Page 38 of A Spark of Something (A Librarian’s Guide to Witchery #1)

A yawn overtook Ollie just as GPS directed him down a small one-lane road. A road that quickly took him into a forested area, making him realize he was now likely on the property of the man he was looking for, as there didn’t appear to be any other houses nearby.

Ollie had to say, he had forgotten just how many previous owners his 2017 VW Beetle Classic had. While the car was now seven-years-old, he had only had it for a year and a half.

Frankly, when he’d bought it, Ollie hadn’t cared about the condition. From the moment he decided he wanted to create the ladybug car of his dreams, he had already planned to completely gut whatever bug he found. Because he wanted fun buggy joy, without giving up all the nice modern technology.

That being said, the car had been passed around like a damn hot cake in those first five years before him, which meant, Ollie had been driving around for LITERALLY hours. He glared at the moon above.

Bad choices had been made at the start of this, because obviously, had he just started with the original owner, he’d be home by now…instead of being an hour away from home, creepily showing up at some poor man’s house in the middle of the night.

And it had to be William Parker, as…he was the only one left. Surely the ones he hadn’t talked to—due to them either not being searchable online, or because they didn’t live within driving distance—weren’t the ones who knew his mystery ghost. At least, that was what he was telling himself in order to pathetically ignore that this whole thing had been a giant waste of time.

Why the hell hadn’t he just messaged these people online?! Ahh right, as that would have been the smart thing to do—ugh! Though it was much harder to avoid answering questions in person than it was online…

Ollie sighed in relief when a small one-story log cabin style house appeared, and the lights looked to be on inside. The roof was green, while the siding was made of redwood logs, and there was a short paved path that led to the stairs of the covered porch out front, from the gravel drive. He parked behind the black Jeep that was already there, as he eyed the light shining through the curtained windows with a smile.

“I know this place.”

Ollie jumped at the soft whisper, looking over to find the ghost sitting there beside him in the car. “You know it?!” he asked with a tinge of excitement.

“I know it…but I don’t know why.”

“Well, I’m about to find out for you!”

UGH…if he had JUST started with the first owner, he’d be done by now…maybe. Shaking his head, Ollie unbuckled his seat belt and got out, shivering a bit as he did. The temperature had dropped significantly once the sun had set, due to an odd cold front that had moved in. He hurried around the car, his eyes widening as he came to a stop when he realized the ghost had followed him.

“You got out!” Ollie gasped with excitement.

“I…I did…” The man frowned. “This is… This is new.”

“Well, I, for one, am happy for you. Maybe this is where it happened! Though I’m confused why you got attached to the car if you didn’t die in there.” Ollie pursed his lips.

Or maybe he was injured here and died on the way to the hospital? Or maybe, like Annabel, the car just happened to be nearby when he died, and he somehow got attached to it? Ollie wasn’t exactly sure if where you died determined what you were attached to.

Eyeing the ghost, he tried to see the man’s injury by turning his head and looking towards him at different angles, but…it didn’t work.

Shaking his head again, Ollie headed towards the house, jogging up the stairs. As he knocked, he glanced back towards the ghost, but found him gone. Huh, the man sure didn’t like to stick around for long.

Ollie looked towards the door when it opened. The man, who he assumed to be William, had brown hair, tan skin, deep lines at his eyes, and while he was a good foot taller than him, he was on the slimmer side.

“Can I help you?” the man murmured, his brows pulled.

“Ah, yes! So, I know this may seem rather odd, but I actually have a question for you about your old car.”

The man frowned. “My…old car?”

“Yes. You are William Parker, right?”

“I am. What car?”

“Um.” Ollie shuffled a bit to the left and waved backwards. “That car.”

William’s face twisted. “I?—”

“Ha, right, it’s changed quite a bit since you had it. But that used to be your black 2017 VW Beetle Classic.”

The man stiffened a bit, in what he was going to guess was shock. “Okay…what about it? It hasn’t been mine in six years.”

“Well, the question is not exactly about the car, but it’s connected to the car. Would you happen to know someone who is about your height, with a dimpled rounded chin, thick oval glasses, and a sharp upturned nose? Maybe the last time you saw him there was snow, and he had on a sweater, jeans, and snow boots?”

William’s eyes narrowed. “Why…?” he said, before shaking his head, a smile forming on his face as he blurted, “You know what, speaking of snow, it’s gotten a bit chilly out tonight, why don’t you come in?”

