilled and shaking from head to toe. Her mom passed out on the way over to the hospital and hadn’t woken up yet. They said it was a partially collapsed lung and that she’d have to stay overnight, but a full recovery was possible.
The sterile white walls and floors of the county hospital reflected like mirrors in the back of her head and a jittery energy coursed through her limbs. She couldn’t sit still.
She wandered into the yard and turned around and around, “Romy!” She yelled loudly, “Romy Durand, I know your name, come here!”
She spun until a shimmering figure stood just across the yard, looking sheepishly down at the ground and not moving. She was flatter and stiffer than before, a pastel color in a room full of neon.
Elodie swallowed a hard lump in her throat. “Why?” She croaked, “why didn’t you tell me you knew my mom?”
Romy Durand was a real person.
Romy shifted toward her, “Elodie, please.” She said hoarsely. “I don’t want to do this.”
Elodie took several strides toward the creature, “who the fuck are you?!”
“I can’t help your mom.” Romy looked at her pink smudgy slippers.
Elodie tore across the unkempt lawn, “yeah, well you can tell me what’s going on.”
Romy just shook her head, “I can’t.”
Elodie thrust her hand out. “Are you dead? Undead? An alien?”
“Don’t touch me!” Romy jumped back, “I thought you knew that. God, I knew I shouldn’t have gone to you.”
“Tell me how you know things, tell me what’s going on.”
Romy shook her head again, listlessly, empty. “I can’t. I don’t know.” She swallowed thickly and looked directly at Elodie.
“Help your mom Elodie. I won’t bother you anymore,” she said somberly, form shivering and body crinkling at the edges like burnt paper. “Spend time with your family, eat something nice, meet someone new. Sleep. Don’t waste all this that you’re given… and thank you.”
“Romy, hey! Stay right there,” She dove toward the figure and her fingers briefly entered the mist that was the phantom. They burned instantly, the tips of her hands shaking with a silver and undistilled pain. She let out a screech and Romy let out a final word:
“Goodbye.”
And then she was alone with her shaking hands and the memory of that terrible sting. But she was alone again.
-----------------------------
Elodie’s mom slowly recovered.
The doctor said she was going to be a bit slower after this and ended up staying overnight at the hospital for nearly a week. The small family gave a collective exhale and Lea called her husband to confirm everything was alright, Craig would be home in two weeks from his summer work trip.
Elodie told her sister only one thing that weekend: I’m going to the library.
She sat down with a giant directory and opened to the first page. It held everyone born since 1950, she dragged her finger down by the “D” last names and started scanning.
Someone had to know about a girl that used to exist here, who used to be Romy Durand. It was a long first afternoon.
--------------------------
“Aunt Elodie!” Samuel piped up.
“Hmm?” Elodie barely looked up, “Samuel, where’s Margot? You’re supposed to be staying with her in the kid’s section.”
“But you said,” he face fell, “you said tell you if I found anything.”
Elodie’s eyes snapped up, “found anything?”
He hurried up, “I asked the librarian about your mission.” He whispered the word “mission” in a careful hush.
Elodie sat up straight and her back popped, “what do you…?”
He held a large book up, “she said check the old papers and gave me this.”
“Oh.”
She put down the enormous local directory and turned to her nephew, “what did you find?”
He shrugged, “I dunno.” He flipped open the pages of the binder holding old local newspaper articles, “but look at this picture!”
Elodie’s eyes popped out of her head, “no.”
“It looks like that thing, right?” He said excitedly, all of his eight-year old energy spinning out.
She traced her hand over a large picture of a young woman, circa 1970. Her face was narrow and smiling and she had a crooked nose and dark eyes.
Pictured, it said, Romy Durand.
Elodie studied the image for a very long second as she processed the vivid face, her pink cheeks, and expression sharp and smiling. She was so real.
She took another long second to process the headline of the article: Missing Woman.
Elodie held her breath, “it’s her.” She whispered, “she was here.”
“The Phantom,” Samuel sucked on his bottom lip, “I knew it. Is she angry?”
