Read Online Restless by Scott Prussing - Free Book Online

walked up the gently sloping asphalt path toward the top of the hill, where the gravestones were gathered more closely together.
    By the time they reached the top of the hill, the sun had disappeared, painting the dark sky in streaks of pink and purple while cloaking the cemetery in dim twilight. Below them, the windows of the college buildings began to glow yellow.
    The two girls watched as darkness enveloped the campus. Some of the light from below reached into the unlit cemetery, keeping the hilltop from becoming totally dark. Still, it was dark enough.
    “There’s someone else here,” Cali whispered.
    Leesa glanced around. “Where?”
    Cali pointed to their left. “Over there.”
    Leesa followed Cali’s finger. Sure enough, she saw three dark forms fifty or sixty feet away. One was tall enough to be an adult; the other two appeared to be children. Leesa wondered who would bring kids into a dark graveyard at night.
    The three figures appeared to be watching Leesa and Cali. After a few moments, they began to walk slowly forward.
    As the trio drew nearer, Leesa could see that her earlier guess had been correct. The taller form was a woman. The two children were a girl and a boy. The girl looked to be around ten years old, the boy a year or two younger.
    The woman stopped ten feet away. The children halted beside her, one on each side, holding her hands.
    There was something very strange about these three, Leesa could see now. Their outlines seemed almost fuzzy, although it was difficult to tell for certain in the darkness. They also seemed insubstantial somehow. She had the feeling that had there been any light behind the three, she might have been able to see right through them. Before she could fully ponder what that meant, the woman spoke. Her voice was soft, yet more audible than Leesa would have expected, given the low volume.
    “Please, help us.”
    Both Leesa and Cali quickly surveyed the surrounding area. They did not see any sign of trouble.
    “What’s wrong?” Leesa asked. “How can we help you?”
    “We’re tired of fighting,” the little boy said.
    “We just want peace,” the girl added.
    “Fighting?” Cali asked, looking around one more time to confirm they were still alone. “Fighting who? There’s no one else here but us.”
    “We certainly mean you no harm,” Leesa assured the newcomers.
    “We just want to rest,” the woman said. “We deserve to rest.” She draped an arm around the shoulders of each of her children. “Especially my kids.”
    “I don’t understand,” Leesa said.
    “My husband was a violent drunk,” the woman said, her soft voice beginning to fill with sadness. “He beat me often.” She wiped the back of her hand across her eyes, then dropped her arm back around her daughter’s shoulder. “If that’s all it was, I could have borne the burden, but sometimes he turned his temper upon the children. They didn’t do anything wrong. They did not deserve that.”
    “No one does,” Leesa said, feeling especially sorry for the children.
    “Finally, my husband lost it completely,” the woman continued as if Leesa had not spoken. “He murdered us, and then turned the gun on himself.
    Cali gasped audibly. Leesa understood now why their three visitors seemed so unsubstantial. They were spirits—ghosts—not real people. A year ago , such a revelation would have surprised and shocked her, but after all she had experienced, she now took the woman’s declaration in stride.
    “That’s horrible,” Cali said.
    The woman sighed. “It really wasn’t so bad—we were finally free of the bastard. At last, we had found peace.” She shook her shadowy head sadly. “Until recently, that is.”
    “I still don’t understand,” Leesa said. “What happened? How can we help?”
    “Some power is disturbing our world,” the woman explained. “Those of us who are most recently deceased feel it the strongest. Something is weakening the barrier between our world and yours.