Spirits of Spring (The Haunting Ruby Series Book 4) Read online

  Spirits of Spring

  Book Four Of The Haunting Ruby Series By Joy Elbel

  Spirits of Spring, Book Four of The Haunting Ruby Series

  © 2014 by Joy Elbel ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Embrace the darkness before it embraces you.

  Acknowledgements

  When I wrote the acknowledgements for Shades of Summer, little did I know just how much things would change over the next few years. Time and distance have separated me from some and made me see others in a different light. Some who were with me in the beginning are now nothing more than a flicker of light in my past. But for every friendship lost, new ones have been gained and ones from the distant past rekindled. While those original acknowledgements still stand, I feel that new ones are also in order.

  Josh Barrett—thank you for helping me to regain my enthusiasm for writing. I hope that someday the tables will be turned and it will be me reading your written words. Remember the plan…our books are our first step toward world domination!

  Ashley Schwentner—thank you for helping me stay sane while writing the final book in this series. As you know, sanity is not something I am well acquainted with!

  Sara Christian—thank you for spreading the word on my books. I may soon need to hire a bodyguard to go on Sheetz runs with me!

  Luke Haskins—my evil nemesis, The Professor. Thank you for supplying what had to be the best quote I have ever heard in my entire life. “It sounds like the Holocaust.” Keep those crazy, witty lines coming!

  Jay and Nancy Elbel—my parents. Creators of “The Crow Hole” and more importantly, me! And of course, thanks to all of my readers and your sometimes not so patient patience while I slowly wrapped up this series. In my mind, there was only one possible way for me to end Ruby’s story. Once you get there, I hope you all agree.

  En”Joy”!

  Prologue

  Endings come in many forms. They can be happy, sad, or bittersweet. There’s one thing they all have in common, though—a sense of finality. Once something is over, you can never truly get it back. Sure, you can try to recapture moments in your life and try to find something that makes you feel the way you once did, but it’s never quite the same. Sometimes when things end, you walk away with a sense of relief or accomplishment—other times, with a feeling of loss or disappointment. It has been said that all good things must come to an end but the same is also true of all bad things. You see, nothing good or bad lasts forever.

  Just like the seasons, things change, people change, feelings change—it’s an inevitable part of life. What was once extremely important to you suddenly isn’t and people you were once close to become people that you used to know. You leave the familiar sometimes by choice, other times as a result of circumstance. Sometimes you know right from the start that change is on the horizon. Graduation is something everyone looks forward to right from the very start. But that excitement can turn to fear in a heartbeat when you realize that real life is much more challenging than any math or science test could ever be. Life isn’t something you can study or prepare for— some things just kind of happen and all you can do is deal with the aftermath.

  While endings and change bring about finality and mark closure in one chapter of your life, they also do the exact opposite. In order for anything new to begin, something else must end. Life is a circle of never ending transformation from the moment you’re born until the day you die—sometimes it doesn’t even end there. All you can really do is muddle your way through and adjust the best way you know how when you get pummeled by the unexpected. Staple an aluminum foil lining to every black cloud knowing that just as the sun can’t always shine, no storm brings infinite amounts of rain.

  There is only one certainty in life—in the end, the end is only the beginning.

  1. Curtain Call

  The curtain had barely hit the stage floor before I said to Lucas, “I have to talk to Zach—now!” I broke free of his embrace and began to run for the steps but I didn’t make it very far.

  “Not now, Ru!” Lucas said as he caught my hand and pulled me back, “They’re just about to do the curtain call. Whatever you have to say to Zach can wait at least five more minutes.”

  Could it really? After three long months of indecision on my part, the fact that I finally knew who I wanted—who I needed—in my life felt like urgent news. And I’m talking life or death kind of urgency. Zach never actually knew the depth of my heart’s conflict, though, so I suppose he wouldn’t even notice a few more ticks on the clock. That’s okay—I felt each one of them enough for both of us.

  I made it back to center stage and took my spot between Lucas and Brian just as the curtain swung open. Thundering applause rang through the theater but the noise did nothing to drown out the thoughts in my head. Five minutes was going to feel like fifty years. One by one, Giuseppe called out each cast member’s name and they stepped forward to take a bow. As I waited for my name to be called, my eyes anxiously scanned the crowd for a glimpse of Zach but saw no trace of him. My view of the first row of seats was obscured by the glow of the stage lights so suddenly, stepping forward for acknowledgement seemed like a good idea. Once I was closer to the edge of the stage, I would be able to see the front row perfectly. I would be able to see Zach perfectly.

  When Brian’s name was called, the hands on the clock began to move backwards. I seriously swear they did. So as soon as the first syllable of my name was announced, I bolted forward. As the audience began to rise out of their seats one by one for a standing ovation, I was too busy searching for him to even care. My parents, Zach’s parents, and all of the other adult faces I expected to see were there. But who I saw wasn’t the important thing—it was who I didn’t see. There were two empty seats where Zach and Rachel should have been. Two glaringly empty seats. I took an awkward, disheartened bow before retreating back into the lineup.

