Page 3 of Sky’s Guide To Getting His Man & Banishing Ghosts (The Dreamwalkers #1)

Chapter

Two

Kingston

“Kingston, you need to get some shut-eye tonight, son,” my grandmother said in a crackling voice.

I pushed back from my computer, turning toward the door where she leaned on the door jamb. “I will. I promise.”

She tutted and shuffled into the room in her favorite slippers, which were a rub away from falling apart.

She wore an old white nightdress that had seen better days on her frail body, with a black knit shawl draped over her hunched shoulders.

Her gray hair, which still had a few strips of its original black, framed her face in a tangled mess, hanging down to the middle of her back.

When I was a child, she’d been known as the town eccentric.

There’d been a lot of speculation that she was a witch.

To me, she’d been my grandmother, mother, and father.

She was the only person I could rely on.

The only one who treated me as if I had any value or showed me any love after my parents died.

Granted, she was a little kooky, but she never hurt anyone, and it wasn’t like she purposely tried to scare people.

The days of her leaving the house were a thing of the past now, though.

The last time she’d gone anywhere was when I graduated from high school.

I tried getting her out more, but she refused to go or tell me why.

It worried me. The glazed absence in her eyes scared me, too.

I didn’t know how I’d survive without her.

But hadn’t I been losing her for a while, anyway?

She’d become a shell of herself, and I had no idea how to help her.

“Why don’t you tell me what’s bothering you, my little prince? ”

I grinned at the old nickname she’d bestowed on me when my parents named me Kingston.

I’d been a preemie, and she’d insisted that such a little guy needed a better name, so I’d become her little prince.

She only called me that now when she was worried about me.

Seeing as how I’d basically grown up to be a giant at well over six feet, it didn’t really fit anymore.

Shrugging, I sagged back into the kitchen chair that I’d confiscated years ago to use at my desk.

We didn’t have a lot, and most of what we had was old, but I splurged on the various computers I’d bought over the years.

It made it easier to do the necessary research that came with having my sleep plagued by dreams of otherworldly things.

“It’s nothing, really. Just not sleeping as well as I’d like.”

Her mouth formed a thin, tight line. “Your dreams,” she stated.

She’d known before I’d found the words to express to anyone else the confusing visions and glimpses of people I’d never met and places I’d never been.

They weren’t necessarily scary to me. Not until recently, anyway.

Even now, I wouldn’t call them terrifying, but they were certainly disconcerting enough that I fought sleep, while it seemed to beckon me more and more.

“Yeah, they’ve been a little weirder than normal.” I hadn’t told her about what had been going on out at Willowhope Manor.

When I’d first mentioned that Jetty had started working there, she’d become agitated and spent the next several days in bed.

Since then, I’d avoided any mention of the property.

All I’d told her was that Jetty had a boyfriend now and that I spent a lot of time with them.

What I’d failed to mention was that his boyfriend, Chance, had been called to the property from the other side and also happened to see ghosts.

Grandmother’s stance on the town of Willowhope being haunted had always been a little unclear to me.

The rambling messages she used to give people seemed to suggest that she absolutely thought we shared our small beachside town with those who’d passed on, but when I brought it up at home, she’d merely smiled and changed the subject.

“Hm. Well, weird dreams call for my special hot chocolate, I think.” She turned and shuffled back out of the room while I stifled a groan.

The scoop of hot chocolate mix she put into the tepid milk didn’t cover up the odd flavor of whatever else she added to it or the thick texture of some form of root or weed that she chopped up into it.

Quite honestly, it was terrible. She’d given it to me often as a child when the dreams had first started.

But as I’d figured out how to find the places I’d dreamed of and went exploring, the dreams became more manageable, so she'd given it to me less and less over the years.

My phone chimed with a text notification, and my heart skipped a beat.

There was a time when the only person I heard from was Jetty, but with him dating Chance, my social circle had somehow grown.

Chance often reached out to me when a ghost came his way, and he needed information about what had happened to family members.