“No,” Elodie shook her head and trailed her fingers over the title font. “But I think…” She exhaled a long breath, “I don’t know what to think anymore.”
Samuel glanced out the library windows, “can she come here?” He asked in a tense voice, they still believed she might eat them.
Elodie glanced up, “have you seen her recently?”
He must have picked up on the hope in her tone, “not really.” He shook his head.
Elodie looked back to the vivid picture and nodded at it, “me neither.” She said softly and then gathered the book to her chest. “Thank you for this Samuel.”
“Yeah!” He cheered and Elodie looked toward the checkout counter.
“We’re going to get to the bottom of this.”
Samuel followed her back down the stairs to collect his sister, he cheered the whole time about ghost hunting, how he found a clue, and about the “tricks” she could do.
Elodie hoped she had one last trick in her.
------------------------
June, 1970
A group of young people have reported Romy Durand, a local young woman, to be missing since last Sunday. The group says that they were out on a yearly class reunion and planned a picnic for the event.
Romy Durand allegedly disappeared during this outing. Romy was described as a “free-spirited” youth with high hopes of completing a veterinary degree later next year and joining her family business. She was said to be a friendly, outgoing, and cheerful person.
Several of her classmates are in questioning right now by local authorities and a community search is underway.
No traces of the girl have appeared. She was last scene near the village of Les Ferres in Provence wearing a blue dress and pink shoes. She was twenty-two year old blonde woman, roughly 152 centimeters in height and 58 kilos in weight.
If seen please contact…
Elodie read the words over and over again until they ached.
She screwed her face up, this was all over fifty years ago.
No wonder her mother thought the dead were walking.
Elodie searched other databases and newspapers: there were several reports of a girl going missing and the case going cold after several years. People would sometimes report seeing a girl in the countryside, but every time authorities appeared to investigate no trace of her would be left.
It was called a community myth and passed into superstition.
The phantom in the fields was most definitely this young woman, and Elodie would make sure none of it was over yet. It was 2pm on a Saturday and she was back in the corner room of their house.
Her mom was sleeping soundly in the bed and Elodie had the binder of old newspaper clippings open on her lap. Tina was humming and reading a new book as well. They waited for the old woman to wake again.
It had been a tough recovery, but Evelyn Paquet was tough and hung on like a hangnail to a cracked knuckle. She didn’t say much in the following days, and Elodie didn’t prompt her.
Tina looked up every few seconds to search Elodie’s face, and then would return to her book again. It took several hours until Elodie’s mother stirred, and they fed her morning yogurt and medication and endured her usual complaining.
“All you ever do is leave me in this bed, Daniel,” she said with a vacant stare. “I should call someone about elder abuse.”
“We’re putting on your programs right now Miss Paquet,” Tina said in a light tone, “remember? We’re watching the news this morning.”
She took a breath, “why does my chest hurt so much?”
“You’re in recovery, remember Evelyn?” Tina said gently. “Your lungs are healing.”
“Right, right,” she nodded absently and Elodie sucked in a tight breath.
“Mom,” Elodie reached for her mom’s hand and tried to hold her gaze. “I have a serious question to ask you.”
Both Tina and her mom looked directly at her, Tina’s eyebrow quirked up and her mother just scowled through the fog of her mind.
“What is it Daniel?”
“Yeah,” Tina studied Elodie closely, “what is it?”
Elodie took a deep breath, “how do you know Romy Durand?”
A long silence followed, long and tense and her mother’s gaze floated away from her and to the corner. “The devil walks.” She hissed and Elodie’s eyes went wide.
“Do you know what happened to her?” She asked quickly.
Tina was really paying attention now, “who is that?”
“Victor Durand’s younger sister,” her mom said dryly, “we don’t speak of her anymore.”
Elodie’s eyes went wide, “I do.” She said quickly and looked to the corner as if Romy might suddenly pop up there. “What happened to her?”
Tina’s brow folded in and her eyes darted between the two women.
“She,” her mother struggled with something and then laid back in bed. “You can’t touch her. Don’t touch her.” She grimaced, “we were all told to never go near again.” She shook her head, “and you. My own daughter…”
Elodie jerked forward and hovered over her, “what the hell happened?”
