35. Hudson
Turned out, all six of my best friends answered the call.
Alec left in the middle of a final; Foster skipped out of football practice—and the idiot had playoffs starting in three fucking days; Thane left work, telling everyone he had a family emergency; Parker groused that I yanked him from a perfectly good shit; and I had no idea what Keene and Damien had been doing, but they were here now too.
All seven of us had gathered at Thane’s house.
Crowding the living room, six bodies paced in front of where I slouched on the couch, hugging a pillow to my chest because it still felt funky in there.
“So Faith can see ghosts too,” Oaklynn’s voice murmured thoughtfully through Damien’s phone, where he’d pulled her up in a FaceTime call almost instantly upon arrival so she could be here for me without physically being here. “I wonder if she can tell if they’re ghosts at first sight or not.”
Damien glanced into the screen and slashed a hand across his neck. “Probably not a good time to ask.”
“Oh, right. Sorry.”
“I still can’t believe she didn’t tell you,” Foster announced, shaking his head in amazement.
“I can’t believe there are multiple types of sensitives,” Alec spoke up in wonder. “I mean, positives and negatives. It’s the perfect explanation, and yet I never would’ve thought of it. This would make such an awesome movie.” He seemed to get lost in his thoughts a moment before he added, “Did your headaches really go away when you were around her? And you never noticed the pattern?”
“I got a little too distracted to notice whenever I was around her,” I answered. “All my thoughts seemed to swarm below the belt buckle, in her presence, instead of above the neckline.”
“Man, I still can’t believe you were actually able to score with her,” Keene whistled in awe. “Ya lucky ass.”
“Yes, I feel so lucky right now,” I told him dryly.
It’d been hours since we’d assembled, and I’d filled my boys in on absolutely everything that had gone down in the past few days.
“And you…” Ignoring my reply, Keene turned to Parker with an amazed shake of his head. “You got to make out with her first?” Pointing between us, he asked, “Did she say which one of you was a better kisser?”
“Dude,” Parker scolded, smacking the freshman on the back of his head. “Really?”
Keene lifted his hands as if to ask what he’d said wrong, while Thane on the other side of the room snapped his phone shut. “The priest just hit the city limits. He’ll be here soon.”
A beat of anxious silence filled the room before Oaklynn’s voice came from Damien’s phone. “Does anyone else feel as nervous about this as I do?”
Foster answered her with a strangled laugh as he ran a hand through his blond hair. “Times that by seven, and you can imagine how thick the air is in here, sis.”
“Damn,” Oaklynn breathed. Then, she lifted her voice and called, “It’s going to be okay, Hudson. Don’t you worry. These boys aren’t going to let anything bad happen to you.”
When Damien turned his phone my way so I could see his girlfriend’s face on the screen, I blew her a kiss and said, “Thank you, Dimples. I’m sorry you can’t be here. But hey…” I lifted my hands, determined to find a bright side. “Even if this doesn’t work out, at least I’m finally free of ol’ what’s her face, huh?”
She laughed over the joke, only to wipe her eyes when they flooded with tears, “Yeah,” she said. “Okay, turn me away now.”
Damien did so immediately and walked out of the room to finish talking to her in a low, soothing voice.
Alec came over and finally plopped down next to me, while Thane hiked his foot up onto the edge of the couch cushion on my other side and rested his forearm on his knee as he peered close. “How’re you doing, bud? Everything okay in there?”
“Because you look like absolute shit,” Parker finished for him.
“Gee, thanks,” I muttered with a weak, sleepy smile.
“But, seriously,” Foster pressed, crowding in with the rest of them. “How do you feel? You have these bags under your eyes that are dark enough to make it look as if you haven’t slept in a week.”
“Did the second ghost wipe you out that much?” Keene demanded.
With a shake of my head, I admitted, “I don’t know. I can’t tell if it was that or…Faith.” Gripping my hair, I closed my eyes and let my head fall back against the couch’s backrest. “I still can’t believe she didn’t fucking tell me.”
“Dude,” Keene announced, and I could hear in his voice that he was probably lifting his hands and shaking his head as he backed away. “If falling in love messes you up that much, count me out.”
“Amen,” Parker agreed.
I opened my eyes and met Ohrley’s gaze, frankly startled that he didn’t feel as traumatized as I did. He’d had his mouth on her too. Why hadn’t he felt the pull? The spark? That undeniable urge to just…be around her?
But all he did was cringe at me as if he thought I was a freak for daring to care about someone.
