Chapter 11

I took a long shower, standing under the scalding hot spray for what felt like hours, just replaying my encounter with Norman over and over again. I was still in a state of disbelief. Did all that really just happen?

I was still giddy over it, but there was still a small part of me that felt sick and nervous. What if he'd been messing with me?

No .

Norman wouldn't do that, not like that. He wasn't that kind of asshole. He knew what sex meant to me and how I felt about him, and he'd never use me like that. But the only other explanation would be that he meant it. Not to mention the fact that he'd spoken to Freddy, and Freddy told him about what happened at The Wicked Quill. I didn't know whether or not I should be offended that Freddy opened his big mouth or relieved that Norman wasn't being possessive or jealous.

After drying off, I went back to my room. It was still so strange every time—the room was pretty much the same as I left it in the mortal world. I suppose I had the aunties to thank for that. My clothes were all here, and I was suddenly glad I'd taken to dressing in all black. Maddie was borrowing my clothes too, and they helped us blend in a little better. I dressed in a pair of black leggings, lace-up boots, and an oversized T-shirt that said Moon Child on the front. I smiled. Who knew this wardrobe would end up being so damn appropriate?

I left my hair to air dry and simply threw my cloak over my arm, leaving the room and heading downstairs. I was halfway down the hallway when I heard a knock. It was the same knocking I'd heard when we first got here—the knocking Auntie Fe had completely brushed off. It sounded like someone was rapping on a wooden door, but the sound was almost hollow and far away. It was such a quiet sound that I couldn't pinpoint which direction it was coming from.

I filed the issue away for later. Maybe I'll ask Maddie to do some snooping with me at some point. The smell of something sweet and spicy filled the house, and I let the scent guide me down the stairs. I knew from how delicious it was that it had to be Auntie Fe. Pip's cooking would've had me escaping out my bedroom window just to avoid it.

The others were probably out of their classes by now, and my nerves were shot at the mere thought of seeing the guys. Not to mention the walk of shame I was about to do in front of my eagle-eyed best friend. She'd know in a second that something had happened. I tried to seem as casual as possible as I made my way into the kitchen. The smell of that sweet spice was thick, and there was a high-pitched shriek coming from the stove. Steam filled the kitchen, and I watched as Auntie Fe rushed over to grab the kettle.

Everyone was sitting around the table, reminding me of the day we got here, except this time we weren't wide-eyed and covered in sweat and dirt. Maddie sat closest to the kitchen, talking with Pip. She was chopping something on the cutting board, and my auntie was gathering the small slices into a tiny bowl. I smiled, remembering all the times Maddie would come over in the past and help with dinner after my parents died. She probably spent more time at my house than she did at her own home. It seemed like some things never really changed.

She turned to me as I moved towards the kitchen. Our eyes met, and her brows furrowed, scanning my face. I looked away, my cheeks already tomato-red by now. Oh, Lord, she was never going to let me hear the end of this. By tonight, she'd have me spilling the beans with no way out of her interrogation.

Jessica was perched on the back of Norman's chair, and though she didn't have a human face, I could already tell my little familiar was smirking, even inwardly. I narrowed my eyes at her and steadily avoided Norman's piercing gaze. I could feel all the guys watching me bustle around the kitchen.

I grabbed some herbs from the cupboard, took the kettle from Fe, and poured myself some tea. The spicy, sweet scent warmed me from head to toe. I added a little bit of honey for some more sweetness. Glancing up, I met Freddy's stare. He, along with the others, seemed like he was actively trying to make me look at him.

"Michael dear, that needs more sage," Auntie Pip rushed to Michael's side. "Sprinkle lightly. If you glob it all on, it won't have the same effect. Patience is a virtue, child." Michael pinched a pile of sage, bringing it over a cauldron placed on the table in front of him, and sprinkled it in while Pip watched.

I smirked, and Michael glanced up at me just in time to see it. When he sneered back, Pip snapped her fingers in front of his face three times, demanding he pay attention to whatever spell she was teaching him. My aunties meant business, especially when it came to cooking. Or, I suppose this was spellwork. I needed to get used to this reality quickly. I wondered how many times the aunties had made potions right under my nose, and I had no clue.

