Chapter 13 "Rosanna Vale"
MAYA
They didn't speak on the drive back.
Maya stared out the window, watching the dark highway blur past, her mind replaying everything Delilah had said.
A human spirit. Someone with unfinished business.
Who? Why Ember? And how did they stop something that had already taken root inside her best friend's body?
"We need to look into those deaths," Kelly said finally, breaking the silence. "Tyler Brett and Rayan Walsh. If the spirit is using Ember to kill people, there has to be a pattern. A reason."
"How do we investigate murders without the police noticing?"
"Carefully." Kelly's jaw was tight. "I'll see what I can find online. You keep watching Ember, keep documenting. And we both wear these protection charms Delilah gave us."
"This is insane," Maya whispered. "Last month my biggest problem was passing calculus. Now I'm investigating supernatural possession and multiple murders."
"I know. But we can't stop now."
They pulled into the Ravencrest campus parking lot at 1:30 AM. Maya's eyes were burning with exhaustion, but she knew she wouldn't sleep.
"Text me if anything happens," Kelly said. "Anything at all."
"I will. Thank you for believing me."
"Always."
Maya walked back to Sterling Hall, her hand clutching the protection pouch in her pocket. The campus was dead quiet at this hour just security lights and the occasional rustle of wind through trees.
She climbed the stairs to the third floor, her footsteps echoing in the empty hallway. Their room was dark, but Maya could see a faint glow under the door.
Her heart jumped. Was Ember still awake?
Maya unlocked the door carefully, stepping inside.
Ember sat at her desk, her laptop open, the blue light washing over her face. She was typing something, her fingers moving rapidly across the keyboard.
"Em?" Maya said softly. "What are you doing up?"
Ember didn't respond. Didn't even turn around.
Maya moved closer, peering over Ember's shoulder at the screen.
But it wasn't an essay or an email.
It was a document filled with names. Dozens of names, some crossed out, others circled.
And at the top, in bold letters: THE ASHCROFT BLOODLINE
Maya's blood ran cold.
"Ember?" she tried again.
This time Ember did turn but her movements were wrong, mechanical, like a doll being posed. Her eyes were half-lidded, unfocused.
"Go to bed, Maya," she said, her voice flat. "I'm just doing research."
"Research for what?"
"For class." Ember turned back to her screen, dismissing her.
Maya wanted to argue, wanted to demand answers. But Delilah's warning echoed in her mind: Don't let her know what's happening. The spirit might hear.
"Okay," Maya said, backing toward her own bed. "Don't stay up too late."
"I won't."
But Maya didn't believe her.
She climbed into bed fully clothed, her phone clutched in her hand, and pretended to sleep. Through slitted eyes, she watched Ember continue typing, her face illuminated by the laptop's glow.
An hour passed.
Then another.
At 3:47 AM, Ember finally closed her laptop. She stood, stretching, and then to Maya's confusion she pulled on her shoes and grabbed her jacket.
Maya's heart raced. Where was she going at 3 AM?
Ember opened the door and slipped out into the hallway, moving silently.
Maya waited ten seconds, then followed.
MAYA
The hallway was dark, lit only by dim emergency lights. Maya could see Ember's silhouette at the end of the corridor, heading toward the stairwell.
Maya followed at a distance, her socked feet silent on the tile floor.
Ember descended the stairs, moving with purpose. She pushed through the main doors which should have been locked at this hour, but weren't and stepped out into the night.
Maya followed her across the quad, past the library, toward the older part of campus where the administrative buildings stood. The moon was barely a sliver, offering almost no light. Maya had to stay close to keep Ember in sight.
Where was she going?
Ember turned down a path Maya had never used before narrow, overgrown, leading away from the main campus toward the old cemetery that bordered the university grounds.
The cemetery.
Of course.
Maya's hands shook as she followed, every horror movie she'd ever seen flashing through her mind. This was how people died following possessed friends into dark, isolated places at 4 AM.
But she couldn't stop now.
The cemetery gates were rusted iron, covered in ivy. Ember pushed through them without hesitation, disappearing among the crooked headstones.
Maya reached the gates and paused, her breath coming in short gasps.
You can do this. You have to do this.
She pushed through the gates.
The cemetery was larger than it looked from outside dozens of graves, some dating back to the 1800s according to the weathered stones. Trees loomed overhead, their branches creating skeletal shadows.
Maya scanned the darkness, looking for Ember's silhouette.
Nothing.
"Ember?" she whispered.
No response.
Maya moved deeper into the cemetery, her phone clutched in her hand, ready to call Kelly if needed. She passed elaborate monuments and simple crosses, names worn away by time and weather.
And then she saw her.
Ember stood in the far corner of the cemetery, in front of a single grave. She was completely still, her head bowed, her hands at her sides.
Maya approached slowly, her heart hammering.
"Ember?"
No response.
Maya got close enough to read the headstone, tilting her phone to catch the letters:
ROSANNA VALE
1882 - 1906
"Sleep, though heaven's gate be shut and hell's gate open"
Maya stared at the name, her blood turning to ice.
Rosanna Vale.
The name meant nothing to her. But something about it the dates, the ominous epitaph made her skin crawl.
"Ember, why are we here?"
Finally, Ember turned. Her eyes were open but unseeing, like she was sleepwalking.
"She's calling me," Ember whispered. "She wants me to remember."
"Remember what?"
"What they did to her. What they took." Ember's voice was wrong too old, too sad, layered with something that wasn't quite her. "They cursed her. Destroyed her. Made her into a monster."
"Ember, you're scaring me"
"I'm not Ember."
The words hung in the air between them.
Maya took a step back. "What?"
"Not right now." The thing wearing Ember's face smiled, but it was wrong too knowing, too cruel. "Right now, I'm Rosanna. And I have work to do."
Then Ember, Rosanna turned and walked away, deeper into the shadows.
Maya tried to follow, but her feet wouldn't move. Fear had frozen her in place.
By the time she could force herself to move again, Ember had vanished.
Maya was alone in the cemetery with only the dead for company.
And somewhere in the darkness, her best friend wandered, possessed by the spirit of a woman who'd been dead for over a century.
Maya pulled out her phone with shaking hands and called Kelly.
He answered on the first ring. "Maya? What's wrong?"
"I lost her," Maya sobbed. "I followed her to the cemetery and she Kelly, she's not Ember right now. She's someone named Rosanna Vale, and I lost her, and I don't know what to do"
"Stay there. Don't move. I'm coming."
Maya sank down against a headstone, clutching her phone, staring into the darkness where Ember had disappeared.
And she waited.