The Reckless Afterlife of Harriet Stoker

by Lauren James

  “Thanks,” Harriet said. “It’s a fishtail plait; they’re hard to do without hairspray.”

  “Oh?” he asked, holding out his arm. She took it, talking him through the hairstyle step by step while they walked to Rima’s party. Kasper nodded along, as if he was listening instead of coasting along on pure relief that he hadn’t had to come up with a conversation topic just yet. Girls were so much harder to talk to than Felix.

  A group of lads were pre-gaming the party on the stairs to the second floor. They were playing volleyball with someone’s shoe.

  “Harriet’s staying at Hotel Back Yourself, I see?” Jonny from Rowing Soc cat-called.

  Kasper ignored their wolf-whistles, hurrying Harriet past. This was why Kasper spent so much time with Felix and the girls. The other ghosts here were a lot meaner.

  Hotel Back Yourself was something the Rowing Society boys had done when they went travelling. They didn’t book hotels, instead trusting that they’d find someone to take them home. Backing themselves.

  Jonny meant that Harriet was only dating Kasper so that she’d have somewhere to sleep in Mulcture Hall. But that wasn’t what Harriet was doing. She was going on a date with him because she liked him, obviously! Wasn’t she?

  He led Harriet over to the window in Rima’s room, grinning. “I’ve got something to show you.”

  Kasper launched into a running jump through the window, grabbing on to the edge of the floor of the balcony above. He swung out over the side of the building, twisting his hands one over the other, spinning to face Harriet.

  She looked confused, but he gave her a moment to stare at him dangling from the floor above. He was fully aware of how large his biceps looked when he flexed them to hold up his own body weight. Sometimes he caught Felix – who was lean instead of muscular – staring at his shoulders in jealousy.

  When he couldn’t hide his smirk any longer, Kasper tugged down the cascade of honeysuckle which the third-floorer had grown for him on the balcony above. It tumbled over the edge, hanging in a perfumed curtain of tangled leaves and flowers. The sunset spread through the ghostly pink blossoms, making them glow almost golden.

  Kasper dropped back down to the floor, ridiculously pleased with himself. He’d got the idea from Felix, who (very occasionally) had conversations with Rima about what their dream weddings would look like. Felix had described an altar covered in flowers, and the idea had stuck in Kasper’s mind. He hadn’t been sure it would work, though. If it had failed, it would have been as embarrassing as the time he’d forgotten the word “elbow” in front of Felix, who was basically a walking dictionary. He’d called them “arm knees”. Arm knees. It had taken Felix six years to stop bringing that up.

  He should stop thinking about Felix. This was supposed to be about Harriet.

  “Very fancy,” she said, admiring the flowers. “I bet you do this for all the girls.”

  Kasper’s smile dropped. He had been trying to make her feel special, not one in a long line of girls.

  “You’ve got me all wrong,” he said. “I’m not like that.”

  He plucked one of the flowers and tucked it behind her ear, twisting a curl of hair around his finger. He let the backs of his fingers touch the skin of her neck.

  “Hey,” she said suddenly. “Do you know anything about these ghosts who live in the basement? The Tricksters?”

  He grimaced. Where had Harriet heard about them? She’d only been here a few days. “You should stay away from them. They’re no good.”

  “Why?”

  Kasper’s brain and mouth didn’t seem to want to cooperate. The truth was, the Tricksters terrified him. “They’re always trying to collect new powers to add to their trade. They’ll do anything to get the ones they want.” Kasper shivered. A girl called Lisa had got into debt and disintegrated a few years ago. She’d got fainter and fainter as the Tricksters called in interest on the debt.

  She’d begged Kasper to help her, but there had been nothing he could do. Whenever he’d gone down to the basement to ask them to release her, Rufus had just silently picked at his teeth with a slither of bone. Then one day, Lisa was gone completely.

  “Wow,” Harriet said, taking this in. “How did the Tricksters get control of the whole building like this? Practically everyone is scared of them. Who are they, really?”

