Free Dead Corse by Phaedra Weldon Page A

fortune teller looked to her left, then her right and wore a
seriously strange look on her face. “I—I know because the cards say so.” She
pulled a few more cards from the deck and made a cross pattern on the table.
I’d seen mom do the same thing. “I see you have suffered because of their
passing, but I also see you have a brighter future.”
    Before I could give another retort I felt a wave of dizzy which
was the first warning that I’d been out of body way too long. “Mmhmm…darkest
before the dawn.”
    This time the fortune teller lightly slammed her hands on the
table. The cards moved a little but the clients didn’t seem to notice. They
were too engaged in each other. “So…yeah. Okay. I see from this card you have
many pressures on you like school and dealing with the loss of that loved one.”
    Really? I looked at the couple again. Backpacks. One was wearing a
Georgia State hoodie. Even I could have put together she was in school, and if
a family member died then yeah—pressure! I made a rude noise.
    “Okay that is it!” This time she slammed her hands down hard on
the table. A few of the cards flew off the table as she stood. “Daryl? Is that
you? This is not freak’n funny and it is not my fault you had to be the dead
guy tonight!”
    The clients finally realized their fortune teller was having a
scary moment of her own and talking to—technically—no one.
    Took me two beats to realize two things—one, she  
heard
  me. Crap! Damn! I forgot even if I’m
invisible I’m still audible. And two, this was totally a Whoopie and Patrick
moment from  
Ghost
.
    This was my cue to exit stage left. I moved from the wall and
slipped past the couple who were now staring at the fortune teller as if she’d
grown two more eyeballs out of her forehead.
    “You!”
    I stopped. I always stopped at loud voices. And I looked over at
her—
    And she was looking at me!
    Wait just a freak’n minute. No one could see me like this—except
mom and I figured since she gave birth to a weird kid then the gene had to come
from someone. How did  
she
  see me? I was out of my body and
technically—in my opinion—a ghost!
    I decided if I ignored her and slipped through the wall (much
better than sieving through metal or glass) and moved down the hall she’d
forget I was even there. The sounds of customers screaming and then nervously
laughing drifted down the stairs as I moved far away from the fortune telling
room. Bothering the fake medium had been fun until it was apparent she could  
see
  me too. That was a question for mom
later. But I needed to get busy on the job I was sent here to do which was
finding this book.
    I had to stop and let the second wave of dizzy pass through.
Damn—I’d pissed away most of my time again. But how? I couldn’t have been out
of body (OOB) for more than two hours. I’d gone corporeal (visible) a few times
to ask questions about the house but that was it.
    After that wave passed I felt the stirring in the silver cord
connected to my belly button. It was a subtle tug, but it wouldn’t stay that
way. It was going to get really strong, really fast.
    I needed to hurry. I knew what a Book of Shadows was: the book
used by a witch to record her spells, her triumphs, her failures, even her
thoughts. Mom had one but I’d never tried to look into it. Magic isn’t my
thing. And yes, it is real. I mean—look at me—well you can’t look at me—but if
I can slip out of my body and go around like a ghost then why couldn’t witches
exit?
    Besides, my mom does some pretty amazing stuff.
    Mental Note:  
Focus,
focus, focus, focus…ghostly ADD strikes again.
    The client that wanted me to find this book, some dude named
thejackgrayson at gee mail dot com, said it was in a safe in this house. So,
where would a safe be? In the movies they were in a study or a den. I was on
the first floor of the house standing in a small space between the staircase
and a wall. In front of me was