26. Chapter 26
Kylie
"Well, say hi to the hubs for me and have a good evening," I tell Gabriella, eyes darting to the clock in my kitchen, right behind my laptop camera. Its about to hit six o’clock and I don’t have more than my usual eight hours of work in me.
"You too, babes." She beams into her laptop camera and gives me a little finger wave. "Bye. Don’t let the clients’ bitching keep you up at night."
I end the call and my screen goes back to the campaign concept I was working on before Gabriella called me for a round of gossip, or as she calls it ‘team bonding.’ It was a welcome distraction because my client is…
a little over-involved with too little expertise to have an opinion, but stubborn as a mule.
I was barely a second away from chucking my laptop against the closest wall when his last e-mail came in, and with it the demand to throw all of my work and start from scratch.
Maybe I should have thrown it. I could have scared my ghost for once.
With a sigh, I close my laptop and lean my forehead against the cold wooden surface of my desk. Rain drums against my window and the branches of the maple tree in front of my house rustle in the wind.
The e-mail of doom hit my inbox on top of a day filled with meetings and other deadlines so I’m happy to sign out for the day.
I’ll throw some dinner into the microwave, watch the newest true crime documentation on my streaming platform of choice and cozy up with a blanket for the rest of the evening.
Ah right. And I’ll go on a short walk with Abby. Out into the cold, windy, pitch-black night. By the time we get back I’ll really deserve a nice hot chocolate. Spiked. And cookies.
Before I even get up, there's a loud knock on my door.
Huh? My eyes dart to the clock again. It’s dinner time. Who dares disturb me?
Abby is right by my side as I follow the knocking, opening my door to find… “Kieran?”
"Hey, neighbor." He shoots me a cheeky grin. Dick weasels right past his feet and into my house, as if he lives there, to say hi to Abby. “What’s up? Are you free?”
I step aside and open the door further to let him in, hiding an exhausted yawn behind my hand. "I’m free. Come on in." On the way in, he pushes Dick’s yellow rain coat into my hands.
“Don’t worry. I cleaned his muddy-ass paws outside and he’s dry.” His black hair is wet and plastered to his forehead, the leather jacket he shrugs out of dripping.
“Thank you.” I crinkle my nose. Right. Meaning a ‘short walk’ with Abby later is most definitely ending in a bath. Which means I get to clean my bathroom. Yay. "To what do I owe the pleasure?" I ask, hiding a yawn behind my hand and trudging to my kitchen.
"I want to chat with your ghost."
I stop. Slowly, I turn around to stare at him with arched eyebrows. Did I hear him right? Grinning, he holds up a box.
"You want to..." I blink at him slowly, trying to make sense of the words. "You want to ‘chat’ with my ghost?"
"Yeah.” He nods eagerly and takes a seat at my kitchen counter.
Dick and Abby are weaseling around the living room, playing a game only they know the rules of.
Apparently, it involves running a circle around my coffee table, then pressing their noses to the window and try to catch a raindrop.
“Kylie, I think we both think it’s Elizabeth. Right?”
I nod slowly. I’m not sure when he came to the conclusion, but I’m about ninety percent sure by now.
“I want confirmation, so we can tell everyone in town ‘we told you so.’ And also I always wanted to talk to a ghost. I bought a Ouija board off a shady-looking website. So it might or might not be cursed, I guess."
I eye the box suspiciously. A pit forms in my stomach and the hair in my neck stands up. Kieran keeps talking, oblivious to the heebie-jeebies I’m getting.
"At first, I wanted to do it at Nic's, but Chaos is a cat. I don't think she can communicate with a Ouija board."
There's a logical side to my brain that wants to ask him if he seriously thinks anything can communicate with a Ouija board.
However, I've been living with, presumably, a ghost for a while now.
All the slamming cupboards and cold gusts are too well-timed and seem too intentional for me to take them as coincidence.
"I don't know, Kieran," I mumble and cross my arms in front of my chest, leaning my back against the kitchen counter.
"Relax, we don't have to if you don't want to." He holds up a bottle. No idea where he hid it, but it’s most welcome. "Just in case, I also brought some wine so we can, you know, calm our nerves and all that."
All of a sudden, my stomach rumbles so loudly Kieran has to bite the inside of his cheek to refrain from laughing.
"How about dinner first?” Absentmindedly, I rub my stomach. “I’m starving and need to eat something before I make a decision. Food does much more to calm my nerves than a glass of wine could."