"What's got you looking so chipper, luv?" asked a low, British-accented voice. Dread pooled in my stomach as we all collectively turned to Jason.

He was perched on a wooden bar stool near Michael, resting his elbow on a high table, and smirking at me. His eyes were bright yellow and slitted down the middle, and the person looking out at me definitely wasn't Jason.

Damon had come out to play. He grinned, those yellow eyes running the length of my body. "Looking a bit flushed." Those sensuous lips curled upward. "It's a good look on you."

"Bring Jason back!" I demanded, downing my tea in one gulp. It burned my throat, but I didn't care. I suddenly felt the need to get out of the room.

"He's right here with me, actually." His eyes flickered from yellow to gray and back again. "Aren't you, Jason?"

"Well, isn't this an interesting development?" Auntie Pip said, coming around the kitchen island. She went right up to Jason and Damon and proceeded to poke him in the cheek. I snorted at the dumbstruck look in those once again yellow eyes as he reared back from Pip's finger. "A demon familiar. I haven't seen one in ages." She sounded amazed. Like a science teacher staring at a completed equation. "Tell me, demon, what's your name?"

Oh, this was going to be good. We'd refrained from telling the aunties about Damon until he wanted to be known, but it seemed he was done hiding, and Jason had finally decided to embrace him .

"His name is Damon," I said, rolling my eyes.

Maddie snorted, and Pip outright laughed, placing her hand on her chest. "A demon named Damon... Now I've heard everything." Cupping her mouth with her ring-clad fingers, she winked at me and said, "And I've been around for centuries."

"W-What?!" I sputtered, but she was already talking again.

"Well, Damon," she said with her hands on her hips, "you're just going to have to learn how to share that body. Don't test me." She wagged a finger at him as if he were a child. "I will spell you if I have to. Now give the poor guy his body back and stop terrorizing my niece."

"I'm going for a walk," I said, setting my empty mug down in the sink. "I'll be back in a while."

Norman stood up, his chair scraping against the floor as everyone looked at him. "You want me to come with you?" I saw Michael frown at Norman, but Freddy and Jason were smirking.

I finally looked at Norman, our eyes connecting across the dining room. The tension between us was thick, and I suddenly felt like my tongue was swollen. It was hard trying to figure out this new dynamic we seemed to have all of a sudden. Just the other day, he hated me, and now he was staring at me like I meant something more to him.

Shaking my head, I backed towards the door. "I'm good. I've got Jessica to keep me company." I stuck out my open palm and watched as Jessica came skittering over, leaping up into my hand with a shot of her web out of her butt and making her way towards my shoulder.

"We're going on an adventure!" she squealed in my ear. I grinned at my spider.

Well, all right then," said Auntie Fe. She turned from her tea kettle and gave me a thin smile. "Whatever you do, please try and avoid the Hangry Forest."

"Believe me, Auntie, nothing about either word you just said sounds even remotely inviting." I stood there awkwardly for a second. "Can I actually talk to you two in private for a second? Something's been on my mind." I avoided Norman's hot glare at me as my aunties glanced at each other and followed me to the front door.

"What's on your mind, dear?" Auntie Pip asked curiously, her gaze worried as she grabbed my hand with a small pat on my wrist, a comfortable touch.

"I've been hearing voices," I whispered so low that both of them leaned in closer with their brows wrinkled.

"Oh, child, don't we all? There, there. Nothing to worry about; they'll go away in time." Auntie Fe clicked her tongue and taped her temple.

"Not like…" I sighed dramatically and didn't miss their eyes connecting with worry. "I mean, ever since we got here, I've been hearing the guys' thoughts," I said in a rush, knowing how crazy I sounded.

"Ohhhh!" they both said with a relieved breath at the same time with a small giggle. "That is perfectly normal, my sweet girl. It's just a necromancer's curse, but it can be a gift if you let it." Auntie Fe clapped her hands in excitement.

