The Barn Owl Society

Of all the people attending the party, Bella Clearwater chose to dance with the ghost in the room. The Ballroom was stuffed full of people with money up to their ears, but not an ounce of character. And besides, she knew Will. He was the ghost that lived in her library. They had spent many a night talking until the sun streamed through the window. “So, what's her story? The lady in the too-tight pink dress?” Will asked, they had been at this for quite some time, Will would find a person who came off as odd, and Bella would make up a story. “That,” Bella began, “is Duchess McBride. She had been married to the duke McBride, until she realized he was quite boring and old,” Bella leaned in close to Will’s face “so she ran him through with a kitchen knife” if Will was alive, he’d have shivered. “But she’s actually my aunt Marie. She’s not married so she dresses as she likes. Grandmother hates her. Says she’s too eccentric.” Will smiled at Bella, spinning her out. “People must think you’re quite eccentric too, dancing with a ghost?” Bella returned his grin, returning to his grasp, “Well I believe that everyone is at least a little bit mad. I mean, how could one possibly be sane and wear that?” She asked, pointing to a woman who appeared to have a stuffed frog on her hat. Will chuckled “That is a little bit mad-looking” She turned to him. “See? We’re all just a little mad” she explained as Will led her to the edges of the dance floor, where no one could see the girl who seemed to be dancing with herself. Although will couldn’t understand how no one would notice Bella. The way her dark green dress swirled around her feet and made her brown eyes look like melted dark chocolate, and made her olive skin look more tan.Even the way her dark green dancing slippers moved silently across the floor was beautiful. And her hair. It was swept up with emerald pins that matched her dress. And Will thought she looked the prettiest out of anyone there. That’s what made this so difficult. “Will? Did you hear what I just said?” Will shook out of his daze, only to find himself nose-to-nose with Bella. “Er..no?”

“It wasn’t important anway..” Bella waved it off. The song ended, and was replaced with a slower song. Will tentatively lowered his lips against Bella's ear “do you want to get away from here?”

Bella grinned up at him mischievously “I thought you’d never ask”

They were running through the forest just outside Clearwater Manor, although it was raining, Bella didn’t mind. She liked the rain quite a bit. She could feel her hair coming out of it’s pins and falling in damp waves around her shoulders. Her skirts were heavy with water. She didn’t understand why she needed three different skirts, but grandmother insists that she is always dressed like a lady should be dressed. I suppose that means that ladies don’t run after handsome ghosts in the forest.

She stopped as she arrived at a clearing of trees. She couldn’t see the faint glow that usually accompanies her ghostly companion.

“Will?”

“Do you know the story of the barn owl society?” Bella looked up to see will sitting up in a tree looking down at her

“Everybody knows the story. It was a group of warlocks who cursed the forest-”

Will cut her off “No I mean the real story of the Barn Owl Society”

Bella stared up at him, intrigued “I suppose I don’t”

Will appeared next to her, “I’ll tell you then” he took a deep non-breath and began his tale “ten years ago, at the Thornborough Preparatory School for boys, there was a group of students who discovered a door to the spirit world underneath the stairs leading up to the astronomy room. There were three of us, myself, a boy named Thomas, and a boy named Alastor. We would meet in the library after curfew and read up about ghosts, until one day-”

Bella’s eyes were wide with intrigue “you all died?”

Will shot her a look “no. Let me finish, Bella.”

“Right, sorry”

“What I was saying is that one day we figured out how to talk with the spirits. They gave us gifts, sealing wax, and money, and old jewelry and things they no longer needed in their death. And in exchange, we’d do things for them, it started off small, finding objects around the school, old maps, student files and such. We called ourselves the Barn Owl Society, because they often said Barn Owls were messengers for the spirits, we even carved ‘The Barn Owl Society’ underneath the stairs. But then it got weird. They asked for things like locks of our hair, or the most recent page of obituaries. It was the worst when they asked for obituaries, they’d always look for a specific name among those of the dead. And when they didn’t find it, they would go into fits of rage, leaving us bloodied and battered, screaming “no this is not our queen” although they couldn’t touch us. They whispered things into Alastor’s head until he went mad and killed himself, and they tore up Thomas’s back until he stopped coming to the meetings, and then there was me. Thomas begged me not to go, but I didn’t listen. I did as the spirits asked. One day they summoned me, and they asked me to kill myself, pledge myself to them, and I refused. They worked themselves into a blind rage, I woke up dead. They killed me.” Will was shaking as he recalled the memories Bella placed her hands against the cold air where his shoulders would be if they were tangible.

“Will,”

“Don’t it’s fine Bella, because if that never happened, I wouldn't have ever met you”

They were very close to each other now, breathing and not-breathing the same air. She was so close that she could see that his eyes were startling shade of black, even though she could see the trees through his translucency. “Hi,” Bella whispered, breathless.

“Hi,” he smirked “you’re really short, Bella”

“Shut up and kiss me you jerk”

And that’s what they did. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to kiss a ghost? Well it’s nothing like you’d think. Because you can feel it. It’s not like trying to touch a ghost. It feels like when you would put a handful of snow to your lips as a kid. Cold that lingers on your lips until it melts away. And there the two of them were, kissing in the forest. Will wound his hands into bella’s wet hair as they kissed against a tree Bella's dress got soaked in the rain, but she didn’t care, it was the kind of kiss that she’d read about in books the kind that made you blind to the world beyond the ecstasy of the kiss. Bella was so caught up in the kiss that she didn’t hear the sound of steel being drawn from a scabbard. Bella gasped as a warm red spot stained the front of her dress, blossoming out from a dagger that Will was still holding. Bella cried out as he wrenched it free of her torso. “I never wanted to hurt you Bella…” He was crying as she fell to the ground.

“Then why?” She gasped

“The spirit world...it was you who needed to die. It was always you, Bella”

“Why not kill me in my sleep? Why kill me and break my heart, too” they were both crying now. Bella was so wet now she wasn’t sure what was rain,tears, or blood.

“It doesn’t have to be the end Bella. Come with me, and you and I can rule the spirit world, you shall be our queen” he held out his hand to her, begging her with his eyes to take it. She only glared at him with a ferocity that Will didn’t know the delicate girl possessed.

“I won’t be your persephone.” she spat.

For a moment, he looked hurt, before his features settled into a scowl“You’ve made your choice then,” he snarled, dropping a feather in her lap. He turned away from her and disappeared.

Bella watched as the feather was stained red with her blood, her vision fuzzy and her head pounding from blood loss, she moved to grip the feather as she bled out, alone in the rain.

Two days later, Bella was found in the middle of the forest, clutching the feather of a Barn Owl, Dead, in a puddle of her own blood.

You see, sometimes it is not our enemies who hurt us the most, but our lovers.