She Speaks to Dead People
an excerpt

Ariana felt a strange small movement against her ribcage. She rolled over, unfortunately onto it, before fully waking up. As she did she realized that the thing now lodged into her ribs was her cell phone. How it had ended up in her bed, and not on the nightstand, she had no idea. It continued to buzz while she dug it out of the sheets and finally pressed it to her ear jamming the call button with her finger.
“Hello?” her throat was dry, and the words sounded more like a man then a college girl.
The voice on the end was female, and not much older then her. “Ariana? This is Angelica.”
Ariana froze kneeling in her bed. She looked around suspiciously before responding, “Hi Aunt Ang….”. After that she was at a lost. What did you say to someone you had not spoken to in three years. How are things? Ariana did not want to know about things. Things were the reason they did not speak.
“I am sorry to call you so early, but I thought you would want to know,” Angelica said.
Ariana pulled her phone away from her ear and found that it was a few minutes past four in the morning. She had only been asleep about fifteen minutes. This was fantastic.
“It’s okay. What’s up?”
She could almost hear the twitch over the phone at Ariana’s use of slang, “Mathias passed away earlier this evening. It was very quick; he was diagnosed with VanHellsings three months ago.”
Ariana fell back onto the bed and her back hit the wall with a thud. She made a small noise that was mostly the air being forced out of her lungs. She took a few shaky breaths while Angelica continued.
“He did not want to worry you with it, and I honored his wishes. The funeral is Saturday if you would like to attend. I know he would have liked that.”
Ariana nodded, and then realized she was on the phone. “Of course; I will be there. What time?”
“The service beings at midnight so that the entire coven can attend. Mathais wanted his body burned at dawn. That will take place afterwards with just Dante and I.”
Something cold trickled down Ariana’s spine, but she ignored it with the intensity of a seasoned avoidist. Instead she concentrated on remembering directions to the funeral, and listened to some of the details of the ceremony.
In the end a yawn from Ariana ended the conversation, “I am very sorry as well about the timing Ariana. Happy Birthday.”