  It was obvious that the audience loved me but their love wasn’t what I truly wanted—it was Zach’s. Zach’s love was the only thing that mattered to me. Did I wait too long to decide? Did I keep him at arm’s length for just a little too long? Was kissing Lucas at the end of the play enough impetus for him to make that decision for me? What he didn’t understand, what I needed to explain to him was that that kiss was necessary for me to clear all thoughts of Lee and Lucas from my brain—and heart—forever. All I needed was five minutes alone with Zach. Five minutes.

  This time, the very second the curtain dropped I ran for the exit with Lucas hot on my heels. Where could they be? Where would Rachel take Zach to console his broken heart? While she knew that our kiss was in the script, she also knew that we went above and beyond what she and Lucas did during rehearsal. She always did her best to get Zach and me together and keep us together but I was afraid this time I’d pushed her over the edge. Wherever they were, she was probably telling him that he was better off without me, that he would find someone better than me someday. I had to find them fast before he was convinced that she was right. I just had to. Now that I knew for sure th
at Zach was the only one for me, going on without him would be impossible to do. Without Zach, I was incomplete. He was like a piece of my soul lost long ago, a piece I never even knew was missing. How could I have been so stupid? How could I have allowed my unhappy past to cast such a dark shadow on my future?

  Lucas caught up with me at the bottom of the steps leading offstage. “Ru, why are you in such a hurry?” “That kiss—it shouldn’t have happened. You took me by surprise!” I blurted out as I fumbled around for my promise ring in the pocket of my costume. Once I found it, I clenched it tightly in my fist. I didn’t want to put it back on my finger myself—I wanted Zach to put back where it belonged. And I vowed that it would stay in that very spot until the day he replaced it with something different. “You took me by surprise,” I repeated with a whisper.

  “Surprise or not, you didn’t push me away. You returned that kiss and you know you did.” He was right and I couldn’t deny it. But what he didn’t realize was how that kiss felt from my perspective. There were definite feelings involved but not the kind he was hoping for. It felt wrong, so very wrong. It was how I could imagine it would feel to kiss your own brother. Icky. Infinitely icky. The only thing that felt good about it was the fact that it freed me from my doubts. In a weird kind of way, I enjoyed the fact that it felt so horrible because it only made Zach feel that much more right. Was I the first girl ever to enjoy a bad kiss because it was bad? Probably so and it was just further proof that abnormal was totally normal for me. Abnormal or not, though, Zach loved for me for who I was. I was weird, complicated, and dangerous but none of that mattered to him just like none of his faults mattered to me. If he gave me a chance to explain, I knew he would understand. He simply had to.

  Lucas misread my silence for something that it wasn’t and reached out for my hand. While he at least deserved an explanation and an apology for anything I’d unintentionally done to lead him on, Zach came first. Once I smoothed things over with him, only then would I take the time to explain it to Lucas. I dodged his advances and exclaimed, “I need to find Zach and Rachel—now!”

  As I made my way through the crowd, I frantically asked anyone who knew them if they had any idea where Zach and Rachel went. With every empty response, I grew more agitated. The Mason house was the only place I could think of to start looking for them so I ran through the snow and ice to my car praying that it wasn’t too late to fix what I’d broken— again. This was the last time I would ever hurt Zach—I swore to it on my own life.

  “Dammit!” I shouted out loud as I reached the Neon and realized that I was still in my costume and that my keys were backstage with the rest of my stuff. Why did things like this always happen at the worst times? Every time I was in a hurry or fully motivated to do something, I would get a metaphorical flat tire. If this were any normal day, my keys would be in my hand and I would be half way down the street before the crowd even hit the sidewalk. Now, I would be lucky if I got out of here in less than twenty minutes. By the time I got back outside with my keys, I would have to fight traffic to even get out of the parking lot. FML for real!!

  “Is this what you’re looking for?” Lucas asked as he dangled his keychain in front of me. “Relax and I’ll give you a ride. Keep freaking out and I leave you here to fend for yourself—it’s your choice.”

  While I certainly knew that Lucas was the last person I should ask to take me to find Zach, he was my fastest option. Therefore, in my brain at least, it was my only option. As I crawled into the passenger seat of his car, for some reason I made a mental note of the time. 8:40 PM.

  “Do you know where Zach lives?” I asked, already assuming that he didn’t. “Just start driving like you’re heading to my house and I’ll tell you when you need to make a turn.”

  “We’re not going to Zach’s house because that’s not where they are, silly,” Lucas replied. “When you’re done panicking, I’ll tell you where to find them. I know you’re anxious to get this whole thing settled so that—”

  I cut him off sharply. “Look, we can play this ‘I know something you don’t know’ game some other day. Okay? Right now, you better tell me what you know.”

  His calm and playful demeanor disappeared instantly and Dr. Jekyll transformed into Mr. Hyde right before my very eyes. “They’re at the cast party, Ru. I don’t care how sick she is, a diva like Rachel wouldn’t dare miss her own party,” he replied coldly and with a not so subtle hint of sarcasm.”

