Crossing Over

Chapter 1

The shrill piercing beep of the bedside alarm clock cut through the early morning silence and pulled Andra from the nightmare she had been having. Thrusting one slender arm out from beneath the purple checked comforter she slammed her palm down on the snooze button before rolling onto her stomach and slowly opening her eyes. Already, she could feel the bright sunlight warming her skin as it poured in through the window above her bed.

She lay for a moment trying to piece the remnants of her dream together but the memory was floating somewhere just out of reach. She had a vague impression of running from someone or something but past that everything just dissipated like so much smoke.

Deciding to put it aside for now Andra rolled out of bed and headed for the shower already putting together a mental checklist for the day. She was supposed to be in town to meet Cameron for coffee in an hour. They had a long day ahead of them if they expected to get a start on Andra's latest project.

Cameron was the first person she had met since she and her mother had moved here a month and a half ago. Truth be told she didn't know what she would have done without him.

Andra's dad had moved out just before Christmas and by May the divorce was final. The last thing she wanted was to move away from her friends and her childhood home the summer before her junior year. Denise, Andra's mother, however, had other plans and every one of them involved putting as much distance between herself and her cheating husband as possible. Somehow she had settled on Inglewood. For all Andra knew she had done an online search for Hicksville U.S.A and come up with the place.

Inglewood boasted a grand total of 738 people. It was rural, it was quiet, and it was the last place on the planet a seventeen-year-old girl wanted to spend the remainder of her high school career. The most exciting thing to do on Friday night was hanging out at the town's only diner or maybe crash one of the many weekend parties at the creek. Cameron Davies was the only bright spot in what would have been an otherwise very underwhelming summer.

Andra had met Cameron at the diner when she and her mother had been out exploring their new town one evening. They had just ordered their food when Andra spotted him at a nearby table. Cameron had been sitting alone reading a tattered copy of The Shining.  Later as the duo were leaving they bumped into him at the cash register and Andra commented on his book. The conversation quickly turned to their shared love of all things supernatural. They had swapped cell numbers and a friendship had been born first through text and then in person.

Cameron was the first one to tell her about the house and the stories surrounding it and she had managed to talk him into helping her investigate further. He was still reluctant about actually visiting the house but she thought he could be persuaded.

In the time leading up to her parents' actual split, Andra had thrown herself into her social media accounts and had amassed quite a large following discussing just this sort of thing in a vlog she regularly posted on YouTube. Up until now, she had always used videos and pictures she had found online but an original video of her own ghost investigation might just push her over the line between having a large following and becoming an influencer. It was a career that she had never actually considered until recently but as her following grew so did her desire to achieve this particular goal.

The only hitch in her plans was the fact that she had led her followers to believe that she was a sensitive. A medium of sorts who had actually experienced the paranormal herself and therefore had some kind of knowledge of the topics she was discussing.

The truth was she had never actually seen a ghost and wasn't sure if she even believed in them but paranormal sightings had always held an interest for her. Every week before creating a new video Andra would research the week's current subject thoroughly to at least make a good show of having some type of firsthand experience. She didn't feel as though stretching the truth a bit could hurt. After all, no one was what they claimed to be online.

Turning the hot water on full blast Andra turned her face up into the spray letting it rinse away the remainder of her nightmare. Around her clouds of steam swirled and billowed enveloping her in its comforting embrace and the light scent of strawberry shampoo. She stayed even after the last of the soap had swirled down the drain only shutting off the water when the first icy drops began to hit her bare skin. With a towel wrapped tightly around herself and another around her hair, she went back to her room to dress. A cursory look through her closet produced her favorite jeans and a short sleeve burgundy top. Twenty minutes later with her hair dry and sporting a light layer of lip gloss and mascara, she was ready to go.

Slipping into her sandals she grabbed her wallet and her cell phone and headed for the back door. It had been a stroke of luck that her mother had been asked to work an earlier shift this morning so there would be no overly curious questions to answer. Andra could only imagine the things her mother would have to say about her daughter spending the summer engaging in a real-life ghost hunt. Stepping out into the early morning sunshine Andra felt her first real twinge of excitement for the possibilities the summer held. As she started the car and backed out of the driveway she couldn't help but feel that it was going to be an excellent day.