Waiting Spirits Read Online Free

slid up against the back of the bed. Lisa felt a cold chill shiver down her spine. The woman seemed to be made of light, a soft blue glow you could see right through. She was dressed in old-fashioned clothes. Her long hair flowed down her back. Though it was difficult to make out the details of her face, something about her was oddly familiar.
    Carrie’s hand crept along under the sheet and took Lisa’s. Lisa squeezed it, not daring to make any other move.
    â€œI’m scared!” whispered Carrie, huddling against her.
    Before Lisa could answer, the figure began floating toward the bed.
    Lisa put her arm around Carrie, holding her protectively.
    The woman moved slowly in their direction, looking at them intently, as if she were having a hard time getting them in focus.
    The room had become very cold.
    The woman stopped at the foot of the bed.
    â€œWhat do you want?” cried Lisa.
    The woman made no answer. The terrible cold grew deeper.
    Lisa swallowed. The woman continued to stare at them.
    No. Not them.
    She was staring at Carrie.
    Then Lisa caught a sense of the woman’s emotions. She shivered. It was almost as if she were a radio receiver, tuned in to what the woman was feeling. Suddenly she wanted to cry. The woman was radiating such strong love and sorrow that Lisa thought her own heart must break.
    The woman smiled and reached out to Carrie.
    â€œ Welcome home ,” she whispered.
    Then she vanished.

Chapter Three
Brian
    For a moment the two girls sat in stunned silence. There had been no aura of menace about the ghost. Yet what they had seen was terrifying. Part of what made it so frightening was the sense of having been at the edge of a great mystery, the feeling that they had been allowed a tiny peek at an awesome secret.
    â€œShould we go get Mom and Dad?” whispered Carrie at last.
    â€œI’m not sure,” said Lisa. It was strange: She knew that if she had been alone when the ghost arrived, her scream would have woken the dead—any that weren’t already up and wandering. But having someone else with you—even someone younger, like Carrie—made something like this much easier to deal with. As to rousing their parents—well, her father was far too practical and scientific for this kind of… “nonsense.” She smiled. She could practically hear him saying the word.
    Their mother might believe them. But even if she did, what could she do about it? It wasn’t as if you could go to the store and get a can of spray-on ghost repellent. The only thing she could try to do would be to convince their father to take them home. But he wasn’t apt to do that on the basis of a ghost story. And it was equally likely that he might suspect the whole tale was just a pretense to try to put an early end to the trip.
    â€œI think we should keep this to ourselves,” said Lisa at last.
    â€œSacred sister pact?” asked Carrie.
    Lisa nodded. “Our personal secret, until our dying day, because it’s the most awesome thing that’s ever happened to either of us.”
    Carrie held out her hand in the private gesture they had created the year before, and they shook on it. Then they huddled together and stayed awake long into the night, talking in hushed voices as they waited to see if the ghost would reappear.
    But she did not show herself again, and eventually both girls drifted into a deep sleep.
    When Lisa yawned and stirred the next morning, she had the feeling that something was different. It took her a moment to realize what had changed. The sun was shining!
    She couldn’t believe it. After five days of constant rain, she had begun to feel that it was natural that the first thing you would hear when you woke was rain pattering against the windows, drumming on the roof, and pouring from the eaves. But this morning there were actually a few birds singing in the yard. All at once everything seemed a little more bearable… even the