Page 9 of Ghoul Me, Maybe
“I know I’m not crazy,” she says, eyes fixed on the door. “IknowI saw you.”
“You did.”
My voice is raw. Like it had to claw its way through my throat to reach her.
She turns slowly, eyes scanning the alley. “Where are you?”
“I don’t know how to answer that.”
A beat.
Then she laughs—short, bitter. “Of course you don’t. Why would this be simple?”
I step forward into the dim light. My boots scrape the gravel. I’m not fully solid, but I’m not mist either.
Her breath catches.
She doesn’t run this time.
But she doesn’t move toward me either.
“I don’t hurt people,” I say.
She narrows her eyes. “You’re a ghost.”
“Something like that.”
“You knew my name.”
“I… remembered it. Not clearly. Just enough.”
“Whoareyou?”
“Elias Thorn.”
Her lips part, just barely.
“TheCaptain?” she whispers.
The word tastes like memory.
She’s heard stories.
Everyone in Lowtide Bluffs has.
But now the story’s looking her dead in the eye.
Without another word, I step back into the night, dissipating from sight. Tonight, I’ll visit her again. Gift her a small token of my past. But for now, she can make her way back home.
And wonder just what she’s gotten herself into.
CHAPTER 5
SIENNA
Tonight, the fog doesn’t stay outside.
It slips through the window crack like it owns the place and curls around the foot of my bed. My body’s asleep—Iknowit is—but my mind’s wading through cold, moonlit surf.