Her mom’s face clouded over, expression softening into befuddlement. “I saw her. We all did.” Elodie held her breath as she waited for more. “She was there one second and then… those fields are evil you know, evil. The dead walk.”
Elodie blinked a couple times, “did something get her? Did someone… hurt her?”
Her mom just shook her head and looked to the TV, “I want to watch my programs now.”
“Wait, one more quest-”
“No.” Her mom said firmly.
“Mom, please.” She hated that it sounded like begging.
“Stop being difficult.” She said in a voice Elodie knew well. “You were always so difficult.”
“Mom! For once in your life,” she fumed, “take me seriously, listen to me. Tell me where she went.”
Her mom’s crusty eyes focused on her, “Daniel. Don’t yell at me.”
“Ugh!” Elodie threw her hands in the air and turned to go outside, “I’m going for a walk.”
Tina just watched her go and her mom insisted they turn on “the funny man” show for her and complained about how her chest hurt. Elodie was still no closer to understanding the phantom they had first seen among the lavender since they bought the house.
Or where Romy could have gone now.
-----------------------
Elodie resented admitting to herself that she missed talking with a ghost, but there was a soft, empty part of her heart that rang hollow. She hadn’t talked to her in two weeks and it felt urgent, important, she looked back to the newspaper article on the disappeared girl.
She told herself to move on. She told herself to go the bars for real again, look for someone new to talk to.
She sat in the evening sun on their small porch and let her thoughts run away with her again. Her father before he passed always said she had the mind for mysteries- if only she stopped and settled on something maybe she could become a detective. Or a reporter. Or a superhero.
He always did have so many ideas for her.
Elodie sighed and traced the photo once more.
“Where did you go?” Elodie whispered at her, “why were you still here?”
“Ah,” Elodie jumped as a voice joined her, “your sister said you were obsessing over something out here.” Elodie twisted around as Tina she stood at the front door with a bag on her shoulder, “sorry, her words, not mine.” She waved, “I was just headed out for the day. Your mother seems to be doing just fine considering.”
Elodie nodded without really looking at her, “good work today.” She said flatly and turned back toward the setting sun.
The porch boards groaned as Tina took a few steps out, “you know, my boyfriend has only ever visited me here once here.”
“That’s good,” Elodie felt distinctly strange as she brought this up.
Tina tucked a piece of stray hair behind her ear, “but he told me he wanted to explore the area. He brought this reader, said there were strange electromagnetic pulses in the area.”
Elodie turned to look at Tina more closely, “what are you saying?”
“This place is pretty empty,” she shrugged, “but there’s more to it than it looks.” She met Elodie’s eyes and held it, “strange readings.”
Elodie’s eyes went wide, “have you heard of the phantom in the lavender fields?”
Tina patted Elodie’s shoulder, “I should go. Your sister told me not to fuel your… distractions. I just thought I should let you know.”
“Electromagnetic readings…” Elodie chewed on that for a long second as Tina went toward her parked car along the dirt road. She didn’t look back as she Elodie stewed with her thoughts.
“Wait!” Elodie called across the yard as Tina hovered by her beat-up subaru. Elodie lifted her hand up and pointed, “I touched it. My hand went through the phantom.”
She couldn’t believe she was admitting to doing something so stupid, but she had to get Tina’s attention. She had to learn more.
Tina just quirked one of her eyebrows up, “oh?”
Elodie nodded as if her life depended on it, “I touched it. And talked to her. Is there… anything you can do?”
The twenty-year old just gestured for her and Elodie went running for the nurse’s car.
----------------------
Elodie was sitting in a basement with a cold metal folding chair biting into her skin and a musty smell settling in her mouth. She squinted in the dim area and tried not to ask herself how she got into these situations.
It was a tight basement with old monitors in the corner and stacks of books piled up by the small yellowing windows. They sat around a flimsy card table with a single light overhead and the sound of the television blaring from up above.
Tina sat perfectly upright with her hair in four elaborate buns.
“So,” Elodie shifted in place, “you wanna show it to me?”
