Coldhearted (9781311888433) (21 page)

As an answer to her unspoken question, an
unseen snowstorm erupted, blanketing her in chills again.

“
Edie,” a familiar, haunting
voice called out. “Look.”

She refused to submit and laid her head
against Mason’s shoulder, trying to reheat herself.

“
Look or I’ll be very, very
naughty,” he warned.

She had no choice and gave in, turning her
head toward the seemingly fake gravestones in Diana’s yard. Before,
they’d looked unreal, obviously made of Styrofoam or some other
material that wasn’t stone, but now they looked very, very
real.

Each one had a name: Landon St. John, Mason
Fenwick, Russell Ballantine, Quinn McDermott, Diana Christensen,
Madelyn Corrigan, and Julianna Desantiago.

Curiously, there wasn’t a gravestone for her,
but she didn’t take any pleasure in this. It seemed that he’d run
out of markers. She was traumatized by the very fact that he was
threatening the only family she had left, her friends, her
acquaintances, and even those who’d rather drop dead than be her
friend, Rochelle Lafayette and Ravenna Gallo, whose names were
etched onto two gravestones beyond.

Obviously, as the rational part of her mind
debated with the paranoid part of her mind, these weren’t real
tombstones, and considering, she was a hundred percent certain she
wasn’t psychic, the ghost was playing tricks. He was trying to
scare her, break her down, so he could feed off her fear.

Well, she was afraid all right, there was no
doubt about that, but as she’d told Mason, she knew the ghost. Not
entirely. Not enough to realize that he didn’t want her going to
the sanatorium. He was afraid, so that made her want to go even
more. But she’d wait until Saturday like Mason wanted. She’d do
that for him. And she really didn’t want to break in and be caught
by the police. She didn’t want to be imprisoned with a ghost. There
was no telling what kind of tricks that trickster would do and jail
was scary enough.

Instead of melting into a puddle of fear, she
summoned up some courage, closed her eyes, and said the Lord’s
Prayer. When she opened her eyes, the gravestones were back to
being slanted decorations, with RIP, as the only marks upon its
surfaces. The hands reaching out of the ground were still and
non-threatening.

“
Is he talking to you
again?”

She looked over at Mason. “What?”

“
You were reciting the
Lord’s Prayer. Were you hoping he was a demon or something and
trying to rebuke him?”

“
Oh, I didn’t realize I said
that out loud.” She didn’t want to tell him about the gravestones,
so she informed him of a truth. “Whenever I would have bad dreams,
my mom encouraged me to say the Lord’s Prayer.”

“
Did it work?”

She nodded.

“
Did it work this
time?”

She shook her head. “No, I can feel him. I
don’t think he’ll go away that easily.”

“
My preacher says sometimes
it takes the combined efforts of many, of all Christian voices,
crying out to the Lord, asking for his help.” He caressed her hand.
“I’ll pray for you. I’ll pray for all of us.”

He leaned forward to kiss her, but pulled
back, when the front door slammed shut.

“
I’m ready!” Diana sang. She
was holding a suitcase in each hand, and a backpack was secured
behind her.

Mason stood up and pulled Edie beside him,
keeping their hands clasped. “It’s just for one night,” he
said.

Diana rolled her eyes. “You’re a boy. You
don’t understand.”

“
You’re right, I don’t.”
He’d been smiling, but now it faded into a worried frown. “Watch
after my girl, all right?”

Diana let go of the suitcase in her right
hand and gave Mason a salute. “Maddie and I will protect her to our
last dying breath.”

Edie sucked in air, distraught at Diana’s
declaration. “Don’t say that, Diana,” Edie insisted, but it sounded
more like a scolding.

Diana’s hand fell. “Sorry,” she apologized,
looking upset.

“
It’s nothing you did,” Edie
explained, speaking softly. “I just think it’s wise to not talk
like that around him, okay?”

Diana nodded and smiled. “Understood.” She
picked her suitcase back up. “Well, are we ready for Operation
Sleepover?”

Edie answered by giving Diana her keys. “Load
your bags in, then start the engine, and blast the heat, if you
don’t mind.” As Diana was getting the car ready, Edie said her
goodbyes to Mason. “Don’t worry,” she told him, as he held her in
his arms.

