Page 85 of Looking for Love in All the Haunted Places
“That’s not true. Reggie would’ve told me. I would’ve gone home for him.”
“You sure about that?”
Lucky closed her eyes in resignation. This is what she asked for. This is what she wanted. A specter of her brother leaned against the wall, hands in his pockets. The waves in his short hair, the nose piercing, the dimple in his chin—a picture-perfect replica. Oh no, this one was going tohurt. She blinked back the tears pooling in her eyes.
“You’re shorter than I remember,” she lied, staring him down.
He grinned in response, gaze dropping to the ground momentarily—a nervous habit he’d always had because ironically he hated eye contact.
Lucky’s heart squeezed with fondness for him, but that wasn’t her Reggie. It wasn’t.
Hennessee House couldn’t fool her. Hennessee House couldn’t scare her. The most it could do was hurt her feelings, but she’d brought this on herself. She’d gone to sleep thinking about her family because Maverick wanted her to meet his. Technically, she hurt her own feelings.
Lucky would bow to no one—not even an invasive, old sentient house.
Summoning the bravado she always found when she truly needed it, she asked, “So is this it, then? We’re going to stand here until sunrise?”
It, Reggie-edition, moved closer to her. Face to face. It tilted its head to the side. “Why aren’t you leaving?”
“The others were scared. I’m not.”
Specter-Mom’s face had gone slack. “Yes, I know, only the ghost scares you.”
Lucky frowned. “What ghost?”
Its eyes suddenly turned black, shining with a tiny pinprick oflight at the center—a single star in endless darkness. Its mouth hung open.
Formidable, ringing, and clear, she heard it speak directlyinsideof her head—a deep, slow growl with a halting cadence. “at the bottom of your mind—destroyed—are you not happy—will you stay—will you run.”
Hennessee House needed to use telepathy to communicate!
Lucky’s eyes widened. Terror gripped her neck, cutting off her air. Fear so palpable she could taste it burned in her mouth like stomach acid and had her reaching for the door, slamming it behind her.
“Come back, Lucky Bug! Come back!”
A cold sweat beaded on her brow, ran down her face as she sank to the floor in her suite. She curled into the fetal position willing her lungs to relax, to let her breathe, to not pass out. She squeezed her eyes shut.
That voice reverberated in her memory palace. Her great library with reflective tide-pool floors and enormous columns, living water tree bookcases with branches and sprouting leaves, vaulted ceilings covered in vines and giant windows. Her gold-plated automatons that were shaped like starfish and spun like tops to travel, zipping around everywhere. She’d left it unchanged, the exact way her eight-year-old self imagined it—nonsensical, earthy, and wondrous. That voice chased her as she visualized flying down the winding staircases, through the long passageways and secret rooms, past the vaults, and beyond the final boundary to the bottom.
To an empty room.
The first impression of the ghost she’d read, the one that she had to lock away for her own safety, was gone.
But that was impossible. Impressions didn’t leave her memory palace. She remembered everything about the ghost, how it felt, what it wanted, how she got it—but it wasn’t there. And she couldn’t feel it anywhere else.
But when? She had it at Penny Place. It must have been when she came back. Sometime in the past few days, Hennessee House stole it. Destroyed it.
Lucky opened her eyes. She knewexactlywhat her next steps would be. Had to be.
“Lucky Bug.” Only Specter-Reggie had waited for her in the hall.
She swallowed hard, choosing her words carefully. “Thank you. I appreciate your intentions, but don’t ever do that again. My memory palace is mine. You are a guest. From the moment I walked through your doors, I have been nothing but respectful. I expect the same while you’re in my head.”
Specter-Reggie’s brow furrowed as if he didn’t understand.
“And no more hijacking. Don’t do that to me again either. Good night.” Lucky closed the door.
She unfortunately welcomed the specters back the next night. And the next. And the next…
