A Spirit Displaced (Lansin Island Series #3) Excerpt - CHAPTER THREE

----Read the FIRST TWO CHAPTERS of A Spirit Displaced here: http://www.andrew-butcher.com/a-spirit-displaced-lansin-island-series-3-excerpt.html ----

SPOILERS WARNING: If you haven't finished reading the first two books in the Lansin Island Series (A Death Displaced & A Body Displaced), then I wouldn't recommend reading any of this excerpt for Book Three of the Lansin Island Series.

Note to Beta Readers: If I've previously discussed with you the possibility of beta reading A Spirit Displaced, then don't worry--I'll still be offering you an advanced copy of the whole book once I'm done writing it.

Disclaimer: The excerpt below reflects an early version of A Spirit Displaced. Any part of it could change between now and publication.

Scroll down for the excerpt ....

    CHAPTER THREE

‘WHAT?’ THE WORD tumbled out of Nick’s mouth. He felt winded. My mum? he thought, adding the worry to the list in his reeling mind--my car, my mum, a demon, I crashed, a date, I asked her on a date, I crashed, my mum!

For the longest second, he gathered his composure. ‘Juliet?’ he said, but she was distracted. He lightly grabbed her wrist.

The world turned cold and dark.

Nick recoiled so fast he nearly toppled. ‘What the—?’

Seeming to notice his distress, Juliet spun around and said, ‘Nicolas, what happened?’

He approached her, cautiously, and touched her wrist again. His surroundings darkened once more as if he’d put on sunglasses, but it was more viscerally shocking than that; it felt like he’d entered a walk-in freezer. Even the air tasted different.

He let go of her wrist. Back to normal—a mild summer’s evening, not particularly bright, but certainly not dark. The air was humid. He grabbed Juliet for a third time, and was enveloped in the icy gloom.

‘What are you doing?’ Juliet’s voice was soaked in confusion.

Ignoring her, he gazed upwards at the murky treetops, then back down, where he noticed smoke--was it white smoke?—in every direction.

Something flickered nearby. My mum. He looked towards the spot where he’d seen movement.

And there she was.

Her clothes … He hadn’t expected to remember the outfit she wore on the morning he last saw her alive, before he went to school, Monday the third of February, 2003, over nine years ago.

The recollection hit him hard. ‘Mum?’ he said, his voice weak.

‘Nicolas.’ Samantha Crystan spoke in a hauntingly dulled tone, but her eyes showed love and fear. ‘You can see me?’ She reached out to her son … then disappeared.

While Nick twisted about, looking from here to there and back again, he heard Juliet ask, ‘How can you see her?’

‘I don’t know.’ Locating his mother was more important than solving that puzzle right now. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever touched you while a ghost was present before—ah, there she is!’

He spotted his mother and instantly wished he hadn’t. She’d rematerialised about ten metres away, slithers of white smoke separating her form. Only this time, her body was covered in deep red gorges. Blood glistened and oozed from each hole.

Nick cringed and let go of Juliet, turning away and bending forwards. His mouth became warm, filling with saliva. He gagged once, twice, his stomach tensing, but somehow managed to keep the bile down.

‘Is … is she still there?’ he asked Juliet.

‘She’s disappeared again.’

Gritting his teeth, he pulled himself together and moved towards Juliet. This time he grabbed her hand. Their fingers intertwined.

The smoke and the gloom and the low temperature returned. Nick prayed hard that he wouldn’t see his mother’s ghost in that gory state again—the state Aldrich must have left her body in.

Fffh-whoomp! Samantha was back. Her ghostly body was no longer wound-ridden, but she looked beyond haggard. She glided over and said, ‘I’ve been trying to run, to hide, but I’m losing the will …’ Her figure appeared solid, yet it had a certain weightlessness. Her long brown hair swayed languorously as if Samantha were bobbing underwater.

‘What is all this fog?’ asked Juliet.

Nick felt his eyebrows pull down; was that really the most important thing on Juliet’s mind?

Samantha puffed out of existence then whooshed back metres to the left; then again she vanished and returned, now metres to the right.

