The Candle
A Haunted Series novel
By Alexie Aaron
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
~
Copyright 2018 – Diane L. Fitch writing as Alexie Aaron
ALSO BY ALEXIE AARON
HAUNTED SERIES
in order
The Hauntings of Cold Creek Hollow
Ghostly Attachments
Sand Trap
PEEPs Lite: Eternal Maze 3.1
PEEPs Lite: Homecoming 3.2
Darker than Dark
The Garden
Puzzle
Old Bones
Things that Go Bump in the Night
Something Old
PEEPs Lite: Checking Out 9.1
PEEPs Lite: Ice and Steel 9.2
The Middle House: Return to Cold Creek Hollow
Renovation
Mind Fray
The Siege
NOLA
Never Forget
The Old House
Restitution
A Rose by Any Other Name
The Long Game
Given Enough Rope
The Return
Risen
The Candle
Coming soon: Book of Souls
CID GARRETT P.I. SERIES
Cid
High Court
Tiny Houses
CIN FIN-LATHEN MYSTERIES
Decomposing
Death by Saxophone
Discord
The Wages of Cin
Unforgivable Cin: An Opera in Three Acts
To Mike, aka Quazar, and Jean Marie.
and
In my life, I have been privileged to have met the most incredible people. You may pass them in the street and not realize how special and amazing they are. They reach out when you stumble, laugh when you’re laughing at yourself, and most importantly, encourage you when you’re doubting yourself. This book is for them. You’re not invisible. I see you. Love, Alexie.
Table of Contents
Nightmare
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Chapter Twenty-eight
Chapter Twenty-nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-one
Chapter Thirty-two
Chapter Thirty-three
Chapter Thirty-four
Chapter Thirty-five
Chapter Thirty-six
Glossary
Alexie Aaron
Nightmare
The room seemed to press down on Mia. It was an uncomfortable but familiar feeling. She rolled over, her covers twisting around her legs. She grabbed her pillow and beat it into submission. Why couldn’t she get comfortable? The celebratory meal last evening was heavy, and yes, she had drunk more than she was used to. She lay on her back and felt eyes staring at her. Sometimes Mia’s husband, Ted, woke in the night and watched her sleep. It could be considered creepy in a way, but Mia knew he did it out of love and not malice. She turned her head and didn’t see his outline beside her. Reaching a hand out, she searched for his body.
“Ted?” she asked, hoping he was in the en suite bathroom. She opened her eyes wider. The room looked different in the light of the crescent moon. The windows were in the wrong place. Mia sat up to see if she had twisted all the way around in bed. If so, this would answer her question as to why her husband had abandoned her in the night.
Ted had mentioned, a time or two, that fighting her for covers was a losing battle. She usually had a death grip on them, and if given any resistance to her pulling the covers, she would kick out. Mia listened for the baby monitor to see if maybe Ted had gotten up to tend to Varden. There was no sound. There was no baby monitor.
Mia sat up, blindly reaching for the light on the bedside table. It wasn’t there. The table wasn’t there. “What the hell?” she murmured as she flung her legs over the side of the bed, misjudging the distance to the floor, and landed in a heap beside the bed.
A whisper of silk preceded the onslaught of cool pale hands running up and down her limbs, checking her for injury. A cool finger under her chin lifted her face to the misty face of a concerned young woman.
Mia didn’t need the light to know who had come to her rescue. “Misty Mom?” she asked.
Misty nodded. Her pale dead eyes searched Mia’s for confirmation of her well-being.
“I’m alright,” Mia said, now convinced she was dreaming. “Where am I?” she asked.
Misty frowned and put her cool hand on Mia’s forehead.
“I’m not sick, just confused,” Mia said.
“Bed,” Misty said, her voice barely above a whisper.
“Yes, I must be dreaming. I’ll just go back to sleep. I’ve missed you, Misty,” Mia said, climbing back into bed. She laid back, letting her misty mother straighten her covers and tuck them in around her.
“Sleep,” Misty Mom said, planting a cool kiss on Mia’s forehead.
Mia closed her eyes, and although puzzled at the direction this dream was taking, she decided to play along. Soon she was fast asleep.
Chapter One
Sunlight streamed through the windows and into Mia’s eyes. She blinked away the fog from the night and reached for Ted. He wasn’t there.
Her eyes closed as she yawned. Mia stretched before forcing herself awake. She opened her eyes, determined to greet the day. What she saw before her kept them and her mouth open in shock. She was in her childhood bedroom in the old brownstone. She looked upwards into the faded canopy before she glanced towards the windows where she knew Misty Mom waited.
“K. Out of one dream and into another,” she acknowledged. She smiled at Misty before she sat up. Her stomach growled. Mia put her hand down as if she could stop the noise with the motion. She noticed something gone, actually somethings. “Where are my breasts?” she asked, patting her body down. “Come on, who’s the joker? Roumain, if you’re behind this…”
The door opened, and Charles Cooper stuck
