Chapter 5
Xander
“I THINK THIS PIECE IS the one you’re looking for,” I told the older woman across from me while pointing at the puzzle piece in question.
The round, smiling Black woman didn’t hear me, thus she coasted right over the puzzle piece she needed in favor of the wrong one. She attempted to jam the small piece into place.
“Told you.”
Leaning forward, I blew on the correct piece, ensuring it was only enough air to make the square jostle minutely.
The old woman spotted the movement, grabbed the piece, and laughed ecstatically when it fit.
She clapped her hands, and the other patients around the common room glanced at her while others were too lost in their own world to notice.
A nearby nurse smiled and congratulated her on finding a piece, encouraging her to keep going until she finished the puzzle depicting the golden retriever puppy in a basket of flowers.
My attention tracked the busty nurse, more than interested in seeing what lay beneath those scrubs. I turned back to my mentally unstable friend to bid her farewell, but I froze. She chewed giddily on a puzzle piece.
“Yum,” I teased with a grimace. “Gotta love the taste of cardboard.” I looked around the bustling open room at the handful of staff. “Anyone gonna come stop her before she eats the whole puzzle?”
No one could hear me, of course, but a male nurse spotted her and quickly dashed over to pry the puzzle piece from her lips.
A trail of spit followed the chewed board, and I took that as my cue to move on.
Hopping up from my seat, I waltzed past the other psych patients and staff to follow the sexy nurse down a hallway lined with doors.
A quick glance into one showed a barren bedroom with a single small bed, some open shelves, and a wardrobe.
The nurse was casually looking into the rooms, checking on any patients who lingered there instead of in the common room.
I grinned and kept my hands shoved in my dark jeans while watching her ass in those tight baby blue scrubs.
“There you are, Kendyll,” the nurse greeted politely.
My gaze snapped up from the perky ass in front of me to peer around the nurse’s shoulder.
A teenager wearing a gray sweatshirt and pants was headed toward us.
Her long black hair was secured in a braid with only a few strands framing the sides of her face.
Her emerald eyes behind black-framed glasses met mine over the nurse’s shoulder.
She sucked in a sharp breath and nearly stumbled as her wide stare held mine.
My brows could’ve won gold at the Olympics from how high they jumped.
There was no way she could see me.
The nurse glanced over her shoulder, following where Kendyll’s attention was glued, but as I expected, the nurse’s gaze swept through and past me. I was safely tucked away within the shadows, so what was this girl looking at?
“What are you looking at?” the nurse questioned.
“Thank you for asking,” I told the oblivious nurse, my eyes still glued on the teen. “I was wondering the same thing.”
Kendyll finally reached us, and she swallowed hard while dropping her eyes to her feet. “N-Nothing.”
“Hmm,” the nurse pondered sympathetically. “How about an appointment with Dr. Roberts? I’ll let him know.”
Kendyll shook her head hard. “No. I don’t need one. I’m—”
“It’s okay,” the nurse cut her off, reaching out as though to give her a gentle pat on the arm, but at the last second, she pulled back. “Wait in your room.”
Before Kendyll could object, the nurse turned around and left the ward, presumably in search of Dr. Roberts. I didn’t follow this time. I was rooted in place, narrowed eyes locked onto the girl in front of me. Her entire body was tense like it was taking everything in her not to look at me.
I bent at the waist to try to meet her downcast gaze. “Can you see me?”
Her cheeks grew pink, and she stiffly walked past me. Yeah. Past me. I was directly in her path, so she should’ve walked through me like any other person would’ve. But she moved around me, which meant my suspicion was fucking right.
She sped-walked to one of the rooms, but she wasn’t getting away from me.
“I know you see me, you little shit,” I told her.
Her back was to me, but I caught the sound of her faint laugh. “Of course, I can.” She turned to look at me. “You’re later than I expected, but better late than never, I guess.”
Late? What the fuck was she on about?
“I gotta admit,” I said as I looked around her extremely boring room. Everything was white. It hurt my eyes. “Despite the location, it’s pretty cool running into a Ghost Speaker. You guys are a rare breed. I can’t even remember the last time I met one of you.”
