Shadow Bound (Wraith) (14 page)

The three of us attempted not to make eye contact on that outright lie. “I can only imagine,” Julia agreed. “The three of us are considering doing a project on teen suicide – you know, something we can present at youth group. I thought maybe we could turn this terrible situation into a blessing for someone who needed help.”

I took a step back from Julia, afraid lightning may strike her at any moment.

“That sounds wonderful,” Mrs. Brady said.

“Is there any information you could give us that would be helpful? I know Charlotte had a lot of problems.”

Mrs. Brady considered it for a moment and then said, “Charlotte struggled with many things. Although her family loved her very much, it was a constant battle over curfew and money and drugs.”

“Did the hospital help?” Julia pushed. “I mean, I heard she spent some time there.”

“Some. At least there her parents were able to get a real diagnosis.”

“Was she depressed?” I asked before I could stop myself.

“Not exactly. The doctors said she had some kind of antisocial personality disorder. They were working very hard to help her make better choices.” She frowned and added, “Please don’t tell anyone I said that.”

“Of course not,” Ava assured her.

“So this disorder,” Julia asked. “it made her make these decisions? All the trouble? The suicidal thoughts?”

“From what I understand, yes. I guess she had a hard time relating to other people and keeping friends. She and my husband had a very strained relationship. When she was little they were very close, but in recent years it was difficult to be around her.” Mrs. Brady looked to the back porch and saw the other women waving her outside. “I guess I should join the meeting,” she said. “I hope that helped.”

Julia smiled. “That was very helpful. I’m sure our youth minister will be excited about us reaching out to others with the same problems.”

Mrs. Brady walked off and Ava punched Julia in the arm. “What the hell,” Julia whispered.

“Youth group? Are you kidding me?”

“I told you I would get the information. You never said I had to be honest to do it.”

I shook my head. “Well, thanks, I guess. I’m not sure how much that helps, but it does sound like she had a lot of problems. Maybe that’s why Connor feels so tied to her?”

“Maybe,” Julia said, reaching for another piece of cake. “Or maybe he’s just hung up on her. You never know with guys.”

I narrowed my eyes at Julia. I was tired of the accusations. Ava must have noticed because she tugged on my arm and said, “I really should get home. You ready?”

“Yeah, I’m ready,” I told her. I smoothed the hostility from my face and looked at Julia. “Thanks for the help.”

“Good luck with Connor.”

“Thanks,” I said again. Julia meant well but little did she know Connor was the least of my problems at the moment.

&

An hour later, Ava and I sat across from one another in a booth at Dusty’s pizza.

“What do you think?” she asked, cutting her pizza into little squares.

“I think I don’t know what to think.” I focused on my pizza and not her question.

“Tell me the truth.”

“That is the truth, I have no idea what is going on here. Everything sounds crazy.”

“No,” she said. “Tell me the truth. About everything. I know there is more going on here than just Connor being hung up over some dead girl. Tell me.”

“I guess he’s just upset.”

Her hand rested on mine. “Jane, tell me what’s going on between you two. Don’t think I haven’t noticed. I was there the day that guy followed us, the one who almost killed you. I know you two are into something deeper than just a standard romance.”

I bit my lip and fought the tears building in the corners of my eyes. “I can’t,” I said, shaking my head.

“Yes, you can. Whatever it is can’t be that bad. And I swear I won’t tell anyone.” She was so genuine. So serious. “I promise.”

“You can’t promise that. And it’s not that I don’t trust you,” I said. “I just don’t want to lose you as a friend. You’re really the only one I have and I can’t bear the thought of losing you, too.”

“I’m not going anywhere, Jane. It would have to be pretty big to scare me off.”

“It’s big,” I confessed. “And weird.”

She sighed and leaned back in her seat. “I’m ready when you are.”

I picked up my fork and started removing the cheese from the crust. “Remember last year, right after I moved here, I kind of had that freak out in school?”

“Vaguely. I heard the rumors.”

“Well, I had a freak out in school because, when we bought the house, the first person I met was this kid named Evan.”

“Oh, the guy from the shelter, right? The one you and Connor used to talk about?”

