Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 83353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
“They did? No—I’m sure they didn’t!” Sam protested. She had only good memories of their parents, who had died in a traffic accident during one of their monthly “date nights” back when she and Hanna were teenagers.
“Yes, they did—I heard them talking about it,” Hanna said sadly. “They were going to do it for my own good—they thought I was having hallucinations—that I was schizophrenic.”
“That’s awful! What stopped them?” Sam asked.
“Aunt Luna. That’s why she moved back to Tampa, you know. She had a successful business being a Medium in California but she came back to Florida to be close to me and keep mom and dad from putting me away.” Hanna sighed. “Things did get better after she came and taught me how to ward off spirits with evil intentions. But even her tricks and tips can’t help with…with Dark Entities,” she finished in a whisper.
“Oh, Hanna…” Sam squeezed her sister again. “I’ll stay with you tonight if you think it will help. And every night for that matter—except for Halloween. I have to be out at a ghost site to do a live-stream special then.”
“Do you have to?” Hanna frowned. “I don’t like it that everyone who’s watching you will know where you are. What if some creep tries to track you down?”
“I won’t give them the exact location. Anyway, I have to do it or I won’t have anything to show on Halloween,” Sam said. “None of the footage I took in the Belgrave Mansion was, uh, useable at all.”
She cleared her throat and tried not to blush as she remembered exactly why the footage was unusable. Mainly because 95% of it was R’orn going down on her. It might make good spank-bank material if she ever got over him abandoning her the way he had, but it certainly wasn’t something she could post on her Social Media channels.
“Will you be safe?” Hanna asked, looking worried. “I wish you hadn’t sent that other Kindred Protector away!”
“I’ll be fine. I have my pepper spray—remember?” Sam tapped the black cylinder. “So don’t worry about me.”
Hanna gave her a weak smile.
“I won’t worry about you as long as you don’t worry about me—okay?”
“It’s a deal.” Sam smiled back.
But inside, she couldn’t help being concerned about Hanna. She’d never seen her little sister looking so tired and worn before. Whatever this Dark Entity was that was stalking her, fighting it off must really be taking a toll on Hanna.
Well, after the Halloween special, she was going to make her sister go up to the Mother Ship and spend some time with their aunt, she decided. Aunt Luna was the only one who had ever really understood Hanna when they were kids—and the only adult who had believed her when she talked about the dark and horrible things she saw.
But for now, Sam had to get ready to do her live show on Halloween night. Thank goodness she’d been able to find a new location to film at—one almost as haunted as the Belgrave Mansion.
Her viewers were going to love it and she wasn’t going to spend one minute even thinking about R’orn, she decided. As far as she was concerned, the big Kindred was out of her life. And Halloween night was going to be her best show ever!
She had no idea what danger she was walking into. Death was stalking her and she couldn’t even hear its stealthy footsteps creeping up behind her…
12
SAM
Sam looked around the abandoned mental hospital apprehensively. A lot of bad things had happened here—she could feel the negative energy sweating out of the stained and peeling walls like some kind of psychic ooze. It was at times like this that she wished she wasn’t a one-woman-operation. But she’d only recently started making enough money to quit her job and ghost-hunt full time. She wasn’t at the point where she could pay any employees yet.
I must be standing in the reception area, she thought, trying to shake off the chills that ran up and down her spine. There was a rusty old wheelchair against one wall and a wooden desk that had been chopped in two—possibly by an axe. Its splintered edges stuck up, making shadows on the wall in the brilliant moonlight pouring in through one of the broken windows.
Well, it was a spooky location, but that was what she had been looking for, Sam reminded herself. She normally got permission before entering an old, abandoned building but in this case, she hadn’t been able to find anyone who the old mental hospital belonged to. It wasn’t on private property—in fact, nobody seemed to claim the land it was on. It had been abandoned for over fifty years and the odors of mold and dirt and rot were strong in her nose.
Sam fingered the can of pepper spray which was shoved down the front pocket of her black pleated mini skirt. It hadn’t been easy to find a skirt like this with pockets, but she’d managed after rummaging through her closet for ages. She felt like it was important to keep her only weapon close to hand.