Chapter One—Welcome to the Blue Moon
Jody settled down with a large hot chocolate and smiled at the snowfall from the Blue Moon’s front doors. Snow would not stop the people coming to the Blue Moon. Even without the skiing and other winter activities, they would be full. Here was where people came when they needed to escape their lives. They always found something at the Blue Moon that they needed.
Smiling, she listened to Gabriella, the owner, flutter almost down the hall, humming a tune as she freshened the rooms for the morning.
Donny was Gabriella’s husband, and he could be heard puttering between the kitchen and dining room. He was serving a buffet breakfast to the guests and employees.
Here at the Blue Moon Inn everyone was family, and if someone needed help, it would practically appear out of nowhere.
The Inn was decked out in the beautiful scent of pine and holly.Red bows, berries and baubles were artfully hidden in the greenery. Golden lights and a fire in every hearth.
She couldn’t imagine working anywhere else.
A couple was coming down the stairs. “Good morning, Mister and Misses Germain. It’s a beautiful morning, and there’s a hot breakfast laid out in the dining room. If you there’s something you can’t find, please just ask.” Jody set her mug down and stood before she said this to the unhappy couple.
His name was Benjamin, and his nose never left his phone. Jody wondered how he didn’t trip and fall like that. Technology never worked long here. Many joked that it only worked ‘Once in the Blue Moon.’
Denise Germain was impeccably dressed and yet neither spouse looked at each other. She smiled at Jody to acknowledge her words, but her husband only grunted before they entered the dining room. Jody believed she heard Denise scold Ben for being rude to the help.
Jody sighed and settled back into her chair; her mood was too good to worry about that insult. Technically, she was the help. She just didn’t feel the need to be offended. Jody had the perk of getting paid to be here all year.
Peaking at the schedule for today, there were four more check-ins. They would be full for at least the week.
Daniel Davis, a painter whose career was at a high two years ago was coming. He was probably here looking for something to help him reach the next step in his career.
April Klein was going to be here soon, and she was a curious creature. She came looking for something every year. Jody didn’t know what April was searched for. Many peopled believed she didn’t either. Ms. Klein was an enigma but a personal friend of Gabriella’s, and so she was family.
Eric Devlin was another first-timer here, and he was a rather sudden booking. Gabriella wasn’t sure about his personal character. He had a story, and he would need help from the Blue Moon’s magic with that story.
Jody had long ago learnt just to accept Gabriella’s hunches and stories. She always seemed to know what people needed and how the magic would have its way with a guest.
Finally, but not least, there was a Greta Johansen coming. She was a ghost hunter and wanted to come to explore the hauntings of Evergreen Grove’s little hamlet.
With the snow falling now, Jody had the chance to drink her hot chocolate while it was still warm. Then she’d get on to tidying the already neat lobby and assist with the dining room’s clean up. There was always something different to do around the Blue Moon, so no one got bored.
She artistically dropped a couple of brochures of local attractions on the front desk with a satisfied sigh. Shopping in the hamlet and skiing should cover the unhappy couple for the morning and afternoon. If not, there was skiing.
Those checking-in would be later in the morning because of travel being slowed for safety. Eddie was working on fixing the pantry door again. Jody could hear him cursing the door and the boggart he insisted lived in the pantry. Eddie was the handyman around the Blue Moon and the hamlet. He’d been here forever, and he looked like it too—a big bushy beard which was just like his hair, whiter than the snow outside. Eddie could pass for Santa on vacation around here. He was a cheerful person mostly, unless he was fixing something that wouldn’t stay fixed, like the pantry door.
Donny slipped in through the entrance behind the front desk and gave Jody a smile. “Morning, little one. Everything ready for those checking in today?”
“Gabby is just finishing up the rooms, and I’ve got the front desk ready. Are the hot chocolate and mulled cider ready? I’m sure they are going to be cold when the new guests get here. The snow doesn’t look like it’s going to stop soon.”
“I even put the kettle on and have coffee made too. Breakfast is all out and will be for another hour or so.”
“I swear if I didn’t know any better, but I think this place could almost run itself.”
“No, that’s the magic of this place, making it feel that way. But you didn’t hear that from me.” Donny chuckled and gave a wave before returning to the kitchen to tell Eddie to keep the volume down. No one wanted to hear his salty mouth. The relation between Eddie and Donny was obvious, but Jody never figured out how.
Jody fiddled with a few pine bows behind the front desk as she enjoyed the quiet time of the morning. She found herself picking up the tune Gabby was humming before she heard arguing coming from the dining room.
The Germains were arguing about what they were going to do today. Mister Germain wanted to hit the slopes and Misses Germain wanted to look at the town. Neither wanted to compromise, and that was Jody’s queue to step into action. She picked up a few brochures, and with a smile, before she entered the dining room.
“Good morning, Mister and Misses Germain. I just got these in, and I thought you would find them interesting. Mister Germain, the ski shop in Evergreen, has just received a new snowboard. I’ve heard the board has some new technology, and this brochure has a discount coupon if you purchase two snowboards. Misses Germain, I really recommend the women’s ski pants. They have vastly improved from last years. They are also using a new technology that increased their warmth without the bulk, and they are figure-hugging too. When you hit the slopes, the ski lodge gave us this brochure for a discount to use on the snowboarding hills. Now, if you hit the shops in…oh…an hour from now…you’ll still be able to get in a full day on the slopes, and you’ll even be able to enjoy your breakfast. Don’t forget to mention at the chalet you are staying here when you get your lunch, all our guests get a ten percent discount.”
Jody feared she’d overstepped her bounds with Misses Germain, but the two seemed surprised by her compromise for their argument. In the end, though, she looked at her husband and saw him reading up on the new snowboards and nodding. She would get her shopping in with her husband in tow willingly, and he would get his time on the slopes with a new toy he could share with her, all at a discount.
That’s when Jody first saw a smile creep onto Misses Germain’s face, and it transformed her. Sadly, her husband didn’t see it.
With the Germain’s, now interested in doing something together. Jody went on with her day. Gabriella was in her office organizing the bookkeeping paperwork to go offsite for completion. With the inability to use computers reliably. This was necessary. Three hours later, the first of their new guests appeared in a flurry of snowflakes as the main doors opened and shut behind them. A young man st
“I guess I better warn Gabby about this. I think she thought it wouldn’t be an issue
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