Haunted Ever After Read Free Page B

organised person like me.
    Anyway, all was good with the world again. Things were back to normal. As normal as they could be when my wedding was only a week away. Lorena’s well-planned bridal bonding weekend would be a welcome escape from flitting about at home or work, obsessing over last minute wedding details. My friends were the best. And I trusted Lorena’s promise that this would be an enjoyable weekend to remember, just for the girls.
    I smiled as I turned the shopping trolley into aisle eight of Barron Springs Supermarket, where we were stocking up on supplies for the weekend. But despite the promise of fun and frivolity (not that I was frivolous, that was Lorena’s domain), I couldn’t quite shake the memory of last weekend…
    I’d never believed in ghosts. Not once did I consider that a person’s soul, or spirit, or whatever you wanted to call it, lived on after death. Even after seeing countless patients die on the hospital ward, and hearing distraught family members talk about their loved one now ‘being at peace’. I’d nod in sympathy of course, but I knew, or thought I knew, that death was the end. You die, and that’s it. That’s what I was taught, that’s what I believed. Until now. Now things weren’t so black and white.
    I distracted myself with the shopping list Lorena had given me. All four of us were spread throughout the supermarket like a search party, each with a designated list of supplies to get. Toilet paper, toilet paper …yes, you never could rely on self-contained accommodation to have enough. Good thinking, Lorena. I took my attention off the shopping list and peered down the aisle, when a rude woman grabbed hold of my trolley and pulled it so it went faster.
    ‘Um, excuse me!’ I attempted to be assertive.
    She turned around, her red curls swinging and bouncing around her pale face.
    Oh no. No way . ‘You again,’ I sneered.
    ‘Well, good afternoon to you too, Miss Friendly!’ She huffed, then sat on the edge of the trolley with perfect balance. She wasn’t as translucent as before, and could almost pass for a normal, living human.
    ‘Go away!’ I whispered between gritted teeth as I pushed the shopping trolley. ‘Leave me alone!’ My vision obscured, I leaned to the side of the ghost and spotted the toilet paper up ahead. Maybe if I went about my planned task and ignored her she’d leave. Stopping next to the array of white rolls, I plucked a couple of six-packs that were on a two-for-one special.
    ‘Why don’t you get the deluxe four-ply rolls? I thought this was supposed to be a luxurious weekend away,’ Ghost Woman said. If she kept bothering me I’d need to buy a six-pack of another kind to get through the weekend.
    ‘I’m not listening to you.’ I covered my ears for a moment, then pushed the trolley further down the aisle, grabbing two bottles of anti-bacterial hand sanitiser from the shelf, two boxes of tissues, and two bottles of bug spray.
    The ghost crossed her arms and pouted, then disappeared and reappeared directly in front of me, making me drop the packets of paper towel I’d just picked up.
    ‘Geez!’ My hand flew to my chest to ease my thudding heart.
    ‘I’ll make you listen to me.’ She sang an out-of-tune rendition of Beyoncé’s All the Single Ladies , complete with a pathetic attempt at dancing.
    ‘Shhh!’
    ‘Only you can hear me, you know,’ she said between ‘Oh-oh-oh’s’.
    ‘Exactly, so be quiet so I don’t look like a complete nutcase!’
    She sang louder, her mouth only an inch from my ear as she floated alongside me. I came to an abrupt halt and covered my ears. I grabbed one of the cans of bug spray and took off the lid, spraying the chemicals towards her.
    She laughed riotously. ‘Like that’s going to get rid of me!’
    I glared at the purple polka dot pyjama-wearing nuisance, when Lorena turned into the aisle carrying a basket of meat, eggs, cheese, and crackers. ‘Why are you spraying that stuff around?’