30. The Ghost
The Ghost
The injured maintenance worker sleeps soundly in his room in the staff wing, dead to the world.
When the sun begins to rise, his eyes open. He spots me almost immediately. I can see the whites of his eyes, the dilating pupil, the heady taste of his fear on the air as he scrambles backwards, mouth falling open.
“Don’t be a coward.” I stand against the wall. It’s a small room.
His jaw snaps shut. His chest rises and falls quickly with each breath.
What could she even potentially see in him?
“Didn’t think you’d ever see me, did you.”
He’s trembling. Cute. “You’re real.”
“I’ve always been ‘real’.” I step closer. “Cars don’t start themselves, Reece.”
“What the fuck.”
“Come on. You warned her about me. Don’t act surprised now.”
He tries to push himself further back, but with only one good arm, it proves difficult. “What do you want?”
“Just to give you some advice.” I don’t make any other moves, but his eyes dart around in the dark, like he’s scared I’ll sneak up on him. “Ghosts don’t react well when the living try to take what doesn’t belong to them.”
“What are you talking about?” His face screws up in ugly confusion. “Wait, do you mean Mallary?”
“Another piece of advice: don’t play stupid.”
His hands come up. “Whoa, I’m not—we just talk, it’s nothing—”
“What did I just say?”
I hardly move, and the idiot’s eyes are widening, his hands shaking. “Fine! I won’t talk to her! I’ll leave her alone!”
“You don’t deserve her anyway, if that’s how quickly you’d give her up.”
He swallows and must have a stroke of genius because he stays silent.
“I know what you’ve been up to. Let me make something clear.
” I lean forward only another inch and he goes pale.
This terror is what I’ve fed on for years.
Now that I have her, though, it doesn’t do it for me like it used to.
Her fear, her pleasure, satiates me the most. I’m finding I couldn’t care less what any of them think anymore.
“She doesn’t know. I won’t tell her because you are the last thing she needs to even think about right now. ”
“I—I don’t know what you’re talking about—”
“Shut up.”
His jaw snaps shut.
And when I peer into his eyes, I make sure he can see the threat in mine.
It would be so easy to take care of him, right now.
But I won’t. Because I know it would make her unhappy.
“Before you look at her again, before you even think about her, I hope you remember this moment. Remember my face. Because if you so much as make her frown, I will be the last person you will ever see. Understood?”