  This was not the romantic date he had imagined. “I don’t know. I heard Rufus was a priest when he was alive.” Kasper shivered. “And not a good one.”

  Rumours about the Tricksters spread through the building like wildfire. He’d heard that Vini had a weird and incredibly specific predilection for squirrel spirits – no one ever wanted to say why.

  He’d also heard that Rufus made the ghosts in the basement gather every full moon to listen to his operatic concert performances in the pale moonlight that reached through the vents. He doubted if that one was true, but it was possible.

  “But what do they want?” Harriet asked.

  “They want control,” he said dully. “They want everyone here to do what they say without question, immediately. They keep sending their goons after me, to try and force me to use my power for them. They hate the fact that I won’t do it.”

  Greg came to find him sometimes, trying to bring him down to the basement to see the Tricksters. Greg could make you do what he wanted, if he set his mind towards persuading you. His power was potent. You couldn’t even use threats to frighten him off, because apparently the Tricksters had eaten all of Greg’s worry years before.

  He’d heard that the Tricksters fed on emotions until they were gone completely. It was how they convinced people to work for them. Greg had no conscience now. He wasn’t scared of anything people said to him any more, and he got threatened a lot. He would do everything the Tricksters asked of him, in exchange for rewards. Even if it meant condemning someone to disintegration.

  Harriet leant forward. It was the first time that the full focus of her attention had been on Kasper. “Why are they so determined to have you? What is your power?”

  There was a glint in her eyes. Kasper was flattered. She really wanted to get to know him, inside and out. This was it; he could feel it. She was finally connecting with him; looking at him like he was someone. Her someone.

  He took her hand. Her warm skin was even softer than it looked. His thumb glided over the grey slick of her nail varnish.

  Carefully, he kissed her. Harriet froze, and then her lips yielded. While Kasper’s brain was buzzing with the rush of it all, she took control of the kiss.

  With one hand in his hair, she tilted his head further to the side, guiding him into a deeper kiss. When her tongue pushed its way into his mouth, Harriet became everything. Nothing mattered but the softness of her hair; the forceful, determined way she held him in place to kiss him.

  Was this how Felix would kiss, or would it be different with a boy? Not that he would ever know, of course.

  All too soon, Harriet pulled away, her hand tightening on the back of his neck.

  “Now … tell me about your power,” she murmured, tickling the hairs on his forearm with her fingertips, “babe.”

  Before he could reply, Rima burst into the room, followed by Felix and Leah.

  “It’s party time!” Rima hollered. She must have made a trade with someone, because she was wearing a skeleton costume over her pyjamas. She was the kind of person who got really into parties. She didn’t just celebrate her birthday on the day itself. The whole month beforehand revolved around planning the festivities. Between birthdays, death days and Halloween, they practically had a reason to celebrate on every day of the year.

  “Let’s rattle our booooones!” Rima yelled.

  Kasper was suddenly filled with immense relief at the sight of his friends. The reaction surprised him, because he’d been enjoying kissing Harriet. It was hard to talk to her, though. Especially when she asked about his power.

  FELIX

  They were drunk. That was inherently obvious, even to Felix, w
ho was almost certainly the most drunk of them all. In autumn, the air was filled with scattered energy from disintegrating insect ghosts and fallen leaves. It was possible to take it in, if you made a very determined effort.

  “Unhand me, cur!” Leah said to Rima, as they duelled along the edge of the balcony wall.

  Rima jabbed her in the side, making her wobble. “You aren’t ever going to fit into modern society if you keep talking like that.”

  “Do I look like I have ever, in life or death, wanted to be part of society?” Leah hooked her ankle around Rima’s calf, dislodging her.

  “Foul villain, daddy-o!” Rima shouted. “Lily-livered airhead!”

  “I think you’re mixing time periods,” Felix said, a laugh rumbling in his chest.

  Rima tumbled off the wall and dive-bombed into the bedroom. The crowd parted in self-preservation. She had invited all their friends in the building, including some of Kasper’s rowing mates and the fashion girls from the fourth floor. Even Qi was dancing in the corner with Marilena, a girl from the second floor who had once accidentally burst into flames when she’d lost control of her power.

