Grave Possession (Wraith 3) (10 page)

“One sec,” he called. Groaning, he rolled to the side and we both straightened up. Louis cupped my chin with his hands and said, “We’ll get some time together before we go back, promise.”

The odds were against us – or maybe fate? Who knew. Every time we had a second or two together, we took advantage. The perpetual cock-block made me want Louis even more simply because I couldn’t have him, which was how we found ourselves in the back seat of his car three nights later.

“Louis,” I said, my breath leaving foggy trails of air into the cold car. Winter had rolled in Thanksgiving night. “I want to be with you – I do, but there is no way I’m doing this in a car. Not when it’s this cold.”

“What? I don’t warm you up?” he laughed through chattering teeth. We huddled in the backseat of his Honda outside my house. We’d barely had 15 minutes alone all break. I planned on leaving in the morning, after I ran with my dad, to go back to Savannah.

My legs straddled his hips and, while his fingers wandered, I knew nothing would go further than it had a dozen times before. There was absolutely no way I was losing my virginity in the back seat of a car. “Maybe over Christmas?” I suggested.

I didn’t know exactly why Louis and I hadn’t had sex yet. I was ready. He was more than ready, but something felt wrong. Maybe because too many secrets and lies destroyed my last relationship, building another on a foundation of omission seemed destructive at best.

“Definitely,” he said, pressing his forehead to mine. “I wish I had time to come down to visit but I don’t see it happening.”

“It’s only a couple of weeks.” I kissed him again. But every day I was at school, I changed. Gradually, I was becoming a different person, growing up and pushing my independence. Every day, Connor got a little more under my skin. I’d spent way too much time thinking about the kiss we had before I left. Wow. That kiss.

I slipped into the moment with Louis, feeling his warm hands on my goose-bumped skin. His touch was soft and comfortable and I allowed myself to steady my breathing while working my hips against his. My nerves lit, suddenly warm – no hot, and Louis swallowed deeply, dropping his head against the seat. I kissed the tops of his closed eyes.

“Damn. Guess I won’t walk you in,” he gestured to his pants. Poor boys. After cooling down for a minute, we scrambled out of the back seat and he made a face down at his jeans. I tried not to laugh because it wasn’t nice, but Louis always made me smile. Perfect example of why this was so hard.

“Sorry.”

“I’m not,” he said.

“I’ll call you when I get back to the dorm, okay?”

We stared at one another through the beat of exchanging I love yous. Neither of us was quite there yet. Or at least afraid the other wasn’t.

“Night, Jane,” he said, giving me one last kiss. A big one and it burned down to my toes.

“Night.” I ran up my front steps and waved as his car drove away from the curb, my stomach a twisted mess of uncertainty.

*

His questions came rapid fire when I finally saw Evan again.

“Did you have turkey?”

“Yes.”

“Apple pie or pumpkin?”

“Both.”

He rubbed his belly in mock hunger. I didn’t feel hungry in this world either. “Did Jeannie come?”

“No, I think she’ll be here at Christmas.”

“And you’ll talk to her about all this then?” This was
this
. How Evan and I were meeting. And why? Oh, and my ghostie-energy huffing thing. What was that all about?

“Yep, promise.”

Evan stood from his spot in the corner and walked around my bedroom. The black shadows were here, coating the walls like a thin layer of smoke. He ran his fingers through it, scattering the shade so they parted into curling tendrils. His gray eyes reflected the worry he had for us. Not me. I wasn’t worried. Not about this place at least.

“If you’re not curious about how we meet like this or the weird black
smokey stuff that seems to be following us – and happening more often, why do you have that crease between your eyebrows?”

I touched my face and felt the dent. “You don’t want to hear it.”

“Try me.”

“It’s guy stuff.”

Evan wrinkled his nose. “Louis?”

I nodded. “Yeah, and Connor.”

“Wait. Connor?”

“Yep. He’s back. Full force.”

“How long has this been going on?”

I took a deep breath and averted my eyes. “Since school started. I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologize. I like Connor.” He’d moved to the window seat, feet on the bench, knees under his chin. I knew he was hurt that I hadn’t told him. I could sense it, but he acted otherwise. “This is a safe place away from the other world. I get that.”

“It hasn’t been a big deal. Like, we’ve hung out a little and did a little ghost hunting, but that’s it. Then…”

“What?”

Evan looked expectant, eager to hear the rest. It was never far from my mind that Evan was a 15-year-old boy. His body and maybe mind were stuck in that same place while I’d grown up. Love and sex and all those emotions were things that I didn’t share with him. But they were front and center in my life now and once I opened the door with him, I wasn’t sure if I could ever shut it back.

“He kissed me.”

His jaw dropped but then morphed into a grin. “Oh, really?”

“That’s not good.”

“No?”

“Well, there’s Louis.”

“Oh, right. Huh.”

“Things are weird now. Louis doesn’t know about Connor and I feel bad, but I didn’t want to kiss him – well, not really. I didn’t plan on it. It’s just a mess.”

“Louis doesn’t know about Connor?”

“No.”

“Does Connor know about Louis?”

“Yes.”

“Does Louis know about me?”

“No way.”

“Does Connor know about me – this?”

I shook my head.

Evan leaned back into the window, the dark sky framing his body. “You’ve got a lot of secrets.”

“I know.”

“Trust me, that never turns out well,” he said. I didn’t reply. What was there to say? He was right.

*

Lila called the dorm into a meeting the night we got back from break. “What’s this about?” Ava asked, sitting next to me on the battered common room couch.

“No clue, but Lila looks stressed.”

