14. Hudson
“Do you dare me?”
The freckle-faced redhead on the branches in front of me glanced back with the biggest, most mischievous grin.
And it made my lungs ache with a pain that speared into me like a harpoon.
My eyes flew open, and I gasped, gripping my chest and panting hard before I realized it’d all been a dream. Shaking off the damp sheet that was stuck to my elbow, I slowly sat up and glanced around my dimly lit room where daylight was coming in around my window blinds.
“Fuck,” I muttered, wincing at the tightness cramming itself into the inside of my brain.
I smacked my lips over the nasty dryness in my mouth. Then, I ran my tongue over my teeth before groaning miserably and crawling out of bed. Hoping the painkillers were still in the kitchen, I shuffled wearily toward the door, grabbing a shirt as I went and pulling it on.
In the hall, I found Oaklynn and Damien’s room shut, letting me know they were still in bed. Wondering what time it was, I glanced down at my watch, glad I had it back but also wincing over the fact that I’d only gotten it back because I had to have brunch with Genesis this morning.
And with that realization, the pressure in my head turned into a full-fledged headache.
Once I reached the kitchen, I drew to an abrupt halt when I found Parker once again visiting, sitting at the table exactly where he had the morning before and sipping coffee as he played on his laptop.
Everything was so eerily similar to the way it had been yesterday that a wave of déjà vu almost knocked me on my ass.
“The fuck are you doing here?” I demanded, only to wince because dammit, that was the very thing I’d asked him yesterday morning too, wasn’t it?
Unless it was yesterday morning again, and I was stuck in some kind of wonky time loop, like in Groundhog Day, where I was going to be forced to repeat the last twenty-four hours over and over for who knew how long.
Except, no, there was no fancy buffet of catered food spread across the counters today. That was different, thank God. Plus, I was wearing my watch.
“I’m here for you,” Parker answered, actually pausing whatever he was doing on his computer and looking up from the screen to give me his full, undivided attention.
“Oh yeah?” I asked as I started toward the counter. “That sounds ominous. What’d I do this time?”
Opening a drawer, I pulled out a bottle of pain pills, only to realize it was empty. Cursing under my breath, I chucked it across the room toward the trash can and dug inside the drawer again until I struck gold and found a second bottle.
Behind me, Parker didn’t answer my question but instead asked, “What’re you doing there?”
I turned to send him a funny look as I popped open the lid and sprinkled a pair of pills into my palm. “What’s it look like? I’m taking some painkillers. My head’s killing me after y’all got me so wasted at my birthday party last night.”
Then I tipped my head back and took the pills dry.
“Except your birthday party wasn’t last night,” Parker countered, watching me with discerning, squinted eyes. “It was the night before last.”
I paused, wincing through that thought before I realized, shit, he was right. This wasn’t Groundhog Day. It was Sunday, and I had to meet Genesis in just a few hours and then go to work and get my first six-month review from her dad.
“So why do you have a headache?” Parker pressed, dragging me back to the moment.
Resting against the counter to get comfortable, I crossed my arms over my chest and sassed, “Probably because I have a trespasser in my kitchen demanding to know why I have a fucking headache. Gah. You should understand hangovers better than anyone.”
But as soon as I said that, I realized this was most definitely not a hangover I was experiencing because I hadn’t drunk anything last night. I’d been too busy going through Faith’s apartment and overhauling her life to think about alcohol or pressure or any of that shit.
I had actually felt pretty damn good all night long. Almost better than ever. And I’d had fun pranking her, too.
Her middle-of-the-night call had been the cherry on top of it all. I’d gone to bed feeling more alive and inside my own body than I had in…I don’t even know how long.
But this morning—this morning was a whole new day. And it had started out majorly sucking.
When I realized Parker was giving me the oddest stare, I hissed, “What?”
He watched me for a moment longer before saying, “You were really shitty to me yesterday morning.”
God. I did not have the temperament for this kind of conversation right now.
After pinching the bridge of my nose, I asked, “So what? You came over today to demand an apology?”