Tina took a black box from her bag and set it in front of them, “Mike left this with me.” She said simply, “it should tell us if… uh, something happened to your hand.”
Elodie scowled, “it did.”
Tina just nodded and flipped it over, “put it on top.”
It was a long black rectangle with plastic face and an arrow inside that rested on a long sticker that went from green to red.
Elodie clenched her left hand, lifted it, and carefully put it down near the cold face. It beeped rapidly and a light blinked. The red arrow on the face spiked- going from the green stickers all the way over to the red zone at the other side.
“Oh.” Tina’s said in delight and then adjusted her glasses, “so interesting.”
Elodie turned quickly, “so that’s a yes? Some… magnetic-y thing happened?”
Tina hummed deeply and kept her eyes on the beeping machine, “it looks like it.” She smiled brightly, “I can’t believe I can tell Mike about the area. A real anomaly!”
“What about Romy?” Elodie said through clenched teeth, “what about the disappearance?”
“Well,” Tina looked at Elodie carefully, “that could be many things… But you for sure ran into something! A real electromagnetic distortion.”
“And what could that be?”
Tina frowned and reached for her machine, going over the readings again. “Tell me exactly what you’ve seen again.”
“A girl. She comes and goes, like a mist. I touched her and it…. Hurt.”
“Huh.” Tina just nodded.
“Yes?” Elodie clenched teeth. “She looks weird too. And when I was drinking and touched her, she, she changed. She became more real. And we talked, a lot.”
“Huh.”
“And now I haven’t seen her again, not like I used to.”
“I see.”
Elodie put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed, “tell me something useful.”
Tina flinched and tensed, “well, I mean. It’s not enough data yet.” She looked away, “there’s no way of knowing.”
“Ah!” Elodie exclaimed in exasperation, “can no one tell me what space-science weirdness is going on? Unless she is dead and God just makes magnets go funny.”
“Magnetism,” Tina said simply, “and I could tell you a theory at least.”
Elodie perked up, “go on then.”
Tina met Elodie’s eyes, “but you have to promise me not to do anything with it. It would just be a theory and your sister would totally fire me if something happened to you.”
Elodie nodded quickly, her skin prickling and mind feeling fully awake for the first time in years. “Tell me.” She held her breath.
“Well… I have a theory about the area, and what you just said about the light working weird and the disappearances and reappearances.”
“Yes?”
“It’s like what they say around the Bermuda Triangle. What they say about areas where, er.”
“Where what?” She prompted, “is it…” She looked left and right, “aliens? I’m right about the aliens?”
Tina scoffed a laugh, “no.” She smirked and got out a piece of paper, “but there is a theory about the multiverse.”
“About the what?”
“That reality has many different dimensions, a multi-universe theory,” she explained while holding up the paper. “There are many planes of existence, and,” she brought the ends of the paper in half to make it bend in two. “They’re connected.”
“You think…” Elodie struggled, “Romy is from another universe?”
Tina laughed again and Elodie wanted to smack her. “Romy is from here.” She nodded, “but some people have a theory that there are… weak points.”
“Weak points where they like, connect?”
“Precisely,” she nodded, “and Romy was unlucky.”
Elodie made a face and held her head, “I can’t believe. She’s stuck in, like our universe and the next?”
“I don’t think so,” Tina said carefully, “I think she was much more unlucky than that. This is… very rare if I’m right.”
“As in?”
“As in, at weak points, people would normally just fall right through into some other realm.” Tina jabbed a hole through the paper with a pencil. “But Romy didn’t. She’s… stuck in an in between, maybe. A place between dimension where she can’t fully exist here anymore. Outside of time and space. Nowhere.”
Elodie bolted to her feet, sending her chair flying backward. She bent toward Tina, “how do we reverse it?” She asked hoarsely, “how do we get her back?”
Romy didn’t deserve being stuck in a Nowhere place.
Tina adjusted her glasses and looked away, “I don’t know.” She said, her gaze folding inward. “I wouldn’t even know where to start.”
Elodie searched the air, “could we drag her back?”
