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

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had meant everything to him, now it only inflamed his hatred.
    He made a sweeping motion with his arm,
knocking the picture over.
    She would pay again for what she had done.
Pay dearly. And only then might he exact some retribution.
    For now, he intended to keep an eye not on
only his family, but the new ones who occupied the premises.
    Right up to the day they died.

CHAPTER TWELVE
     
    "Do you believe in ghosts?" Peyton asked
Lily the following afternoon.
    They were sitting in a café eating ice
cream. She had hesitated to broach the subject with her new friend,
but decided to anyhow.
    Lily batted her eyes. "You mean like spirits
who only come out at night?"
    "Yeah. Or even during the day."
    "You're serious?"
    Maybe she'll think I'm nuts . "Well,
some people do believe in that stuff, you know."
    Lily spooned a generous scoop of ice cream
from her banana split. "I guess I don't really believe that ghosts
are lurking around us, but I'm not saying it's impossible. Why? Did
you see a ghost?"
    Peyton swallowed a spoonful of strawberry
ice cream. She thought about the girl in the bay, mirror, and her
dreams. Was she just a figment of my imagination? Or was she
something more ghostly?
    Was it was possible the girl in the photo
and the girl Peyton had seen with her very own eyes were one and
the same?
    "I might have..." she said.
    Lily's eyes widened. "Really? Where?"
    Peyton told her. "Then my mom found this
decades old photograph in the attic that had a girl in it who
looked just like the one I saw."
    "Wow!" Lily sat back and stuck her spoon in
the banana. "So you think this girl is after you, or what?"
    "I don't know. I thought she was trying to
hurt me in the bay, but maybe not. Maybe she just wanted to get my
attention...you know, sort of like to keep her company, or maybe
help her somehow."
    Peyton checked herself, realizing how this
must have sounded to Lily. "I know I'm babbling--" If she ran
away from me as quickly as she could right now, I wouldn't blame
her.
    Lily tossed back her hair. "This is pretty
much over my head, but my Nana is into ghosts and supernatural
stuff."
    "Really?"
    "Well, she's not a ghost hunter or anything,
but she definitely believes that spirits exist all around us.
Nana's told me lots of stories over the years."
    Peyton was intrigued. "Think I could talk
her about it sometime? Maybe she could help me understand what's
going on here."
    "Sure. But be careful what you ask for. My
grandmother's pretty lonely, though she'll never admit it, and will
talk your head off if you let her."
    Peyton laughed. "Sounds like my friend
Erica. She lives in San Diego and boy can she talk."
    "Do you want to go to the bookstore?" Lily
was clearly ready to move past the ghost chat. "We can get some
coffee and people watch."
    "Sure, I'm game." Peyton was only too happy
to enjoy some girlfriend fun, without the specter of ghosts and
evil spirits hanging over her like a dark cloud.
    * * *
    That evening Peyton was sitting at the
dining room table for dinner. Her mother and stepfather were
sitting at opposite ends, as if on different planets.
    "I'd say we're finally settled in enough to
call this place home," Vance said. "What do you think, Melody?"
    She smiled faintly. "You're right. My garden
is still a work in progress, but even it has the makings of home to
me."
    "What about you, Peyton?" Vance's voice
deepened. "Getting comfortable with the surroundings?"
    Peyton looked up from her salad. She thought
about Bryant and Lily. They had made her feel at home, but she
still missed San Diego, their old house, Erica, and her other
friends.
    Then there was her possible brush with the
supernatural that had Peyton questioning a number of things,
including her sanity.
    "Yeah, I am starting to like living in
Shadow Bay," she told her stepfather in what amounted to a
half-truth. Peyton met her mother's eyes and wondered if she was
truly happy there. Or was it more that she desperately wanted to
be, in order to make her second