Chapter 9. Tessa #2
Beyond her, the three other creatures have noticed our tussle. They glide over, arms grasping to pull me to them. They want to drag me out into the fields. They want to use me until there’s nothing left. I’m sure of it.
And then a voice rings out from behind her, clear and sharp, breaking our tug-of-war.
“Dust to dust, be gone. You are not welcome here.” The figure whips around, a sneer on her withered lips, before her body becomes insubstantial again, dissolving into the breeze.
As quickly as the four creatures appeared, they vanish, the whispers on the mist dying with them like a wave carried out to sea.
All that remains is an elderly man standing amid the blue cornflowers, thistles, and daisies, dressed in his Sunday best—tweed hat, brown slacks, and a buttoned vest. He studies me from across the road, taking my measure.
I freeze. How can he see me? Where did he come from? He doesn’t look that spry, and yet here he stands, having somehow traveled down this lonely country lane by himself in a matter of minutes. I have so many questions.
“How did you—” I begin, but then a familiar deep voice cuts me off.
“You are not going to believe this.” Reed charges down the path. What is happening? I thought he was stuck inside. I whip my head back to the road, but the old man is gone. What? How is he so fast?
He knew the smoke people were there, and what to say to make them to leave. Something about dust and be gone. I’m pretty sure he knew I was dead. And yet …
“So,” Reed huffs, jogging over to me. “I figured it out. I watched how you approached the door, kind of taking it at a run. And it worked.” He looks entirely too pleased with himself.
Like I beat him for a moment, but he’s caught up to me and now we’re on even footing again.
“This place is bigger than I realized. It took me a while to find you.”
“Dammit, Reed! Couldn’t you see I was in the middle of something?” My knees finally give out and I collapse onto the dirt.
“Whoa.” He takes a step forward then pauses, as if he’s unsure what to do with me. “It looked like you were daydreaming. Are you okay?”
“Do I look okay?” I gesture with trembling hands toward the road behind me. “You’re telling me you didn’t see any of that?”
“Any of what?”
I let out an exasperated sigh. “Oh my God, I’m going to throttle you.”
He flinches. “Didn’t you see me waving before? I have news. I had to figure out how to come out here to tell you. Look.” He holds up his phone.
Great. So he’s here to gloat about picking things up now. I initially hoped he’d searched me out because he knew I was in trouble, but nope, he just found something he’d lost.
“So what? You found your phone. Yay for you. Good luck making any calls.” I slowly stand, annoyed, as my strength returns. “Meanwhile I’m out here being haunted by smoke people and trying to talk to some strange old man who could see me.”
“What?” For the first time, he glances over my shoulder out to the road. “Smoke people?”
“Yes, smoke people, creepy swirling smoke people who came out of that mist. One of them grabbed my arm and demanded I let her inside and I’m kind of freaking out right now.” As I say it aloud, I realize how terrified I still am. My hands won’t stop shaking.
“Hey. Okay. Okay. Deep breath. Hang on.” He walks over to the gate and peeks out nervously. “Do you think they’re coming back?” He’s worried about his own neck. Figures.
“Seriously, Reed?” I shake my head. “You’re really shit at comforting people.
No, they’re all gone now.” My arm still stings where her decaying nails dug into my flesh.
I start pacing, the adrenaline finally catching up with me.
“So, you can see why I really don’t care that you found your phone because I found some old dude who knew how to make the smoke people go away but I didn’t get to ask him about it because you interrupted us and I’m pretty sure he could see me, and I have no idea how, and my energy’s all depleted from where some creature tried to siphon off my life force—or my not-life force because I’m dead, and I just want something to make sense! ”
He watches me retrace a path between the carriage house and a large oak, concern etched onto his brow. “I’m sorry that happened to you. I should have said that before. You just … took me off guard, that’s all. You have every right to be upset. I’d probably have pissed myself.”
I let out a small laugh. My emotions are all over the place. I’m not used to getting any sympathy from Reed; under normal circumstances he’d be picking apart my story or suggesting my imagination was getting the better of me. But it seems like he believes me.
“It makes my skin crawl a little,” he adds, “because there have been a couple nights downstairs when I swear I heard whispers outside.”
I come to a halt. “And you didn’t think to tell me this?”
“I told you earlier, I was about to come find you.”
“Was that before or after you started messing with your guitar case?”
A blush creeps along his cheekbones. “I wasn’t sure if I’d actually heard it, okay?
I haven’t been able to sleep. I thought my mind was playing tricks on me.
And I swear I was about to come tell you, but then there you were downstairs and our families arrived, and I never got the chance.
Maybe if you’d come back indoors like I’d asked, I could have mentioned it, but no, you ran off on your own. ”
I bristle but don’t want to get into another argument with him. “Well, it’s them. The smoke people definitely whisper. They want something. From us or … maybe from this place.”
He nods slowly. “It doesn’t sound like they can get past the gate onto the grounds, so that’s reassuring.
” He takes a few steps toward me, closing the distance.
“We’ll figure it out. If there’s something here they want, then we’ll uncover it and decide what to do next.
Why don’t you start at the beginning and tell me everything that happened? ”
I glance at Reed, finding more warmth in his dark eyes than I’d been expecting. I’m not alone in this, and that thought is far more comforting than I realized: Even if he is my nemesis and drives me up the wall, he’s in this with me.
“Look, I know we tried avoiding each other, but maybe we’re better off teaming up,” he says.
“I mean, who knows why we’re here? We can’t have been the first to die in this house.
You’d think this place would be flooded with ghosts if everybody stays, but clearly that’s not the case.
Like … why did we remain? And we don’t know what that thing was that grabbed you or what it was after.
But we’re smart, Tessa. You’ve discovered things, I’ve discovered things.
We could work together, put our differences aside for a bit, and see if we can figure out what’s going on here.
” He fishes for something in his pocket. “Because I just found—”
“Oh my God, there are more important things than your phone.” That didn’t last long. I’m already frustrated with him, but he reaches out to stop me from marching back to the house.
“Wait. It’s not my phone.”
“So?” I shrug.
“Have you been able to pick anything up in this place?” He holds it aloft.
“Yeah, I get it. Rub it in my face. I’m so special, look, I can pick things up now.” I take a deep breath. Maybe that was uncalled for.
“No, that’s what I’m trying to tell you. I can’t.” He looks at me significantly. “But I could pick this up.”
That gets my attention.
Our eyes hold. Like me, Reed’s never shied away from a challenge. Sometimes I wonder if I’ve been one of those challenges.
“Okay,” I acquiesce. He’s right. He’s discovered things I haven’t. Maybe it doesn’t always have to be a competition between us. “We can work together, assuming I can go more than five minutes without wanting to strangle you.”
“Eight-minute trial run, then?” he asks, that disarming dimple back.
“Fine.” I sigh, offering my hand to shake. “A trial run.”
When he grasps my palm, my breath catches and the briefest smile flits across his lips.
As we fall in step together toward the house, I sneak a glance his way.
He’s focused on the trail, his mouth moving slightly like he’s thinking out loud to himself.
I’m tempted to laugh, but it’s also kind of endearing.
I’ve never so much as wanted to team up on a group project with Reed, but there’s no denying he’s brilliant.
I suppose if I had to be trapped here with someone, I could do much worse.