Read Online Ghost Girl in Shadow Bay: A Young Adult Haunted House Mystery by R. Barri Flowers - Free Book Online Page A

neighborhood girl or--"
    "No, you agreed, Mom--with Vance,"
Peyton snapped. "Bry asked around and didn't come up with anyone
who fit the description or is even missing from around here."
    "Then maybe it was something else," her
mother suggested. "Like a log or--"
    "A dead person--" Peyton's eyes grew
large.
    Melody stiffened. "Listen to me, honey, if
the girl you say you saw in the bay was dead, then she wouldn't be
the same girl in the picture. Why, it must be at least fifty years
old."
    "I meant dead , as in a ghost ,"
Peyton said uneasily. "I know it sounds crazy, but I think her
ghost is haunting this house...haunting me."
    Melody sighed. "There's no such thing as
ghosts."
    "How do you know?"
    "I just do."
    "But what if you're wrong?" Peyton
challenged.
    Her mother peered. "Why on earth would this
girl haunt you, Peyton?"
    "I don't know. Maybe because she was killed
by her father--along with mother and another man--and can't find
peace or something."
    Peyton had read once about spirits trapped
in a void between life and the afterlife because of unsettled
issues. But never really believed it was possible till now.
    "You have a vivid imagination, Peyton. But
that doesn't make it right."
    "I saw it in my dreams...nightmares..."
Peyton sucked in a deep breath. "I'm sure it really happened--in this house in another time."
    Melody frowned. "It did not happen,
sweetheart! And the people in the photo are not the ones in your
nightmare. Haunted houses and restless spirits simply do not exist
in the real world, no matter how much you may want to believe they
do. You couldn't have dreamt about a family who lived in this house
many years ago. For one thing, they may all still be alive today
and much older than the people in your dreams."
    "You think so?" Peyton hadn't considered
that. Was it possible her mind was playing tricks on her? And that
no one was really murdered in this house?
    "Why not, if they had a normal life span and
the picture was taken within the last fifty years or so," her
mother speculated. "Certainly the girl would not be a teenager
anymore. She could be a mother or even a grandmother today."
    "Maybe you're right," Peyton allowed, though
still not convinced.
    "I know I am." Melody's eyes crinkled. "Now
that's enough in this attic for today, I think. Let's go get
something to drink."
    She took Peyton's hand and led her out of
the attic.
    Peyton looked over her shoulder at the
picture sitting on a small table, seemingly staring back at her.
She wondered if it was truly possible to dream--or even
daydream--images that seemed to resemble real people she had never
met. Or dream about people who actually lived in the house in
another time, but in some ways never left.
    * * *
    Caitlyn watched as Peyton and her mother
left the attic. She moved over to the picture, studying it like she
once had her schoolbooks. The photo was taken when the family had
gone to visit her aunt in Michigan. Everything seemed so happy and
loving then.
    But it would soon all fall apart. Everything
she had dreamt for her family had been destroyed. So had her
future.
    And now it was happening all over again. A
new family had assumed all the dark forces that existed in the
house. History was bound to make the same mistakes with deadly
consequences, unless she could combine forces with Peyton to defeat
the enemy within. But it would not be easy, for Caitlyn's father
was as angry and vindictive today as he was so very long ago, as
though time had stood still.
    Caitlyn refused to back away from her
self-appointed mission to make the outcome different this time. It
would soon all come to a head and she prayed that the curse would
be broken forever.
    Caitlyn suddenly froze when she sensed her
father coming. He would be very upset if he found her in the attic
where she wasn't allowed.
    With great willpower, the girl vanished,
just as a looming figure appeared. He scowled while looking around.
His eyes focused on the framed photograph. Whereas once the