“She’s worth it,” I promised the group still hovering around me just as my phone rang with an incoming call.
My gut tightened instinctively, and I started to hope it wasn’t Genesis until I remembered, oh yeah, she was done with me. I was free from that problem, at least.
But the name I saw made my stomach clench in an entirely different way. “It’s Faith,” I told the guys.
In answer, they glanced at each other, then started to scatter, pushing away from the couch and escaping Eisner’s living room to give me some privacy.
Remaining on the couch, I tipped my head back again and answered the call with a lazy, “Hey, Stalker.”
On the other end of the line, she released a heavy breath before quietly replying, “Hey. I—I didn’t know if you’d answer.”
Tossing the pillow I’d been cradling aside so I could sit forward and rest my elbows on my knees, I asked, “Why wouldn’t I answer?”
“I don’t know,” she said in a small voice. “Because you hate me?”
God. Just hearing her think that cut into me. Gripping the side of my head with one hand, I shook it adamantly. “I don’t hate you, Faith. Not at all.”
“So you’re just…mad at me?” She sounded hopeful about that prospect.
But I had to admit, “I don’t even know if I’m mad. I’m just…” Fuck, I didn’t know what I was. I hissed out a breath, frustrated with myself and the whole situation.
“You’re what?” she pressed softly.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I’m…” Groaning at my own ineptness, I finally admitted, “Damn, Stalker. I thought I was getting to know you, is all. And today was just a wake-up call, a big slap in the face that told me I didn’t know shit, that I wasn’t in your inner circle, not the way I was letting you into mine. So I’m fucking hurt. That’s what I am.”
On the other end of the line, Faith sniffed. Her voice was hoarse and full of tears when she said, “I’m sorry.”
I shook my head, exhausted. “Don’t be sorry. You don’t have anything to be sorry about. If you don’t trust me, you don’t trust me. Trust is something that’s gotta be earned, and I haven’t earned yours yet. That’s all.”
“It’s not that,” she started immediately.
“Faith,” I sighed, stopping her. “It’s okay.”
But she seemed determined to explain herself. “Can I just…?”
When she didn’t go on, I rolled my hand for her to continue. “Yeah,” I murmured. “Say whatever you want to say.”
“Okay,” she rasped. “It’s just…” But it took her more than a few moments to speak again. When she did, her words were hesitant and shaky, letting me know her story was deeply personal and disturbing for her.
“When I got accepted into HaveU and moved to Westport, I swore to myself that I was going to leave all the paranormal shit behind me. I was going to lead a normal, average life and be a regular person, no matter what it took. And if I came across another ghost, I was just going to pretend it wasn’t there. Pretend I was like everyone else. I was never going to be the crazy, freak ghost girl ever again.”
I hissed a curse and then had to know, “Who called you that?”
With a bitter laugh, Faith muttered, “Everyone. Not that I blame them. When I was little, I used to tell anyone who’d listen about the people only I could see. For a while, they just thought I was making up imaginary friends, then they began to wonder if I was schizophrenic and hallucinating. But one day, I told a teacher about seeing her son at the window—half a year after he died in a car accident. And I was expelled from that school.”
“Fuck,” I breathed.
“My grandparents instructed me to stop telling people about the things I saw. They never believed that I could see ghosts.”
“Seriously?”
I could hear the hurt in her voice, and it made my blood boil.
“I think they were relieved when I left. I gave them my address when I moved here, but they never called, never wrote, never visited. So…I stopped contacting them too.”
Fuckers, I wanted to growl. But I understood more than she realized. My family hadn’t been there for me when I’d needed them the most, either.
“What about your parents?” I wondered, needing to know all of her.
“I don’t know,” she mumbled. “I have no idea who my dad is. Not sure if my mom does either. She was kind of a wild child who basically dumped me off with her parents as soon as I was born. I only saw her maybe a handful of times when she came around to beg for money. My grandparents took me in and raised me because I was, like, their duty or something. They weren’t mean or abusive or anything like that. They did right by me, but I’m pretty sure they always resented me for being foisted on them.”
“Well, that just sucks,” I decided, wishing I’d known her back then. I would’ve believed her. Would’ve believed in her.
But I’d been here, cutting my wrists and pushing away the people who had believed in me.
Thank God I’d finally pulled my head on straight and realized what was important, who was important.
“I don’t blame you for not telling me,” I said. “I get why you didn’t.”
“I wish I had,” she countered. “I never meant to hurt you, Hudson. I swear.”
