Page 43 of Are You Scared, Krowe?
“I’m sorry!” Mom cries, shaking her head just the slightest bit as he drums against her chest.
“Sorry?” Gianna laughs. “Hear that, Spade? She’s sorry. Does that help bring you back to life?”
The painted ghost turns to Gianna, his smirk deepening. “Nope. But this? Well, this is the most alive I’ve felt in years…”
“Your heart stopped beating when she lured you out to the field with her boyfriend and all his awful little friends. What do you think is fair to take from her in return?”
“Mom?” I choke, trying to understand what the fuck they’re talking about.
Somewhere, in the back of my head, the name Gianna called her friend is ringing a bell.
Spade.
“Her son?” Gianna suggests, gently brushing a strand of sweat-drenched hair from my face. The motion is surprisingly tender, and that’s horrifying all by itself.
“No. He’s condemned anyway,” Spade laughs. “I want something much moresymbolic.”
I realize how I know this man a second too late.
As he curls his fingers, I recognize the name… Aiden Spade. The man my father and his friends left tied to the stake… the reason they tried to cancel Hollow Night. The one whose heart gave out on him.
His fingers sink into my mother’s chest like it’s nothing more than paper, bringing blood to the surface to drip down fast and thick, saturating her yellow top. I watch her eyes roll as she tries to fight the pain and then snap open as she screams.
“Please!” Mom begs. “Stop!”
“Mom!”
I want to help her, but there’s nothing I can do. I may be back in my body, but it’s like Gianna’s got me on a leash. I can’t move.
“Easton!” She gasps, her eyes locking on mine for a moment. “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!”
I don’t quite know what she’s apologizing for, and I guess I never will, because all I can do is reach out for her as Spade clenches his fist around something and she struggles to breathe, her face freezing in agonizing shock.
And then he retreats with his prize clenched in his hand, blood dripping down his arm as he holds it up for me to see with a triumphant smile.
I know what it is, despite never seeing one before. The tubes that stick out from the organ are still dripping blood; one of them shoots it through the air like a last, desperate attempt to get it to the right places. But it doesn’t matter.
Mom stays upright, a gaping hole in her chest and shock on her face as it goes slack, until all that’s holding her up isthe ghost behind her with his arm around her neck. When he releases her and steps away, she crumples to the ground.
Aiden admires his work for a moment, her heart still clenched in one hand. And then he drops it, letting it fall on the dirt right next to her lifeless body.
Chapter 14
Thehouseisemptywhen I open the door. I can sense it as much as I can see it. The ghosts of the family who was murdered here are gone, and I can only hope that means they've found peace... that they went to a place better than this. Not that I'm complaining, for my part. I actually may be having more fundead than I ever did alive, and yes, that's fucking tragic, but it doesn't matter.
Nothing matters except this... him.
Vengeance.
I drop Krowe onto the floor in the foyer, where he doesn't even have the wherewithal to keep his head from slamming into the hardwood floor. He did just witness his mother violently murdered and also watched her holding his father's severed head. For that, I might almost feel bad for him. But his parents were every bit as horrible as he is. The rotten apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
When Spade told me the last things he remembered about the night he died, I realized we had more in common than I initially thought. Not only are we both dead, but we were both led astray, lured to our deaths by the promise of companionship, friendship, love...
Oh, I didn't expect that when he invited me to hang out that Krowe was going to be my epic love. I didn't have any delusions about marriage or soulmates or any of that sappy shit. But I did think that maybe something would come of it, that we'd enjoy ourselves so much we decided to see one another again, that we may keep each other warm once the bitter winter overtakes the fall.
I let myself think I could mean something to someone. And Spade let himself believe the same thing when Christine Miegel invited him to party that night twenty years ago. He took the bait, just like I did, only for Christine's boyfriend and all his friends to turn on him. It had all been a trap, and Christine was the bait. Her boyfriend tied him to the stake where the scarecrow waits to protect the field, and they left him there, tied up as they drank and danced and fucked. And when Spade was foolish enough to think it was over, they left him. That's when his heart gave out. It's why John Krotowski tried to prevent any furtherHollow Night scarecrow sacrifices. It's why he went on to be the sheriff, because he thought it may help make up for his own cruelty.
Of course their son would be every bit as awful as them.
