Chapter 16 Collins #4
“You good?” he asked. The woman reached out and dragged her hand from Brady’s shoulder to his wrist. I watched the chill run through him.
“She’s here,” I said, and the woman’s eyes snapped to mine. An angry line formed between her eyebrows as she looked at me. Could she hear me?
“Wait, what?”
“The Lady in White,” I said. The line between her brows deepened. Okay, maybe she didn’t like that moniker, but I didn’t know her actual name. She put her hands possessively on Brady’s shoulders.
He turned his head to look behind him. Of course, he couldn’t see anything. “You’re freaking me out for real this time, Collins.”
“What’s your name?” I asked the woman, who continued to stare at me as she ran her hands over Brady’s neck and shoulders. I didn’t recognize the feeling in the pit of my stomach, but I wanted her ghost-hands off him.
“Can you feel her?” I brought my attention back to Brady.
He stilled. “Wait. She’s touching me?” His voice was ever so slightly shaky. I nodded.
“What do I do?”
I reached out and grabbed his hand. “Keep moving,” I said. I was wary of this one—that didn’t happen very often. I tugged on his hand, but he didn’t budge.
“Collins.” His eyes were wide. “I can’t move.”
“What?”
“I can’t move. When I go to walk, there’s like this weird shooting pain up my leg.” The Lady in White was smiling. I watched as she pushed herself through his body until she was in front of him. “Something just happened,” he said. “What just happened?”
“I don’t think you want to know,” I muttered. The woman wrapped her arms around Brady’s neck and laid her head on his shoulder.
Was this why I’d never seen her before? Because I didn’t have a man with me? Was she using Brady as a stand-in for the lover who never showed up?
“He’s not yours,” I said to the woman. “He’s not the one you’re waiting for. He’s, um, he’s mine.”
Her eyes narrowed at me, and she tilted her head toward me—like she had trouble hearing what I was saying.
“He’s mine,” I said again, with a little more confidence.
“We’re just here to see the river, and then we’ll leave.
” The woman put a hand over her ear, like my words were hurting her.
When she opened her mouth, no sound came out.
“Please,” I said. “I know you’re waiting for someone.
But this isn’t him.” The woman’s nostrils flared.
“I promise,” I said. The woman looked up at Brady and nuzzled her head into his chest before she stepped back.
“He looks like him.” I heard her. Holy shit, I heard her. Her voice was far away and staticky, but I could hear it.
“He’s not the one you’re waiting for,” I tried again, but I also wanted her to understand I empathized with her. “What’s his name?” I asked quickly. “Maybe I can find him, and tell him you’re here—that you’re waiting for him.”
This time, I didn’t hear any words—only static.
Brady squeezed my hand, and I squeezed his back. I looked at him and tried to communicate without talking. Try again, I thought. Try walking again.
Brady understood and took a step forward. I nearly collapsed in relief. “Thank you,” I said to her. “I know you’re tired of being alone. I promise I’ll try to find him.”
Brady pulled me against him and let out a sigh of relief. I didn’t tell him that we weren’t out of the woods yet. The woman’s eyes stayed on us as Brady buried his head in my shoulder.
I saw the longing in her face—the sadness. Her mouth opened at the same time a gust of wind went through the trees. The wind wailed, blowing hard enough that it nearly knocked me to my knees.
And then she was gone.
“Oh my god,” I breathed. Brady squeezed me tighter.
“I felt her leave,” Brady said. “In the wind—I felt her blow away.”
I pushed back so I could look at him. I put my hands on either side of his face, searching his eyes for any signs of harm. “Are you okay?”
“Fine.” He nodded. “It was crazy—my body got so cold, like my bones were frosting over, and then everything started to hurt.”
“She went through you,” I said. “Temperature changes are common, but they’re usually more like…environmental than internal.”
Brady shook his head. “That was fucking crazy,” he said. “Can we get out of here?”
I took a deep breath. “We’re only about thirty steps away from what I wanted to show you,” I said.
He swallowed. “Do you think she’ll come back?”
“No,” I said honestly. “I think we’re safe. And if she does, I’ll try the flashlight trick.”
“The flashlight trick?”
“I told you that ghosts don’t like harsh, artificial light. I have a high-powered light in the daypack. I’ll shine it right in her eyes.”
“Why didn’t you do that now ?” he asked.
“Honestly,” I said, “I was, um, I was too worried about you, I guess. I…forgot.” Brady reached up and put one of his hands over mine.
“She heard you, right?”
“I think so,” I said. “And I heard her, too.”
“You did?” Brady’s eyes brightened.
“Kind of. It was like she was talking to me through a walkie-talkie, though. I missed most of it, but the parts that I got…” The parts that I got made my heart swell up in my chest, made the hope ember flare up in a way that pushed out some of the darkness.
Brady smiled, like he knew how much it all meant to me. “Then me getting weirdly trapped by a ghost was worth it,” he said. “Okay. We can go to wherever you’re taking me on the condition that we run as fast as we can down the mountain afterward.”
“Deal.” I nodded. When he took his hand off mine, I grabbed it, so we walked hand in hand until I saw the water ahead.
I turned to Brady, whose eyes were looking ahead at the water.
“Okay,” I said, getting his attention. “When the trees end, the ground underneath us also ends.” His eyes met mine, and widened.
I could almost hear him thinking, Where the fuck did you bring me, Collins? As if the ghost run-in wasn’t enough.
“So watch your step,” I said with a grin.
With only a few steps left, I could see the rock that protruded out of the river. That was where Brady and I wanted to be. To get there, you just had to jump the eighteen inches between the cliff and the rock, which was just big enough to hold two people.
Before I could take the leap over to the rock, Brady grabbed my waist and pulled me back to him. I liked the weight of his hands on my hips. “What the fuck?” he asked over the roar of the water. “You were not about to just jump onto that rock. Not after what just happened.”
I turned my head to face him, and I felt his grip tighten. “It’s easy,” I said. “I promise.” We were close again. It occurred to me that all I would have to do is push up on my tiptoes and my mouth would be on his.
A blush crept up my cheeks, and I quickly looked away from him. “You can’t be serious,” he said. I felt his breath at my ear.
Instead of answering and potentially giving away how being so close to him was affecting me, I put my hands over his and gently pushed them off. He moved them immediately, and I hopped over the gap.
I turned back and held my hand out to him. His eyes were so firmly planted on me that I don’t think he realized what was around us yet. I watched his chest rise and fall with a deep breath before he hopped the gap, too, and took my hand upon landing.
“Look,” I said as loud as I could. “Look around.”
I saw it when he realized. This part of the Sweetwater River was like no other.
It was where it was the steepest and fastest moving.
It had eroded into the side of the mountain like the sharpest turn of a waterslide—that point where the momentum would push you up the side, and you’d almost flip over.
From where we stood on the rock, it was like we were looking straight ahead to a wall of rushing water.
Brady’s mouth dropped open. His blue eyes flitted all around us, taking it in. He was totally and completely awestruck. The look on his face was pure and unadulterated wonder.
For the first time in a long time, I wished I had my camera.