Page 21 of Starrily (Perks of Being #2)

Chapter 21

“ O f course.” Callie waved her arms, which made Theia protest loudly. She let the cat back into the cabin and shut the door, then turned to Simon and the woman. “Of course, you’re also married. Why not? Is anything you told me real?”

“Hold on, now.” Simon grabbed the woman by her wrist and carefully pried her away from him. “I have no idea who she is.”

“You don’t remember me?” The woman said, her voice small and sad. “I should’ve known. Yes, that makes sense.”

“And you ‘forgot’ her. Nice,” Callie said. The day kept getting worse. She wasn’t only being manipulated; she was also a homewrecker. Great .

Simon gave her a pleading look. “I’m not married. I swear. I’ve never seen this woman before in my life.”

“Actually, I tried approaching you several times,” the blonde said. “Remember the park by the observatory?”

Simon furrowed his eyebrows as he and Callie shared a brief, confused look. Callie thought back to that day, as much as it hurt, with her feelings still raw. They’d been taking a walk, a dog ran up to Simon, they played catch with him for a bit … then they posed by the wall, and she lost her scarf—the scarf, Simon made another one just for her—what part of the ploy was that?— no, stay on topic . There was something else nibbling on the fringes of her memory. Rewind to the dog. Somebody was shouting Simon’s name. They looked to Stan—he was detaining a woman.

Her.

“You were there,” Simon said, reaching the same conclusion.

“You’re the stalker,” Callie added.

The woman put her hands on her hips, but her mismatched, brightly colored tunic and pants made her look comical instead of angry. “I’m not a stalker. I’m his wife.”

“For the last time, I don’t know you, and we’re not married!” Simon looked at Callie. “Do you think I’d lie about something like this? Even better—do you think I’d be able to keep it under wraps? If this woman is my wife, how come nobody else knows, and no one has ever mentioned her?”

He did have a point; and Callie wanted to think that was a good point because it was logical, not because she desperately wanted to believe it.

“It was a quick wedding. Just the two of us.” The woman cocked her head to the side. “And Elvis. Real name Ricardo—lovely man—”

“What about Stan? Why didn’t he remember you at the park?” Callie said.

“It’s an effect I have on people.” She lowered her eyes, then started rummaging through her knitted, patchwork bag. She pulled out a paper roll. “A-ha!” She unrolled the paper and flashed it first to Simon, then to Callie.

It was a marriage certificate, and it looked legitimate, even with the tacky golden border. Two names were scribbled onto it: Shanna O’Connell … and Simon Montague.

Callie swallowed and leaned on the door for support. It couldn’t be true.

“Obviously fake,” Simon said.

Maybe she was a crazed enough fan to do it.

“And this?” The woman—Shanna, if that was her—pulled out a photograph. It was taken in a room with cream-colored walls, with a flower arch in the background. In the front were an Elvis impersonator, Shanna … and Simon, sprayed with golden confetti. His hair was styled differently, but he was easily recognizable.

Callie’s knees buckled.

Simon tore the picture out of Shanna’s hands. “No. No, no.” He shook his head wildly.

“Remember now?” Shanna asked.

“Of course I don’t remember, it never—” Simon suddenly stopped as if struck by lightning. “How long ago was this?”

“A bit over three years.”

Simon raked his fingers through his hair, then leaned his forehead on the wall and punched it. “Shit. Shit, shit .”

Shanna looked at Callie questioningly.

“Don’t ask me,” Callie said. “I don’t know him that well.” She thought she did. She thought he could’ve been the one, the soulmate, the kindred spirit. He made her believe, and she was willing to let the fears go and open her heart.

What an idiot she’d been.

Simon rolled over, still leaning on the wall. “It’s not me.”

“Really? That’s the best you can come up with?” Callie said.

“It’s true. I just don’t know how to explain it in a way that would make sense, and you’d believe me.”

“Good luck on that,” Callie muttered.

“My accident. The car crash. It was three years ago.”

“I know,” Shanna said.

Simon and Callie both snapped their heads to her.

“You know?” Simon said.

“I found out. I … well, there’s no easy way to explain this, either.” Shanna wrung her hands.

“I don’t have the time for all of this,” Callie said. “So why don’t you two try, and I don’t care how convincing it is—as long as you’re done with it so I can leave.”

Simon waved his hand in the air. “Ladies first.”

Shanna swallowed. “Would you believe me you died in that crash?”

Simon looked at Callie, eyes flashing with alarm. Callie thought she was the only one Simon had ever told that, and only because she’d seen his strange condition.

“Go on,” he said.

“And I—I brought you back to life.”

“You what, now?” Callie shot out.

“I can explain.” Shanna delved back into her bag and pulled out a purple, leather-bound book with no title or author name on the cover, just a gold rhombus shape.

She sure had a lot of things in that bag.

Focus.