“Fuck, man,” he rasped. “You know you never have to issue any kind of apology to me.”
“Then what?” I demanded.
“They’re back, aren’t they?” he asked quietly. “Your headaches.”
I froze cold as dread rushed up the center of my back. Parker’s eyes filled with a mixture of pity and worry. And when I didn’t answer him soon enough—just stared back, unable to speak—he very slowly rasped, “Hudson. Are your headaches back?”
Before I could answer, Damien hurried into the kitchen, looking harried.
“Hey,” he said, wiping a nervous hand through his hair. “Ive, man, you got a minute?”
I stepped away from the counter and spread my arms wide to invite him to join us—and interrupt the conversation Parker wanted to have with me. “Hell, I have all the minutes,” I answered. “What’s up, brother?”
Damien glanced toward the exit of the kitchen before he turned back and crossed his arms over his chest. Then he leaned my way as he kept his voice low. “Oaklynn woke up gasping this morning from a bad dream. For the second night in a row.”
My lips parted before I found my voice and could answer, “Okay. And…why are you telling me this?”
But I had a bad feeling I already knew why. His eyes apologized to me before he said, “She couldn’t remember what the dream had been about yesterday morning,” he started, and I swallowed thickly, not sure if I could handle listening to what he had to say. “But this morning,” he went on, “she said she was climbing up into a tree behind some boy between eight to ten years old. And he had bright red hair with freckles all over his face and arms.”
“The fuck?” Parker murmured, growing alarmed now, too. He sprang from his chair to stand with me and Damien.
“Holy shit,” Alec breathed from the doorway of the kitchen, making me jump because I hadn’t seen him come in. “It’s just like how you described Brett’s?—”
“Yes, thank you,” I broke in, cutting him off there. “I hadn’t realized the similarities.”
Damien and Parker glanced at each other with a knowing look full of worry, and then Damien cleared his throat before continuing.
“Anyway, Oaklynn says that once she and the boy reached the top of the tree, they talked for a while as if they were best friends. They were excited about the Grand Theft Auto V game that was supposed to come out in a few months, and together, they tried to figure out what they’d have to do all summer to raise the money for it.”
I pressed a fist to my mouth, remembering that very conversation I’d had with Brett as if it’d been yesterday.
Parker and Alec looked at me with worry while Damien and I kept staring at each other.
“Then the redhead climbed a few more branches away from her before he shimmied himself out onto this one limb and held his arms out to his sides as he stood up like he was going to jump toward the limbs of another nearby tree.”
Grief swamped me. I could still picture him balancing himself like that perfectly.
“She said she called out to him in warning, but he only glanced back at her and snickered, ‘Dare me?’ So she rolled her eyes and sarcastically answered, ‘Yeah. Break your neck. Please.’ And he shrugged before he turned forward again and just…jumped.”
“Damn,” Parker breathed, glancing at me with a betrayed squint. “You never said you were being sarcastic when you told him to jump.”
“Yeah,” Alec agreed. “You always made it sound as if the whole thing had been your idea and you’d really egged him into it. But that—that was more like you telling him not to be a dumbass and to stop fooling around already.”
Emotions swamped me for a second before I was able to shake my head and huff out a bitter laugh. “Yeah, well, either way, I told him to jump. And he did. So…” My intentions back then didn’t seem to mean shit now, since Brett was still dead.
My gaze strayed to Damien. “Did she—did Oaklynn see how he landed?”
Damien nodded with a sympathetic cringe. “Yeah. She, uh, she’s pretty upset. She’d never seen anyone die before. Especially not like that.”
Yeah.
That metal fence post had impaled him right through the chest.
“You ever tell her how Dunham died?” Parker asked Damien.
Damien shook his head. “I just told her who he lost.” His gaze sought mine. “Did you?”
I snorted. “Fuck no.”
“So Oaklynn has retrocognition now?” Alec asked slowly.
The rest of us blinked at him before Parker said, “Retro-what?”
“The ability to see past events.” Alec shrugged and rolled his eyes. “Keene’s been blabbing about his psychic research to me all week, so I’ve unwillingly been learning all the terms and what they mean.”