“Eh…” I shrugged. “It’s probably best that you didn’t say something. I would’ve been all noble and kept my distance a lot sooner, and last night never would’ve happened.” Sucking in a wistful breath as I remembered it, I decided, “I gotta say, I’m really glad last night happened.”
“I am too,” she said, and she sounded as if she meant it.
“I can’t wait until we can do that again,” I added. “Hopefully soon.”
“Yeah,” she agreed, but she sounded sad as if she wasn’t even bothering to get her hopes up.
So I added, “Like tomorrow maybe. If tonight goes accordingly.”
Silence followed my words until a very suspicious-sounding Faith repeated, “Tonight? What’s supposed to happen tonight?”
“Thane and Parker think they found someone who can help me. A Catholic priest who claims he can perform exorcisms.”
“Seriously?” Now she really sounded leery.
“Yeah. I guess Ohrley really had to dig deep into the dark web to find this guy.”
“Wait, wait, wait… What?”
“I don’t even want to know what exorbitant price he agreed to pay to get the guy to come here from Dallas on such short notice,” I went on before she could voice all the concerns I could already hear in her voice, “but he should be here any minute now.”
“Hudson!” she cried, clearly aghast. “No. This sounds all kinds of wrong.”
“What?” I asked, shrugging. “What could possibly go wrong?”
Besides all of it?
“First of all, it’s Wednesday. During Advent. Shouldn’t a Catholic priest be in church, celebrating Mass or something? And the dark web? Are you kidding me right now? Legit priests don’t have anything to do with dark web bullshit.”
“Someone’s here,” Alec announced suddenly, streaking into the living room to rush toward the front window and peek out the curtains. “We’ve got an Escalade in the driveway.”
Keene, Foster, and Parker were hot on his heels to get a look.
“Hey, sorry,” I told Faith. “I think he’s here. I should probably go.”
“Hudson, wait!”
“At least he’s wearing a priest’s collar,” Parker was saying at the window, while Keene cried, “Damn, dude. Just how old is this guy? Looks like he’s been dead twenty years himself.”
“I don’t give a fuck how old he is,” Thane announced seriously as he marched toward the door. “Just as long as he can help Hudson.”
“Where are you?” Faith was demanding in my ear. “Give me your address right now.”
“I’m at Thane’s,” I said distractedly as I pushed to my feet. “And no, I’m not giving you the address because you’re not coming here. I’m not giving you another nosebleed. Besides, it’s fine. They said he looks old, so he’s probably retired. The boys won’t let anything bad happen to me, I swear. But I really gotta go now. Love you. Bye,” I rushed out before she could say anything else. Then I hung up on her and tossed the phone onto the coffee table.
At the window, Keene, Alec, and Foster glanced over at me as if I’d lost my mind.
“Did you just tell her you loved her?” Foster asked.
“No,” I started immediately, only to lift an eyebrow. “Shit. Did I?”
From the entrance, Parker said, “Yeah. You did,” just as he opened the door. “Now buckle up, boys. It’s show time.”
Thane stepped inside, his hand latched around the arm of the ancient artifact that took a million years just to climb the two steps into his house.
“He’s right in here,” Thane told the priest.
The stooped old man in all black and a clerical collar, twisted his face around to look up at Parker. “And how long have you been having your symptoms, young man?”
Parker blinked at him once, then sliced a severe glance at Thane. “You’re fucking kidding me, right? I paid for this?”
“Excuse me,” a tiny, spry man in his mid-forties with thinning hair up top and round glasses scolded as he popped into the house behind Thane. “No cursing in front of Father Rachel, if you please.”
“Geez!’ Keene jerked back in surprise over the little guy’s sudden appearance, and he bumped into Alec. “Who the fuck are you?”
“His driver,” Thane bit out with an unimpressed glance in Keene’s direction, which told everyone he was not pleased by the recent turn of events. The exorcist we’d gotten was definitely not the exorcist he’d been expecting.
But he steered Father Rachel in my direction, anyway. “Hudson’s actually over here, Father. He’s the one with an extra spirit inside him.”
“Oh. Oh. Of course.” The priest nodded as if he suspected as much all along, shuffling my way with baby steps, until Thane stopped him right in front of me. Then he craned his head around to look up at my face. “Why, you don’t look as if you’re being possessed at all.”
Still, by the door, Parker glanced at Foster with a what-the-fuck expression, hissing, “And I did?”
To the old man, I nodded and shot back, “And you don’t look as if you have the get-up-and-go to even pop the medicine from your pill pack each morning, but here we are.” I lifted my hands in a what’re-you-gonna-do gesture.
