Page 39 (1/2)

As they walked home, Sean told Vanessa, "You know, I can fire his ass now, if you want"

She looked at hiood And he promised, and he is my friend"

"He’s your broke friend, it sounds like And in a way, he has a point I agree with you, but he has a point Here’s the thing that I’ll say in his defense--he didn’t try to cash in on a tragedy He had invested his life’s savings into that ht after it happened"

"You think he’s right?" Vanessa protested

Sean shook his head "Me? I don’t think I could do it--not when both of the victi" He slipped his arht that a musical based on such a horrific event was in terrible taste Katie wanted to see it, so the fa that I wound up enjoying, that gave a certain honorable memorial to many of the people involved Much better than the ently

"Sean--this was a slasher flick"

"I know Anyway, let’s get hoet to sleep right away Theyand new, and there was still so much they had to learn about one another When she drifted to sleep, she ar with hiainst the world It was ridiculous to think that she could actually fall in love with anyone so quickly, and yet, in the time they had known one another, she had coine a time without him She had let her pride stand in the way once--he had been a jerk--but he had proven hiht relationship had been as hard in the past for him as it had been for her, none of whichhis warmth and the vibrant pulse of his heart so near to hers, she didn’t envision the future beyond tomorrow

She should have slept as sweetly and deeply as she had the night before

But the dreah they took a different twist

She was back at O’Hara’s, sitting on the bench at the patio, and Jay was speaking again

"What if thedown Duval, and it was odd, because no one was there

She was alone

And then she wasn’t

The streets were filled with pirates She told herself that naturally the pirates were there Pirates in Paradise was happening, and there were events to the last minute, and even then, soet back to reality

But they weren’t real pirates

They were ghosts

Ghosts existed

They walked along, soether Some talked and teased enches, soered, and one li They paid her no heed

Then she heard carriage wheels They seemed to co out froray, and the clip-clop of the horse’s hooves cae was co to a halt near her

Or perhaps it was coh fashion, stepped froe, her every ht at Vanessa, and Vanessa knew her She knew the mermaid pendant the woman wore around her neck, and she knew the face--she had seen it on a figurehead that had led her to strange discoveries beneath the sea

"You must help You must listen You must find the truth," the woman said She smiled at Vanessa, and produced a hatbox She opened the hatbox, and lifted soia cried to her pathetically

Dona Isabella let the head fall back into the hatbox She looked around her Vanessa did the sa They seemed to turn into black ooze They cried out and screa in a black, e

The wind began to whip up Vanessa knew that she had to wake up; the evil pirates were co for Dona Isabella, but she was in their way

"Here, here!" came a cry

She turned

And it was the mummy The mummy from the pirate’s chest

The face was leathered and dark and decayed The hands were bony, with dead skin stretched out over the was stained and ripped, and the eye sockets were eian pits

"Come, come!" the ers were co closer and closer to her

"No!" she whispered