“This book is quite informative. It’s mostly about ghosts—”

“Ghosts?” Simon repeated.

“—but it also holds a resurrection ritual. When I found out you were dead, I performed it.” Shanna kept switching between Simon and Callie, looking like a frightened rabbit. “I’m sorry, but I couldn’t let you die!”

“You can’t be serious.” Callie rubbed her forehead. Ghosts. Resurrections. “May I?” She pointed to the book.

Shanna turned it over, and Callie opened it. Still no title, just a name on the first page: Brenda B. Bustin. Well, that was a fake, if Callie’s ever heard one. As she leafed through the book, the contents appeared no more realistic: a bunch of talks about ghosts, some diagrams …

Surely, this couldn’t be real.

And yet, Simon said something weird had happened to him. That some force brought him back.

She hated what this made her think of—her family, and her past.

“But I might have slightly messed it up,” Shanna said as she accepted the book back from Callie. “The ritual. I think I didn’t get your soul together in one piece. That’s why you forgot all about me and why the other piece—”

“Wait, wait.” Simon grabbed Shanna by the shoulders. “It’s not what you think.”

“So you believe me?” Her pale eyes grew wide.

“It certainly makes my explanation easier,” Simon said.

“Which is?” Callie prompted.

“The resurrection, whatever ritual you’d done … I assume it was something like calling the soul back while the body still existed?”

Shanna nodded vehemently, sending a few stray locks flying.

“You got the wrong soul,” Simon said. “I’m not Simon. Or at least I wasn’t before that.”

“What?” Callie said.

Shanna’s eyes grew even wider. “Of course. Now it makes sense. All the sense! Why you never sought me out. Why you said you didn’t know me, and even recognize me—”

“Stop.” Callie put her hands up in the air. “Stop, stop!”

Shanna clasped her hands in front, but her left foot still twitched.

“That’s enough,” Callie said. “ I have had enough.” Her voice was starting to shake, along with her hands and knees. She wanted her normal life back. The one that stood on science, not the paranormal. A nice, peaceful life. Maybe it didn’t make her heart race, but it was perfectly adequate. A life where all the strangeness had been locked away. A life with no past chasing her.

“I need… I have to go,” she squeezed out and took off.

***

Simon found Callie perched on a log, a few steps off the path that ran around the cabins. He sat beside her and, when she didn’t react, asked, “You can see me, right?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Didn’t want to make another confession and have you not hear a word.”

“What?”

“Never mind.” Now wasn’t the time to repeat his speech. What did it matter how he felt, when everything was falling apart?

“Where’s your wife?” Callie kept her gaze forward.

“Shanna is waiting at the cabin, and she’s not—let me explain.”

“Explain what? A resurrection?”

“You already know of my condition. You know something is up.” He leaned forward, trying to catch her eyes. “Is it so hard to go one step further?”

“Fine. Tell me.”

He took a deep breath. The story was a mess even in his own head—everything jumbled up until he was no longer sure what had really happened. But with Shanna’s information, he could at least fit some pieces together.

“My name is Raleigh,” he said. “I used to be a middle school science teacher. We even visited the place where I used to work—the Valley Middle School.”

“Where I talked to the kids,” Callie said, keeping her voice flat.

“Yes. That was my life. Very normal, as far as I remember it. I liked science and teaching kids about it. I bicycled to work almost every day. I owned a cat. I read comics and watched Christmas movies even when it wasn’t Christmas.”

Callie looked away and wiped her eyes.

“About four years ago, I was walking home in the evening. My bike had broken down, and an event at school went late. A man came from an alleyway …” His throat closed up, panic rising at the memory. “The details slip me, but he tried to rob me—I don’t think I fought, because it’s smarter to give them your wallet—but I remember pain, so much searing pain, and blood, and darkness.” He closed his eyes as if that could help the memory disappear. “Next thing I know, I woke up in the hospital. But I wasn’t Raleigh anymore. I was Simon.”

“You got”—she shook her head as if she couldn’t believe what she was saying—“reincarnated?”

“Not exactly. I was pulled into another body. Simon had died from his injuries in the car crash. I’d been dead for about a year at that point. But I suppose my soul, or my ghost, whatever you want to call it, was still floating around. When Shanna attempted the ritual, it pulled me, and not the actual Simon, into his body.”

“You realize how crazy this sounds.”

“Absolutely. Why do you think I didn’t tell you before?”

“So you’ve known all this time?”

“I remember my life as Raleigh. I remember nothing of Simon’s life, save for what I’ve created since I woke up in this body.”

“So you’re not Simon.”

“I … I’m me,” he said, shrugging. “I don’t know how much of me is Raleigh, and how much is Simon. I know I used to be different, back in my own body. More cautious. More quiet. I think I still cracked a lot of bad jokes, though.”

He thought he saw a flicker of a smile on her face.

“When I woke up as Simon and realized I had a new life, it was like a gift. One I couldn’t throw away. I should’ve been dead, and yet, I wasn’t.”