Ollie blinked. “Come in?”

“Yes, it’s a bit too cool out to be having a conversation in my doorway, don’t you think?”

“Ah.” He laughed. “It did drop down, didn’t it? I guess winter is deciding to sneak in already.” Ollie wrinkled his nose. “Not that it will stop all the tourists for Halloween.”

“Yeah, they do swarm. Come in, come in.” The man held the door open for him, waving him inside with a bright smile.

Beaming, Ollie walked into what looked to be a small entryway and hallway, and found the inside was what one would expect of a log cabin house…there was a lot of wood. The hallway took them into a large rustic living room, which was sparsely furnished with couches and chairs, all in warm tones.

Directly to the left of the front hallway was another opening that led off somewhere, while another hallway seemed to branch off from the back left of the room. And in the far right was a door that appeared to lead back outside.

“So, why bring up whoever this is?” William asked, glancing back as he did, before turning to face him once they reached the center of the living room.

“Oh, well…” he trailed off, wincing. How did one explain something like this…without sounding insane? “It’s…complicated. The man I mentioned, I believe he died in my car.”

The man’s brow rose, his eyes becoming wide. “You believe he died in your car?”

Yep, Ollie definitely knew how insane that had sounded, but it really had been the least crazy option. The problem was, he wasn’t sure how to explain further without likely getting kicked out.

“Would you like something to drink?” William suddenly asked.

“Drink? Oh, you know, water would be nice, if you wouldn’t mind?” he said with a happy sigh.

Ollie was actually super thirsty, as he had been driving around for hours with nothing to drink. Well, he’d had something to drink earlier when he’d eaten supper, but that had been hours ago.

“Sure, wait here, I’ll be right back.”

“Thank you.”

As the man went towards the opening to his left, he slowly wandered further into the room, his gaze trailing over the stone fireplace and mantle. It was full of pictures and trophies. All of them were hunting related, which was… Well, it wasn’t his type of hobby, that was for sure.

Ollie flinched on seeing a flash of paleness. “Back again, I see,” he whispered to the ghost, who was now floating next to him.

“I know this place… I know this place…” The man’s expression twisted in anger as he trailed off.

“What’s wrong?”

Instead of answering, the ghost disappeared again. Ollie wrinkled his nose. That was…odd.

On hearing a sound, Ollie spun around, his eyes widening as he met the angry gaze of the man who owned the house. More importantly, he saw the knife that was swinging towards him.

Ollie’s left arm came up automatically to block the blow, crying out in pain as the knife was embedded in his forearm. His screams got louder when William pressed down on him.

As hard as he could, Ollie shoved the man. William stumbled back, the knife yanking free at that moment.

Ollie ignored the burning agony and kicked out as hard as he could, nailing the man in the nuts.

While William shouted out in pain, Ollie ran for it. But he only made it a few feet before the man slammed into his back, knocking him to the floor.

Ollie struggled with all he had in him, trying his hardest to get out from under the man’s weight. He just managed to twist onto his back when William lifted up, but the sight of the knife raised to strike brought with it a sick surety that he was about to die. And…it probably should have ended that way…but it didn’t.

Ollie stared wide-eyed, speechless as blood that wasn’t his own trailed down his cheeks, droplets speckling over his glasses. William, who was still above him, made a gurgling noise, and the hand that was holding the knife, still raised, began to shake until he lost hold of it completely. It fell to the floor as blood seeped down the man’s face from the now bashed in left side of his head.

Floating behind William, eyes full of rage, was Ollie’s car ghost. And in the ghost’s hand was one of the trophies from the mantel…blood, hair…and matter that he didn’t want to identify, now coated one corner of it.

When William swayed towards him, he scrambled back, squealing as he just barely managed to get out of the way. Ollie’s vision swayed a bit as he eyed the prone man, his body beginning to tremble with his adrenaline plummeting.

Slowly, he looked back up at the ghost.

“He killed me…” the man rasped, his eyes no longer angry but full of tears.

“I…” Ollie swallowed.

“I remember… I remember.” The ghost laughed as a tear trickled down his face. “Thank you… Thank you…” Closing his eyes, with a peaceful smile now on his face, the man began to disappear.

Ollie remained silent, tears forming in his own eyes as he watched the ghost’s form dissipate, his body floating away inch by inch until nothing was left. The bloody trophy landed on the rug-covered floor with a thud.