Chapter 4 Dove #4
Neither of us spoke. I wasn’t sure what to say. For the first time during a reading, I lost my words and I wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was her unbelieving presence, or the fact that I felt mildly self-conscious around her.
The way her cold green eyes locked onto the card made me wonder if she wanted to shoot laser beams at it.
She looked like she was waiting for the cards to open their mouths and speak directly to her.
She was carrying pain, I decided, feeling my ire toward her soften slightly. I mean, we all were. We all carried some form of pain or trauma that guided the bulk of our words and actions. But she… she was gripping something so tightly inside her, and it was eating her alive.
Ellis blinked suddenly, as if snapping out of a trance, and cleared her throat, making me jump as those vivid green eyes locked onto mine.
“Where’s the rest of the show, then?” she snapped. “Crystal balls? Will you curse me if I leave early?”
I raised a brow, pursing my lips. “Only if you’re rude about it. So, it’s not looking good for you right now.”
She snorted and got to her feet. “This is all bullshit. I’m done.”
I don’t know what possessed me to push her. Normally, when confronted with a nonbeliever, you just let them go on their way. But something in the back of my mind was practically screaming not to let her storm out of here.
I stood, too, a rush of unidentifiable emotion surging through me.
“What is it about the cards that gets to you, Ellis?” I asked, clutching my grandmother’s deck like it was a lifeline. “Were you this affronted when your friend used to read them for you? Do you truly not believe in it, or do you just hate how much sense they make?”
Her lips parted, eyes widening in slight surprise, but no words came out.
“You don’t like being challenged,” I continued with a shrug. “You said so yourself, you like facts. Reality. Except we’re two cards in, and I think we’re diving headfirst into your reality.”
“You don’t know anything about me,” she bit out, her voice cold as she folded her arms. “Maybe you think you’ve got something on me because you people are trained to read body language to cover for you when those stupid cards come up.
But if you think you know anything about me—or who I am—you are sorely mistaken. ”
My skin tingled, and my heart was racing. I wondered for a moment if Ida could hear us—we were definitely loud—but then, without warning, the wind chimes rattled again, more forcefully this time. The candles flickered violently, as if a real gust of wind had blown through the room.
The sharp, sudden clinking of the chimes echoed in my ears, setting my pulse hammering. Then, just as I registered the sound, each candle began to sputter out.
One by one.
The wind chimes stilled.
All I could hear was my own heavy breathing—and Ellis’s sharp gasps—before the darkness swallowed the room whole.
“What the hell?” Ellis said, her voice too loud in the thick silence that had blanketed us.
And then, just as suddenly as the flames had vanished, every candle reignited, each one whooshing back to life in perfect, eerie sync.
Ellis screamed.
I swore, my heart thudding like a drumline in my chest as an obnoxious laugh echoed through the room. My blood chilled. My eyes dropped to the chair beside the one Ellis had just vacated.
A girl sat there. The same one who’d entered the shop with her earlier. With her long pink hair and clubbing outfit, she sat poised, one leg crossed over the other, casual as anything. Her laughter faded as she flicked a pink strand off her shoulder.
I looked at Ellis, only to realize her face was buried in her hands. Had she been like that the whole time?
“Ellis,” I said on a breathless laugh, feeling ridiculous. “It’s fine. It’s just your friend. The one you came in with. The candles must’ve been a fluke. Maybe the air vents.”
“My friend?” Ellis spluttered, pulling her hands away. She blinked hard, like she needed to focus. When her eyes finally landed on the pink-haired girl, they widened. “What—what do you mean? I don’t have a—I don’t know her. What the fuck is this?”
Her last words were screeched so loudly I winced, silently praying no customers were in the shop.
“You—you came in with her—”
Ellis cut me off, nearly hyperventilating, as the pink-haired diva looked between us with a self-satisfied smirk.
“This is a prank,” Ellis snapped. “Some sick, twisted shit. Is this what you do? Plant people? Some kind of scare tactic? You’re messing with me!”
“All right,” the pink-haired girl said loudly, clapping her hands once. “Listen, this girl owns a cute shop, but she’s no medium, honey.”
Medium? My brain snagged on the word. I frowned. She wasn’t… No. It couldn’t be.
“Okay, let me spell it out for you both,” the girl said with an annoyed sigh.
“I’m the ghost of Christmas past. Just kidding.
” She laughed at her own joke, but when neither of us reacted, she rolled her eyes.
“Tough crowd. All right. Listen, I expected a little more fanfare here. Do you have any idea how long I’ve been trying to get you to hear me? To see me?”
She was looking directly at Ellis, whose hands were now trembling at her sides, her entire body shaking as pure fear took hold.
I, on the other hand, was more confused than anything.
“I’ve been stuck to you since they put my heart in your ungrateful chest, Ellis,” the girl said, her voice laced with razor-edged amusement and fury. Her eyes flashed. “I’ve been in your ear since you woke up. Do you know how wild it was watching my heart go into someone else’s chest cavity?”
“What?” I breathed, disbelief crashing over me like a wave.
“Okay, well, I mean, pretty much all my organs were given away,” the girl said, her tone dismissive. “Honestly, it was like Build-A-Bear for people.”
Ellis sucked in a shuddering breath. “W-what are you saying?”
The girl smiled—almost kindly this time—as she raised her arms. “This is weird for me too, you know. Considering you’re walking around with my heart inside you. But here we are. Out of everyone who got a piece of me, you were the one I got stuck to.”
Silence filled the room, and my skin tingled as Ellis’s body seemed to lock up. Her mouth opened, as if she might say something, but no sound came out.
My brain scrambled to reconcile the last few minutes—trying to make it make sense and failing—because this wasn’t a performance. There were no wires. No smoke. No mirrors.
This was real.
There was a ghost sitting in my reading room.
My pulse roared in my ears as a strange mix of terror and exhilaration swept through me.
A sudden clatter yanked me out of my hyperfocused stare, and I looked down just in time to see Ellis sprawled on the floor.
She’d fainted.