She glanced at her feet and rubbed her arm nervously. “Ten years. At least … that’s how long it’s been since we first met.”
Ten years? I studied her face, searching my memory for whatever she was talking about. I met a Ghost Speaker ten years ago? A mental lightbulb went off, and I snapped my clawed fingers before pointing at her.
“No way. Are you that kid from the closet?”
She smiled softly. “Good to see you again, Mr. Monster.”
“Wow,” I drew, recalling that night.
It was already a small world running into a Ghost Speaker, but it was really fucking small to run into the same one. I looked around the room once more. It was obvious she was a patient here, and I didn’t need to be a genius to guess why.
“So,” she hedged, drawing closer with a cautious glance at the door. “What’s the plan?”
“Plan?”
“Yeah. To get me out of here.”
I quickly held up my hands to stop her. “What are you talking about? Who said anything about getting you out of here?”
She frowned. “You did.”
Maybe she really was in here for a valid reason. Clearly, she’d made up some moronic conversation between us in that noggin of hers.
She hurried to clarify, “You pinky promised to come back and take me with you. I-I thought you were here to take me away from this place. Don’t you remember?”
Whoops. Had I said something like that?
“That was a decade ago!” I hurried to argue with a raking of my hand between my horns. “Why would I remember that?”
What I did remember was that this Ghost Speaker had no boundaries and loved invading mine. That fact clearly hadn’t changed, because she reached out to grasp my long-sleeved shirt, fisting it so hard, the collar opened wider around my shoulder.
“Can you help me anyway? Please? I don’t—they—I’m not sick. You know I have this ability, but they all think I’m crazy, seeing and talking to things that aren’t there.”
My eyes narrowed on the teenager who practically pleaded at me with her own. Her fist trembled slightly against my arm, and desperation swam in her green gaze. It wasn’t that hunger to get out of here that had me hesitating. It was the thought of how much fun this could be.
I often meandered through various mental hospitals, messing with both patients and staff.
The location and stereotypes of insane asylums created the perfect playground for a Mischief demon to wreak havoc—startling patients into hysterics that then flustered staff, spooking the night shift teams by pushing on an empty wheelchair, wailing at the end of a dark, uninhabited corridor.
The place practically acted as a 24/7 gas station for my power tank.
And I wasn’t the only one who thought that. Even now, I could feel the mark of another demon within the building. They weren’t here right now, but they came often enough to stain the air with their demonic essence. This place clearly had frequent customers from Hell.
As I thought about how I’d get this girl out and all the madness I could cause in the process, I found myself smirking and giving in to the idea.
Plus, I’d consider it an act of charity for the weirdo.
It was true she didn’t actually need to be here.
She was gifted with the Devil’s Eye, and no amount of medication or help from doctors would change that.
“Fine,” I answered.
Her face instantly brightened. She held out her hand.
I looked at it while my lip curled in disgusted confusion. “What’s that for?”
“Don’t I need to hold your hand so we can poof out of here? You know, the same way you suddenly appeared and disappeared from my closet?”
“Listen here, Ghost,” I told her. “You asked for my help getting out of here. So I’ll do that, but it will be my way. So no. We’re not ‘poofing’ out. We’re going to have some fun first.”
“Fun?” she asked hesitantly, dropping her hand back by her side. Her other still clung to my sleeve.
I looked down and flicked her knuckles like one might flick off a pesky bug.
“Ow!” she hissed, yanking her hand back.
I smiled triumphantly as she rubbed her red knuckles. Just then, the sexy nurse appeared in the doorway with her friendly grin.
“Kendyll? The doctor is ready if you’ll follow me.”
Kendyll stiffened and ever so lightly met my eyes.
She pushed her glasses up and begrudgingly followed the nurse.
I trailed alongside her with an excited grin.
I knew Kendyll was practically screaming inside, wanting to know what my plan was.
But I didn’t really do plans. I had ideas, and I acted on different ones in the spur of the moment. It made it more fun that way.
And I was about to have a lot of fucking fun.