Tina wrinkled her nose, “there’s no way of knowing. I’m sure the weak point is near those lavender fields, but if you go in then you’d be stuck there with her.”
Elodie clenched her hands and then starred decidedly at them, a place between dimensions. Nowhere.
Elodie turned around and grabbed at her purse, “thank you Tina. This was the most help I’ve gotten from anyone so far.”
“Wait,” Tina reached for her, “promise you want try to follow this phantom.”
Elodie focused on her and she relaxed, “why would I?” She said an almost ironic smile.
“Your sister was just saying… you’ve been a bit, self-destructive as of late.” She said carefully.
Elodie took a deep breath, and then patted Tina’s shoulder. “Thank you Tina.” She repeated, “I have to go now.”
Elodie ran out the door and walked all the way back to her house in the dark. No phantom showed up this time, but Elodie had a plan to make it so she would soon.
--------------------------
Elodie was in the living room lacing up her shoes, it was well-past 9 O’Clock by then and she had spent most of the evening at Tina’s house. She was ready for the next step.
She thoroughly tied up her hiking boots, they were one of the last gifts Carl had given her. She never used them before, but now she laced them up with the force of a small hurricane. She tugged and bared her teeth and kept everything else inside her blank.
“Elodie…” A cautious voice addressed her from across the living room, hesitant and shaking slightly. “Tina just called.”
Elodie looked over her shoulder to where her sister stood in the kitchen doorway. “I know.” She said with a small smile.
“She told me… what you’ve been believing.”
Elodie tightened her right boot, “Lea.” She said calmly, “I have a favor to ask.”
“Please,” Lea put her hands up as if to defend herself from something, “hear me out. I know I’ve been harsh on you lately.”
Elodie gave a crooked smile, “lately?”
Lea returned a strained smile. “Perhaps… often.” Elodie laughed roughly at that, “but,” Lea bit her bottom lip anxiously, “I really do want to see you succeed. I don’t want to see this thing with Carl take a permanent toll.”
“Thing with Carl?” She asked in a cold tone.
Lea looked down at her shoes. “I’m sorry. I wish I could have… stopped it. Done more.”
“You all warned me,” Elodie said with a wave, “he was a creep, and I would waste my youth on him.” She shook her head with a tutt, “but I’m leaving that behind me.”
Lea blinked a couple times in a row, “you are?”
“Yes.” Elodie finished tying her boot and stood up, “and you’re going to help.”
“Of course, anything,” Lea lit up in front of her for the first time in years it felt like.
“But!” Elodie jabbed a finger in the air, “you will have to leave the property.”
Lea’s brow folded in, “I can do that.” She said hesitantly, though Elodie knew for a fact she hadn’t even gone to town herself in weeks at the very least. “What do you need little sister?”
Elodie gave a frail smile, “I want to help someone.” She said softly, “it’s been a long time since I actually helped someone I think.”
Lea strode over to her and put her hand out, “I’ll help too then.”
Elodie straightened up and took her sister’s hand, “get the kids.” She said with a blunt nod, “we’re going fishing.”
“What?”
Elodie just turned and dragged her sister to the door, “I know they’re not very strong, but I figure any muscle at all will help. Samuel’s getting pretty big, yeah?”
“Wait, Elodie,” Lea pulled back, “you’re scaring me.”
A smile shone on her face as she looked back toward her sister, she leaned over and pressed a firm kiss to her cheek. “I can’t explain yet.” She said brightly, “but you don’t have to worry about me. Not this time. I think I’ve worked it out.”
She had not worked it out yet, but the look of relief on her sister’s face was worth it.
“You scared me you know,” she said with a sigh, “all those nights out late.”
“I know.” She said solemnly and reached for the door, “I know I haven’t been… the most stable. But tonight I need you to trust me. Okay?”
Lea’s expression softened, “okay.”
“Good,” she lifted her chin up, “get the kids. I’ll go get the rope.”
--------------------
They stole out into the first of the silver moonlight, it was almost ten now and a chill was whispering just across the land. The kids were bouncing in place as they followed their aunt and mother out into the night, Lea was not as pleased.