“I mean…” Damien lifted one shoulder, not debasing the idea. “It’s not totally impossible. She overheard a conversation that my sister must’ve had on the phone with her killer ten years after she was dead. That’s how we got the name Josh in the first place and were finally able to catch Thalia’s murderer.”
“Because your ghost of a sister wanted her to hear it,” Parker argued. “Oaklynn’s a ghost girl. That’s her specialty. Not retro-whatever.”
“What’re you saying, then?” Alec pondered. “That Brett’s ghost just stopped by last night and decided to—I don’t know—pop into Oaklynn’s dreams with a quick hey, let me give you a gruesome visual of how I died?”
“But why would he come here?” Damien asked, shaking his head in confusion. “I never knew him. He never came to this house. The only thing connecting him to this place would be…”
Three pairs of eyes shifted my way.
Fuck.
I blew out a breath and lifted my hands as I admitted, “Okay, fine. I had the same fucking dream last night. It’s what woke me up this morning. And yesterday morning too.”
“Dream sharing,” Alec murmured in awe as he nodded slowly. “Wicked.”
“Yeah, it’s fucking great,” I muttered, scowling at him. “Now how the hell do I get it to stop? And how the hell did I make it start, in the first place?”
“Uh…” A stumped Alec lifted his finger. “Let me see if Keene’s read anything about that?”
As he pulled his phone up from his pocket and began to text, Parker sniffed in dismay. “What? Is the horny little fucker still at the waitress’s place today?” Then, he lifted his hand cautiously in my direction as if to calm me down. “Not your waitress.”
I rolled my eyes, and Alec grunted, “Yeah. Two nights in a row now. They’re having a pretty good run, huh?”
When I hissed out a sigh and rubbed at my forehead, agitated, Damien pulled back in alarm. “What’re you doing?”
I paused and glanced up in confusion. “What?”
“You’re rubbing your head.”
“Oh yeah,” Parker answered for me, motioning in my direction as he spoke to Damien. “And his headaches are back, too.”
I growled at him for just announcing that so blithely. “How did you even fucking know that?” I demanded.
He rolled his eyes. “Because it was fucking obvious. You’re turning all sarcastic and bitter and rude. Like me.”
Damien nodded in agreement. “You did just snap at Alec.”
I released an irritated breath, having no patience for this. There were real problems at hand like Oaklynn sharing my dreams and the damn pressure returning.
“Because he was being annoying,” I argued.
Damien and Parker exchanged another knowing glance that just…grated on my nerves. Then they turned back to me. “Younger’s always annoying,” Parker said. “And it’s never bothered you before.”
“Hey.” Alec lifted his face, clearly offended. “I am not… Am I?”
“And you got all territorial over Faith yesterday when you thought Keene had hooked up with her,” Parker went on, ignoring Alec.
“No,” I countered. “I didn’t.”
Parker glanced at Damien. “He totally did. This expression crossed his face that looked exactly like the one you get when one of us gets going about how hot Vargas is. Like, I’d really wish she’d come strolling out of your room some morning in nothing but a pair of panties and…”
He didn’t even bother to finish the sentiment.
Damien’s features shifted, filling with possessive warning, and Parker pointed at him. “Yeah. That look, right there.” Returning his gaze to me, he said, “Honestly, he’s almost as bad off as that time we stopped by his place during his drug phase, and he threatened us with his dinky, small blade. You remember that?”
Damien gripped the back of his head with both hands. “You mean, the last time we saw him before he tried to kill himself?”
“Yeah. Exactly. He… Oh fuck,” Parker breathed in horror as he swiveled in my direction.
An eerie silence followed as Alec, Damien, and Parker stared at me as if they thought I was going to drag out a kitchen knife and start sawing on myself right there.
I lifted my hands. “I’m not going to,” I assured them.
But that apparently wasn’t a good enough reassurance.
Within seconds, Alec had stopped texting Keene and was straight-up calling him, while Parker was on the phone with Thane, and Damien was summoning Foster.
And so it began.