Reveal (Cryptid Tales) by Brina Courtney Read Free Book Online

dingy.” She gestures to a half submerged dock. “He said I was in too deep and I should work my way back to shore. I was angry with him. I knew I could do it and I could go longer holding my breath, I was a fantastic swimmer. Daddy used to say I swam like a fish since I grew up in this lake. So I dove back toward the bottom. But I had moved too far in the lake. It was too deep. He was right; I would never reach the bottom. The water swirled around me as I struggled to breathe. I couldn’t get back to the surface to take a breath. I remember it getting dark and feeling weightless.”
     
    She looks down at her hands, “I had drowned and I had done it to myself. He tried to warn me and I wouldn’t listen, it was my own fault. I watched him as he dragged my body out of the water and tried to revive me on the shore, but it was no use. I was already gone. He cried for days after he buried me in the backyard.” If ghosts could cry, this is where she would have done it. She was sniffling, but no tears were shed. Ghosts don’t have any fluids like live people do, so essentially they don’t cry, but they also don’t need to eat or sleep or any of our other daily activities.
     
    Wendy continues her depressing tale, “I watched him for years, but eventually he left our home and moved away. He never remarried and I just stayed in this house while it rotted away. I’m tied to the home, not him, so I can’t leave Marksville. Only adult ghosts travel with people tied to them by experience. Kids stay near landmarks because their experiences are mostly based in their environment. It’s rare we attach to a single person, so as much as I wanted to, I couldn’t follow him. But eventually he returned… in a coffin. It was in his will that he wanted to be buried with me and Mama. I guess he kept the property just for that.”
     
    Finally she looks back to me, “I miss him, Shay. I just want a chance to see him again. I thought by having you bring me here I would be able to.”
     
    I get that she’s done telling her story and it’s time for some action. “Alright where do we start?” A rock floats by my head. I nearly jump out of my skin; she is a freaky little girl. “Do you have to do things like that?”
     
    “ Sorry. It’s just, well the blood thing… I need you to cut yourself, remember?”
     
    How could I forget? Ugh, gross. I grab the rock out of the air and push it into my left palm. A small tear in my skin develops right near my age line, the line that extends from my wrist to the middle of my palm. My mom used to be into palm reading, wait until she sees that I cut my life line right in half, super , she’ll be thrilled. After the blood begins to pool in my hand and I’m starting to sway Wendy reminds me why we’re here.
     
    “ Alright now, drop your blood over here on this patch of grass.” She points and I see a small crooked stone standing out of the ground.
     
    “ OK.” I walk over without looking at my hand. I crouch down and rub my bloody left hand in the wet grass, the coolness of the ground feels good on my fresh wound.
     
    “ Now,” Wendy says floating behind me, “think really hard about me and my dad. Think of how you want him to return to this place. You’re performing a summoning, only really strong paranormals can do this, and I know you can.”
     
    I break my concentration for a minute to look at her, “A paranormal?”
     
    “ Shay focus! It just means you can see and speak to ghosts.”
     
    Right, just my normal life.
     
    She whines, “Shay, focus .”
     
    OK, OK. Think, dead father, you were here, come back to your little girl. I’m thinking about Wendy, the water, I’m freezing… thinking, thinking. I take a deep breath and the rust taste fills my mouth, I try to focus on it.
     
    Then it happens, that electric current I feel off of Wendy is suddenly at my feet, or maybe it’s in my feet? I take another deep breath and attempt to focus as the electric current settles