Greta and Eric walked down the street to a shop called all things Page Turners. Inside was light and airy. The clean, crisp white and powder blue painted wood and accent trim in daffodil yellow hugged the surroundings. The names of the colour just popped into her mind. She’d expected a dark, dusty wood interior, not this place where kids ran through the racks of shelving.
Kelly Jones, the owner of the shop, was just as unexpected as the shop. She was a whirlwind of colour and flowers. A vase tipped over, and that accounted for the flowers. They were artificial and so no water to clean up.
“Oh, hi. Good afternoon. How may I help you?” The tall, lean redhead stood up and made her way t
Again, Olivia found her in that in-between area. She was at the Blue Moon. Olivia flowed through time at the Inn as she spent less time than she liked. Like she had once flowed in a river’s current. She was running out of time. Only a few journals were left. They needed to learn how to save themselves and free her. Edward followed her again the last time she dared to venture from the Blue Moon. After all this time, he’d not stopped obsessing over the idea of her. She knew he’d never seen her for who she was. That is why, she’d declined his marriage offer. In those days, Edward saw only dollar signs like so many others. Many came searching for gold and their fortune. Few understood the hills were filled with nickel and not gold. But Edward has seen the lucrative the Blue Moo
Beckawaited impatientlyin thelibrary,feeling like an unwanted pet.How could they do that? Without her at thehelm,Benjamin wouldn’t have a blog,or any media accounts.She’d cared for him through it all. She was the one that made sure that everythingwent smoothly.Yetthey cast herout?He needed her.
The ghost-hunting guests left the office, leaving Donny and Gabby alone. The silence stretched between them. Donny looked over the documents they’d left. He knew about her ancestor Olivia committing suicide and her mother’s tragic car accident. He sat looking at the list of tragedies. They didn’t occur to a few generations, but all the generations. None died a natural death or by disease. “Gabby, I’m not ready to lose you yet.” “Donny, it’s okay. We have years yet. This is the closest anyone in my family understands the curse.” “Figuring out? What do you mean? You don’t know what the curse says?” “When Olivia wrote al
The Germains’ stopped by the front desk asking for their key, and Jody mentioned what happened with their assistant. Denise looked pleased until Benjamin mentioned they would need to leave early so he could secure their accounts and such. She took it in stride. Jody apologized and offered to get management to help them with the confusion. Because she was unsure how to correct the situation for them. Benjamin appeared almost relieved she left. Though he asked that they deal with it in the morning. It was too late to drive home safely in the dark. Jody promised to tell the management to have everything readied for them in the morning. The Germains left with smiles and promises to return in the morning. Apologizing for the disturbance before heading up to their room. Though five minutes
Eddie was jittery as he got ready for his dinner date. He was meeting Hailey at the Restaurant at the Evergreen Grove Ski Resort. Eddie couldn’t remember the last time that he’d gone on a date. He struggled with a tie for cripe’s sake. Eddie had not used a tie in so long. He wasn’t sure if the tie was in fashion. He’d been flirting for ages with Hailey always backing down from asking her out. Her reaction to seeing him cleanly shaven that he just went for it and asked. He half expected her to throw her coffee at him and accuse him of teasing her. She’d jumped at the idea of having dinner with him. He’d cleaned himself up even further. Eddie was checking the time once a minute on his watch as he
Greta spent the day picking up the shooting permits. The team would need it all to do their job. It was all routine. It was the police at the Inn that was unexpected. She’d found out some interesting things about other legends within the area. She’d also picked up another interview with a detective. When she spoke to the producer on the phone. She’d explained who the new tech guy she’d found was. The producer couldn’t get over the influence Eric would bring. Shayla, their primary producer, was ecstatic. Aaron, their main technical specialist, needed to leave the team because of family issues. One of his sons found himself in trouble. The network wanted to keep scandal far away from all their shows.&nb
