Hi All! Recently, I wrote a short story prompt, and the story's been lingering in my brain ever since. Seriously, it's been driving me crazy, begging to be written into a book. Part one of chapter one is in my prompt book, but the remainder of the chapters beyond that will all be new. Hope you like how the novel progresses.

Peer pressure just claimed its latest victim to stupid ideas. The rusted sign that hung from the wrought iron gate in front of me read Hemlock Cemetery. The name should have been enough for me to know this was a terrible plan from the start. A chill ran down my arms when I placed my hands on the metal fence. 

"Guys, I don't know about this," I said, hoping Wynter and Chloe might change their minds.

"Stop being such a baby, Tessa. It's not very far," Wynter called back. 

The night's darkness cloaked her thin figure, and all I could see was the tall grass that had overgrown the headstones from years of neglect. I had my reasons for not wanting to come, being scared wasn't one of them.

Chloe giggled somewhere ahead of us, then hollered back, "Come on. It's not like you have anything else to do tonight."

"Except maybe to pine over Jake," Wynter said, drawing out Jake's name in a teasing way.

A soft jangle of bells looped in my ears, reminding me of my Gran's foreboding stories of graveyards. I kept my eyes on the dirt path and stepped around the last of the shrubs before entering the clearing where a mausoleum stood. A fog hugged the ground and crept between the tombstones next to the trail.

When another jingle sounded, my skin began to prickle and itch. That's two, I thought, noting where the sound came from.

So, you do know we're both here, a man voiced inside my thoughts.

I ignored the ghosts' presence, picked up my step and ran the last ten paces to the mausoleum's metal door.

"There you are." Wynter grabbed my arm and pulled me inside.

Candlelight reflected off the stone walls, as my eyes adjusted to its glow. When someone coughed, I realized we weren't alone. Chloe's boyfriend, Nick, and his best friend Jake sat cross-legged on the floor. I swear, my heart skipped a beat when I saw him. I brushed my chestnut hair from my face and wiped my clammy hands on my jeans. Seeing Jake explained why my besties refused all of my excuses not to come.

They were trying to set me up. Not knowing what to say, I glanced around the room feigning interest in the two broadswords mounted to the wall. The family's motto, Semper Paratus was etched in the stone underneath them. I sorted through all the words I knew from Latin class. If I remembered my lessons correctly, the words translated to Always Prepared.

The wooden Ouija board clattered against the dirty floor and pulled me from my thoughts. The four of them now sat around the board waiting for me to sit. I just stood there staring at the alphabet, numbers, yes and no answers painted on the surface, wishing the board would burst into a pile of ashes.

Chloe passed the wooden planchette to Nick, who held it up and looked through the indicator hole at me. "Tessa. Have a seat already. I'm sure Jake won't bite," Nick said with a grin.

This was it. Everyone was going to know what kind of a freak I really was—including Jake. Forget the board, maybe I could spontaneously combust instead. 

"How about I record what the spirit says? You four can see if you can channel a ghost," I said, trying to deflect my involvement with the spirit world.

Chloe passed me a pen and paper, then started to explain how the Ouija board worked when I heard the telltale chime of a spirit entering the room. Shadows clung to his dark aura obscuring his image. Every cell in me wrenched away from the evil that emanated off the demon in front of me.

The spirit glanced at the ouija board and chuckled. They don't know your little secret, do they?

The four of them just sat there with their fingers on the moving planchette, oblivious to the danger.

"Spirit, what is your name?" Chloe asked.

The demon grinned and pointed to the board not taking his black eyes off of me. The planchette slid across the board stopping on the letters S—E—T—H. Then the small wooden indicator moved in a random pattern again. 

Jake's aqua eyes widened, and Wynter's mouth dropped open as they stared at the board in amazement.

Chloe nudged Wynter, then asked, "Seth, do you have something to tell us?"

Seth pulled from the darkness and circled me. So Tessa, gatherer of the dead, do I have something to tell them or will you unlock a couple of your gates for a few friends of mine?

The indicator stopped on the letters, S—E—C—R—E—T, and Chloe squealed. "He's got a secret for us."

I tugged free of the physical world and left my body staring at the board. The rest of them continued to play, oblivious to anything that was said on the Astral plane around them.

"I won't be intimidated, ghost."

"Suit yourself." The demon waved at the board another time.

When Chole announced the first two letters were N—E, I didn't need to watch further to know what word he was spelling.

"Necromancer? What's a necromancer?" Jake asked.

Nick shook his head, then said, "Someone who can communicate and bring back the dead, stupid."

"Shhh, let's find out what he means. Seth, were you a necromancer when you were alive?"

The small plank darted to the word, NO, then started to spell out my name, T–E–S...

I pulled the gate keys from around my wrist and blew on the first one making it glow a bright purple. "I don't drag souls back from the dead, demon. But I do lock them behind gates where they can't do any harm."

"Are you sure?"

A thick wave of energy rolled across the astral plane and entered the physical one. A sword yanked from the wall sending rubble across the room. Someone screamed, and a bell tolled. Seth was gone and a new energy rippled across the field.

"Tessa..." Jake said in confusion. "It's true?"

My eyes burned, and my throat went dry. Nothing could have prepared me for seeing the guy I had been pining for stand in front of me in ethereal form with his dead body slumped on the floor next to me.

"Yes," my voice cracked, "it is."

Hope you liked the beginning of the book. Feel free to show a little love and hit that star. Cheers!