‘The fog … I’m not doing this.’ She flicked her head one way, the other, then roared, ‘It’s coming!’ Suddenly her face was inches from Nick’s. ‘I’m sorry I put you in danger. I love you, Nicolas.’

‘I love you, Mum,’ he hurried to say. ‘But what’s coming?’

‘Maybe the witch will know. Maybe Tamara can help me.’ Samantha’s face slackened; she began to blabber about doors and windows and fragments and time. Then she snapped out of it. ‘I have to keep running. I love you.’

She vanished.

There were footsteps heading in a definite direction, becoming quieter. As they faded, Juliet squeezed Nick’s hand and turned towards him. Her eyes were red at the edges.

Nick’s emotions were all over place. His chest was heavy, his vision blurred. For a while, all he did was focus on the warmth of Juliet’s skin.

After a moment of standing in the forest, he began to wonder why it was still cold and dark, even though his mother’s spirit had fled. Juliet doesn’t always see the world like this, does she?

More footsteps came to Nick’s ears—these ones from the opposite direction his mother had run. They were growing louder.

‘Can you hear that?’ he asked Juliet.

‘Hear what?’

‘More footsteps.’

‘No.’

‘Actually, not footsteps …’ He cocked his head, listening. ‘More like patters, animal feet. They’re getting closer.’

‘I can’t hear anything.’ Juliet looked uneasy. This was her ability, and Nick was somehow sampling it. Why was he experiencing more than her?

In the smoke, in the distance, a silhouette appeared. Then another. And another.

There was a rattling of chains.

The nearest silhouette—something four-legged—lowered its head to the forest ground. Sniff-sniff. Was it smelling something from this world, or only the scents in this bleak spectral realm?

Its head shot up. Two luminous green eyes stood out on its face. And for a moment, it didn’t move. But Nick recognised the stance it took—the poised stance of a predator, debating the opportune moment to pounce and take pursuit.

It pounced.

Nick’s heart thudded. He twisted his head towards Juliet, who looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. She didn’t react at all to the approaching thing.

She can’t see it …

Nick resolved to do nothing until the thing came out of the whiteness. He had to find out what it was. Farther away, the other two silhouettes stirred before they joined the race towards him. One had fiery red eyes, but the other seemed to have no eyes at all.

The nearest shadow loped closer, until it sprang out of the white smoke and stopped a short distance from Nick. A scraggy black dog. Acting as its lead was a long, long chain. From the sounds, Nick deduced that the other two were also on leashes.

But who, or what, held the opposite ends?

The dog prepared to pounce again. It bared its teeth in a sinister smile and its hackles bristled on its back. As the dog leapt, Nick released Juliet’s hand and pushed her out of harm’s way. He shot up an arm in defence, just as his surroundings returned to normal.

The beast was gone.

Putting a hand to his chest, he sighed heavier than ever before. His relief came too soon, though. A searing pain spread across the forearm he’d raised to protect himself. ‘Argh!’ he wailed, and launched backwards. He scanned the empty air frantically, as if the dog were about to reappear.

‘Nicolas!’ Juliet hurried closer. ‘What’s the matter?’

‘It bit me … I think it bit me.’ He clutched his forearm. As he rubbed at the pain, it began to fade and fade until it hurt no more. An uncomfortable sensation lingered, though, like the way his arm always felt after a blood test—as if the needle were still inside. It was as if the dog’s teeth were under the skin, sunken into his bones.

‘What bit you?’

‘Come on, we’d better go,’ he said. It seemed as long as he didn’t touch Juliet, the beast was unlikely to return. ‘We can’t leave the car unattended this long.’ He began to run out of the forest, Juliet following, and shouted over his shoulder, ‘I’ll tell you what happened in a minute.’

When they reached the road, an elderly man and woman—a couple, presumably—were inspecting his car. The man pulled a mobile phone out of his pocket and began tapping away.

‘Hi,’ Nick shouted across. ‘Don’t worry; that’s my car.’

The old man looked up from his mobile, seeming annoyed to be interrupted. He squinted, then flicked a cursory glance in Juliet’s direction. ‘So why’d you abandon it by the side of the road?’ he asked. Most Lansin Islanders had a slight bumpkinish twang to their voice; there was nothing slight about this man’s accent.

