Chapter 21
Chapter 21
"Harry! Harry!" Asher comes barreling across the yard, nearly slipping on the damp grass as he skids to a stop beside us. "There's a dead girl in the house! She says someone needs to come quick!"
Daryl curses, flicking away his cigarette and leaping to his feet. I snap out a locking spell on the gate and we both race back to the house with Asher scrambling after us. Daryl gets to the door only seconds before me but let's me pass through the door while he orders Asher to stay outside.
"She's in the sunroom!" Asher shouts, straining up on his tiptoes against the screen door.
I stumble into the hall, surprised to see the cloudy grey figure floating in the doorway of the sunroom. She's young, you can tell by her face that he is even if her rather generous curves might make her seem grown. She has a sweet round face, marred by the piece of her cheek bitten off and her pale shirt has bloodstains pouring down from a dark ruined throat.
I may have stumbled, hesitated for only a second, but Daryl darts past me with his crossbow raised. The ghost drifts to the side even as Daryl rushes past without noticing. I watch the girl who looks back, so pained and afraid, but a muttered curse from Daryl draws my attention away.
The sunroom itself looks normal, all bright golden sunshine, white wicker furniture and vibrant flowery prints. There are several potted and hanging flowers, a small flowering bush, and a windowsill full of fragrant herbs growing healthy and green. There is a white bassinet set against the wall by the door and a soft green blanket on the floor where the baby, Easton, is still laying. There are soft toys surrounding him as he blinks around curiously while the old woman, Ethel, crawls closer with a strange rumbling sound coming from her. In fact, it almost sounds like... She can't possibly be...
The twang of the crossbow sounds. An arrow spears her head and she falls limply to the side, the baby still unaware.
"She turned," comes a quiet voice, deeper than I expected, as the ghostly girl floats closer.
"Thank you for warning us," I offer the girl a nod, "My name is Harry Potter."
"Are you really?!"
"Who tha hell are ya talking too?" Daryl asks, lifting the baby away from the old woman's corpse while watching me suspiciously.
"There is a ghost here," I tell Daryl before turning back to the girl, brushing my bangs back to reveal the scar.
"Ghost?" Daryl scoffs at the same time the girl gasps out, "How did...? I can't believe!... You're really...!"
"Tha Hell is going on?" Merle lumbers into the room, gun drawn. He was out with Carol and Sophia, checking through the garden and helping them plan where to put the goats he and Daryl dragged back from the nearby farm. Right now the blasted things are running wild but at least they're safe here with us.
"Says he sees a ghost," Daryl scoffs out, stepping wide around me as he moves closer to his brother. "Old woman turned, must've died in her sleep or somethin."
"Ghost?" Merle raises both eyebrows, looking between us doubtfully.
"Muggles can't see me," the girl says sadly, drifting close to them to stroke a hand down the baby's back.
"Tha Hell!" Merle jumps back, rubbing his arm where the girl brushed past him and tilting his head this way and that as if he can almost see her.
"Yes, a ghost, although I haven't gotten her name yet."
The ghost girl drifts back, throwing a embarrassed smile, "Yeah, sorry about that. I've just never met anyone famous before and I kinda..." she shrugs helplessly, "I mean, you're HARRY POTTER! That's like..."
"It's okay, although I would like to know your name."
"Yeah, right, sorry, my name is Julia," she drifts closer, holding out her hand before hastily pulling it back with another embarrassed flush.
I hold my own hand out, prompting her to shake with a, "Pleased to meet you, Julia."
Merle steps closer with narrowed eyes, his voice hesitant, "I'd almost swear there was something there. A bit like heat off the asphalt in a way."
He throws me a questioning look so I introduce them, explaining about ghosts and how those with magic can see them. I'm honestly surprised that Daryl can't see her, at least a little bit, but that's neither here nor there. The better question is, why is she here? Why come to this house, unless...
This is her home, she explains. I repeat for the brothers benefit.
When the call came for people to shelter in homes, as airports and bus terminals were shut down, she was here with her family. The old woman is her great grandmother, her Memaw. Her siblings, her sisters fiancé, and her parents were here, as were her grandparents, "Pop-pop and Nana", who own the home and property.
"Our principal, Mr. Hedgeworth, told us that school would be canceled for the week because of the sickness. No one really understood what this was, just that is spread fast and our government said we needed to stay home for our own safety."
"You didn't board at school?" I ask curiously.
"No, ours was a public school, only the one up in Salem boards, I think. They're a bit snobby about it since theirs is the oldest school in America but there's plenty public and private schools around."
Her parents drove out to pick up her Aunt Tami, who normally lives here with her sons but was in Memphis for a Charms convention. She was stuck, with flights canceled, and had no way of getting back. Her Pop-pop was bitten by a neighbor, she and her older sisters fiance helped their Nana bury him. Her grandmother went to the pharmacy but never came back.
It was just her, her sisters Emma, Kayla, and Kayla's fiancé Brandon. They were scared but safe until her sister went into labor. The baby wouldn't come out and she wouldn't stop bleeding. She stopped breathing and with no other idea, they cut the baby out of her. They left the baby with Emma and Memaw while they took Kayla's body away to bury only... Only she rose as a dead one, biting her cheek.
She knows that Brandon apparated away even if she's not sure where the young man went. She thinks he was bitten but other than that, she doesn't remember anything else. She only remembers appearing where she died, the ground bloody but no bodies nearby.
"I wish Danny was here," she sighs mournfully.
"Who's Danny?"
She wrinkles her nose, huffing almost angrily before looking away shamefaced, "He's my big brother but he... He was bitten by a werewolf three years ago and grandpa... and mom and dad... they made him leave because... well, you know."
"Your family kicked him out because he was a werewolf?" I ask just to be sure.
"Werewolves?" Merle chokes out, throwing an incredulous look at his brother.
She crosses her arms under her large breasts, then huffs in frustration and lowers her arms while straightening her shirt, "Everyone knows that werewolves are dangerous."
"Not with the proper potions and support, they are not."
Daryl, who finally laid a sleeping Easton down in the bassinet, interrupts, "Not to get off topic but if I was listening right, which I think I was, ain't we still missing the little girl?"
Julia straightens, "She's not here? Emma?"
"No, the only ones here when we found the place nearly a week ago were the baby and Mrs. Ethel."
"Would she have gone for help?" Merle asks, watching me but most likely because he can't really SEE Julia. "She got friends near here or what about that Danny? Would he be close? Would she know how to find em?"
Julia nods, looking pained but agreeing, "Kayla was very pro-creature and Emma followed her everywhere. That's how she and Brandon met, some anti-hate rally. If she was keeping up with Danny then Emma might know where he is."
"Do YOU know where he lives?"
Julia shrugs helplessly, "Near a lake... I don't know I just remember one of his friends from school letting him move into their parents cabin."
I tell the brothers. I tell them that even that doesn't help because wizards can apparate so theres no telling how far away he is or if he's alive. Daryl huffs, brushing past us to stomp down the hall and then up the stairs.
Merle shrugs, "Nothing we can do about it now, may as well focus on fixing what we can fix and right now, there's a dead ol' lady on tha floor what needs burying."