Bell's Bones

By A.N. Hughes

Bell and Amelia are not your typical 12 year olds. Bell is a powerful witch who can raise bones. She uses her powers to bring back to life her classmates' pets at Windy Hill Academy. Amelia is the ghost of a girl murdered almost 100 years ago, trapped in limbo until her bones are found and buried in a p

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gray Jay Publishing
• Release date: Jan 18, 2024
• ISBN: 9798987355893

A.N. Hughes

A.N. Hughes lives in Virginia with her amazing husband, two kids, and a neurotic Boston Terrier. She enjoys writing fantasy and science fiction stories for her daughter and son. She currently has two series available for young readers: The Time Travelers and The Society of Bones. She enjoys spending her days being as creative as possible, traveling with her family, and enjoying good food and music.

Book preview

Bell’s Bones

The Society of Bones

By A.N. Hughes

Illustrated by Stephanie Valverde

Copyright © 2024 by A.N. Hughes at Gray Jay Publishing.

All rights reserved.

No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher or author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

Dedication:

To my squad. I love you. Thanks for believing in me and being on the frontlines of creating and editing Bell.

Chapter 1

It’s Me,

the Witch

Lots of kids are afraid of the dark, and for good reason. The flash of yellow eyes, the wolf’s howl, the ominous hoot of the owl, rustling leaves. There are so many sounds and so little that can be seen. But witches aren’t afraid of the dark. Witches can sense everything: where they are and what they are doing.

Those yellow eyes? A passing raccoon rummaging in a garbage can with tiny, adorable fingers. The wolf’s howl? He’s talking to his brother, saying, Stay away from my territory. The owl? He’s celebrating nightfall and hunting time. The leaves are simply dancing, floating on an autumn breeze as their relatives fall from the trees and join in.

I can hear it all, see it all, sense it all. And I can hear the bones. Deep in the earth. They move around- did you know that? They don’t just stay in one place. They shift with the earth as it moves. Sometimes, they get pushed around when a mole takes a wrong turn and bumps into them. No, the bones are never still. And that’s how I find them.

Today, I’m hunting for a guinea pig. It’s Jacob’s. I think he said the guinea pig’s name is Steve Harrington. Weird name for a guinea pig unless you’re a Stranger Things fan, which Jacob is.

I’m behind Jacob’s house. The lights are all off, and hopefully, everyone is asleep. It would look pretty messed up if someone actually caught me doing this.

Although I can sense where Steve is, it helps that Jacob made a little gravestone where he buried him. It has a sweet little inscription:

‘Here lies Steve. Great hair. Generally annoyed. Kinda nice.’

I rest my hands on the earth. They begin to warm up, and the heat shoots up my veins and through my body. The ground begins to tremble, and everything around me goes silent. I feel a power surging through me as the bones vibrate and push up through the dirt. One by one, I call up each bone that I need. Another part of me calls out to the neighboring bones:

Stay where you are….rest.

I don’t need a random dog bone popping out of the earth and attaching itself to a guinea pig. That would be pretty awkward.

As the bones emerge from the ground, I pull my hands up and begin circling them in front of me as if I’m shaping Steve out of clay. I connect each piece of the puzzle until the tiny form of a guinea pig floats in front of me. But wait a minute. That doesn’t seem right. I feel around in the air. Yep. I switched its bum with its nose. Whoops! Quickly, I move them back to their rightful spots.

Hey! Cut me some slack. This little dude has 258 tiny bones, and there are no obvious tail bones for me to work with like a cat. And anyway, I’m still new at this. It’s only my 10th time raising an animal, and Steve is my first guinea pig.

I look closely in my mind’s eye at the bones. I THINK I’ve got it right. It’s at this moment that I hear a gasp. I’m jolted out of the spell, and the bones clink and clack to the ground in a pile. As my head clears, I look behind me to find Jacob standing there, eyes and mouth in big O shapes.

You’re late, I say.

Ummm….sssssssorry, he says. What just happened?

Well, I was almost done with the spell, and you interrupted me, I say, rubbing my forehead. I’d never been interrupted during a spell before, and it didn’t feel too great, kinda like that throbbing, aching headache from concentrating too hard on a math problem.

That was….Steve? He asks, incredulous.

Well, it was his bones anyway. I didn’t get to the actual ‘Steve’ part yet, I say. Have a seat, and I’ll try again.

Jacob sits, and I steady myself to enter the spell again. Closing my eyes, I can feel the power start in the center of me and radiate out. I see the bones rise up into the air. It’s much easier this time because I know where everything goes. In a matter of seconds, the bones are in place.