A surge of irritation ran up Nick’s body. He knew it was irrational. This man was trying to be a Good Samaritan, but Nick simply didn’t want to justify his own actions or have to prove he owned the car.

He tried to quell his impatience and remember his manners. Any story would do. ‘A fox ran into the road,’ he began, ‘so I swerved and ended up in that ditch, but I thought I might have clipped the fox’s leg or something. We ran into the forest to have a look for it, to make sure it was okay.’

Before the man could reply, the elderly woman said, ‘Awwhh!’ She tilted her head and gave a smile that could only mean: Aren’t you just the sweetest! ‘Is it alright?’ she asked. She moved towards her partner, then hooked onto him and stroked his arm affectionately. He seemed to relax a little.

‘The fox? Yeah. We saw it running just fine. We didn’t find any blood or anything.’ Nick jigged his leg up and down, biting his lip. It really sucked having to lie about something like this. He was an animal lover himself.

‘Oh, goodie!’ said the woman. ‘I do love a happy ending.’

The old man still seemed doubtful, but Nick decided to hurry past him and unlock the car. Why hadn’t he done that sooner?

‘Alright, then,’ the man said. ‘You need any ’elp movin’ that car? You oughta test them lights there are workin’.’ He nodded toward the front of the vehicle.

‘It’s just a little ditch. I’ll try to reverse out. My friend’—Nick gestured towards Juliet—‘can check the lights.’ He forced an amiable grin, but under the surface was a restless buzz. He and Juliet needed to talk, and now this lovely couple—whom Nick should have been showing thanks to—were just holding him up.

We need to call Tamara or James, before they’re literally out of this world.

Nick got into the car and reversed it out with no problems—at least, the bonnet didn’t fall off or anything. Then he tested the lights, while Juliet stood around the front to check them. The old man, apparently trying to win Most Helpful Person of the Year, stayed to give his thumbs-up.

Although he couldn’t hear, Nick saw Juliet thank the elderly couple in her formal manner before joining him in the car. Feeling guilty, he made his own little effort to raise a hand in appreciation.

The old woman still smiled at him, almost reverently, as if she might never again meet such an altruistic person. I hope we’ve made her day, Nick thought, as strange as it was. Almost covetously, he pondered the woman’s simple happiness. He loved simple pleasures—walks in the park, the smell of autumn, the blooming of spring, the relief in knowing a (imaginary) fox had made it safely across a road—but instead, he was sitting here thinking of fear in a ghost’s eyes, and murder in a dog’s.

He sighed.

In no hurry, the elderly couple got into their own vehicle and left.

Finally. Nick put on his hazard lights, then twisted towards Juliet without pause. ‘Couldn’t you see them?’

‘See what?’

‘The dogs?’

‘Dogs?’

‘They were like hellhounds or something!’

Juliet stared at the dashboard. ‘No … For me, everything returned to normal after your mother ran off. That’s what usually happens when ghosts disappear.’

‘That didn’t happen for me … It stayed cold and dark.’ For a moment, he contemplated the significance of that. ‘How could I even see my mum’s spirit?’

‘Maybe I can share my ability with anyone I touch?’ Juliet seemed unsettled earlier, when Nick had first said he saw his mother’s ghost, but now she gave off an air of acceptance. Her tone was speculative. ‘Or maybe your ability has something to do with it?’

Something sparked in Nick’s memory, but he failed to grasp it. ‘Maybe … but why could I see and hear the dogs, but you couldn’t? You didn’t even hear them approaching.’

‘I heard your mother’s footsteps. I remember when I summoned her before, she told me something was pursuing her in the Spiritworld. When she vanished, I heard footsteps and a scream. I thought it must have been something chasing her, like she said, but if I couldn’t see these dogs, then maybe I just heard her running away.’ She gripped her chin between her thumb and forefinger. ‘Why didn’t I hear these dogs? Why didn’t I see anything?’

‘Do you usually see animals’ ghosts in the Spiritworld?’

She shook her head, still in a thinking pose. ‘Only humans’.’

