Wel­come! I’m not sure if you noticed, but I changed my web­site up a lit­tle bit since the last JustRomance.Me hop. What do you think?  Tweak­ing my web­site is one of the eas­i­est ways to pro­cras­ti­nate on rewrites or new works!  I’m glad you found the Ripped Roar­ing Hal­loween Hop. If you need help find­ing the begin­ning, just head on over to JustRomance.Me to get start­ed. At the end, you’ll find an entry form where you can enter to win a pletho­ra of prizes, includ­ing a Kin­dle! Who does­n’t need a Kindle?

For this post, I used the Scene Gen­er­a­tor, and got the fol­low­ing prompts:

These are your char­ac­ters: Ghost, Nurse, Bank robber
These adjec­tives describe them, one per char­ac­ter. Picky, Exhaust­ed, Beautiful
This is your set­ting: Salon 

****

“Hail Mary, full of grace…”

Lara closed her eyes so no one would notice them rolling. Heather sat in her scrubs, rock­ing in a fetal posi­tion  like a four-year-old in time out. If she heard the Hail Mary one more time, Lara was going to scream. “How about some coffee?”

The nurse looked at her, brows knit togeth­er and mouth agape. “Cof­fee? At a time like this?”

Lara shrugged. “We’ll be here for a while. Might as well get com­fort­able.” Lara had nev­er spent any amount of time on the floor of her salon. While the nurse she’d been blow dry­ing sat pray­ing, Lara made a men­tal note of the dust and gum beneath the chairs.

“I only drink Star­bucks. Caramel lat­te with fat free milk. And I won’t drink out of a Sty­ro­foam cup.” Heather went back to pray­ing, but at least now it was under her breath.

“Will you two keep it down?” The man who held them cap­tive groaned. Lara knew he was­n’t going to hurt them. In fact she could swear that the gun he kept wav­ing around was­n’t even loaded. Mar­vin Mil­que­toast-turned bank rob­ber. If this was­n’t her salon, she’d prob­a­bly just stand up and walk out. Maybe take that black duf­fle bag with her.

“The police left an hour ago. I’m not sure what you’re wait­ing for.” Lara brushed hair clip­pings from her jeans. She’d been awake since four o’clock this morn­ing, and after three col­or appoint­ments and two squirm­ing tod­dlers, Lara could­n’t help but be a lit­tle grate­ful for the break.

Mar­vin scratched his head with the bar­rel of the gun. “I’m wait­ing for a sign. I want to make sure it’s safe.”

Lara smiled. So he wants a sign. She took a deep breath and focused on the enti­ty.  Shireah was a beau­ti­ful ghost who’d kept Lara com­pa­ny on slow days in the salon. She was also a bit mis­chie­vous, and loved to play tricks on Lara’s clients. She seemed to know which human she could mess with, and which to leave alone. Take Heather–Shireah would nev­er show her­self to the skit­tish nurse, but there were a few clients on a first name basis with the ghost.  None of them could com­mu­ni­cate with her the way Lara could.

“What the…” Mar­vin stood up so sud­den­ly, the fold­ing chair he was perched upon clat­tered to the floor behind him. “What’s going on?”

Lara opened her eyes. Shireah stood before Mar­vin, her usu­al pearly vis­age had tak­en on a dark red hue. Very nice. Lara cov­ered her smile with one hand. The ghost moved toward the bank rob­ber, float­ing over the tile in the flu­id yet creepy way that Lara wished she could do her­self. Mar­vin backed away, mum­bling and shak­ing his head.

“That’s her!” Heather’s mouth dropped open. Rather than scream­ing in ter­ror like Lara imag­ined, Heather was in awe. She’d even unfold­ed her­self and relaxed for the first time in an hour. “That’s your ghost!”

Lara shrugged as she watched Shireah all but push Mar­vin out the front door. “She’s not real­ly mine.”

“But I’ve heard about her. Every­one says your salon is haunt­ed. I nev­er believed them, but…”

“What should we do with the mon­ey?” Shareah’s voice was as beau­ti­ful as her spir­it. The soft whis­per float­ed through the room and caressed Lara’s ears.

Mar­vin was gone. Through the win­dow Lara saw him run­ning through the street scream­ing. She stood up, stretch­ing her cramped mus­cles. “Thanks for your help, Shareah. He was get­ting on my nerves.”

“You should have called ear­li­er. I thought maybe you had a crush on him.”

Lara laughed, then shook her head. “Shareah, this is Heather. A nurse at Bur­ry Memo­r­i­al Hospital.”

Shareah float­ed over toward the nurse, who closed her eyes and smiled as the spir­it swirled around her. Lara did­n’t think she’d ever seen the woman so at peace.

“As for the mon­ey,” Lara raised one eye­brow, “I’m sure the  bank would­n’t miss a few dol­lars. How does Star­bucks sound?”

 ****

I real­ly want­ed to write a scary post for Hal­loween, but I guess I’m just not cut out for that. Thanks for stop­ping by. Good luck in the draw­ing, and I hope to see you Sun­day night in Gem Sivad’s Chat Room! I’ll be there post­ing excerpts and talk­ing shop with the oth­er authors.

Hap­py Halloween!