“
I can’t help it,” he said,
massaging her back. “I’ll worry because I care about you so much.
Call me if anything happens, all right?”

“
Nothing will happen!” Diana
yelled out the passenger window, obviously overhearing. She flexed
her arm at Mason. “Girl Power!”

Mason just smiled at Diana, shaking his head.
He turned back toward Edie, but his smile disappeared, showcasing
his worry. “I’m serious, Edie. Anything.”

Edie nodded but she hoped that she wouldn’t
have to call him, even though she knew that she’d miss him
terribly, until they saw each other the next morning. He gave her a
passionate kiss on her lips, and then he was gone, his truck’s
taillights getting smaller and smaller, as he disappeared from
Hawthorne City.

Feeling like she’d been hit by an Arctic
blast of wind, she ran to her car, hopped inside, and let the heat
melt away the ice from her skin.

Diana strapped on her seatbelt. “Can Maddie
and I sleep in your bed, or are you one of those people who have to
have boundaries?”

“
Of course you can sleep in
my bed. I wouldn’t put you two on the floor. And if I had
boundaries, I’d be more hysterical about this whole ghost
business.” Edie strapped on her seatbelt too. “Will you be all
right sleeping with a poltergeist?”

“
As long as he doesn’t hog
the covers,” Diana joked.

Edie couldn’t help laughing.

Chapter 15

Edie’s uncle had welcomed (rather, shyly)
Diana and Madelyn, and then he’d retreated into his study, glad to
be back on familiar ground.

Edie had given the girls the grand tour of
the downstairs (it’d been rather boring), and then they’d retreated
to her room, where they’d changed into their pajamas.

Now they were sitting cross-legged on her
floor, gossiping and giggling.

So far, the ghost hadn’t said one word to
Edie, or thrown something across the room, but she knew that he
hadn’t just detached himself from her. She could still feel
him.

She was shivering with a blanket wrapped
around her. Diana and Madelyn weren’t feeling the same effects as
she was. They were wearing nightshirts, exposing their bare legs,
sans socks. Edie was glad that the ghost wasn’t affecting them, but
she wished that she could enjoy the sleepover as well, without
dealing with chattering teeth.

“
Do you want to get on the
bed?” Diana asked, noticing Edie’s frigid state.

“
I doubt it would help, but
okay.”

They settled atop the comforter, but Edie got
under, and when she did, she felt a little better. She was sitting
near the headboard while Diana and Madelyn were sitting across from
her. They wrapped blankets around themselves too, Edie assumed, out
of show of support, so she wouldn’t look out of place.

Madelyn scanned Edie’s room with wide eyes.
“Your house is amazing. I wish I lived here.” She gestured at the
ceiling. “So when’s the renovation going to be done upstairs?”

Edie shrugged. “My uncle doesn’t really talk
about it. The downstairs is big enough and it’s only the two of us,
so I guess he’s not in any hurry.”

Diana was blushing. “Okay, I’ve got to say
this: your uncle is hot!”

Edie grimaced, embarrassed.

“
Yeah,” Madelyn agreed. “For
an old dude, he’s cute.”

“
He looks like my dad,” Edie
informed, “except he had shorter hair. He grew it long one time and
my mom didn’t like it, so he always kept it trimmed.”

Edie didn’t divulge that she suspected her
uncle had been in love with her mom. There were some things that
she’d keep a secret. Another one was Russell. She’d been thinking
about him on and off throughout the night, wondering where he was,
what he was doing. Her feelings for him weren’t the same as her
feelings for Mason, but if she were being honest with herself, she
did like Russell, as scandalous as that was. In her defense, it was
hard not to like a handsome (and yes, sexy) man, who wanted nothing
more than to take care of her.

Diana gasped. “I think I just saw
something.”

Edie whipped her head at Diana, and then
followed her friend’s gaze toward the corner of her bedroom, but
Edie didn’t see anything.

“
What’d you see?” Madelyn
asked her, looking too.

“
It was like a shadow,”
Diana said, “darker against the already dark corner, but….it was
moving.”

Edie waited for the ghost to confirm this,
but he stayed stubbornly mute.

