Page 145 of A Dead Girl's Guide to Living
I dug out my phone and glanced at the screen.
And stilled.
Jedd Myers has sent you a message…
“What is it?” Ellis asked, peering down at my phone and gasping. “Oh my god.”
Liv sauntered into the room then, a wide grin on her face as she looked around. “How cool is this motel? Look, if I can’t cross over, I could easily live here.”
Neither of us said anything, and she blinked, leaning closer to study our expressions.
“What?”
“Your friend Jedd replied to me,” I said carefully. “About the fireworks.”
Liv’s mouth opened in a silent gasp, nothing actually coming out. Then her face crumpled. Her shoulders shook as she buried her face in her hands.
“He didn’t die,” she whispered, the sound muffled into her palms. “He didn’t die. He’s alive. Alive. Alive.”
I blinked in surprise. “You were with him when you died?”
Liv didn’t respond right away. Slowly, she pulled her hands from her face. No tears—ghosts couldn’t cry, we’d all concluded—but her eyes were wide, filled with such deep sorrow that it settled in my gut like a stone.
“I know everyone I was with,” she said softly. “I just don’t remember what happened. My last… my last memory is us all driving to the club. Then I woke up next to Ellis.”
Ellis bit her lip and pulled away from me, and I missed her immediately.
“Maybe he can give us some answers,” she said gently. “When we see him. He could fill in some blanks.”
Liv nodded once, swallowing hard. “We’re so close now. So close.”
“We are,” I murmured, offering a soft smile. “How are you feeling?”
“Terrified,” she bit out, her eyes now filled with panic rather than sorrow. “I’m scared it won’t work. That I’ll make my peace and still be stuck here.”
Ellis surprised me then—approaching Liv slowly before wrapping her arms around her, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. As if she’d done it a thousand times before.
My heart twisted as I watched them. I’d touched Liv before and felt her cold stillness. She wasn’t solid like a living person, but she was there. Tangible in a way I couldn’t fully understand.
Liv’s eyes fluttered shut as she accepted the comfort, her arms winding around Ellis. And then the words tumbled out of me—coming from nowhere and everywhere all at once.
“Liv,” I said firmly, rifling through my bag. I found the velvet pouch, nestled beside Margaret’s remaining ashes. Turning on my heel to face them again, I held it up.
“I want to give you a reading.”
We had dimmedthe lights enough to give the small space an almost ethereal glow. The faint scent of pizza hung in the air—Ellis had needed to eat to take her pills, and I’d been starving too. Liv had been floating around the Wigwam Motel while she waited for us to eat and shower.
Now, we all sat on the bed, and I held Margaret’s velvet bag of cards in my hands. Ellis sat ramrod straight, leaning back against the wall, her wet hair wrapped in a towel. She wore black yoga pants and a long-sleeved cotton shirt, thick pink socks on her feet. I glanced across at Liv, who sat patiently with her legs folded beneath her, completely out of place in her clubbing clothes compared to us in our pajamas.
The velvet pouch felt heavier in my hands than usual, as if the cards knew they had a purpose tonight. I closed my eyes, inhaled deeply, and envisioned myself reaching toward Liv with more than just my eyes.
“If you’re quiet enough, girl, if you really feel it, you can touch things that aren’t flesh.”
Margaret’s guiding words drifted through my mind as I searched for Liv’s energy, chasing that prickling buzz. It wasn’t noise, and it wasn’t exactly a vibration, but there was a charge to her presence now. When I opened my eyes and met hers, it was like staring into the static before a lightning storm.
Her energy didn’t feel so void anymore, so cold or removed. She didn’t feel like death. She felt like movement. And I could tell she was standing at the edge of something, blinking into a light she wasn’t used to seeing. I wondered just how close to crossing over she really was.
I undid the pouch on a steady breath and focused solely on Liv. The cards slid into my hands with ease, their familiar, cool, worn weight grounding me in the purpose I carried tonight.
