Page 5 of Ghost Girl

‘Hi, honey,’ he spoke into the phone, his sunshine smile making an appearance. The same one that crinkled around his eyes and dimpled his cheeks. The one that used to make my heart go pitter-patter in my chest and butterflies swarm in my stomach.

All I felt now was an echo. It twisted inside me like a shadow. Mocking. Taunting. Begging for a reaction, one that it knew I couldn’t give.

‘What are you doing home so soon?’ he asked. If it weren’t for his clenched fists, I never would have recognised the frustration thrumming through him. It was a small concession that allowed his true self to peer through the façade. He thought no one was here to see it. Oh, how wrong he was.

‘I’m just out running an errand. Don’t worry, I’ll be home soon. I promise. You can tell me all about it then, okay, honey?’

If my stomach could have churned, it would have. The thought of him speaking that way to someone so ignorant of his true intentions was sickening. The fact that I was once that woman was even more so.

I followed him as he locked up the basement, jingled his keys, and got back behind the wheel of his car. His dream car. The car I’d bought him for our second anniversary.

If only I’d known why he wanted something with so much storage space…

He drove off, silver paint flashing, until the red of his taillights was all I could see. Eventually, he turned off at the intersectionthat led to the main road, beyond my sight and my ability to follow.

I wanted to. I strained to. But I couldn’t move. It was like there was some sort of barrier blocking me from moving too far away from my body. At first, it was so small I was restricted to my grave, then I managed to push it further and further until I was able to reach the cabin, then even further beyond that so I could wander the woods. Still, it wasn’t enough. I have to push harder. Faster. I need to break free from this prison.

I just didn’t know how.

I wasn’t strong enough. Not yet. I needed to figure out how to give myself enough power to move freely, to interact with the living realm.

To take everything from him, the way he did to me.

A low groan drifted on the breeze from inside the cabin. It was faint, but the silence allowed me to catch it. A second noise, louder this time, was followed by a whimper, and I floated back inside to keep her company. It was the least I could do, even if she couldn’t sense me.

I’d been where she was, once. I knew exactly what she was going through. The drugs running through her system were making her groggy. Her head would be pounding, her vision blurred, and her body wouldn’t respond. At least not right away, but it wouldn’t matter, regardless. When she finally figured out how to make her limbs move, they would be stuck by the shackles chaining her in place. The bed and the bucket beside it were the only things she would be able to reach.

And soon, she’d be dead. Just like me. Just like all the others. Just like all the ones still to find themselves trapped in this basement.

And there was nothing, not a single thing, that I could do about it.

For now.

Chapter 2

Chance

‘Chance, are you even listening to me?’ my mother’s voice came down the phone line, frustration tinging her words.

I dragged myself out of my dissociated state long enough to respond, though my eyes refused to refocus and my brain was still moving slowly. ‘Sorry, Mom. I got distracted.’

Her sigh was full of unspoken emotions and opinions, but she wisely kept them to herself. She had been more interested in my life ever since we’d lost Kali, but now that Blake had remarried, she had another girl in the family to dote on.

I hated how quickly everyone had just moved on, like she’d never meant anything. I was pretty sure Mom only felt bad because she no longer had a daughter to go shopping with, but that had been rectified when Dakota had joined the family. I wanted to hate her. She’d replaced Kali in no time. Yet, no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t bring myself to hate the genuinely sweet woman.

She wasn’t a problem. She just wasn’t Kali.

Not so long ago, a wet nose would have nudged my hand, demanding attention and jolting me the rest of the way out of my blank stare. My fingers automatically twitched to scratchbehind Sage’s ears, until I glanced at the photo of him above the tiny blue urn, and my heart clenched with grief for my lost best friend. It was a theme in my life, it seemed, to lose those I cared about the most.

It took me a while to break through it and finally process what Mom was saying.

‘… orange shoes. I mean, who wearsorangewithpink?It was absolutelyatrocious.’

Ashe. She was talking about Ashe’s sneakers that she’d changed into after wearing heels all day for Blake’s wedding. A wedding that took place two whole weeks ago.

‘Mom, her feet hurt. She changed them while she waited for the taxi so she wouldn’t have to walk over those cobblestones in her heels. I don’t think she cared about the colour. And she was going home anyway. What’s the big deal?’

Her scoff sounded extra loud in my ear. ‘Honestly, Chance. It’s like you have no respect for yourself by continuing to associate with people of her… status.’

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