Total pages in book: 181
Estimated words: 181613 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 908(@200wpm)___ 726(@250wpm)___ 605(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 181613 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 908(@200wpm)___ 726(@250wpm)___ 605(@300wpm)
The moment he’s done, I catch him and hug him tight.
“Mavis …” He cries in my arms.
My other half sister, Melody, goes next, and she scatters the petals one by one like it’s a giant art piece she wants to lay down.
“I miss you already, Mavis. I hope you’re talking with your ghostly friends up there,” Melody mutters. Then she goes to her knees and gently places an actual painting she made these last few days onto the wood. It’s Mavis, surrounded by the stars.
“Beautiful,” Alistair, her father, says as he thumbs away a tear.
“Thank you,” my mom says, smiling at her, before looking at me. “Aspen …”
I scatter some petals on the wood beneath the earth, but I wish I could’ve painted them black just so Mavis would be surrounded by her favorite color.
I should’ve told Mom.
I look up at the dark forest surrounding this cemetery, wondering if she’s floating nearby. Instead, I spot two bright red eyes glaring right back at me.
I sit up straight in bed, panting like crazy, sweat dripping down my body.
It was just a nightmare. A reminder of a memory I can’t seem to shake.
I focus on my room, with its blue butterfly wallpaper, and all the objects on my desk, such as my lamp and laptop covered in stickers, and all my study books, to ground me in the moment.
But a sudden knock on my window makes me stop breathing.
I wait and listen to the howling of the wind outside.
PANG!
Something just flitted against my window.
Was it a branch from the nearby tree?
I push the blanket off and approach the window, barely pushing aside the curtains. In the middle of the night, I can barely see a thing outside, except for the small streetlight up ahead.
The cold makes me shiver.
Or maybe it’s the set of eyes blinking behind an eerie white mask.
I release the curtain and take one step away, my heart skipping a beat.
PANG!
It’s the same sound as before.
Something—no, someone is throwing rocks at my window.
Even though I know I shouldn’t, I can’t help opening the curtain to look again.
The masked man is right there beside the streetlight, staring right at me from underneath a black hoodie.
This time one step closer.
One blink.
And he’s closer again.
Penetrating eyes still home in on my window.
And the first thought in my mind is to jump right at him.
I bolt out the door and race down the stairs to the common room, ripping open the front door, unafraid. Despite the fact that it’s cold and dark outside, I grab the bat propped next to the door and head outside on my bare feet.
But the masked man is nowhere to be seen.
“Where are you?!” I scream, looking around with the bat held up high. “Show yourself!”
I march toward the streetlight, but the man who was there is gone.
Vanished, as if he never existed in the first place.
And the more I scan the area, the more I’m beginning to question my own damn sanity.
Was it all a figment of my imagination?
I walk away from the light and peer into the darkness beyond, where nothing moves except the leaves on the pavement guided by the wind. There’s no one. Not even a guard or a squirrel.
What the hell?
Unsettled, I head back to the sorority house, but when I glance to the side of the building, something on the ground makes me do a double take. I walk over and pick up a bunch of pebbles that I’m sure weren’t there before, and I gaze up at the sky.
My window is right there, and my blood runs cold.
With the bat held high, I backtrack my way into the house so I don’t get caught off guard. When I’ve finally closed the door, I place the bat back down and head back upstairs, my mind still reeling from what just happened.
I close my bedroom door and breathe out a ragged breath while I wonder if I’m losing my mind.
Until I spot the open window.
My eyes widen.
I rush to it and slam it shut, turning the lock.
Shit, shit, shit!
I look around the room and grab the first thing in my sight: my lamp.
“If you’re in here, say it now, or I swear to God I’ll hit you in the face with this!” I growl.
No answer. Not even a peep.
I waltz to my closet and open it up, but no one is inside even though I fully expected to catch the perp.
What is going on?
Suddenly, I spot something new on my desk: a piece of paper.
Frowning, I take a closer look and pick it up.
Do you want me to kill Levi Torres?
Come to the bonfire this Saturday.
Place this paper on the wooden stool nearest to The Edge.
And I will show you the price.
Your Ghost
I stare at the paper, which shakes in my hand.
So I wasn’t imagining things at all.