Page 52 of A Pack of Pumpkins
They all blink at me and I’ve lost them.
“That makes so much sense,” Cali says, surprising everyone.
“It does? How?” Rose asks, incredulous.
“I saw someone in the second-floor window on the night of the barbecue. I thought it was Victor. But when I pointed him out to Bram, the alpha was gone, and Bram said Victor wasn’t home.”
“Victor wasn’t in the house the night of the barbeque,” I recall quietly.
Cali nods. “Exactly.”
I dig into my backpack until I find the newspaper clipping I copied from the library. The one I carry everywhere. “Is this who you saw?” I ask, the desperation in my voice embarrassingly obvious.
She takes it, studies it, and her eyes widen. “Yes.”
“Okay, so there’s a ghost in your house,” Sunny says. “What now? Get a priest? Have an exorcism?”
“No!” The word bursts out too fast, too sharp.
They all raise their eyebrows.
I try again in a calmer tone. “No. I don’t want to exorcise him. He’s—” I hesitate, scanning my friends’ faces. They’ve never let me down, but if they laugh, it’ll still sting. I consider keeping this to myself… but I need someone outside of the house to talk to.
“I’m scent-sensitive to him. To Finian. The ghost.”
It sounds even wilder out loud. A beat of silence follows as they process.
“Do the Ember Pack know?” Winnie asks first.
“That’syour first question?” Rose asks.
“Yes. Why? What’s yours?” Winnie shoots back, crossing her arms.
“So many things. First, how do ghosts even have a scent?” Rose counters.
“That’syourfirst question?” Sunny scoffs. “Not, how does this work in the bedroom?”
I glance between them, trying to figure out if they’re teasing me.
Cali pats my arm. “This actually isn’t as uncommon as you think.”
A jolt goes through me. Rob said almost the exact same thing.
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“There are books on phantom pairings, even in our library,” Cali says.
Rose nods. “I was giving you shit earlier, but there are tons of stories like this online.”
“What kind of stories?” I lean in, hanging on her words.
“Alphas or omegas without bonds waiting for their match… even after death,” Cali explains. “There are even a few scientific papers, but it’s still considered fringe.”
“But Finian had a pack. Why didn’t they all stay?” That's something that's been nagging me. I explain about the sunken ferry.
Cali and Rose shrug.
“This isn’t hard science, but there’s enough corroboration to make it plausible,” Rose says, and I feel something inside me loosen.