Nick’s common sense caught up with him. ‘Wait! What are we doing? We need to ring Tamara, quickly. You have her number, right?’

‘Sure,’ said Juliet, already taking out her phone to prepare the call. She passed her mobile to Nick.

After he listened to silence for a few seconds, a polite recording told him the person he was trying to call was temporarily unavailable and that he should please try later. ‘Damn.’

‘What about James?’

‘I don’t have his number; he’s my stalker, remember?’ Nick surprised himself with a laugh, then remembered the seriousness of the situation. ‘If I can’t get through to Tamara, then they’ve probably already gone through the portal already. It didn’t take us long to get across to Kern Islet when we went, and I don’t even know how long we were just in the woods. Also, we sat in here talking before we even left Willow—and then did it again, just now. Yep. They must have gone through by now, and I’m pretty sure nobody’s phone network extends its service to the Otherworld.’

He handed Juliet’s mobile back to her.

As he sat there, defeated, he wondered where Tamara had left her vehicle. When he and Juliet had visited Kern Islet, he left his car in a gritted parking area that allowed locals to stop and appreciate the sea view. Would Tamara get a fine for leaving her Beetle there too long? More worrying than that, he imagined the elderly witch descending the cliff, struggling down the secret pathway that led to the hidden cove. If she made it that far, a boat would take her and James across to the islet.

I’ve got to pull myself together. In a low voice, he said, ‘I need to help my mum. She deserves to move on, after all these years.’

Juliet gave his words a respectful moment, then said, ‘You know I’ll do whatever I can to help. But the last time I summoned your mother, she told me not to do it again. She said it was dangerous.’

‘Then she must be getting desperate, to reappear like this. Unless … unless she didn’t have a choice, and whatever is chasing her forced her to show herself?’

He felt a bite of sadness, but refused to give into it. Repressing his emotions wouldn’t do him any good, of course, but he would not burden Juliet with this grief right now.

‘I don’t know why I couldn’t block her out,’ said Juliet. ‘And I’ve never seen that white mist before. It was darker than usual too.’

‘Do you think the dogs are a type of cambion? The one I thought bit me had bright green eyes. I mean unnaturally bright, like orbs.’

Juliet didn’t answer straight away. Eyebrows furrowed, she said, ‘I was thinking that, but no. James never said any demon offspring existed in the Spiritworld—only in the Otherworld, and some mixed breeds on this side.’

‘So what are they—just dead dogs?’ he asked rhetorically. ‘They were on chains, leads, I think … I know this sounds stupid, but I really got the sense that something bigger and badder was approaching.’

Juliet’s lips compressed, then she looked down at her mobile. ‘I’ll try Tamara again.’ A few seconds later, she said, ‘I couldn’t get through.’

Nick looked at her, tension spiralling up the back of his neck. He thought about what she’d said earlier: that she planned to get on with her life as if there were no dangers, taking James’s word that they were safe.

He didn’t like her new ‘ignorance is bliss’ attitude. Ignorance is not bliss; ignorance is ignorance. It reminded him of his own mistakes …

Before Austin murdered Kerra, Nick was so happy to finally have things go well that he ignored his ability and the portents it was giving him through nightmares. If he had been more open to all of his experiences, not only accepting what he approved of, but also accepting the things that frightened him, then maybe he could have saved his girlfriend.

Now he realised something else. ‘I could have seen her …’

‘Sorry?’

‘Kerra. If I can share your ability when I touch you, then I could have seen her … Before she moved on, I could have seen her one last time.’ He dropped his head forwards into his hands, covering his face.

A wave of guilt washed over him. I just asked Juliet on a date, and now I’m talking about Kerra again.

‘Kerra could see you,’ said Juliet, ‘and she knew you cared. I hope that comforts you.’

He let that sink in, deeper and deeper, until it did comfort him—if only slightly. He looked back up at Juliet, lifting the corners of his mouth in appreciation. He liked that she didn’t get overly involved in his emotions, like some people would. When he first met her, she was a little cold and more judgemental. Now she had a kind of ‘business empathy’.

‘Thanks,’ said Nick. He went quiet. Maybe he had rushed into asking Juliet on a date. Was it too soon? Then it hit him that she hadn’t given an answer yet. Does she even remember I asked?