  “Wait! I’ve – I’ve got…” Rima towered above Felix and Leah, laughing too hard to finish talking. “Haha, wait, wait, I’ve got – I’ve – hang on, gimme a sec, hah, I…”

  “Absolute scenes here tonight, guys,” Kasper said, when it was clear she wasn’t going to stop laughing any time soon. He had the deep creases around his eyes that Felix knew meant he was trying hard not to laugh. “Simmer down, will you, Hamid?”

  Kasper was curled up on the windowsill, almost sober even though he’d been drunk as often as possible when he was alive. Below him, Harriet was leaning against the wall. She seemed happy to just watch the party, though her quietness could have something to do with Kasper’s dangling arm. His fingertips kept grazing her collarbone.

  Something had changed about her, but Felix couldn’t work out what it was.

  “I’ve got an absolutely brilliant idea,” Rima finally said. “Let’s play Don’t Get Me Started.”

  “Noooooo,” Leah moaned, just as Kasper crowed, “Yes! Leah has to go first! Last time was classic!” He told Harriet, “The idea is to give someone a topic, like global warming or Ant and Dec, and see how long they can rant about it. Leah absolutely smashed it last time – she managed to complain about ‘the calendar’ for seven hours!”

  “October really should be the eighth month,” Leah said sullenly.

  Lisa had loved this game, before she disintegrated. She was always the best at it, when Kasper brought her along to play.

  “What’s the topic?” Felix asked. He always invigilated when they played party games – it was his universally accepted position. Otherwise they’d get nowhere. “How about ‘the Tooth Fairy’?”

  This was so obviously the right choice that Leah, a glint of simmering rage already visible in her eyes, began talking immediately. She passed Claudia to Kasper, who juggled the baby with expertise gained from decades of babysitting.

  “Don’t get me started on this bloody Tooth Fairy nonsense. I hate it!” Leah began. “You want to know why? Firstly, it’s immoral to lie to children. I know it’s a cliché, but socially speaking…”

  Felix found himself zoning out the longer she spoke. By the time Leah had finished, his buzz had died down.

  “Way to harsh my mellow,” Rima muttered. “You’ve officially ruined that game, Leah. That was the worst two hours of my life.”

  “It was only forty minutes, technically,” Felix pointed out. “Unless you’re taking into account the time-dilating effects of boredom.”

  Kasper started laughing at Felix, despite himself. He tipped his head back, revealing the underside of his jaw. “You get so articulate when you’re drunk. ‘Vodka increases my productivity by thirteen per cent, I’ll have you know’,” he said in Felix’s voice, adjusting invisible glasses.

  “Hey,” Felix said, and then, a beat later, “Yeah, all right. I get slightly more effusive when I’m drunk.”

  “Effusive!” Kasper repeated, delighted.

  Sometime later, Felix realized that Harriet and Kasper were missing. He wandered into the next room and found them wrapped in each other’s arms.

  A long groan tugged its way from Kasper’s throat. If Felix had to choose a word to describe their kissing style, it would be … frantic. Desperate. Hungry.

  Felix’s heart was pounding: a dull throb of pain racing in his chest. He took three deep breaths and twisted away, unable to watch.

  Harriet closed her eyes, ignoring him. He wanted to tell her that Kasper was his, that she couldn’t touch him – but he had no right to. He couldn’t justify how much he hated the flow of her hands over Kasper’s skin, tracing the lines of the muscles running over his ribs – and Felix was watching him again. He needed to look away. Right now.

  Harriet was so much better than him. Felix couldn’t compete. It wasn’t like he was even trying.

  Rima bumped into his back and gasped, tugging him back out of the room. Felix wasn’t watching, he wasn’t, he wasn’t, he wasn’t…

  He wasn’t picturing what they were going to do in there. He wasn’t.

  Felix wasn’t drunk enough for this.

  Felix was crying.

  “Oh,” Rima said, distraught on his behalf. “Oh no!”