I sawed into the crust until it made a scraping sound on the metal plate. “Yeah, that’s him. He was great. And my best friend.”

“How come I never met him?”

“That’s the thing. Connor and I were the only ones who knew him.” I took a breath. “We were the only ones who could see him.”

Ava’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”

“Evan was dead.”

“Evan is dead, you mean.”

“No, Evan was dead. When I met him.” I sneaked a glance at Ava, but she hadn’t run away yet. “Same with Connor. He saw him, too.”

“What are you saying? You saw a ghost?”

“Yep.”

“And you and Connor, the most troubled, hottest boy in school, bonded over this.”

I nodded. “Pretty much.”

“Evan is who you were talking to in school? When it seemed like you were talking to yourself? Is that what happened in that fire?”

“Yes, that’s who I was talking to. And I was trying to help him and his family when the whole fire thing happened.”

“You see and can talk to ghosts?” Her eyes got big and she looked around. “Ohmygod, are there ghosts here now?”

“No, there aren’t any here that I can see.” I scanned the room. “At the moment.”

“You and Connor see dead people like that creepy kid in that movie ‘The Sixth Sense?’”

“Kind of, yeah.”

Ava stared at me for a minute and then said, “That is really cool.”

“What?”

“I mean, dead people? Are they scary or do they do weird things? And Connor? I mean, this explains so much about him. No wonder he went mental,” she said. “Sorry, I mean...”

“No, it’s true. That is why he went to the hospital. And why he’s stressing out right now. Charlotte is working her mojo on both of us.”

Her eyes lit up. “Oh! Right! See now everything makes more sense! Charlotte was into him, obviously, and now she’s haunting him, but why the mural? And why is she bugging you?”

“Because she’s psycho,” I said without a trace of humor. “She wants Connor or something and I think she’s determined to get me out of the picture one way or the other.”

“One way or the other? What does that mean?”

“It means what you think it means.”

“She wants to kill you? She’s a ghost, she can’t do that.” Her eyes are bugged. “Right?”

“Yeah, that’s where everything gets tricky,” I sighed. Explaining this was really complicated.

Ava must have sensed my irritation and said, “I think we need to do two things.”

I frown. “What?”

“One: I need one of those giant, homemade, warm chocolate chip cookies they make here with fresh whipped cream.”

“Okay, and the other one?”

“I need you to start from the beginning.”

&

Ava’s dad lived in an apartment in an old renovated high school. To get to her place, you had to pass trophy cases filled with memorabilia from the school, like old yearbooks and trophies.

“It’s so cool that you live here,” I said, following her up the steps to her apartment on the third floor.

She jiggled her key into the lock. “It’s okay. Our old house was better – you know, before the split.” She threw her bag on the floor and walked over to a desk and grabbed her laptop. “It’s cool when I’m here alone, since it’s so small. When my brothers are here, I usually stay at my mom’s house. I still can’t believe you see ghosts,” she said.

“Me either.”

“Do you think she’s watching us now?”

“Doubtful. She seems pretty occupied with Connor. She only visits me when she wants to scare the crap out of me, or make veiled threats.”

I sat next to her on the leather couch while she warmed up the laptop. “Google is our friend,” she said, typing antisocial behavior disorder into the search bar. A dozen options popped up, but she clicked the Wikipedia version first.

“What does it say,” I asked.

“Well, from this it sounds like she’s mean, aggressive, has no sense of guilt and blames everyone else for everything.”

I leaned over and read the summary. “Wow. Yeah. I can see all that.”

“I guess if her disorder carried over past her death then there really is no rational reason for her to be after you or Connor. It’s just kind of who she is.”

“Great. Not only do I have a ghost pestering me, I have a crazy ghost pestering me. Awesome.”

Ava read a little bit more then X’ed out of the page. A thoughtful look crossed her face and she asked, “Did Charlotte have a Facebook?”

“Probably.”

“I’ve noticed most people don’t delete them after a death or whatever. Kids like to make comments and things.” Ava searched for her profile and one popped up. It’s an open account with no security. “People are dumb when they don’t have stronger privacy levels.”