Greta needed to find a shaman. What knowledge a shaman would have she didn’t know? She’d talk to Gabby come morning. Maybe she was familiar with a local shaman? Greta would find one as she’d worked with one before. It’s a close-knit profession. And they were familiar with other practitioners. If she couldn’t find someone here to introduce her to a local shaman. She could contact Red Feather for an introduction. It made little sense. Shamans knew the spirits and legends of Native Americans. They weren’t working with ghosts and Irish fairies. She stood staring at the evidence board. Greta looked for connections that were a clue or answer fit. A knock on her door drew her attention. Taken2 aback, she stared at the door before her curiosity got her. Wh
Greta was lucky to get about five hours’ sleep. There was someone knocking at her door. Bleary-eyed, she stumbled to the door and opened it for Shayla. “Hi, what’s up? Thought we would meet at noon as usual.” “It’s not just that. I want to know about this tech guy you’ve brought on. I have paper of course for him to fill in. Is he as cute as the photos make him out to be?” Shayla thrust her phone into Greta’s face. Sure, enough Eric’s face glaring at the photographer. “He doesn’t quite look like that. He’s a nice guy when people aren’t pushing him to do something, he’s not comfortable with.”&n
Gabby could feel Olivia was close. She slipped away from her nice warm spot in the bed beside Donny and made her way down to the secret room, where Olivia died all those years ago. They’d not truly spoken with each other in quite some time and Gabby missed the comforting feelings she received from her ancestor. As she laid out the things that would help Olivia to come through, Gabby felt something different in the presence that answered. The presence wasn’t that of Olivia. Well, not fully. She wasn’t sure how she knew, but the presence felt male. Her mind instantly went to the possibility that it was Ian. Had Ian come with Olivia, or was he there alone? Something felt different. Gabby wasn’t sure if it was because the spirit was different, or their conversation would be world changing. That’s how it felt for Gabby. Both excitement and dread played with the information her intuition gave her. “Hello? Who’s that? I know it’s not Olivia, the one I summ
Kelly finally dared to approach the house of one of Evergreen Grove’s original witch families. There were originally fourteen. Thirteen were part of a coven that settled here when they formed the town. The fourteenth was a lone practitioner. The Blue Moon Inn was the home of that family. This house, now the doll hospital, was the family home of the one banished witch family. Kelly had found this mentioned within the coven’s history. Hailey’s ancestor placed the curse, and the coven banished then because she would not remove the curse after she placed it. Oddly this conflicted with another section that claimed she placed the curse because she’d been kicked out of the coven. That would probably never be explained or corrected. That lone practitioner was the only one able to take on the curse. She wouldn’t share the responsibility, nor did she accept a place within the coven. She couldn’t end the cursed spell because she didn’t have control of it. What she did
So much happened over the coming months. Winter inched away, leaving Spring in its wake. The paranormal situation settled down, with much of the weaker spirits disappearing almost instantly. Kelly claimed their foothold in the land of the living wasn’t strong enough to stay and the curse was the only thing keeping them here. Spirits like Olivia and Ian, though, they were invested in the living, and they were the ones unwilling to leave. So, as the programs aired on television, the town stood poised to see how the world would react to their way of life. A town haunted and cursed in the idyllic countryside of Canada. A working modern-day ghost town. That was how the show portrayed them, with snapshots of their lives sprinkled with scenes of ghostly activity. Interviews with local artisans defending their way of life and their continued relationships with their ancestors. It pleased Gabby that the show didn’t portray them as all crazies and lunatics. Greta did
Kelly Jones, the owner of Page Turners, came armed with several bags. At first glance, she looked like she was coming to stay. But that wasn’t the case. They needed everything she brought with her for the ceremony. But she carefully stored all her equipment and supplies in what appeared to be custom storage containers.Gabby couldn’t do more than block windows and the section of the back garden from the guests as there wasn’t time to cancel bookings and she wouldn’t evict guests in the middle of their stay. They’d been warned of the haunted nature and odd happenings. This was just another odd happening. Or at least that’s how she instructed Jody to explain it. The guests didn’t need to know exactly what was happening in the back garden on a cold winter evening.Eric stomped his feet to get some warmth into them. This differed from being in the on the island. They couldn’t have any electric current close to this location at the time of the ritual for fear it might affect the results of