Father Rachel nodded in understanding. “Yes, well… I have Jordyn here to assist with that.”
I lifted my eyebrows at Jordyn, hoping he could also assist with yanking unwanted ghosts from people.
The little man shifted nervously and kept hovering near the door as if he was ready to bolt at the first sign of trouble.
“Do you need a drink or anything, Father?” Thane asked the priest as he motioned toward the entrance of the kitchen.
But the ancient one shook his head. “No, no. Thank you. I’d just as soon start the cleansing process now. It’s been a long drive, and I’m anxious to get to the hotel and settle in for the night.”
The seven of us who’d hired him glanced at each other in varying degrees of unease.
“Well…okay, then,” Thane stumbled out. “I—I guess we’re ready when you are.”
“Sure, sure. Let’s sit together on the couch, shall we?” Hooking his arm around Thane’s, the priest started to lead him toward the couch, but Thane resisted.
“Uh… Do you mean you want to sit with Hudson?”
“Yes, whichever one of you has the demon in him.”
“You mean, the ghost in him?” Alec tried to correct, but no one listened.
As Father Rachel eased down to sit, he patted the cushion beside him, inviting me to join the fun.
When I hesitated for too long, Damien gave me a nudge from behind. I glanced back at him, glad he was here, even though today was the ten-year anniversary of his sister’s murder.
Which, hopefully, was not a bad omen for us.
Lifting my eyebrows briefly, I whispered to him, “If this goes wrong, make sure to put Don’t do drugs OR exorcisms on my headstone, alright?”
“Just sit,” Thane hissed at me sternly.
So I sat next to the old man. When he reached out both hands, motioning for me to take hold of them, I arched a single eyebrow. But then I shrugged and held the priest’s hands. They were dry and wrinkled, the skin thin enough to tear open with the slightest pressure, so I made sure not to latch on too hard.
With a single exhale, Father Rachel lifted his face upward, closed his eyes, and started to chant something in…Latin, I guess. I didn’t understand a single word he said.
As he rambled on, I glanced over at my guys. They’d lined up against the wall, side-by-side to watch. Damien held up his phone so Oaklynn could see what was happening. The little version of her on the screen gave me a cringe and a thumbs-up in good luck.
Next to Alec, Keene leaned over to mutter, “Dude, I think I can actually hear Brett inside Ivey laughing at this clown.”
Thane nudged him quiet with an elbow to his arm and then mouthed to me, “Anything yet?”
I shrugged, then shook my head. Unless holding wrinkled, liver-spotted hands and getting a big whiff of old-man smell was something, then no, not a single thing was happening to me.
But as soon as Parker threw up his hands and announced, “This is a fucking joke,” I felt a sharp and sudden tug in the center of my chest as if someone had just yanked on a string in there that was connected to something very vital in me. My heart? My lungs? My soul? I had no clue, but the jolt was big enough that my torso physically lurched forward, and I had to tug one of my hands free from the priest to slam it against my chest, steadying myself.
“Oh,” I said, still clutching my heart.
“What? Are you okay? What’s happening?” Thane demanded, pushing away from the wall to hurry to my side.
“I don’t…” I shook my head. “Not sure. But something happened.”
My friend knelt next to me, and the others started to crowd closer. “Do we need to stop?”
I sent them all an incredulous glance. “I thought we were doing this so something would happen. Hell, no, we don’t stop.”
None of them looked so sure. But I was. I wanted to be with Faith again.
The priest just kept chanting with his eyes shut as he continued to hold my one hand, and tiny Jordyn inched even closer to the door, ready to flee.
I glanced around at everyone, feeling this surreal sense of is-this-really-happening. I was getting an exorcism. There was a ghost inside me. It’d been there for years. How the hell had my life come down to this? I still had a class final on Friday to take. School loans to pay off. A job I was so determined to keep that I’d pandered to a spoiled, rich girl for two months in order not to lose it. I’d just truly fallen for someone for the first time. I was not supposed to be dealing with this kind of supernatural bullshit.
But here I was, and pressure was filling my head, telling me that Brett was drawing to the surface. Forcefully or of his own accord, I had no idea, but he was definitely coming.
“Ah, fuck,” I muttered when the pressure became almost too much to bear. “Break, break,” I wheezed. “Can we take a quick break?”
There was no stopping Father Rachel, though. His fragile hand clamped around mine like a vise, his voice rose to a shout, and all the pressure I was so afraid of nursing in my head just…burst. Wide open.
From that point on, there was only pain.