“
Maybe it wasn’t him,”
Madelyn said. “Maybe it was just your imagination.” She turned
toward Edie. “Do you sense anything?”

Edie shook her head. “And he’s not boasting,
either. Usually when he does something to freak people out, he’ll
go on about their fear, and how it gives him pleasure.” Edie
sighed. “If it were him, he’s being awfully tightlipped about
it.”

Diana briefly closed and rubbed her eyes.
“Maybe you’re right, Maddie. Maybe it was just my imagination.” She
looked at Edie. “But that’s just the thing, isn’t it? I mean, let’s
say you believe in ghosts, and you’ve seen evidence of their
existence, but then when anything happens that can’t be explained,
you automatically assume it’s some sort of paranormal activity,
when it could be explained…eventually. Like if a curtain were to
move on its own, but if you investigated it, you’d discover it was
just the wind from an open window. But all those constant what-ifs
could drive someone so insane that a ghost or a poltergeist
wouldn’t even need to bother with the spooks.”

“
I know,” Edie agreed,
clutching onto her pendant for comfort. “At first, when all this
started happening, I thought I was going insane. Then after being
accused of witchcraft, there was a part of me that thought I was a
witch too. Neither was true. The truth was: I was being haunted by
a ghost the whole time.” She shook her head. “There are times when
you don’t want to know the truth, you know?”

Madelyn pointed at the pendant Edie was
holding. “I saw that on you when you first came here. Was it a
present?”

Edie nodded. “My parents gave it to me for my
seventeen birthday right before they died. Even though I know it’s
an inanimate object, when I hold it, I feel safe, you know? It’s
like they’re here with me, protecting me.”

“
They are,” Diana said with
conviction.

“
I hope so,” Edie said,
smiling.

Madelyn started shaking. “Ooh, it just got
cold in here.”

Edie noticed that Madelyn wasn’t particularly
nervous, rubbing her hands together for warmth, but then, Madelyn
became still, paralyzed with fear, as her red hair began rising
above her head, as if invisible fingers were pulling the strands
up.

Diana gasped, her breath creating a misty
trail. “Maddie?” she called out, concerned.

Madelyn was wide-eyed, scared. Finding that
she could move again, she placed her hands over her mouth. “Is it
him?” she asked through the gaps between her fingers.

“
If it’s not,” Diana said,
“then we’ve got a bigger problem.” She stretched her hand up and
tried to tame Madelyn’s flyaway hair, but it was no good. It just
kept popping back up. “I don’t know what to do,” Diana said to
Edie, anguished.

“
Stop it!” Edie barked at
the ghost. “Stop it right now!”

“
In exchange?” he asked.
Only Edie could hear him.

“
For me,” Edie replied. “You
can mess with me, but don’t mess with my friends.”

“
But it’s so fun, Edie. Oh,
they came here all so brave—girl power and all that—but as you can
see, they’re positively frightened.” He sighed in her ear, and she
shivered from the blast of cold air. “But I’ll grant your request.
I’ll let them be…for a little while. Are you sure you want to trade
yourself for them?”

“
Yes,” Edie said without
hesitation.

“
So be it.”

Madelyn’s hair fell and she grabbed it,
making sure it was secure, before letting go. She flopped back on
the bed. “That was scary.” Then she bolted up and looked at Edie.
“You were talking to him. What did you say to make him stop?”

Diana was looking at Edie too, waiting for
her answer.

“
I-I just told him to stop
messing with you, and if he wanted to haunt anyone, to haunt me.”
Diana and Madelyn opened their mouths to protest, but snapped them
shut when Edie’s hand went up. “He’s already ruining my life, so
it’s not like I’m throwing myself into the fire. I’m already
boiling in the cauldron,” Edie said miserably.

“
Well, we’re here to protect
you,” Diana said. She moved beside Edie and got under the covers.
“I’ll flank your left.”

Madelyn went on the other side of Edie and
got under the covers too. “And I’ll flank your right.”

Edie chuckled. “I didn’t know this was a
military operation.”

Diana nodded. “Oh, it is. Operation
Sleepover, remember?”

“
Or how about Operation
Ghostbuster,” Madelyn offered.