"See, on the night of the accident, you used your gift to bring everyone back. Well, it connected you to those young men's souls because you, well, uh, were already connected on a deeper level from before." Auntie Pip swiped a white piece of my hair behind my ear, her gaze far away, until she looked back at me with a proud smile. "The heart always knows," she muttered under her breath, but I was hardly paying attention.

"So you're telling me I'm actually not making this shit up and can really hear their thoughts?" They both nodded quickly and waited for my reaction of panic and tears.

"This is so cool! Although it's very jumbled half the time, I'm a freaking mind reader!" I grinned, plotting evil, mad genius revenge with my new superpowers.

"Now that's what I'm talking about! Let the plotting begin!" My aunties gave me a kiss on both of my cheeks and laughed with a shooing motion.

"Get out of here, silly girl, and maybe keep it a secret for now. You never know when you'll need to get inside a man's mind without him knowing." They giggled and went back to the kitchen, muttering excitedly like proud parents when their kid came home with straight A's.

Finally, I fled the room, making my way through the house and out the front door before anyone else could try to stop me. I needed to be alone for a little while and have some time to think. Besides, there was a place I really needed to visit. The moons were bright as I walked down the street. Lucky for me, the layout of this town was still the same as it'd always been.

The aunties' manor was only down the street from town, so I decided to head straight through Main Street. I could have gone the shorter way and skirted the busy shopping area packed with people, but I decided to poke around a little on my way to the cemetery.

I needed to see for myself where my parents were buried. The aunties had told me they'd been buried in a consecrated grave; therefore, they'd be present in both the mortal world and this world. I remembered the day we got here, when I passed the cemetery on that long stretch of country road. It had looked so different, and immediately dread settled in my stomach. I needed to have access to their burial site to be close to them, even if it was just me sitting on their plot for hours on end, talking to them about nothing and everything.

Nobody paid any attention to me as I passed them, not like they had the first time I'd come through here like a fresh tourist. I wondered how many mortals these people saw on a regular basis, or if we'd been the only ones. Well, I supposed that wasn't true, technically. We weren't mortals any more, not really. All of the people I cared about died on that bus, including Maddie. If she'd been thrown from the bus, she probably wouldn't even be here right now. She'd be back in the mortal world, her parents laying her to rest with all of the other passengers who hadn't made it.

My dark purple cloak made it easy to blend in. People brushed shoulders with me, not batting an eye. I saw all kinds of creatures that I never really had a chance to get a good look at. Just like at school, there were people with oddly colored skin—blues, greens, purples, and swallow grays. I saw a little girl back by the candy shop who had ram's horns sticking out of her head and cloven feet peeking from beneath her pink dress.

I smiled at two women standing outside Toil and Trouble Tea, wearing long, flowing dresses and witch hats. Apparently, it was the fashion here in Midnight Hollow. One of the women was stirring a huge cauldron that smelled like vanilla as I passed them. No wart hairs in sight. They both gave me sweet smiles, and the one with long gray hair winked. I promised myself I'd hit up that tea shop later, at some point.

The more I walked, the more I saw banners for that festival. Turning to Jessica, who perched on my shoulder, I asked, "So what's with the festival? "

She moved my hair out of the way, and I felt her settle. "Only the biggest celebration in the whole world. We celebrate the solstice of the new year with pies, cakes, brewing competitions, costumes, and dancing. It's the night of the blood moon eclipse."

"That's what I don't get." I looked up at the moons overhead. "You don't even have a sun, so how do you keep track of the new year?" It was something that'd been bothering me since we settled here. I was fairly savvy in the ways of science and understanding nature, but this had befuddled me from the start.

Jessica giggled. "You keep thinking like a mortal, Tobs, but that's not how things work here. A year just means the end of one harvest cycle and the beginning of another. All of the crops here grow by moonlight."

"But moonlight is just sunlight reflected off of the moon's surface," I said, still not getting it. My brain didn't want to wrap itself around any of this.

"We have a sun, Toby, but it's not the sun mortals have. Our sun is black, kind of like Michael's dark fire. It's right overhead; you just can't see it. We don't need much of it because our moons give us enough lunar light to feed our night-blooming crops."