"Good idea.” He sets the bottle on the counter and rubs his hands together. “I haven't eaten yet either." Without waiting for an invitation, he waltzes right past me to my fridge and pulls the door open with gusto.
"So, what's on the menu? I see orange juice, vegetables, vegetables..." He grimaces. "Your fridge is entirely too healthy for my taste."
"Says the gym freak." I poke his biceps. Good thing he didn’t see my microwave meal, hidden behind a bunch of cheese. "What if I tell you I have enough leftover casserole for two people in the freezer?"
“What kind of casserole?” He narrows his eyes at me. “Zucchini? No thank you.”
“One I made when I was on my period. Trust me, it’s not healthy.”
"That, my friend-" He points at me, "is the winner, then. Throw on your oven, I’ll pop the bottle open."
I shake my head at him as he searches through my drawers to find a corkscrew.
“Compliments to the chef, this casserole is delicious,” he says with a full mouth, a string of cheese hanging from his lips and taps his fork against the cheese crust of the casserole piece on his plate.
"Thank you, thank you. The ingredients are cheese, bacon, pasta and, you guessed it, more cheese.” What can I say? Cheese is my main craving when I have my period.
Dick and Abby are hanging out by the living room window, making sure all is in order between my home and the lake. Occasionally, a soft ‘woof’ alerts us to a squirrel daring to cross their view.
They’re surprisingly calm considering the havoc wrecked in my living room only fifteen minutes ago as Kieran and I were heating up the food.
"So, why a Ouija board?" I nod at the box and take a bite. Damn, this casserole is as good as when I freshly made it. Shame I’ll never be able to replicate it because I measured with my heart instead of following a recipe.
"Because I’m curious." He shoots me a grin. "I’ve always wanted to try out a Oujia board but never had any friends to try it with. Now, Lauren and Nic scare way too easily, but you? At this point you’ve been cohabiting with a ghost for weeks and you’re barely fazed.”
Well, he does not know about the time I called Erik over because I was creeped out. Before I can decide whether I’d prefer to keep it this way, he continues.
“What if the ghost living with you is actually Svetty the Skelly and it turns out Svetty the Skelly is Elizabeth? Just think about it, Kylie!" He waves his fork through the air. "If we get a name, we're going to make Erik's life so much easier."
I stare at him and narrow my eyes. Unfortunately, this might be the argument to win me over. Erik has a lot on his plate and if I can make at least one of them go away, I think I could live with the heebie-jeebies a seance will give me.
"Do you really think he will base his investigation around answers we get from a Ouija board?" I tilt my head and tap my fork against my lip. Saying it out loud makes it sound more ridiculous than thinking it.
"Hey, who knows?” He shrugs and shoves another fork of casserole into his mouth. “Maybe the woman will tell us her name is Olga, and she traveled here from Scandinavia 500 years ago, then died a nice natural death in her forties, surrounded by her loved ones. Case closed."
I stare at him and sure hope my eyes convey the ‘do you really think it’d be that easy?’ I’m thinking.
"So, what if we talk to the ghost?" I ask and push a piece of pasta around on my plate. "Or if the board tells us it's not a ghost, but we summoned a demon? What if the answers are only gibberish? What if—"
"Kylie," he interrupts me, grinning. "Girl, you need to stop the what-ifs. They're not helpful to anyone. Have some fun! Take a risk!"
I let out a deep sigh and pinch the bridge of my nose. I’m pretty sure our definitions of ‘fun’ are very different. I’m sure he’d be just as, if not more, apprehensive as me, if it were his home we’re talking about.
"The less I know about whoever is living with me..." I make a vague gesture towards the living room. "...the easier I can ignore some unpleasant truths.”
“It could be a pervert ghost and the town cast her out because of it. You really wouldn’t want to know that?"
I stare at him deadpan. "You think I'm living with a lesbian peeping ghost?"
"You said it, not me." He lifts his hands defensively. “I’m only saying, if you know you’re living with a lesbian peeping ghost, you could call an exorcist.”
I can't help but roll my eyes. But now the picture is in my head and I’m replaying every slammed cabinet, every creaking door, wondering if he might have a point. Damn him.
"Okay. Eat up." I spear a piece of pasta with my fork. Apparently today we're finding out the name of my ghost roommate.
As soon as we're done, Kieran scoops up our plates and puts them in the sink, then grabs the Ouija board and sits down on the ground by the coffee table next to my couch.
"Do you have candles?" He pointedly glances around my living room. "You know, to set the mood." I shoot him a dry look. “Spooky mood. Get your mind out of the gutter.”