Coldhearted (9781311888433) (19 page)

“
And because of that,” Diana
said, “I’ve never gone trick-or-treating, either. Maddie and I have
been besties since like the cradle, I think. If she can’t go, then
I won’t go. That’s the way I see it.”

Edie smiled and almost cried. “I’m really
glad y’all are my friends.” She and Mason had been holding hands,
and she squeezed his now, facing him. “And I’m really glad you’re
my boyfriend.”

Mason kissed her forehead. “And I’m really
glad you’re my girlfriend, more than glad, actually.”

“
Aw,” Diana and Madelyn sang
in unison.

Mason was blushing. “All right, all right,
calm down. Let’s go upstairs and well...”—he turned toward
Edie—“talk…about ghosts.” His tone indicated that he wanted to
believe, but seemed hesitant to accept the truth.

“
How appropriate for
Halloween,” Diana commented.

“
And scary,” Madelyn
added.

Diana nodded, and then gave Edie a concerned
look. “Are you all right? Is the ghost...?” She trailed off,
staring around her house. “Is it…here?”

Edie hesitated, and then replied, “Yes, and
it’s a he.”

“
A he?” Mason almost yelled,
unnecessarily jealous.

Edie patted his arm, trying to soothe his
worries away. “It’s okay. It’s not like that.”

Mason relaxed, just a little, but Edie knew
that he didn’t like the idea of a male ghost being so familiar with
her, and her, him. Edie didn’t like it, either. Mason opened his
mouth to speak, but was cut off by a cry from the kitchen.

“
That’s Danny,” Diana said,
indicating her baby brother.

Edie said, “I guess I should say ‘hi’
considering I’m a guest.”

Diana shrugged, and then said, “Okay, but he
pukes and pisses a lot, so be on guard.”

Mr. Christensen was in the kitchen, staring
out the window. Mrs. Christensen was feeding Danny in his
highchair.

“
Dad, what’re you looking
at?” Diana asked, as she made her way to the fridge, and grabbed
the milk.

Mr. Christensen turned and found Edie—the new
girl—in the crowd.

He smiled. “Hey, Edie, right?”

Edie nodded in acknowledgement.

“
Nice car,” he
commented.

“
Thanks.”

“
What model is
it?”

Edie shrugged, having no clue. It started
when she turned the key, so that was good enough for her.

“
Stop pestering her about
the car,” Mrs. Christensen lightly scolded, trying to feed Danny,
who was being fussy.

Mr. Christensen held out his hands. “I’m just
curious.” He left the window and swept past Danny, giving him a
gentle pinch on his cheek. Danny stopped crying instantly.

“
How’d you do that?” Mrs.
Christensen asked, holding a spoonful of baby food in
mid-air.

Mr. Christensen shrugged and stuffed a cookie
into his mouth. “Call it a father’s touch,” he said in a muffled
voice, while chewing. He swallowed and struck his hands together,
cleaning them of crumbs, then he gulped down a glass of milk. When
he was done snacking, he said, “Well, I’m off kids, work to
do.”

After he’d left the kitchen, Edie asked
Diana, “He works at home?”

“
Computer stuff,” Diana said
vaguely.

Her mom added, “Writing code,” in a proud
voice, while successfully spooning a helping of pureed green stuff
into Danny’s mouth. He swallowed greedily, and then kicked and
laughed, happy.

“
Computer stuff,” Diana
repeated to Edie in a muffled voice, inadvertently spitting out
cookie crumbs on the kitchen counter.

While Madelyn and Mason helped themselves to
more cookies and milk, Edie advanced toward Mrs. Christensen and
Danny. Edie wasn’t afraid of babies, but she wasn’t one to kiss
them to death, either. But she wanted to be polite and say “hello”
to the little stinker.

“
Hey,” Edie greeted, leaning
down so he could see her face.

Danny’s smile faded to a frown, and then his
mouth stretched open, emitting the loudest scream that she’d ever
heard, blubbering, and just generally freaking out as soon as he
saw her.

Edie backed away, far away, toward a corner
of the kitchen. “Sorry,” she apologized. “I didn’t mean to scare
him.”

Mrs. Christensen gave her a dismissive wave.
“It’s okay. He’s been fussy all day. It’s nothing to do with
you.”