"You're awfully smart for a spi—" I cleared my throat, "arachnid."

"And you're awfully curious for a mortal," she quipped with a giggle.

She had me there. Mortals, apparently, were notorious for taking things at face value rather than working to find answers. I laughed, reaching up and patting Jessica on her little spider head. "I'm glad you're here, you know."

"Duh, who wouldn't be?"

"I'm serious!" I shook my head. Sometimes she was really full of herself. "I'm glad I have you. You're like a little conscience and encyclopedia in my ear."

"You forgot to say intelligent, witty, and easy on the eyes."

"Let's not get too carried away." I rolled my eyes.

We headed out of town, and I made sure to stay on the other side of the road when we passed the Killer Clown Motel. I shivered, remembering the way they'd chased us down the street. The fear in Jason's eyes... I watched the motel, though, as I passed. The lights were on, but it only highlighted the wacky colors and the big light bulbs blinking around the sign. I vaguely remembered this place in the mortal world. It was an old Motel 6 converted into a church. There used to be a huge parking lot there and a chapel a little farther back. But I supposed a church had no place in a world like this, so it made sense.

Still, I wanted nothing to do with that place. I wondered if Payton lived there. Picturing the clowny cheerleader living in a creepy, dingy place like this didn't feel right. She seemed too high-maintenance for a motel. I still didn't understand what I ever did to piss her off or why she seemed to have some vendetta against mortals, but I'd gladly steer clear of her. Plus, I was getting sick of her muttering to me in riddles when we passed in the hall about how I was out to ruin her life. Like, dude, I just got here. If I was going to ruin her life, at least give me a couple of months to get my own life together.

We left town and headed farther down the street, passing the old gas station. There were a few cars parked under the pumps now and a couple people milling around, so it felt less like a horror movie than it did that first night. I thought a part of it was due to the shock of the bus accident and disorientation. Looking at this town through a new lens, it was actually quite charming. Well, to me, it was. I still didn't really know how the others felt about being stuck here. I knew I needed to have that talk with Maddie. She'd been so quiet about all this, and after finding out she was a real witch with actual magical powers, she probably had a lot of adjusting to do.

I thought we all had a lot of adjusting to do. I hadn't even begun to delve into what it meant to be a necromancer. I get the shivers just thinking about it. I'd always had a sort of fascination with morbid things, but I never thought there was a legitimate reason for it. Thinking about raising the dead seemed like a taboo thing. In all the movies I'd ever watched, bringing the dead back to life was supposed to be a no-no. They say what you end up bringing back won't be the person you thought it was going to be.

But those were mortal rules. I wasn't about to traipse around bringing zombies to life or anything, but I definitely needed to do some research and figure out just how far my powers could go and what my limits were.

We'd only been walking for about twenty minutes when I saw the graveyard up ahead. On the other side was that wooded area we'd hauled ass through on that first day. The darkness of the trees loomed in the distance, and I was suddenly thankful I didn't have to cross that forest to get to the cemetery. I now had a name for it—The Hangry Forest.

I reached the tall, black wrought-iron gates and took a deep breath. The cemetery was huge, but it looked old and unkempt. The entire thing seemed to be built on a narrow hillside, which didn't make any logical sense because normally, graves need to be level in order to prevent mudslides and tragic unearthings when earthquakes happen. But I suppose Jessica was right; I was thinking like a mortal yet again. I refused to try and make logical sense out of everything in this crazy town.

The gates squealed open and let me right in. I crossed under the archway that read Midnight Hollow Cemetery in twisting wrought iron. On either side of the entrance were two stone gargoyles, perched there to ward off anyone who came in with ill intent. For some reason, it made me feel just a little safer knowing those things were guarding this place.

It smelled like wet moss and tilled earth. My shoulders relaxed as I began to weave through the graves. Some of them were very well kept up and had flowers placed on top, while others were covered in spiderwebs, the stone chipped, and the inscriptions faded away with time. I headed in farther, catching on quickly to the fact that the newer graves were towards the back end of the graveyard. Keeping track of the years as they passed seemed to work relatively the same as in the mortal world, numbers-wise, but the months were off.

