Page 125 of A Heart So Haunted
I took in the house as I walked up the cobble path. The streaked maroon and blue skies. The half-lit windows, curtains open. Emma’s silhouette in the living room. The main door hung ajar behind the screen door. Laughter echoed from inside. Maybe that voice was right.
Home.
The music stopped when I opened the front door. Someone cursed. Then a groan.
“I don’t get it,” Sayer said from the kitchen. I rounded the corner to find him unraveling a sour strip. He waved it around like a lasso. “She doesn’t sound any better than she did, like, four years ago? What’s the obsession?”
Emma stood in the middle of the living room, arms wide. “How can you say that? Have you no taste?” She gestured wildly to the TV. “Everyoneloves Marion Blanchet. How do you not?”
Sayer gave her an exasperated look. He swung the sour strip toward the pantry and asked, “Why do you think?” Then he spotted me. He gave me a wicked grin. “Oh, Landry! You’re back!”
Emma whirled. “Tell him Marion Blanchet is not a tone-deaf walrus.”
“I mean—” but my words died.
Hadrian leaned out of the pantry, two bags in his fists. One, an assorted bag of Reese’s, the second a bag of cheese puffs. He wore his same button-down shirt and trousers and shoes as always.
His skin looked a bit more sunned, though, his cheeks flushed, and his eyes—completely gray.
They could see him. They spoke to him. Breathed the same air, existed on the same plane as he did.
For a split second, I saw it: a possibility. An alternate reality where this was normal. Maybe Hadrian came by after work to eat dinner with everyone. Emma and Sayer would bicker, just like they were now. We would be up through the late hours, Emma would trickle up to bed early, and Sayer would fall asleep on the couch. Hadrian and I would be on the front porch, he would say he had to leave because of work in the morning, I would complain about sandingfloors, and he would say it would be okay. That he’d see me tomorrow and he would help, because that’s just the kind of person he was.
And then I would watch him leave. He wouldn’t vanish into the humid air or fold himself into darkness. He would just walk away, and he would come back tomorrow.
Already, my phone was in my hand. While all eyes were turned, that moment between movements when someonealmostlocked eyes, I started to take a picture. The three of them, together, in one space, proof that Hadrian had been here with us—with me. He eyed the phone before he set the bags down. I manage to catch a look at the pictures before they disappeared into their folder.
Only Sayer and Emma stood in frame. Hadrian didn’t, like he didn’t exist.
I swallowed a sudden knot of tears. I stuffed my phone away.
“Landry,” Hadrian greeted, then turned his head. At just the right angle, his eyes flitted yellow like a cat’s. Sayer wagged his eyebrows while Emma continued on her stint, oblivious.
“—haven’t listened to her sophomore album,” she insisted. “You don’t know the story she’s painting until you’ve at least listened to that one.”
“I didn’t realize there’d be a party when I got back,” I said, suddenly very, very aware of the undereye bags I’d accrued.
“I stopped by,” Hadrian said. He rounded the couch, brushed his hands on his pants. “You know. Figured I’d say hi.” His Lowcountry accent seemed thicker than before. Like I could drown in it. Sohuman.
“That’s okay.” I pulled my purse off and sat it on the back of the couch.
“We’ve enjoyed his company,” Sayer said. He handed Emma the bag of cheese puffs. Immediately, she stopped talking and ripped it open. Another wolfish grin. “You didn’t tell us he lived nearby.”
“She didn’t tell us about him, period,” Emma muttered. She held up three cheese puffs. “Not that I’m mad. I’m not. Just hurt.” She popped the cheese puffs into her mouth by the handful. “But free food does help.”
I glanced at Hadrian. His eyes glittered.
“Are you okay?” he whispered. He shifted to stand slightly between Sayer, Emma, and I.
“Of course.” I noticed the balloons Sayer had gifted me still floating in the corner of the breakfast nook. “Just a long day.”
He searched my mouth, my eyes, then back again. “Mm. Liar.”
I nudged him. “Rude.”
“I need a poll,” Sayer announced. He took the bag of cheese puffs from Emma when she started to wander toward the TV.
“I wasn’t finished with those,” she shot back.
