Read Online 2 A Reason for Murder by Morgana Best - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Morgana Best
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while by the large diamonds in the window of a jewelry store.
My googling was fruitful. Apparently a twelfth century work by the name of Historia Regum Britanniae and written by a Geoffrey of Monmouth, chronicled the lives of mythological kings of the Britons over two thousand years. In a wild flight of fancy, it alleged that the Trojans founded the ancient British nation.
From my iPhone I emailed the Arcade office and asked them to put up a sign, "Disclaimer. This is according to a recent, unfounded myth. The Trojans were in fact never in conflict with the Britons, only with the Bronze Age Greeks."
The Spellbox was close by. I don't think I've ever been as entranced as I was with this store. It was fairly packed with shoppers, so I walked outside and up the stairs to the herbal dispensary. A large black crow perched on high guarding the store. It took me a moment to realize it wasn't alive.
I purchased some rue and hyssop and made my way down the stairs, when half way down I met a ghost. I could not see her, but sensed a female and also sensed that she meant me no harm. I sensed she was in Victorian clothes. I stood there, on the stairs, pushing out with my senses, when she moved suddenly and brushed past me so close that I could feel her breath on my cheek, and the word she whispered, "Danger," hung on the air long after she had left.
I was a little shaken but would have to expect spirits in such an old city, and such an old arcade.
There were now fewer people in the Spellbox, so I asked one of the store assistants if she knew about ghosts in the arcade.
"The upstairs used to be a brothel. Several people have reported seeing a lady at a spinning wheel."
"Are there many haunted places in the city?"
She nodded. "Oh yes. The Haunted Bookshop in McKillop Street runs tours of haunted Melbourne. They're very popular."
"I'm only here for the day but I'd like to come back at some time. So there's plenty of haunted stuff to see then?" I figured I could convince Keith to do a feature on haunted Melbourne, especially as the magazine was already intending to run the story on the Princess Theater ghost.
"Yes. The Haunted Bookshop has a website." The assistant broke off to serve a customer. I walked outside and back down the Royal Arcade looking in the store windows. If only I wasn't an underpaid journalist with a mortgage. Some intensive retail therapy would do me some good right now.
A hand grasped my shoulder. I turned around. No one was there. Although the arcade was crowded, no one was close behind me. A chill ran right through me to my very bones. At the same time, I told myself again that any city would be ripe with ghosts. This was my first time in a city after becoming the Keeper. While I as yet had no idea what being the Keeper entailed, I did know that it enabled me to see or sense spirits. I had been practicing grounding meditations daily as well as shielding visualizations to keep my new found sights and sensations at bay.
Any confidence my self-talk had provided was immediately shattered by a black shape looming over me. For one second I could only stand and stare. This was no ghostly snapshot of a bygone era; this apparition was filled with hatred and malice. The only too familiar feeling of being drawn into another realm overcame me, and I struggled against it. Too late; I became immobile, unable to speak or move. I felt ghostly hands reaching for my throat, squeezing, lightly at first and then urgently. I wanted desperately to pull away, but stood paralyzed.
As suddenly as it had appeared, it vanished. I forced myself to focus, to come back to reality, and then realizing where I was, I looked around, embarrassed. No one was looking at me.
City folk, I suppose, are used to all sorts of sights. Yet that was the least of my problems. Why was this happening to me? I would have to come up with a strategy to defend myself before this happened again.
I figured the best thing to do was to head for a coffee shop,
My googling was fruitful. Apparently a twelfth century work by the name of Historia Regum Britanniae and written by a Geoffrey of Monmouth, chronicled the lives of mythological kings of the Britons over two thousand years. In a wild flight of fancy, it alleged that the Trojans founded the ancient British nation.
From my iPhone I emailed the Arcade office and asked them to put up a sign, "Disclaimer. This is according to a recent, unfounded myth. The Trojans were in fact never in conflict with the Britons, only with the Bronze Age Greeks."
The Spellbox was close by. I don't think I've ever been as entranced as I was with this store. It was fairly packed with shoppers, so I walked outside and up the stairs to the herbal dispensary. A large black crow perched on high guarding the store. It took me a moment to realize it wasn't alive.
I purchased some rue and hyssop and made my way down the stairs, when half way down I met a ghost. I could not see her, but sensed a female and also sensed that she meant me no harm. I sensed she was in Victorian clothes. I stood there, on the stairs, pushing out with my senses, when she moved suddenly and brushed past me so close that I could feel her breath on my cheek, and the word she whispered, "Danger," hung on the air long after she had left.
I was a little shaken but would have to expect spirits in such an old city, and such an old arcade.
There were now fewer people in the Spellbox, so I asked one of the store assistants if she knew about ghosts in the arcade.
"The upstairs used to be a brothel. Several people have reported seeing a lady at a spinning wheel."
"Are there many haunted places in the city?"
She nodded. "Oh yes. The Haunted Bookshop in McKillop Street runs tours of haunted Melbourne. They're very popular."
"I'm only here for the day but I'd like to come back at some time. So there's plenty of haunted stuff to see then?" I figured I could convince Keith to do a feature on haunted Melbourne, especially as the magazine was already intending to run the story on the Princess Theater ghost.
"Yes. The Haunted Bookshop has a website." The assistant broke off to serve a customer. I walked outside and back down the Royal Arcade looking in the store windows. If only I wasn't an underpaid journalist with a mortgage. Some intensive retail therapy would do me some good right now.
A hand grasped my shoulder. I turned around. No one was there. Although the arcade was crowded, no one was close behind me. A chill ran right through me to my very bones. At the same time, I told myself again that any city would be ripe with ghosts. This was my first time in a city after becoming the Keeper. While I as yet had no idea what being the Keeper entailed, I did know that it enabled me to see or sense spirits. I had been practicing grounding meditations daily as well as shielding visualizations to keep my new found sights and sensations at bay.
Any confidence my self-talk had provided was immediately shattered by a black shape looming over me. For one second I could only stand and stare. This was no ghostly snapshot of a bygone era; this apparition was filled with hatred and malice. The only too familiar feeling of being drawn into another realm overcame me, and I struggled against it. Too late; I became immobile, unable to speak or move. I felt ghostly hands reaching for my throat, squeezing, lightly at first and then urgently. I wanted desperately to pull away, but stood paralyzed.
As suddenly as it had appeared, it vanished. I forced myself to focus, to come back to reality, and then realizing where I was, I looked around, embarrassed. No one was looking at me.
City folk, I suppose, are used to all sorts of sights. Yet that was the least of my problems. Why was this happening to me? I would have to come up with a strategy to defend myself before this happened again.
I figured the best thing to do was to head for a coffee shop,
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