We looked over at our dorm supervisor. An older woman spoke with her at the front of the room. I’d never seen her before. “Has she been crying?”

“Looks like it,” I said. She clutched a tissue in her hand and her eyes were red.

“Okay, everyone settle down. This will be quick, as I know you’re still unpacking.”

“Where’s Amber?” Ava whispered.

I scanned the room, but didn’t see her either.

“We got some bad news over the break and I wanted you to hear it from me,” Lila said. She took a deep breath. “Kelsey Bartlett is dead.”

Several girls gasped. Ava looked at me and I sat perfectly still. Lila continued, “Her body was found by police two days ago. I don’t have a lot of details but,” she choked back a sob, “the police are calling it a homicide.”

“Murdered?” someone called out. The room fell into 10 different conversations. People hugged one another and offered sympathy. I felt numb. And worried. Murdered people rarely left easily.

“Please be considerate of Amber when you talk to her. This has been hard on her and we spoke to her privately a little while ago. The college has also arranged for a counselor to meet with you if you need to talk.” She gestured to the woman standing with her.

Later, when we’d gone back to our room, Ava said, “Wow, that’s sort of crazy. Kelsey, murdered. She seemed sort of…”

“Boring?” I offered.

“A little. You haven’t seen or heard anything about this have you?”

“It’s not like we have a newsletter, Ava.”

“That’s not what I meant,” she said, tossing a pencil at me. “If she was murdered then she may still be hanging around, right?”

“It’s likely.” I felt numb. Frozen. I couldn’t figure out how to process this information. Everyone else in the dorm thought about how they’d never see Kelsey again. I was worried that I would.

*

The cold weather backed down a little after Thanksgiving break. Nothing perfect, but the late fall air definitely felt milder further south. We had three weeks until Christmas and walking around in Savannah in the freezing cold was not my idea of awesome. Although we didn’t have much time for pleasure anyway. Classes geared up and repeatedly kicked our butts. The news about Kelsey filtered through the school and Amber received a lot of attention over it. Unwanted attention. Ava and I gave her a safe place to just hang out. I didn’t want to talk about it anyway.

We didn’t have time. We spent every available moment in the studio attempting to get ready for final critiques.

“What are you going to do about that?” Ava asked one night when we saw Connor tucked in his own corner of the studio. He had headphones clamped tight over his ears and he worked diligently on a series of drawings. I’d told Ava about the kiss and we’d gone over it a million different ways. No matter how we broke it down, the whole situation was awkward.

“No clue,” I admitted. We’d made eye contact a couple of times, but I didn’t make an effort to talk to him or go over. Neither did he. Maybe he just needed to get that kiss out of his system, for closure or something.

After a late Saturday night in the studio (freshman get the worst time slots) matting charcoals, I struggled to get up for my usual run. I pulled my pillow over my head and snuggled back under the covers, dozing until I felt someone shaking my arm.

“He’s got a gun,” Evan whispered. I rolled over and saw him leaning close, frantically shaking my arm. His blond curls hung in his eyes. “You need to hide. Don’t come out until I tell you so.”

The words were strange, but it was a dream, right? Still, something he said seemed familiar.

“Who has a gun?”

Evan’s body shimmered, but instead of disappearing, he morphed into a smaller figure, a child. Hazel, from Connor’s basement. “We need to hide,” she cried. Her bloody, white nightgown even more horrifying in my room. “Daddy said so.”

“From what?” I asked, still confused. I felt her hand close over mine and I welcomed the surge of warmth that followed. The heat dissipated, turning cold and I recoiled. “Don’t do that.”

“Do what?” she asked, her fingers pressing into my skin. Sinking into my skin. My head rushed and everything turned black. I jerked away and shot up in the bed. A trickle of sweat rolled down my back. What the hell was all that?

Other than Ava asleep in the other bed, the room was empty. Everything felt surreal, like I was still halfway in my dream. My phone vibrated across the bedside table, jerking me further into reality. I picked it up.

C: It’s freezing out here. You coming?

I climbed out of bed and looked out the window. Sure enough, Connor waited below in a sweat suit, stocking cap and running shoes. He waved.

Under normal circumstances, I’d go back to bed. But these weren’t normal circumstances. I wanted out of the room and some fresh air to clear my mind. It took me a minute to find my shoes and gear without making a lot of noise, but I eventually made my way outside.

“Hey,” I said, rubbing my hands together. So much for milder weather.

“Did I wake you up?”

I stretched my calves on the front step and rubbed the spot on my arm. The skin still tingled as though Hazel had really grabbed it. “Nah, not really.”

We started off and, just as I plugged my ear buds in he said, “I had a visitor last night.”

“Who?” I asked.

“Hazel.”

I kept my expression even. “Downstairs?”

“No, in my room. I guess she got tired of waiting on you to come back.”

I pushed my hair out of my eyes. “What did she want?”

“Same sort of conversation you had. Something about men with guns or maybe a man with a gun? She seemed nervous and kept talking about how hot the room was. Which was interesting because our radiator was broken and the room was a freaking sauna.”

“Yeah, well, I had a visit from Hazel as well. Or at least a dream, I guess. She said sort of the same thing,” I said.

“She came to your room?”

“I don’t know. I thought it was a dream. I was asleep.”

We ran next to one another for a bit and I considered if I should tell him about Evan being there and how I could visit him. Instead I asked, “Can ghosts feel temperatures?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Weird that she knew your room was so hot.”

He nodded and a puff of smoke came out of his mouth. “I asked her if she knew the other ghost. The man. She didn’t seem to have any idea what I was talking about.”