Page 46 of Ghost Girl

Instead, I sank into the awaiting darkness, eagerly embracing its promise of peace.

Chapter 20

Kali

My muscles ached in a way they hadn’t done in a long time. They throbbed like I had a pulse, and my head pounded in much the same manner. The annoying whistling sound didn’t help matters much, either.

When I tried to move, I groaned as my entire body protested, and I stilled in the hopes that it would stop. Everything hurt. Why?

The whistling stopped when the pained noise released itself from my chest, unbidden. A rustling sounded, and then someone’s breath ruffled my hair around my forehead.

‘Welcome back, ghost girl.’

This time when I groaned it was for an entirely different pain. A pain in my ass. ‘Great,’ I croaked, coughing again from the dryness of my throat. ‘It’s you.’

He chuckled in his deep, bass voice, the sound travelling to parts of me I didn’t think existed anymore, lighting me up from the inside out and igniting something inside of me that I had thought long dormant. Did I…likeit?

‘As always, ghost girl, it is a pleasure.’

‘You keep calling me ghost girl like you’re not a ghost yourself,’ I pointed out, digging for information about the annoyingly mysterious shadow man.

‘I am dead. I have not been a ghost for a long, long time, though.’

I blinked rapidly against the bright light as I forced my eyes open, needing to see him. He sounded less distorted than usual, and I had a feeling his shadows were momentarily taking a break from keeping his identity a secret.

‘Do you have a name?’ I asked, swallowing thickly in a feeble attempt to whet my dry mouth. I didn’t produce saliva anymore, and yet… it worked.

‘It takes a while to get used to it,’ he said, deflecting my question. I wasn’t going to let him get away with it, though. He had been stalking me for days. Possibly even weeks. I had more questions than answers, and he seemed to understand what was going on far more than I did.

‘Your name,’ I prompted, the blurry film covering my vision slowly receding enough to make out thick black hair, black eyes, a chiselled jawline, and a full-lipped smirk. The weirdest part, however, was that his shadows were still covering his face. I was seeingthroughthem.

He studied me for an extended beat, leaning forward to run his gaze over my still prone form before he answered. ‘Mortimer.’

I snorted. I couldn’t help it. There was just no way.

‘Mortimer?’I asked, trying to hold back a bigger laugh at his affronted expression.

‘Yes,’ he frowned. ‘Is there something funny about my name, ghost girl?’

I inhaled a deep breath to compose myself, wrinkling my nose the scent of freshly dug earth and the metallic hint of blood thatI almost choked on in the process. God, what a fucking nasty smell.

He mistook my disgust as directed at him, and he sneered down at me. ‘My name offends you, does it?’

‘No! No,’ I said, finding enough strength to sit up and face him. ‘Sorry, it’s not that. Your name is pretty fitting actually, since we’re dead and all.’

He hummed, unimpressed, but backed down from where he had begun to loom menacingly over me. I was woman enough to admit his intimidation tactics had almost worked, a thrill of danger skittering down my spine at the death that shone in his eyes. This man was not safe, and I couldn’t forget that. I didn’t know what he was capable of, but I knew instinctively that he could hurt me if he wanted to. I needed to tread lightly.

‘It just smells like death,’ I admitted, explaining the source of my revulsion.

‘The girl is being buried.’

I blinked blankly, processing that information.

‘How long was I out?’

‘Time has no meaning for us, ghost girl. You should know that by now,’ he admonished, and I bristled at his pompous demeanour.

‘It might not have meaning for you, but it means something to me,’ I snapped back, earning a raised eyebrow from Mortimer in response.

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