Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 83353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
It wasn’t a safe area for a woman alone to live and Hanna knew it, but it was all she could afford now that rents had gone sky-high. She was lucky to find anything she could get on her limited budget without trying to find a roommate, which never worked out for her.
Keeping a sharp eye on the dingy surroundings, she hurried from her car to the front door. Once inside, she took the elevator up to the third floor, trying not to notice the dead man in the corner with his brains blown out and sliding in slimy gray and red chunks down the rear wall. It had been a drug deal gone wrong, Hanna thought. Once or twice the ghost had tried to talk to her, but she didn’t have her sister Sam’s gift of leading lost spirits into the afterlife, so she did her best to ignore him.
Thankfully, this time he didn’t speak and Hanna was able to get from the elevator to the door of her apartment with minimal difficulty.
There was another dead man in the hallway that she carefully avoided. This one had been an abusive husband, killed by his wife after she’d taken so much abuse she finally had to fight back. She’d slit his throat while he was sleeping.
The long wound bisecting his neck gaped like a lipless smile when he looked at Hanna, who was careful not to look back. This spirit was still filled with rage and he hated women—it was better not to antagonize him. Mostly he left her alone as long as she didn’t get too close.
She let herself into her apartment and closed the door with a relieved sigh. Alone at last…well, mostly.
There was only one spirit inhabiting the cruddy little studio, but it was a benign one—the ghost of a little Spanish grandmother who had lived there nearly fifty years ago, back when The Carlton Arms was actually a nice place to live.
Hanna saw her shade, puttering around the little corner of the apartment she thought of as the “kitchen nook”—just a single countertop with a two-burner stove, a microwave, and a tiny oven. Sometimes she could smell the ghost of spicy enchiladas or the sweet, creamy scent of dulce de leche. Abuelita, as Hanna thought of her, was almost always cooking or baking something.
She didn’t mind sharing her living space with a ghost like Abuelita. She’d lived a happy life and the echoes of her contentment still lingered here. Though they never talked to one another, sometimes the little old woman would nod at her, before going back to her endless baking.
Unfortunately, she was no help at all when it came to the Dark Entity. Hanna had to deal with him herself—which she did as well as she could. As tired as she was, she knew her wards had to be renewed before she could dare to sleep on the lumpy, fold-out couch bed in the center of the room.
She started by washing the few windows she had with water she’d collected during the last full moon night. Water that had been blessed by the light of the full moon had special warding and cleansing properties. Then she swept up the salt from her last ward and threw it away. It was time for something new—something more powerful to keep the Dark Entity out.
Taking a stick of Sage incense that her Aunt Luna had given her, Hanna lit it and began walking around the interior perimeter of her cramped apartment. As she walked, she waved the burning incense around and murmured over and over,
“By the power of fire, I ward thee. Cleanse this space from all unclean spirits and ward it from those who wish me harm. By the power of fire I ward thee…”
It didn’t take long to walk the whole apartment.—it was barely five hundred square feet. By the time she was finished, the incense stick was only half gone. Hanna set it in a holder where it could continue to smolder and opened the new box of Kosher salt. Crouching low, she poured a thick line of salt all around her fold-out couch bed, murmuring as she did,
“By the cleansing salt I ward thee. Let this be a barrier to any who would wish me ill.”
Her Aunt Luna had taught her these wards when she began seeing Imps and other dark spirits as a teen. Up until then, she’d mostly just seen dead people and the spirits of the lost.
Many people can see spirits when they’re young children—it’s one reason you hear so many stories of three and four year olds talking about how their dead grandparents came to visit them and watch over them. However, after the age of four—five at the latest—most people lose the Gift. Those who are able to see Beyond the Veil past that age are often labeled crazy or insane.