CHAPTER TWO. Andi shoved yet another pair of jeans into her bag

Andi shoved yet another pair of jeans into her bag. She could always pack lighter and do laundry at her mother’s house, but why stress over having to spend more time than necessary with her parents.

“You’re a terrible daughter, ” she murmured.

Tomorrow, she would meet with the team of ghostbusters. She rolled her eyes. Lunatics, no doubt. And in two short days, she would be walking into the Zeiko Place. Not only walking into the house, but sleeping there as well. She swallowed nervously, acknowledging the tremor that coursed through her body at the thought. As she’d told Bill, she didn’t believe in that nonsense. But hell, as a kid, she’d heard all the stories, had walked into the yard on a dare, had seen the lights go on and off during one of the house’s vacant periods.

The house had numerous owners over the years, but it was still referred to as the Zeiko Place. It was a mansion, by Hinesville’s standards, especially back in those days. With six bedrooms, two studies, and multiple dens and living areas, not to mention actual servant’s quarters built nearby, it was the talk of the town. Of course, the murders had happened years and years before Andi was even born. By the time Andi was old enough to understand, the ghost stories had been passed down from older kids to younger, and the rumors grew of the Zeiko Place being haunted. Andi remembered three different families living there while she was growing up. None ever lasted more than a year, complaining of noises in the night, of aberrations, of screams coming from empty hallways.

Andi shivered again, remembering one night in high school when a group of them had parked across the road from the sprawling mansion. It had been vacant for nearly two years and the windows on the ground floor had been shuttered. It was an eerie night, a full moon sneaking in and out from behind the clouds. She wanted to blame it on the cheap bottle of wine one of them had swiped from their parents, but Andi saw it with her own eyes. One minute, the shutters were closed. The next, when the moon peeked out again, the window closest to the front door was open, the curtains fluttering in the breeze. She closed her eyes, remembering the shadow that passed by the window. They had all held their collective breath, and when the moon shown again, the window was dark and shuttered. They had laughed it off, but sped away anyway. As teenagers, it was easy to dismiss. But as an adult, Andi wondered how the bunch of them could see the same thing and just dismiss it.

But then, they all had their own issues to deal with, that of growing up and coming of age. For Andi, keeping her secret and still being friends with the “in” crowd was hard enough. If any of them suspected she was a lesbian, she would have been ostracized from the group. And if anyone knew of the enormous crush she’d had on Jaime Tucker, star athlete, she’d have been laughed out of town. But of course, she soon found out Jaime had a few secrets of her own.

She shook her head. “Do not go there.” She had put Jaime and that awful night from her mind years ago, and she refused to revisit it now, nearly twelve years later. Just because she’d lost her virginity to the girl didn’t mean she held a soft spot in her heart. Quite the opposite. She was the cause of her first broken heart.

“And if I ever see her again—”

But that was highly unlikely. Jaime had gone to college out of state—on a softball scholarship, she’d heard—and had not been back. Her family had since moved away. Not that Andi had kept up with her or anything. It was still too upsetting to her to know that Jaime had outed her to the group, had told of their night together, a night that was so special to Andi. Apparently it was just another roll in the sack for Jamie. But once everyone knew, the last month of high school had been nearly unbearable, and she had been made fun of constantly. The fact that Jaime, too, was a lesbian had quite the opposite affect on everyone. Jaime was still the most popular girl in school and Andi was reduced to simply one of her conquests.

Andi graduated high school and moved to the city two days later. At first, her visits home were few and far between. But, once she was settled in college, she realized that she no longer cared what her so-called friends thought of her, and she made the trip home more often.

But still, going back to stay at the Zeiko Place. For a whole week. Inside. She’d have to be crazy to do it.