  If I hadn’t been in such a hurry to find Zach, I would have chastised him for rudely calling Rachel a diva. He was right of course—Rachel was a diva but not in the traditional sense. She wasn’t mean and she didn’t belittle other people. She was simply filled with over the top enthusiasm for whatever her current passion was. Rachel didn’t think she was better than other people—she just liked to excel at the things she enjoyed doing. I kept my opinion of his comment to myself but Lucas was definitely going to get an earful about this later.

  “Fine. Where’s the cast party?” I said using my best non-freaking out voice. I had a vague recollection of Rachel mentioning it to me but as usual, I had my mind on other things at the time. She always talked so fast that I learned a long time ago to only try to grasp half of what she said and when I was preoccupied, I pared that fraction down even further. Why did I always seem to miss the important parts of her ramblings?

  “The party’s at the country club out by the hospital. Diva picked out the location, of course. It’s nice—you’ll like it there.” As soon as I heard the words “country club”, I was flooded with memories of the Humane Society fundraiser that Zach and I went to over the summer. Summer. It seemed like so long ago to me now but it hadn’t even been a year yet. Life felt so complicated and dramatic back then but looked so different in retrospect. It was a time of innocence when the only thing standing in the way of our love was a lonely ghost just looking for love herself. With no other outside forces driving us apart, we grew so closely together. But no relationship will ever be an island—other people, other things will always play a role in our lives no matter what. Fate did its best to tear us apart and I almost let it succeed.

  I was done clinging to my past because I finally realized that my future was more important—and that future was with Zach. Even if my dad didn’t approve, I was going to follow Zach to Ohio in the fall. With the money I got from Giuseppe, I could afford college on my own now. I would still have to sit out the first semester but I could get a job and work on my writing in the meantime. No more hunting ghosts—or serial killers— either. It was time to cut out all of the unnecessary things in my life. Of course my plan hinged on one thing—whether or not Zach still wanted to be with me.

  As Lucas and I pulled into the parking lot of the country club, the first thing I noticed was what wasn’t there. No red Neon but Lucas was right about one thing. Flu or no flu, Rachel’s little yellow car was parked right up front. Zach’s car wasn’t at the theater when we left which meant that he definitely wasn’t with his sister. Where was he? In my panic to find him, I left my phone at the theater along with everything else so I couldn’t even message him. Not that I thought he would respond to a text anyway but even so, this was a conversation that we needed to have face to face. I just needed to find him. The second thing I noticed was the time on the clock.

  8:47. As I got out of the car, a freak gust blew past and sent the car door slamming shut behind me. The wind was gone as quickly as it came but the chill it cast on me lingered. As I stepped inside the front door to the country club, my entire body convulsed in a violent shiver. I felt like I’d just walked over my own grave. While I would have gladly followed Rachel into a walk in freezer just so I could ask her where her brother was, I was relieved to find her by the roaring fireplace engaged in conversation with one of the country club employees.

  “Rachel!” I called out as I approached, “I need to talk to you—now!” Still overwhelmed with coldness, I cast the warmth of my breath on my hands in an attempt to heat up at l
east one part of my body. I’d often used the phrase “chilled to the bone” but that didn’t even come close to describing how cold I was. That wind cut to my bones then sliced even deeper. I was chilled to my very soul.

  Rachel cut her conversation abruptly when she heard my voice. With a look of pure anger on her face, she replied, “You’re damned right you do! Get over here, Ruby!” When she caught sight of Lucas following behind me, she added, “I can’t believe you brought him with you!”

  How could I blame her for being so mad at me? She obviously thought that I chose Lucas over Zach. If I were her, I would hate me right now, too. I turned around to face Lucas. “I have to talk to Rachel—alone. Go get some punch or something,” I hissed as I gestured toward the buffet table while simultaneously walking away.

  “Whatever,” I heard him mumble behind my back. He could “whatever” me all he wanted to—I simply didn’t care. He overstepped the bounds of our friendship by kissing me the way he did. As far as I was concerned, that friendship was now officially over. Unfortunately, by the look on her face, mine and Rachel’s might be as well.

  As I approached the fireplace, Rachel reached out, grabbed me by the forearm, and dragged me behind her toward the ladies restroom. She’d dragged me here and there with her a million times before but this time there was none of the air of exuberance that usually marked our little excursions. This time, she meant business. While the warmth of her hand felt good on my ice cold skin, her demeanor was purely frigid. I decided to allow her a few minutes to blow off some steam before I explained my side of the story. I knew her well enough to know that until she got everything off of her chest, she wouldn’t listen to a word I had to say anyway. She quickly checked the stalls to make sure we were alone then locked the door behind us. One verbal whiplashing coming right up.

  “How could you do that to him, Ruby?! He sat through that entire play gushing about how good you were and how proud he was of you! I made sure he knew ahead of time that you and Lucas would have to kiss at the end but I swore to him that it was nothing major. How do you think it made him feel to have to watch you guys play tonsil hockey in front of the entire town? I told you a long time ago not to break his heart but you had to go and do it anyway, didn’t you? He’s not like other boys, Ruby! If you wanted to be with Lucas, all you had to do was tell him the truth. You didn’t have to destroy him the way you did!”