Page 65 of Ghost Girl

Oh, Kali…

Deep breaths, in through my nose and slowly out through my mouth, were the only thing that kept me from completely falling apart. My grief over losing Kali merged with the lies and betrayal of my own fuckingbrotherbeing something so sick, soevil,and the anger rose, quick and sharp andburning. It seared through me like a wildfire, singing me from the inside out. I felt like smoke was seeping through my nose as my breath turned into heavy heaves.

I acted without thinking, all rationality gone as my emotions took over.

‘Blake!’ I bellowed, stepping out from the trees. My hands were shaking in tight fists at my sides as I stalked to where he was frozen still, like a deer caught in headlights.

‘Chance? What…?’

‘You killed her. You killed Kali, you sick bastard. Howcouldyou?’

‘What the fuck…?’

‘How many?’

‘Chance, stop.’

‘No! How many people have you killed, Blake? Are they all buried here?’

‘Shut up!’ he bellowed, shocking me into silence not with his words, but with the malignant sneer on his face. It was so unlike him, it just added to the surreality of the moment. Dumping the woman that was over his shoulder to the floor, he rounded on me, violence burning in his eyes in a way I had never seen on anyone before, living or dead.

‘You fucking nosy bastard. You couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you? You justhadto dig, and dig, andfucking dig. You’re just like her, a self-righteouspig!’

I took a step back involuntarily, fear unlike anything I had ever known momentarily replacing my fury, but all it took was one flicker of my eyes to the motionless form, bound in ropesand zip-ties with blood seeping from the side of her head, and suddenly it wasn’t some random woman I had never met. Her blonde hair lightened a few shades until it was almost white. Her nose narrowed and tilted up at the end in that way that had almost made me want to kiss it. Her eyes opened to reveal icy blue orbs that stared at me with such betrayal, like I had let him do this to her.

It wasn’t a stranger on the floor, but Kali.

And the rage came back tenfold.

With a roar of pure despair, I launched myself at the man I no longer recognised, hands raised to wrap around his throat, but he dodged at the last second. I stumbled past, and he took the opportunity to kick out my knees, so I crumbled to the floor in a heap beside his latest victim. The impact knocked the rest of my anger from me, and I stayed where I was, no longer having the energy to fight my own brother, murderer or not. Tears sprang to my eyes, unbidden and unwelcome, but persistent, nonetheless.

But I was closer to the woman now, and the new perspective showed me something I hadn’t noticed before. Something I just knew would be his downfall. A police badge poked out from the top of her shirt, the bronze identifier on a cord around her neck as it glinted in the high noon sun.

He’d kidnapped a fucking cop.

As he loomed menacingly over me, I saw him in a completely new light. No, that was the wrong term. There was only darkness as he glared down at me, and I couldn’t help but wonder how I’d never seen it before. How much of it was a lie? What the brother I had loved all these years ever even existed, or was it just a carefully curated mask to hide the monster beneath?

Memories of our childhood flashed through my mind, of the kind young boy who had followed me around, copying everything I did because he’d looked up to me. Of the sweetadolescent that had charmed the girl I loved right out from under me, and I hadn’t even been mad about it because he was such a genuinely kind guy. Of the successful surgeon so eager to save lives.

‘Was any of it fucking real?’ I asked out loud, though I wasn’t sure if it was just to speak it into existence or to actually seek an answer.

‘You’re so fucking pathetic, Chance. You always have been. Your emotions have always gotten the best of you. But now you know too much. How?’

I smirked at his question, ready for his reaction. He had never truly believed in the paranormal. His interest was in the morbid side of things, like the history of how people died. Fuck, I should have known. I should have seen it. How hadn’t I?

‘Kali.’

‘Kali’s dead. I killed her, Chance. She’s buried right over there,’ he pointed, mocking me with his words. I inhaled sharply at the admission, my emotions warring inside me so painfully that my brain shut it all down to escape the torment.

‘I know she’s dead,’ I said numbly, but then a trickle of smugness pushed through, and I laughed. It was weak, sad, and utterly painful, but it irked him further, so I took it as a win. ‘She’s been sending messages. Little things here and there. The note you wrote to Dakota? She scratched out your name right in front of her.’

His nostrils flared as he processed what I was saying, a wildness in his eyes that wasn’t there before. No matter how hard he tried to hide it, he was unravelling, wasn’t he?

‘How much does she know?’

I hesitated, suddenly realising how much I’d fucked up. He was going to hurt her, too, I could see it in his eyes. I’d just endangered everyone I was close to.

Fuck.

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