“
Pinch his cheek,” Diana
suggested. “Or spank his butt, whatever works.”

Mrs. Christensen gave her daughter a look,
and then picked up Danny. She held him against her chest, rocking
him back and forth. It was working. Danny fell silent, and then
fell asleep.

“
Phew,” Diana said. “I can
hear my thoughts again.”

Mrs. Christensen ignored her and turned
toward Edie. “Have you eaten dinner?”

“
No, ma’am,” Edie replied
politely.

Mrs. Christensen nodded at Diana. “Fix Edie
something to eat while I put Danny to bed.”

“
Oh, no, that’s okay,” Edie
protested.

Diana was already rummaging through the
fridge. “It’s no problem. I’m not going to let you starve.” Diana
was moving items around, making noise. “Ah-ha!” She pulled out a
heavy glass container with tin foil covering the top. “Leftover
lasagna?” she offered with a smile.

Edie smiled back. “Sounds great.”

After they’d stuffed their stomachs with
lasagna, cookies, and milk, they headed up to Diana’s bedroom. It
was a large room in shades of pale yellow and baby blue mingled
with Halloween directions, such as a mini-Frankenstein, who danced
to the “Monster Mash” song, and a string of pumpkin lights that
trailed along the walls.

Madelyn plopped down on Diana’s bed, at home.
Diana took up position next to Madelyn’s lying figure, but sat
cross-legged and hugged a pillow against her chest.

“
Sit wherever you want,”
Diana said to Edie, gesturing around the room.

Mason was already sitting on a futon nearby,
so Edie sat next to him.

“
Don’t get any ideas,”
Madelyn said with a smile.

Mason put his arm around Edie’s shoulders.
“If I did have any ideas, I wouldn’t act on them here.”

Diana waved a hand. “You’re a guy. Of course
you have ideas.”

“
And girls don’t?” he
countered, raising his eyebrow.

Madelyn giggled. Diana threw the pillow that
she’d been clutching at her friend.

Madelyn threw it back. “It’s got drool on
it.”

“
I don’t drool in my sleep,”
Diana said, defensive.

As Diana and Madelyn debated over who
drooled, who snored, and who made other weird noises while they
slept, Edie snuggled against Mason, and wrapped her arm around his
chest.

He laid his hand on her back and pushed her
closer. “This can go on for a while,” he said, indicating with his
free hand at Diana and Madelyn’s friendly back and forth.

“
It’s okay,” Edie said. “I’m
just glad y’all didn’t march me to the town limits and throw me
into the next county.”

“
Why would you say that?”
Mason asked, sounding offended.

Edie looked up at him. “Well, I may not be a
witch, but the ghost haunting me, is also haunting those close to
me, friend or enemy.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe he did
so much damage at Ravenna’s.”

“
Wait…” Diana trailed off,
scanning her room, and then turned toward Edie. “So…is he going to
try something here?”

She and Madelyn had stopped debating, and
Edie had their full attention. Madelyn edged closer to her friend
and stared at Edie, waiting.

When Edie didn’t answer, Diana tensed. “But I
haven’t done anything to him! Why would he mess with my room?”

Edie leapt off the futon and away from
Mason’s warm embrace. “I shouldn’t have come here. It was a
mistake. He’s…cruel. He might do something here. I’ll go.”

As Edie turned to leave, she felt a gentle,
warm hand close around her wrist. It was Diana, holding her in
place. “No way,” she declared. “I mean, I don’t want my windows to
explode or anything, but I’m not going to hide in fear, and I’m not
going to push you out.” She let go of Edie and folded her arms over
her chest. “If that ghost wants to hurt you, he’ll have to go
through me.”

“
And me,” Madelyn said,
leaping to Diana’s side.

Mason was the last to stand. He advanced and
tilted Edie’s chin up, kissing her on the lips. “And me,” he added
to the quickly-forming defense league.

Edie got teary-eyed. “Thanks, but…” She
frowned. “It’s not just me who he wants to torment. It’s everyone,
I think. He enjoys haunting others. It’s my fault, really. I freed
him and I don’t know how to restrain him, if that’s even
possible.”

“
Is he like…standing…right
next to you?” Mason scanned the seemingly unoccupied space around
her body, trying to find a ghostly presence. He furrowed his brow,
failing.