“What does the box say, auntie?” Margot was the most wide-awake of them, she always resented her bedtime the most.
Elodie glanced down at the black box, the electromagnetic reader, in her hand as she held it out, it kept flicking toward the red end of the spectrum. “Getting closer, little bug.”
“I can see her!” Samuel cried for the third time, “wait, no. Just a tree.”
Their mother glanced worriedly between the three of them, it had taken at least ten minutes to gently coax her out into the fields at all. “I don’t like it out here,” she repeated softly, “what is the rope for Elodie?”
It was rare for her sister to sound uncertain about anything, but Elodie shrugged that off in order to keep walking. “Don’t worry,” she said carefully, “I just need you to hold it.”
They strode deeper and deeper into the endless lavender fields, and the machine’s beeping started to increase. Elodie held her breath.
“Go back!” A voice called out faintly. “Turn back, now!”
Elodie inhaled through her nose, “Romy.” She closed her eyes, “you don’t need to be afraid anymore. I know now. I know what happened.”
There was a shimmering in front of her as she opened her eyes, but just a shimmer. “You can’t go any further.” She almost whimpered the words. “I can’t tell you-”
“Romy,” Elodie held up her machine, “I’m coming.”
And then they were standing in front of a normal lavender bush, and the machine was going crazy. Elodie looked at the bush more carefully and realized three things:
There was a bit of snow frosting the flowers
It’s shadow was cast slightly off
There was a girl standing in front of it with her arms out.
“No!” Romy was barely there, an overcast image or television signal that couldn't quite make it. Tears streamed down her cheeks. “I’m sorry, Elodie.” She whispered, voice coming from the wrong direction. “I shouldn’t have followed you. You just looked so sad. And, and-”
“It’s okay.” Elodie whispered back. “I’m glad you did.”
Romy went silent and her image flickered out of sight again.
Elodie tugged on the rope around her waist and tightened the knot. She handed the end of it to her sister and the kids, “remember, Margot, Sam.” She said with a wink, “show your mom how it’s done.”
“Elodie?”
Elodie turned to Lea again, who had gone perfectly pale. “I’m going to go help mom’s friend,” she said with a wane smile. “I think I really like her. I think you’ll like her too.”
“You can’t-” Lea reached for her but Elodie was backing up.
“Trust me,” she mouthed, “and hold tight.”
And then Elodie turned directly into a ghostly figure, “please.” Romy begged, “I don’t want this for anyone else.”
“Neither do I.”
And then she leapt directly into the strange bush and slipped through something intangible.
It burned. Just like her hand did the first time she tried to touch something from “the Nowhere.” Her entire body surged with freezing cold ripples that set everything aflame, she tried to scream but the noise was eaten whole.
Pain surged through her from head to toe for another moment before it cooled into a nothingness. She tried to open her eyes, but there was nothing to open. She tried to move, but she couldn’t find the direction- she couldn’t remember what up and down used to look like.
Jumbled, wrong, things rushed at Elodie from every direction. A hand latched onto her shoulder and Elodie grabbed on to it.
There was no sound, no smell, no light, but there was the feel. Elodie sucked that shape to her, and then she was being yanked backward by her midsection.
The rope dug into her skin and her whole form protested against the snap of the rope.
Elodie held on with all her might to the shape connected to her, “let’s go home.”
Elodie popped back into the pain and air, sizzling surged through her system and her insides tightened with the painful gasp for air of a drowning man. She was sweating from every pour and when she opened her eyes everything flooded into jarring focus.
“God,” she clutched at her chest, and then she felt someone wrapped around her- shaking.
Elodie turned slightly and it all came crashing down onto her head. A young woman was draped over her, she was blonde and spindly and her face was flushed and damp.
“Thank you,” she croaked hoarsely, “oh God, thank you.”
“Romy?” Elodie’s heart sped up to that of a combustion engine and she twisted in place. “Are you okay?” She gently, slowly, and lifted a hand up to touch her warm and pulsing cheek. It didn’t hurt.
Romy sniffed and wiped at her swimming eyes- dripping with wet tears. “I’m here.” She breathed and sat back on her heels, “I think.”