Greta and Eric sat, eating their dinner in companionable silence. “So, what do you have in mind to do tonight?” Greta didn’t know what Eric was planning, but if the way the Inn’s restaurant was slowly clearing out and no new patrons were replacing them, she knew he had something planned. “I was thinking we could actually spend some time together without work getting between us. At every turn, it seems to be in our faces. We chase disembodied creatures, but they are acting like a barrier between us.” They were now on dessert, and she’d missed how time had gotten away from them as they’d lingered over their meal. This must have been the first time they’d not shovelled food down in a rush to return to work. Greta was enjoying it. “Did you hire the dining room for the evening?” Greta wasn’t stupid. There were only two other tables occupied beyond theirs, and this was a time when the dining room would hop with diners. “I may have. Look, if I tried to get you to
Eric entered the dining room with several books and papers. He dropped them down at the table where Greta ate and searched the internet while she could connect to it. The struggle to get onto the internet and stay connect was a nightmare. Now, with the uptick in paranormal activity, it wasn’t just spotty internet, but batteries draining at an unnaturally fast rate, and equipment powering down at random. One machine used to make spirit voices available for them to hear, appeared to become possessed by several spirits that all needed to talk at once. None were interested in taking turn or working with the others. It forced them to shut it down and keep it turned off from then on. Which was no simple task when it would switch itself back on at random or they could say it was the will of the spirits. “I just got back from the bookshop, and she let me look at her private collection of documents on the history of ‘certain’ families in the area. Sure enough, Hailey’s family was conn
Jody put away the last of the laundry and looked around the small apartment. She couldn’t believe with everything going on that Billy insisted she move in with them. She watched Abby run past the bedroom door excitedly because her brother gave her permission to turn on cartoons for a while. This was his day off, but most of it was dealing with the horrific mess his family saddled him with. His mother would have nothing to do with the family. She’d washed her hands of it. That left Billy and Abby to pick up the mess. Between the funeral, police investigation, and the management of the estate after the fire, Jody wasn’t sure what Billy would do with it all. She didn’t feel it was right for her to speak up right now. But he was in the kitchen making dinner tonight for them. He claimed it calmed his nerves. If he hadn’t been at the Inn working when the fire happened, Jody figured they’d be suspects, because they didn’t find the cause of it during the investigation.
Eric found Greta scrolling through the internet looking for information. This was her job for the show. It was her duty to research these things. But he didn’t envy her, her job. Much of this wasn’t easy to find, and she’d be up late contacting people or searching the internet. Digging in old archives or libraries. “Have you found anything yet?” Eric came into the upstairs library and spoke to Greta. He’d just finished retesting the equipment that appeared to malfunction on them. Also, he had a message from Hailey for Greta. “No, but I’m sure whatever is bothering Eddie and Hailey, someone kept it in that cabinet. When they moved it, the seal broke and now it’s roaming about probably angry about being sealed up like that for this long. We don’t know if they have more to be angry about, either. Has Hailey decided if we can unlock that book, we found? I don’t want to open it if she’s not comfortable with it. But I truly believe it will tell us a lot about what
Liam walked the streets of Evergreen Grove with Olivia. The evening was beautiful and surprisingly busy. People walk by them, taking little to no notice of them. However, he could see they weren’t all living. Several clearly dead people walked by them. One or two even acknowledge their presence. The bookshop was still owned by a witch, who could see the dead and communicate with them. Her cat was interesting. Liam could see that it wasn’t a normal animal. It’s spirit was far too complex for a common animal. Then there was the wolf, or man. It was a creature with two forms. But it was cursed. But there in the bookshop now sat several ancestors of the witch, many attempting to have her banish the wolf-man creature. They didn’t stay long enough to communicate before they were moving on. “I feel a little so