Juliet said, ‘There isn’t much we can do. You might as well drop me home now, and I’ll get you some money for the damage to your car.’

‘Oh. Don’t worry about that.’

‘It’s my fault you crashed.’

‘It’s not. Whatever’s chasing my mum’s ghost should pay for the damage, but somehow I don’t see that happening.’

‘Still, I’ll give you the money.’

‘No. I probably won’t even get it repaired. I think it adds to the character.’

Juliet raised an eyebrow.

‘Honestly,’ said Nick.

Juliet shrugged. ‘Fine.’

As Nick started the car and got back on the road, he did some mental calculations. The numbers weren’t good. Assuming it wouldn’t be cheap, he couldn’t afford to repair the damage any time soon, but he’d rather that than take Juliet’s money.

What about the crash? Was he meant to alert the authorities about that sort of thing? He hadn’t left any smashed glass behind, and the farm wall was no more tumbledown than before. It’s fine, stop worrying. He’d never crashed before, though, and was still a little shaky. The anxiety didn’t mix well with his roiling belly. He hadn’t eaten since breakfast.

‘So, what are we going to do?’ Nick asked, trying to figure out the best route to Chanton.

‘There’s nothing we can do without talking to Tamara or James. We’ll have to wait until they return.’

‘I think there’s something you can do.’ Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Juliet straighten up in her seat.

‘What’s that?’ she said.

‘You could test your ability to see if you can share it with anyone else.’

Juliet took a while to reply. ‘Maybe. But that means I’d have to tell that person about my ability.’

‘Not if you’re clever about it.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘If a ghost appears to you, then you could try to position the person you’re going to touch so that they wouldn’t see the ghost when you touch them. But they would feel it get colder and see it get darker. Then when you let go of them, you see if they say something like, Did it just get cold in here? or Did the power just go off and back on?’

‘I told you, it’s not usually that dark when a spirit appears. Most of the time, it does get colder. Sometimes I think lights are flickering. Some spirits, though, don’t seem to cause any phenomena. Anyway, Tamara believes it’s just the way my brain interprets the Spiritworld overlapping with this world.’

‘Could that be why I saw different things than you did? Because I interpreted the Spiritworld differently?’

Juliet sighed. ‘I really don’t know, Nicolas. We should just wait until we can talk to Tamara.’

‘I still think you should test sharing your ability.’

‘I’ll consider it.’

Had he somehow annoyed her? He wanted to find out as much as possible about whatever the hell was going on. But was asking her to test her ability unfair? What if the person she selected as a guinea pig did see a ghost, and then Juliet had to explain everything? That was a lot to ask of her. Nick knew for himself that telling someone you had a psychic gift wasn’t easy.

He was thinking of apologising, but then they arrived at her house.

Before getting out, Juliet said, ‘I’ll let you know if your mother appears again, or if Tamara gets in touch. Keep safe.’

‘I’ll keep you updated too.’

Juliet stepped out of the car, shut the door, and headed down her front garden.

Okay … Maybe I did annoy her.

Halfway down the path, Juliet stopped. She twisted back and caught Nick’s eye.

Reaching across the passenger’s side, Nick pressed down on the button to lower the window. ‘Yeah?’ he called out.

‘Yes,’ she said.

‘Huh?’

‘Yes … A date would be nice.’

Feeling suddenly weightless, Nick began to smile. Then Juliet added, ‘I’m pretty busy at the moment, so I can’t give a definite date. But I’ll … text you.’

She turned and walked away.

She’ll text me, he thought dazedly.

END OF A SPIRIT DISPLACED EXCERPT

Thanks for reading, and I really hope you enjoyed this excerpt and are excited to read more of A Spirit Displaced!

Please be sure to go back to the blog post about this excerpt and leave comments once you're done reading--I'd love to know your thoughts.

Blog Post: http://www.andrew-butcher.com/butchers-blog/read-chapter-three-of-a-spirit-displaced-now

And also remember to add A Spirit Displaced to your shelves on Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17932677-a-spirit-displaced

Thanks again.
Andrew.