Elodie smiled brightly, “I think so too.” And then they are leaning forward and wrapping their arms around each other, trembling from head to toe.
“Is that the phantom?” Samuel whispered loudly.
“Is she gonna eat us now?” Margot piped up.
“Only if you’re bad.” Lea said irritably, of course she would be annoyed more than anything at the sight of dragging a girl back from the brink of Nowhere.
“Kids,” Elodie tilted her head up, “this is Romy Durand.”
Romy turned to them weakly, “your aunt is a very brave person.” Her voice cracked as she said it.
“I’m not sure about that,” Elodie said in a small voice as they sat too close on the ground.
“Don’t be a fool Elodie,” Romy whispered into her ear, “that was the bravest thing I’ve ever seen. And can I tell you something?” Elodie nodded solemnly.
“Yeah.”
Romy turned her face and pressed a damp, warm kiss onto her cheek. It was firm and a little sloppy, “I hoped it would be you.”
Elodie blinked back her own tears and looked Romy in the face. They tipped their foreheads together and held each other’s gaze.
“I’ll buy you another orange.” She said in a hushed breath and Romy clung to her.
“You don’t need to.” Romy smiled wetly, “you’ve done more than enough.”
Elodie leaned up and pressed a kiss to her forehead, “you said you’d keep me company if I did. I’ll just have to keep buying them.”
Romy reached for her hand, “I’ll follow you wherever you want.” She squeezed her fingers tight.
They rose carefully to their feet, the family full of questions and prompts. Elodie raised a hand up, “wait.” She croaked, “Let’s go home first.”
And they walked back to the squat house in the rolling fields, past the swampy lake, and yellow grasses, and empty dirt road. They left the lavender fields and Romy cried the whole way back, she only spoke again as they collapsed into the upstairs bed.
“What if I disappear again?” She asked, trembling and weak.
They curled up on the bed together and Elodie pulled her close and felt her very real and pounding heartbeat against her chest. She wrapped her arms around the phantom, “then I’ll pull you right back out again.”
She nodded into her skin with a small smile they curled up around each other and didn’t let go.
----------------------
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Announcing Fan Service Limited Hardcover: Supernatural Society Omnibus Plus Exclusive Hedgehog Incident
Fan Service is coming out in October 2019 (to celebrate Soulless turning 10) from Subterranean Press.
It is an omnibus collection featuring 2 previously published Supernatural Society Novellas plus spanking new novellete… Meat Cute AKA The Hedgehog Incident.
Yes, you read the right. THE HEDGEHOG INCIDENT. At last.
Together these three stories are my most requested character wrap-ups from the Parasol Protectorate series, hence the title of this omnibus: Fan Service.
THIS IS A LIMITED PRINT RUN SPECIAL OMNIBUS WITH EXCLUSIVE NOVELETTE.
IT WILL SELL OUT. PREORDER NOW.
This collector’s special Fan Service omnibus contains stories specifically tailored to honor my most devoted fans.
It includes previously published Supernatural Society Novellas: Romancing the Inventor, Romancing the Werewolf. And an all new and never before seen novelette:
Meat Cute
AKA
The Hedgehog Incident
The collection answers the three most common questions readers have after reading the Parasol Protectorate series…
Will Madame Lefoux ever find love?
Do Biffy and Lyall ever get back together?
What exactly happened when Alexia and Conall (and a hedgehog) first met?
The cover art and design of Fan Service matches the previous Subterranean edition of Soulless.
What’s in Fan Service?
In Romancing the Inventor Imogene Hale is a lowly parlourmaid with a soul-crushing secret. Seeking solace, she takes work at a local vampire hive, only to fall desperately in love with the amazing lady inventor imprisoned in the potting shed.
In Romancing the Werewolf Professor Randolph Lyall returns home to London after twenty years abroad, afraid of what he might find. With his pack in chaos and his beloved Alpha Biffy in crisis, it will take all his Beta efficiency to set everything to rights.
In Meat Cute, Alexia Tarabotti attends what seems to be a very dull party, until London’s new werewolf Alpha turns up, is unconscionably rude to her, and sits on a hedgehog.