It was easier for me to find out than it would’ve been for him with my job as a clerk at the township.

I also enjoyed helping him. It felt more important than what I actually got paid to do.

Oftentimes, the lonely spirits he encountered crossed over once they realized how long they’d been wandering this plane and that there was a strong probability that they had descendants already waiting for them on the other side if they just went.

Even though Chance owned a now-prospering bed and breakfast, he didn’t hesitate to stop what he was doing to help them move on.

But that wasn’t why my heart was currently skipping like a stone across a pond.

Nor was it because I thought it might be Chance’s parents or our new friend, Scotty, all of whom liked to get together or just check in on me.

It was the possibility that it might be Chance’s best friend, Skylar, who’d followed him from the big city.

Skylar twisted me up so badly I didn’t know up from down or right from left when he was around.

Sky, who was vibrant with life and hummed with energy.

I couldn’t figure out why he tried so hard to be a part of my life.

I understood that our besties were dating and all, but that didn’t mean he had to give me the time of day, no matter how much I actually wanted him to.

Jetty used to defend me in school because people teased and mocked me for being big and goofy—for being different. I’d appreciated his friendship and loyalty, but he’d been fighting a losing battle. What they said about me was true. I was different.

Years of dreaming about things I shouldn’t know, couldn’t possibly know in the natural world, had created an obsession in me about all things supernatural.

If we weren’t talking ghosts, I had little to offer in any conversation and no real idea how to converse, even if I did.

Yet Skylar treated me like I was one of his favorite people, like talking to me made his day. Hearing from him definitely made mine.

After checking my phone, my heart stopped abruptly for a beat before galloping away like a horse spooked by a gunshot. It was Sky.

Sky: Heyyyyyyy. Whatcha doing? I’m home now, and I’m bored. Wanna come over?

Glancing at the clock, I saw it was already 8:30 pm, and I had work tomorrow. Normally, that wouldn’t matter that much, but with my lack of sleep, I didn’t even think it was safe for me to drive out to Jetty’s old place where Sky was living.

Chance’s mom, Elyse, was training him in all things witchy—not that they referred to it that way—so he spent a lot of time at the B&B, but even that was too far.

I rolled my eyes at myself. How did I tell him I couldn’t tonight without sounding like a boring old man instead of only being in my thirties?

Me: Sorry. My gran is making us hot chocolate right now.

Sky: Booooo. If you’d just let me come over, I could be having hot chocolate with you two.

I didn’t know why, but he’d been begging me relentlessly to come meet my gran.

I couldn’t let him come over. She’d want to know how we met, and he’d get excited and start babbling away, and then she’d find out all about what I’d been up to lately.

Would she approve? Who knew? But I couldn’t let her ask me not to go out to Chance’s place because I wouldn’t be able to help myself.

Willowhope Manor and its property had given me access to all the things I’d been obsessed with my whole life, like seeing ghosts.

Me: Someday .

Sky: Yeah, yeah. You say that every time I ask.

Sky: Will you be here tomorrow night?

Sky: Mr. Harry said he’s making lasagna rolls because they’re your favorite.

How in the world did he text so fast?

Me: Yeah, I’ll be there. Tell Mr. Harry when you go over that he doesn’t have to go to any trouble on my account though.

Sky: LMFAO.

A GIF came through from him of a panda bear rolling down a hill. He often sent that to me with a LOL or a LMFAO or a Bahahahaha , but I didn’t know why. I’d have to ask Jetty.

Sky: Did you fall and knock your head on something? Are you concussed? There’s no way I’m going up against Mr. Harry. Not even for you, Kingston. Sorry, not sorry, but I love my life, and I’m too young to end up haunting the manor.

Sky: Although, if I was a spirit, then I could come see you whenever I want. You wouldn’t be able to keep me out.

Perplexed, I stared at his message, unsure what to say to any of that.

He had a point about Mr. Harry. Chance’s butler had inhabited Willowhope Manor for well over a hundred years.