“
I don’t know where he is,
honestly. He talks to me and sometimes it’s right in my ear. He
gives me chills. More so than this godforsaken weather you call
winter here in Grimsby,” she added in the tone of a disgruntled,
new resident.

“
It’s still technically
fall,” Madelyn pointed out, and then frowned, when Diana gave her a
look. “Sorry, just saying.”

“
Here,” Diana said, and led
Edie back toward the futon. “If you want to talk about him, okay.
If you don’t, that’s okay too. No pressure, yeah?”

“
No, I need to tell y’all
what I’ve been going through, and also, a warning to be on guard, I
guess. This ghost means business.” She sat on the futon and Mason
followed, next to her. “Ravenna wasn’t lying,” Edie continued. “She
saw a man appear out of thin air on that road. It was the ghost. He
tried to kill her.”

Diana and Madelyn had been standing, but now
they sat on the bed, huddled together.

“
Kill?” Diana repeated,
worry veiling her face. “Did he tell you that he wanted to kill
her? Kill others?”

Edie shook her head. “He only speaks when he
wants to. I tried to engage him, ask questions like his name, how
he died, and why he’s generally making my life, and others, a
living hell.”

“
And what’d he say?” Madelyn
asked.

Edie sighed. “Basically, he’ll tell me when
he feels like it. I’m not holding my breath,” she added dryly.

Mason shook his head. “I don’t like this
Edie, not at all. I mean...” He’d been holding her hand, but now he
let go, and raked his fingers through his hair. “He can see you,
and you can’t see him. He’s like a…voyeur.”

“
Aren’t all ghosts like
that?” Diana threw out, speaking logically.

Mason sighed. “You don’t get it,” he said to
Diana. “He’s watching her. While she sleeps…in the shower...”

“
Oh,” Diana and Madelyn said
in unison, realizing where Mason’s distress was coming
from.

Edie was speechless. She hadn’t thought of
that before. The ghost knew her.

She reached over, clasped Mason’s warm hand,
and found her voice, saying, “That may be true, but he can’t touch
me, not physically.” She was trying to find something, anything
positive.

Mason shook his head again. “That still
doesn’t make it all right, Edie.”

“
Well, let’s think,” Diana
said. “Put our heads together. How do we get rid of your Peeping
Tom?”

“
Take us back to the
beginning,” Madelyn suggested. “How did this all start?”

Diana and Madelyn were leaning toward Edie,
eager to hear the tale. Mason was holding her hand, massaging.

Edie sighed. “Okay, here goes.”

She told them her story, editing out any and
everything about Russell. They knew that he’d been at her house,
but they believed the lie that she’d told them, just like everyone
else: she and Russell had discussed her studies, the death of her
parents, the move to a new town, and her uncle had been present
throughout.

She hated lying to them, but she had no other
choice. She and Russell were in this together. Also, she didn’t
want to admit to Mason that she’d kissed Russell, her teacher. It’d
been a nothing kiss, really. Or had it been a something kind of
kiss?

She pushed that worry away and concentrated
on the truth, on the ghost, and what he’d said and done. When she
told them that the ghost had claimed her as his, as in property,
Mason flipped.

He dropped the f-bomb and made no apology
about it. “Edie, you have to do something! We have to do
something!” He paused, and then suggested, “What about
exorcism?”

“
Isn’t that for demons?”
Diana questioned.

“
Yeah, you have to be
possessed, right?” Madelyn added.

“
Well, it could work in
Edie’s case too,” Mason pointed out.

Edie waved her hands in the air. “I’m not
possessed. I’m in full control of my body, my actions, and my
speech. The ghost is just...”

“
He’s just what?” Mason
said, agitated that there wasn’t a simple solution.

“
It’s like what Jules said:
he’s attached to me.”

“
Well, un-attach him,” Mason
said, as if it were that easy.

“
Wait, who’s Jules?” Madelyn
asked.

“
Julianna Desantiago,” Edie
clarified.

Diana and Madelyn said in unison, “Oh, okay,”
acknowledging who Jules was.

Diana asked, “But how does she know about
ghosts?”

“
She’s a member of GPS.
Grimsby Paranormal Society,” Edie informed, as if that were saying
it all.