From the comedic mind of New York Times bestseller Gail Carriger come three charming love stories set in her popular steampunk Parasolverse. Featuring a long-awaited reunion, a well deserved new romance, and a very surprised hedgehog. Look out for cheeky appearances from other popular characters, not to mention the strategic application of a wicker chicken.
Answering Your Questions!
Wait WHAT?
The novelette Meat Cute AKA The Hedgehog Incident features Alexia and Conall meeting for the first time.
How do I get it?
Right now you can only preorder directly this from Subterranean Press (it may become available at other bookstores, but only if they don’t sell out themselves first).
Other print editions?
This omnibus is a special edition, and will be released in hardcover only. It’s a limited run of 550 copies (500 limited numbered, 50 lettered and boxed).
Signed please?
All the books will come already signed by me.
Will you do the Supernatural Society novellas individually in hard cover?
No. This is likely your only chance to get the two Supernatural Society novellas in hard cover. I’ve no intention of doing hard cover books myself for any of my independent projects.
Can I get Meat Cute as an ebook?
I will release Meat Cute in digital… eventually. But you’ll have to wait a while. Join the Chirrup for more info.
Will Meat Cute be a trade paperback like the novellas?
No, Meat Cute is not long enough to get its own print book, that’s cost prohibitive. If you want it in print, this is your opportunity. I might couple it with something else, but that’s likely to take years.
Will Meat Cute be in audio?
Yes, there will be an audio version of this story. Emma Newman is narrating. Probably next year. Maybe even this Christmas if you’re good.
Do you intend to bundle other novellas as omnibus editions (when you have more written)?
Yes, I’d love to. Subterranean is a joy to work with and their books are stunning. We have to see how this one sells, of course. It’s a big experiment for everyone involved.
If this goes well, it will take a while before the next one, because I’d like to have at least 3 Delightfully Deadly or 3 Claw & Courtship novellas released first. Also, I’m unlikely to do a collectors omnibus until at last a year after the final of those comes out. Right now there aren’t even second books in any of these series but, you know, long term plans.
I hope you are as excited as I am for this new book baby.
I know it’s a ways away but I am hoping you feel like this is a good ten year anniversary present!
Yours in hedgehogs,
Miss Gail
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hey! You can read my novellette “The Lavender Fields” as a patron now! I’m really proud of the story and hope people like it 🤗
genre: wlw, supernatural
words: 18k
summary: There’s a phantom in the lavender fields.
In the wild lavender fields outside a small rural village is a strange figure that appears and disappears at random. Elodie has moved back in with her family, expecting to lose herself in mundane life there, and instead finds the mystery of a shadow figure she keeps communicating with.
Read Stephen Baxter's "The Martian in the Wood", set in the aftermath of the First Martian War.
In the aftermath of the First Martian War, in the interim between it and what was to come later, England seemed to once again become a green and peaceful place, if one haunted by the terrible events in Surrey that had happened in those early years of the century. Although people hoped and prayed peace had come, they were wrong. Across the gulf of space, plans were being drawn for a return, but before they could bear fruit a terrible discovery was made deep in Holmburgh Wood, one that would tear a family apart and shock the world.
Hi, writeblr, I'm a queer writer from Brazil. I have a few short stories published wide through Draft2Digital. This week, D2D announced they will implement an annual maintenance fee of $12 for those accounts that don't earn $100/year. I barely earn $12/year, so if you can boost my book posts, that would be much appreciated.
Talita is a princess that goes on a roadtrip with her friend Marcela and the fairy Solis to help her kingdom!
Read "The Three Lives of Sonata James", a sci-fi novelette by Lettie Prell about the artistic value of mortality.
In a cyber-enhanced, futuristic Chicago, Sonata knows near-immortality is achievable through downloading her mind into a cyborg body after death. But this young artist wants to prove that living forever isn’t the same as living a beautiful life.
Author Warren is a cutthroat dealer that finds hard to get items for wealthy collectors. But when he’s approached to find a one-of-a-kind recording of the last song done by a sadistic musician that...
