Page 38 of Ghost Girl

On wobbly legs, I managed to haul myself into an upright position, though I needed to lean heavily on the nearest tree trunk to do so. The scrape of the bark against my skin helped to ground me, the sensation reminding me that I was alive. I had survived another seizure, though there wouldn’t be much more luck like that in my future. It was a stark reminder that I was running out of time, and I was suddenly filled with the overwhelming need to make the most of it.

‘Walk with me?’ I asked Kali as I began to stumble my way out of the woods. She nodded, motioning for me to lead the way. The toes of my boots kept snagging on roots, sticks, and underbrush, but luckily, I was able to keep myself from falling. I was dreading when the trees would end, for I wouldn’t have anything to hold me up, and Kali was keeping her distance, careful not to touch me.

‘You won’t hurt me, you know,’ I told her, pleased when my voice came out stronger than before. The was still a small warble, but it was now inconsequential.

‘I know,’ she said, her voice small but sure.

‘Then why…?’ I began, looking over my shoulder with the question in my eyes, only to freeze at her stupefied state. She was like a statue, eyes wide with despair written plainly across her features as she stared out at something in front of me. A knock sounded, and I turned back to see Chance, Ashe, and Gloria standing on my porch.

‘Hey!’ I called out, grabbing their attention. ‘A little help here, please!’

They rushed over, each of them wearing expressions of concern and alarm when they saw me stumbling onto my front lawn.

‘Jesus, what the fuck happened to you?’ Chance asked as he took one of my arms to steady me. Ashe propped me up on the other side, and it was a little awkward with the height differences, but we made it work.

‘My truck,’ I guided them. ‘I had a seizure. My meds are in the glove compartment.’

‘Here,’ Chance said, snatching my keys by the lanyard which was dangling from my pants pocket. ‘You stay here. I’ll grab them.’

I watched him jog away through squinted eyes, panting at the amount of energy it was taking to keep myself standing through the increased pounding inside my skull. Gloria came to take Chance’s place, propping me up a little more evenly since the girls were around the same height, though it was still a bit awkward since I was about a foot taller than them.

‘You okay, Rhodes?’ Ashe asked me, her voice strained beneath my weight. I realised I was leaning more heavily on her at the same time as Gloria, and we worked to rebalance me.

‘Been better,’ I admitted, then I realised something else. Kali hadn’t joined us. I glanced over my shoulder again to see her still frozen, half hidden in the shadows of the trees. Her gazewas fixed firmly on Chance, but her expression was… fearful. Cautious. Not pleased, or at the very least nervous.

Ashe followed my line of sight, squinting much like I was, only for a different reason. ‘What are you looking at?’

‘Are you coming?’ I called back. She tore her eyes away from Chance, but only for a moment. They flickered right back to him and stayed put as he jogged back, and her bottom lip trembled before her expression completely shut down.

‘No,’ she said simply, then merged with the shadows, effectively disappearing from view. I knew from experience that we wouldn’t be able to find her if we tried to follow, so I faced forward again, only to feel Gloria tense beside me. She was almost as rigid as Kali had been.

I wasn’t the only one who noticed. ‘Babe? What’s wrong?’

‘Kali…’ All the blood drained from Gloria’s face as she breathed the name.

‘What?’ Chance was suddenly even more alert, scanning the area for any sign of the mysterious woman. ‘Where?’

‘Gone,’ Gloria and I said simultaneously, but our tones brokered vastly different meanings. Mine wasn’t the only head that whipped towards the small Latina.

My gaze bounced between them all as they seemed to have a silent, grim conversation, but I couldn’t figure out what they were saying. When Chance staggered back like the breath had been knocked out of him, his eyes wild with the sort of pain I had only seen during my stints in the hospital, something niggled at the back of my mind. Something important, but it wasn’t quite connecting.

‘No…’ Chance whispered in a broken voice. ‘No, you’re wrong. Not after… But Rhodes said…’

‘Rhodes is dying,’ Ashe pointed out, and an understanding passed between them that I was also excluded from.

‘What are you talking about?’ I asked, needing to be clued in.

Ashe turned big, sad brown eyes on me. ‘You saw Kali, right? Talked to her?’

I frowned, but answered despite my confusion. ‘Yes.’

‘Did you touch her?’

I reared back like I’d been slapped. ‘What? No.’

‘Not like that,’ she rushed to elaborate. ‘I meant, have you brushed against her by accident, or patted her arm, anything like that? Has any physical contact between the two of you been made?’

I thought back to when I woke up. My brain was still a little fuzzy, my memory of everything that had happened today hazy around the edges, but I could distinctly remember her telling me that she couldn’t touch me. A statement that had stuck with me because I’d needed her help, and she’d refused.

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