Trapped in the Afterlife

Chapter 4- Last Rose, First War

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Those of you reading this story have waited a while for this upload so I hope its worth it!

I just wanted to give a heads up that there is a scene that might be a little hard to bear with... please understand that its part of the story and necessary. I had trouble writing it myself and tried to use the softest words as possible to make it less hard on one's psyche.

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''Alright, lets go through this insanity once again.'' Cecilia looked at Darren, who kept his eyes on the book in his hands. ''Your name is Tammy Rose of the Rose witches that survived the Salem trials. You died when you were seventeen. You've been haunting this world for about fourty years. Your brother, Frederick Rose, recently took over your father's position as head of the clan.''

She looked at me and I simply nodded, unable to find anything to add. Darren finally put his book down and ran a hang through his hair with a loud sigh.

''You do know this would be INSANELY easier if we knew who had killed you.'' he muttered in my general direction.

''I remember what he looked like...'' I offered and Cecilia repeated this to him.

''Well, I guess we could start with an elimination process. Hmmm, gosh I need to find pictures of every registered witch fourty years ago- add or take a few years.'' he dropped his head onto the book with a solid bang.

Cecilia laughed at him but patted the back of his head lightly. ''Can we leave you to that? I'll take her to gramma see if she can pick up any trace of the curse or lingering energy.''

He lifted his head and nodded before she leaned in to kiss him gently on the lips. As soon as Cecilia headed towards the door he stood up, walked over to the enormous bookshelf and dragged his finger over the titles, muttering away about how tiresome and long this task was going to be.

This was not a house. This was a mansion. Yet, Cecilia kept blabbing away about how modest her grandmother's house was and that she couldn't wait to inherit it – although she specified that she was not eager for her grandmother to pass away.

There was a high stone wall surrounding the land on which the mansion sat. Cecilia stopped at the large iron gates placed under the stone archway. She reached out of her window and punched in a code, immediately after the code was punched in a picture of her face was taken, analysed and with a flashing green light, the gates started to screech open. The driveway was about half a kilometer long of smooth white sand and lined on both sides by bright pink, parkman crabapple trees in full blossom. The driveway ended at the typical fountain which you could circle around. To the right was another short distance of driveway that lead to a parking lot with a garage. The garage itself could easily hold four cars while the parking lot could hold many more.

The mansion itself was directly before us and mostly to the left in a diformed, upside down 'L' shape. It was rather plain with its white and grey stones, but the moss and vines added a touch that made it a very impressing sight. There were two levels of windows on the entirety of the place but the middle section which looked somewhat like a tower had a third level.

Cecilia smiled at me and quickly got out of the car, letting a man who had just met with us, move the car to the parking lot. I looked around, stunned at all of this. ''Why do you leave in that old, rusting and moldy appartment if your grandmother has employees?'' I asked, eyes wide as I took everything in.