No one knew that house or what it had been through better than him.

At one point, when he was still alive, he’d even gone from being the butler to the owner of the grand home.

These days, he helped Chance run the place.

I heard Gran’s shuffling steps, so I pushed down the idea of asking Sky why in the world he’d want to haunt someone as boring as me.

Me: My gran’s back. I’ll see you tomorrow. Please tell Mr. Harry thank you.

That would have to do for now.

Sky: Alllllright. I guess that means you can’t at least talk on the phone. I’ll see you tomorrow, King. Sweet dreams.

I ignored the way his calling me King felt as special as Gran calling me little prince and set my phone face down. Getting up, I met her at the doorway and took the mug from her trembling hands.

Once I had it, she reached up and patted my cheek. “Get ready for bed before you drink this, my little prince. It’ll put you under pretty quickly.”

I bent down and kissed her paper-thin, weathered cheek. “Okay, Gran. Are you going to bed, too?”

“I’ll stay up until I know you’re peaceful. In case you need me.” She smiled serenely, then left the room. She often said cryptic things like that, and I really had no idea what she meant. It wasn’t like she sat at my bedside.

Sleep tugged at me, pulling me under. I really hadn’t been getting enough rest at night in the months since Chance—and his family—had banished the specter haunting Beckoning Pond, the pond out at the back of the property line.

The ghost had been killing innocents, and even though it was gone, my dreams had gotten stranger and more confusing.

In the past, I knew the places my nighttime wanderings had taken me. Or, at the very least, I recognized the countryside surrounding me. But lately, it was as if something was calling out, wanting…me.

I whipped my head around at the field I was standing in.

I didn’t recognize this area at all, except that I’d been here in my sleep the last several times I’d dreamed.

It was disconcerting not to know where I was, so I stayed put, spinning in circles.

There was an ominous heaviness in the air that had the hairs on my arms standing on end. What was this? What was going on?

I’d been seeing things while I slept for longer than I could remember, but it wasn’t like this.

Never like this. In the past, I’d always felt like I was hovering over the top of a place, almost like I was flying overhead in a small aircraft, staring out the window.

I observed the location and stored all the details I could remember in my head to record for when I woke up.

But I never felt completely there. Not like an actual part of the landscape.

There’d always been clues to the location to research, as well. I knew the small town I grew up in like the back of my hand. With a living population of around 4500, it was hard not to. There were very few places that I hadn’t dragged Jetty with me to explore.

I didn’t recognize this spot, though, and it scared me. Almost as much as feeling the physical ground solid beneath my feet and the wind as it blew briskly against my face.

Was I in danger of becoming trapped here?

Had I been sucked into an alternate universe?

As much as I’d always geeked out on what my nighttime wanderings had shown me, I didn’t want to be stuck in them.

I loved my life. Sure, there weren’t a lot of people who would notice or care if I faded from existence, but there were some.

My boss would notice if I stopped coming to work.

We weren’t especially close, but he knew he’d be hard-pressed to find someone who enjoyed working in town records the way I did.

As a historian at heart, I never got bored.

There were always old records to research and interesting tidbits to find.

Then there was my best friend. Jetty didn’t need my friendship like he used to now that he had Chance, but we were like brothers. I didn’t have family outside of my gran, but even I knew that the bond Jetty and I had found was unique and special.

And last but not least, there was Gran. Who would take care of her if I disappeared out of existence? She’d stopped leaving the house years ago, and we rarely had company. How would she function? How would she live without me to take care of her?

A gnat landed on my face, startling me, and I smacked at it.

Out of thin air, a cloud of them swarmed my head.

Slapping at them, I jumped back and left the spot I’d been standing in this…

space…for the first time. When I looked up, all thoughts of gnats left my mind as I stared into the horizon at the outline of a mansion.

One I knew that I’d never seen before. Holy goddess above, had I truly left Willowhope?

Fear paralyzed me, and I bit my tongue against calling out for help. Who would come to my rescue? I was alone. Completely and utterly alone…