“So you decided you’d try to kill yourself with every possible dangerous activity imaginable?”

“No.” He turned toward her and laid his hand on hers. Slow; tentative. She didn’t pull away. “I decided I’d live. I’d make use of every single minute and do everything I ever wanted, but never dared to.”

“I still can’t believe it.”

“You don’t have to. Not right now. I’ll understand.” In the end, it didn’t matter. His problem remained, regardless of what his name used to be and what life he used to live.

But he did wish that, at some point, she’d accept it. So that at least one person knew and understood. So that he could think about it and not feel so alone.

They sat in silence for a bit.

“If it is all true,” Callie finally spoke, “then what happened to Simon when you took over his body? Where is his soul?”

“That’s the part Shanna can explain. Will you come with me?”

Callie sat motionless for a few moments more. “All right.”

When they returned, Shanna was in front of the cabin, shifting from one foot to another. She waved awkwardly as they approached.

“Hi,” she said. “All good?”

Callie stayed silent.

“We’re working on it,” Simon said. “Could you explain the mix-up with the souls?”

“Of course.” From underneath her tunic, Shanna fished out a tacky golden heart-shaped locket. “Meet Simon.”

Callie raised her eyebrows. “You turned him into jewelry?”

“No! No, no.” Shanna giggled. “I’m not that kind of a witch. Simon’s soul is in this locket. It inhabited it when I performed the ritual. I thought it was only a piece of his soul because I saw in the newspapers that Simon was alive. So I figured I messed something up and split his soul into two pieces, and one came to the locket, and the other returned to his body. Turns out I messed up even worse, and I pulled the whole Simon in here and another soul into his body.” She made an awkward, apologetic smile at Simon. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” he said. “You did save my life.”

“Is this why Simon—uh, this one,” Callie waved her hand at him, “now has problems?”

“What problems?” Shanna asked.

“The resurrection isn’t sticking,” he said. “I’m turning back into a ghost. Little by little. Before you showed up, I completely phased out for a few minutes.”

“Oh. Oh no.” Shanna looked genuinely sorry. “It might be. Because, you see—why it was so crucial for me to find you—Simon, the one in my locket, also has a problem, and I thought it was because of the split, and that reuniting this piece with your body would help, but—”

“What problem?” Callie asked.

“His soul is also fading.”

“He’s a ghost … and becoming more ghostly?” Callie said, uncertainly.

“He’s getting weaker. I’m afraid if he’s kept in this locket for much longer, he’ll disappear entirely.” Shanna rubbed her eyes. “And there’ll be no more Simon.”

From the corner of his eye, Simon caught Callie stealing a glance at him. They were both fading—but at least for now, he still had a body.

“So what did you mean to do by seeking us out?” Callie asked.

“I intended to join the two pieces of his soul. But there’s only one piece, so … I guess Simon’s soul needs to be reunited with his body, which will stabilize it.”

“Well, you can’t do that! It’s already occupied!” Callie said.

Simon felt a strange sense of satisfaction at her outburst. Could she still care for him, even after all the twists and turns and supposed betrayals?

“I can’t let Simon die,” Shanna said.

“And I’m not letting him die!”

“Ladies.” Simon stepped between them, spreading his arms to keep them apart just in case. “May I suggest something?”

Callie’s rapid breathing slowly calmed.

“Go ahead,” Shanna said.

“Callie and I were headed to see her family. They’re experts on all matters related to ghosts. They might be able to resolve my fading. And if they can figure that out, maybe they also know how to stabilize the soul in your locket. Perhaps they can even make another body for it.”

Shanna frowned, but in a thinking, rather than disapproving manner. “That might be possible. In the book, another ritual is mentioned—you can resurrect even a centuries-old spirit, one whose body doesn’t exist anymore. It simply turns the ghost material; makes a body for it. I didn’t need that because Simon was freshly dead—I mean, uh—”

“It’s fine,” Simon said.

“His body still existed. But that could work.”

“If it’s urgent for his soul, why don’t you perform it right now?” Callie said.

“I already botched one ritual,” Shanna said. “I’d rather not attempt another. Plus, it’s really complicated.”

“Back to my point,” Simon said. “We all need help in ghostly matters. So why doesn’t Shanna come with us?” He looked at Callie. “Maybe your family can do us a two-for-one-special.”

“Because …” Callie paused and bit her lip. “I suppose they could.”

“Really?” Shanna’s eyes grew large. “You’d do that for me?”

“I’m not doing anything,” Callie said. “I’m leading you to them.”

“Oh, thank you, thank you!” Shanna jumped up and down and hugged Callie, who remained as stiff and straight as a stick.

“Yup, she’s a hugger,” Simon said to no one in particular.

“Well, then.” Shanna fixed the strap of her bag and looked at both of them, her face shining. “Let’s get this show on the road!”