"This place always gives me the heebie jeebies," Jessica whispered in my ear with a forced shiver.

I scoffed. "You're a talking tarantula who lives in a Halloween town, and this place freaks you out?" I shook my head. "You're so weird."

"What? Dead things creep me out."

"Why don't you go wait for me at the entrance then?" I suggested, coming to a stop and surveying the graves. "I'll try not to take too long."

Jessica mumbled something I couldn't quite make out, but she crawled down the length of my arm and hopped onto the ground. "Scream if you need me," she said before scuttling away.

I continued to scan the headstones. A chill washed over my skin, and I pulled my cloak in tighter. There wasn't any sort of breeze tonight, and the branches of the trees weren't swaying, so there wasn't really a reason I should be shivering. I looked around, feeling the hairs on my arm stand up. For a second, I got the sense that someone was watching me. I couldn't shake it, and I didn't think it was Jessica, either. I wondered if there might be a groundskeeper nearby or something.

Before I could think too much about it, a name caught my attention. Two names, actually. David Grimm and Mari Hallowell. Grimm? I didn't understand as I hurried over to my parents' headstones. Why was my dad listed as David Grimm? We were Hallowells. Well, I suppose so were my aunties. Which, now that I thought about it, didn't make much sense. Why would my dad have the same last name as my aunties?

Wait a second. I remembered my aunties mentioning something about the Grimm necromancers, but I hadn't put two and two together. Honestly, I'd never given it any thought. Was my dad's last name really Grimm? I filed it away for later and made a mental note to ask the aunties about it.

The stones looked fairly new compared to the rest of the graves around them. Not yet cracked or faded. Their names were etched into it and filled in with metallic golden paint. October 31st, 2019 was listed below their names—the day they died. The day I watched them die I hadn't even had the luxury of passing out while it happened, and the memory of it haunted me every night and day. Every time I closed my eyes, I could picture my mother's terrified tears and the shocked look on my dad's face in the rearview mirror. I heard their screams daily.

Tears sprung to my eyes as I dropped to my knees in front of the stone. I laid a hand on their names, tracing the scrawl with my fingertip. "I'm so sorry, Mom." I sniffled. "I'm sorry I made you go out that night... I was so stupid." The tears were falling harder.

It was my fault for what happened to them. All of it. They'd only been in that car because of my stubbornness. "I should have listened to you and trusted you. I'm so sorry..." I choked on another sob, tasting my tears as they ran down my cheeks and over my lip. "I don't know what I'm doing here, in this place. I don't know what you want me to do. I'm so lost, Dad."

I heard a crack of thunder somewhere in the distance, and instinctively, I shivered, though it was still relatively warm with just a cool breeze wafting through. Looking up, even the twin moons were slightly obscured by dark clouds, while bats flew overhead, probably preparing to dodge the oncoming storm. If I were smart, I'd have waited to come here another day. I never claimed to be a genius, but it did feel amazing to be near my parents again. I lay down on my side, curling up against the headstone, and closed my eyes with my hands pressed beneath my cheek.

I blinked away more tears, wishing so hard that I could talk to them just one more time. During this last year, I'd lay awake at night going over all of the things I'd say to them if I'd been given just one more day, one more minute, or one more second. I'd have told them how much I loved them and thanked them for keeping me safe and giving me a good life. I'd have told them I couldn't wait to go back home and watch a movie with them and drink Mom's spiced cider. I'd curl up in my dad's strong arms and breathe in the scent of tobacco and peppermint that I swear sometimes I could still smell.

There are so many things I never had the chance to say. So I found myself murmuring the words to a tilled patch of earth in the middle of this graveyard. It was growing colder by the second, but for just these short moments, a warmth surrounded me, and I imagined it was their embrace. I allowed myself to imagine, to yearn, and to mourn. I allowed my body to purge the grief because it was the only way I would have the strength to keep going without them.