With a jolt of my wrists and a blast of energy from within, I complete Steve. And don’t worry. It’s not gross or anything. It’s kinda like when the fairy godmother waves her wand and turns the mouse into a horse in Cinderella. Just… bam! Like that. Skin, fur, and everything else just appear.

I open my eyes, and there he is. The guinea pig version of Steve Harrington. Swooped hair that looks like it’s been gelled, a slight smirk, a bit of a swagger as he walks toward me.

Well, what do we have here, I wonder? He says in his mind.

I’m a witch, I reply, matter of factly.

WHAT?? You can understand me? I’ve never had a human talk back to me before. I mean, I talk to them a LOT, but they never understand what I’m saying, let alone say anything logical back. Why did you bring me back to life? I was perfectly fine frolicking in the afterlife with unlimited treats and no humans manhandling me and making me do tricks, he chatters at warp speed. Yep. This is what I imagined a guinea pig would sound like. Endless amounts of words tumbling out in a nervous, unfiltered deluge.

Well, I’m sorry about that, but Jacob was so sad when you died, and he asked me to bring you back, I say, trying not to sound too rehearsed. You see, this is roughly the same convo I have with every animal I bring back to life. They know I’m a witch- animals are very connected to the spirit realm. But they don’t understand the depth of human love towards animals, and the sense of loss humans feel when they lose their furry friends.

Yes, yes, I’m amazing and all of that, he says with a wave of his hand. But what happens now? I can’t just suddenly reappear. I can just imagine that convo: ‘Look, Mom and Dad! Steve’s back from the dead!’ Bet I’d get a proper burial after that, not this sweet little setup here.

He patters over to the grave, admiring the etched wood tombstone. He nods in approval, and maybe I’m crazy, but I swear I see him wipe a little tear from his eye.

And he’s right. If adults had been in charge of his burial, I wouldn’t have been able to raise him. They dig the graves too deep. And grief. The kind that a child feels when they bury a pet. That grief leaves a trail to the surface that I can follow.

STEVE!!! Jacob exclaims, causing me to jump in surprise. Steve lets out a loud sqqquuuuueeeeaaakkk as he tumbles, rolling like a little log down to Jacob’s feet. Jacob scoops him up and smooshes Steve against his face. The reunion is ridiculously adorable, with neither human nor guinea pig able to suppress their smiles. I smile to myself and take a much-needed big breath after all of that work.

And then I hear it. A rustling. A snuffling. A low growl. It’s the dog. Someone’s let him out to pee. I grab Steve from Jacob’s hands and begin running. No time to explain now. I don’t have the energy left to raise Steve a second time after he becomes a midnight snack.

Jacob, get the dog inside! I’ll talk to you tomorrow at school! I whisper yell over my shoulder as I run. Jacob grabs the dog’s collar as it bounds by and drags it, protesting, back into the house.

Thank you, Bell!! I hear Jacob whisper yell back to me.

When we reach the farm, I settle Steve into his new digs- a huge two- story wire pen with a little ramp, fairy lights, soft flooring, and some hidey-holes.

Not bad, he says, looking around. Not bad at all. I take this as a compliment coming from him.

Have a good sleep, and I’ll introduce you to everyone tomorrow, I say. With a wave of my hand, I turn the lights off in the house. They immediately turn back on. I sigh.

Goodnight, ghost, I say. The lights flicker once and disappear.

Chapter 2

It’s Me,

the Ghost

I can sense him coming before I see him. A sharp, prickling sensation at the back of my neck. A bit of a shiver. Ghostly sensations are different from witchy ones. Witches can get inside you… they can affect the blood running through your veins or give you that pit of the stomach feeling-the one you get when you drop from a great height on a rollercoaster. Ghosts play with outer sensations. Goosebumps, hair raising, shivers when you’re not really cold. Ghosts also like to use mist and smoke, so I’m not surprised when a blue-gray cloud begins to float down the driveway towards me.

It’s the 305th day of my 99th year as a ghost. My last meeting with Master Ghost. That’s what he’s called because he doesn’t have a name anymore. Once you become stuck in the in-between, you receive a title, and your name disappears forever. One of the very few bits of information he has given me in the almost century that I’ve known him.

I don’t know what to expect as I watch him form from the mist and smoke. His face is blurry, like an impressionist painting. His hair flows wildly in the air, almost like each strand is alive. I can see