Hacienda Moon (The Path Seekers) by Kasonndra Leigh Read Free Book Online Page B

hers. The boy tried to pull her away from the store. She glanced down into his shadowed eyes, her mouth drying out, and her skin feeling cold against his touch.
     
    “Stop that! Let go of me.” Tandie pulled her hand free. She caught a glimpse of the boy’s eyes under the splash of moonlight that hit them. Silver specks flashed inside the pupils. She didn’t need her psychic intuition to know that he wasn’t a normal boy. Gasping, she turned around and scurried toward the entrance.
     
    She stumbled up two broken concrete steps by the front door, straightened up, and then turned around just before going inside. The boy vanished as if he’d been a ghost drifting in the night. “You are seriously seeing things.” She swallowed and headed through the door. The tinkle of chimes echoed when she opened it.
     
    The smell of a musty façade and mildewed wood enhanced by a baseboard heater’s metallic odor surrounded Tandie.   The store had an old-fashioned design complete with wooden shelves lining the walls. The few items scattered across the slabs of wood were covered in dust. The only modern thing about the whole setup was the country song drifting through the speakers.
     
    “You must be our new psychic celebrity?” A tall woman with dark blonde hair and large gray eyes said in greeting to Tandie. She spoke in a hard southern drawl and wore a flannel shirt over a long pleated dress. Like everyone else she’d met so far, her outfit screamed outdated.
     
    “Not quite a celebrity,” Tandie said, anxious to get back on the road before it got too late. Still feeling jittery, she returned her focus to the task at hand. “I need a can of Stop Leak .”
     
    At once, a loud thunderclap rumbled through the sky, shaking the store. Soon rain pattered loudly across the rooftop. Tandie peeked out the door’s window and swore under her breath.
     
    “You might wanna wait this one out, sugar. These country roads isn’t a place for pretty city girls like yourself to be getting lost on.” The woman walked past a mini Coke fridge on her way to a shelf behind the checkout counter. She removed a dusty can of Stop Leak and turned around. Tandie was surprised the store had water bottles, let alone Stop Leak .
     
    Mental note: drive all the way into town next time and stop taking the paranoid recluse person’s type of short cut. Tandie glanced at her watch and peeked out the door at the rain. She thought about the phantom boy and wondered if he made it inside before the rain started. “Looks like it’s just a shower. It’ll probably stop soon.”
     
    “Don’t count on it,” the woman stated. “Name’s Minerva.”
     
    “Minerva? Okay. I’m Tandie Harrison.” She couldn’t bring herself to say the “nice to meet you” part. The store smelled dank, and the creepy chills had ignited her claustrophobia.
     
    “Minerva’s a kick-ass name isn’t it? So I hear you’re the newest Chelby Rose experiment.” Minerva studied Tandie with an intense gaze.
     
    “That’s right. I’m the newest tenant.” Tandie paid for her merchandise.
     
    “The place is kind of run down over the years since old Pontus Tomlinson died. Been a long time since that old house had some TLC. Kind of funny when you think about it, I remember that Pontus had problems with the plumbing just like you.”
     
    “Really?” Tandie said, wondering how she knew about the faucets.
     
    “Yep. Old hooter was convinced the Chelby kids were running around there at night.” Minerva wiped the countertop around the ancient cash register. It was hard to believe such a thing still existed.
     
    “Are you telling me that my house is haunted?” Tandie asked.
     
    “Well I should be asking you that.” The woman’s cat colored eyes seemed to stare right through Tandie.
     
    “Why would you be asking me?” Tandie asked, feeling anxious to leave.
     
    “Fancy pants psychic, books published on that and all. You should of connected with whatever scared