Happily Never After Read online

  “George, what’s happened?”

  He was about to cry. In a sad, desperate whisper he said my name, “Quinn.”

  What made it so unbelievable was I heard him with my ears, not just in my head.

  I was about to ask him more when the front door opened and Jason walked in laughing. Before I could run up to him and throw my arms around him, I saw who he was laughing with.

  It was me.

  Only it wasn’t.

  The girl with Jason looked like me, but had such a look of happiness and love I felt envious of her. Her hair was a little shorter than mine and layered. She even wore makeup.

  I watched, unable to move a muscle as Jason bent down and kissed her passionately. It stole my breath away. Not because I knew what his kisses felt like. It stole my breath away because somehow I knew it went horribly wrong in the cemetery that night.

  “Jason,” I squeaked.

  He didn’t answer or even turn in my direction so I tried again louder.

  “Jason!”

  Still nothing.

  I walked over and laid my hand on his arm but it didn’t touch him. It passed through him as if he wasn’t even there.

  I didn’t have a chance to gather my frayed thoughts. The girl who was not me turned around and lifted her lip in a sneer. Then, she winked at me and laid a newspaper on the table in the foyer.

  On the front page was a picture of Jason and me, smiling for the cameras in front of a restaurant. The headline read, “Jason Preston falls for local girl.” My head pounded from trying to catch up with what was going on until I saw the date.

  If I was looking at today’s paper, it had been sixteen days since my eighteenth birthday.

  Finally, my thoughts caught up and the horrible truth slammed into me.

  It hadn’t worked and, to make matters worse, Catherine had taken over my body. I went to chase after them as they walked holding hands into the kitchen.

  George came up beside me and I felt his hand on my arm holding me back as real and solid as a living person.

  “Let me go. I have to warn him.”

  George shook his head with a sad smile. “You can’t. You’re one of us now.”

  Then, the sick realization of what happened settled over me, oily and dirty. I was a ghost, a thin wisp of who I used to be. Catherine had found a way to inhabit my body, which meant it was possible. As quickly as that thought struck home, however, stubborn determination replaced it. She'd stolen my body, my home and most of all, the man I loved. I couldn't stand the thought of losing Jason so soon after I'd found him. I had to find a way to get him back, to get it all back. Catherine unjustly held it for now, but not forever. I was not going to let her win. Someday, somehow, I would find a way to get my life back, and when I did, Catherine would be history.

  Literally.

  The End

  Coming soon!

  A Strange There After

  Book 2 of the Savannah Shadows Series

  About the Author

  Missy Fleming lives in beautiful Bozeman, Montana where her love of being outdoors often conflicts with her love of writing. Luckily, winter makes it a little easier. Missy contributes to multiple writing sites and Happily Never After is her first published novel in the United States. She is blessedly single, dedicating her affections to travel, writing, reading, family and her six year old Bichon Frise, Jack.

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