I leaned over her shoulder when she started scrolling down the page. Most of the recent posts were, “We’ll miss you!” the standard “R.I.P.” or song lyrics. I didn’t recognize any of her friends, but since she went to private school out of our district that wasn’t unusual. “It seems like she had a lot of friends.”

“Everyone has more friends once they’re dead. It’s like a fetish or something.” Ava clicked on her photos and said, “Wow.”

“Oh. Yeah, no. Why is she dressed like that?”

There were dozens of photos posted by Charlotte. In all of them, she was dressed pretty trashy. “Are those a costume? She’s probably one of those girls who liked to dress slutty for Halloween.” Ava enlarged a photo. “Look, that’s her uncle – Mr. Brady.” He stood next to Charlotte with his arm wrapped around her shoulder. They’re in front of a huge Christmas tree. Her dress seemed more appropriate, but still hit way above the knee and cut very low down the front.” Julia was right, I guess they were close.”

“Look at this one,” Ava said. “She’s holding a beer and standing next to her mom. Guess they were pretty lax on rules at her house.”

“My mom would ground me for a month if I tried something like that.”

“Mine, too. Once my brother got caught with three bottles of vodka under his bed. My dad made him pick up trash at the school parking lot on weekends for three months.” She made a face. “Lesson learned.”

“What do we know?” I asked, leaning back against the couch.

“That she likes to dress whorey, her uncle loved her and her family let her drink with them?”

“She told me her parents didn’t care what she did. They were too busy with their own lives.”

“I can see that. Could explain why she was so close to her aunt and uncle, I guess.”

I leaned closer and pointed to the screen. “Who’s that girl?”

Ava clicked on the name next to the picture. “She has Sarah Mae Martin listed as her sister, but I think it’s a joke, like how people put their friends down as family.” She scrolled through the photos. “There are a ton of photos of them together, and she left a lot of comments. Maybe we should try to talk to her.”

I studied the picture of Charlotte and Sarah Mae. Short cropped hair. Multiple earrings, including one in her nose, and a tattoo on her shoulder. The kind of girl that looked like she wouldn’t judge you or your problems. She may have been the perfect person for Charlotte to confide in. She may be the closest we can get to the truth.

&

“Have you been in here before?” Ava asked, following me down the tall shelves.

“Yeah,” I said. “Evan and I used to come here a lot.”

“Oh.” Ava’s forehead furrowed and she focused on the books in front of her. Sure she knew about the ghosts, but I guess it was weird to hear me talk about them so casually.

“It’s always pretty quiet here,” I continued. “We could whisper and no one bothered us.”

“Sounds… neat?”

“I guess,” I shrugged. “Anyway, I’m not really sure what I’m looking for.”

“Something on defeating ghosts? Right? Banishing evil spirits?”

Researching ghosts had been Ava’s idea. I never even thought about it, looking for something about how to get rid of Charlotte. As we walked down the aisles of the store, I began to suspect she had ideas of forming some kind of ghost-fighting team or something. Personally, I hoped to never fight another ghost again, but I was grateful for the company.

“Even if we find something useful in here, I doubt I’ll use it,” I said.

“Why’s that? It can’t hurt to have a little spiritual mojo on your side.”

“It just feels wrong. I don’t like having this antagonistic relationship with… them. I’m here to help. Not banish or whatever.”

Ava pushed her glasses back with her hand and shook her head. “I’m sure you’re right, but Charlotte doesn’t sound like the typical… one.” She glanced over her shoulder. “You may have to be more forceful.”

“We’ll see. I think the occult section is over here.” I turned the corner, running straight into someone carrying an armload of books. “Sorry.”

“Jane?”

The woman in front of me was tall and curvy with dark brown hair. I recognized her as the owner of the store, Camille. I met her at my parents’ New Year’s Eve party. “Oh, hi.”

“I thought I saw you come in the front door,” she pushed her glasses on the top of her head. “Can I help you find something?”

“Um…” I floundered. “I’m just looking…”

“Do you have anything about ghosts or supernatural spirits? Non-fiction,” Ava said, pushing me aside. “Really weird stuff. It’s kind of our thing – creepy, supernatural, spooky stuff.”