  She wrapped her arms around him, pulling him down to her level.

  Felix sobbed into her shoulder, and when Rima tugged Leah closer, he pulled her into the hug, too, dropping a kiss onto Claudia’s baby-warm head.

  “I hate this so much,” he said, snotty and embarrassed. He rubbed tears from his eyelashes, and his hands came away wet.

  “I know,” Rima said, pained. “I know.”

  HARRIET

  Harriet tugged down Kasper’s trousers, toppling backwards with him onto the mattress. She was suddenly starving with the need for touch and attention.

  The energy from the Shell was doing something strange inside her. It wasn’t like being drunk any more. It was like overdosing. Harriet had to pay absolute attention to keeping the energy under control, or it would start oozing out of her pores in a golden glow.

  Her brain was running on double-time, struggling to keep up with the flow of information coming from her nerves. It made her jumpy and desperate, but the feel of Kasper’s fingers on her skin gave her something human to focus on.

  Kasper was moaning quiet exhales of noise into the pit of her neck. She dug her nails into his back, guiding him inside her. This was exactly what she needed to stop the energy taking over completely. It was lying dormant beneath her skin like an unexploded bomb. She still hadn’t worked out whether she’d gained a power from the Shell at all.

  “Harriet,” Kasper moaned, gasping into her mouth.

  She rolled him over, cupping one hand over his mouth as she climbed on top of him.

  “Just – quiet,” she hissed.

  He lay silent, staring up at her. Throwing her head back, Harriet tried to pretend that he wasn’t there.

  When he groaned long and low below her, she bit down on the urge to tell him that she wasn’t done, and twisted her hips.

  Shuddering, she finally came. She didn’t know whether she was imagining the calming of her molecules, the reduction of the buzz of her energy. When she opened her eyes again, Kasper was gaping up at her with wide, amazed eyes. She didn’t want him to look at her. She didn’t want him to see this. This was for her, not for him.

  His expression changed, then. He looked confused – and scared? Why would he be scared?

  She glanced down. Her body, from head to toe, had turned clear. Wherever Kasper’s limbs rested against hers, there was only air.

  She was see-through. She was invisible! The Shell’s power must have manifested!

  Harriet had a moment of joy, and then pure fury swept over her – because this wasn’t right. This wasn’t the power she’d wanted. Invisibility wouldn’t help her to get back to her family.

/>   “Harriet?” Kasper asked, hands gently touching her sides, testing to see if she was really there.

  “I’m here,” she gasped.

  “Your power!” He belatedly realized what was happening, and tried to kiss her. He missed, smashing his lips into her invisible cheekbone. “Wow, Harriet! Congratulations!”

  “Thanks.”

  He let out a chuckle. “I feel like I’m getting to know the real you, at last,” he said blissfully.

  Harriet nodded, unnecessarily hiding a wince. She wasn’t even sure who the real her was, it was so far buried beneath fabrications and stolen personality traits.

  She felt numb. This wasn’t what she wanted. What use was invisibility? She was going to have to try again, with another Shell. Immediately.

  The energy in her veins insisted that she keep trying. She had to grow stronger. Right now, everything was spinning out of control.

  Chapter 10

  RIMA

  The first thing Rima did when she woke was slide out from underneath a snoring Leah, who had fallen asleep with her head on Rima’s stomach. Then she went to find Harriet. While she searched for her, Rima carefully ran over exactly what she wanted to say – for the third time. She’d been planning this conversation ever since Felix had started crying in her arms.

  Rima hated telling people off. She really, truly hated it. But the look on Felix’s face when Harriet had kissed Kasper had destroyed Rima. He’d grimaced as if his heart had crumbled into ash. Harriet had known how Felix felt, and she’d done it anyway.

  Harriet wasn’t in Kasper’s room, or in the corridor. She wasn’t in the foyer, where her corpse was starting to smell. Rima was walking back up to the fourth floor, wondering if she’d somehow missed Harriet dozing somewhere, when she ran into her on the stairs.

  “Harriet!”

  Harriet looked up, startled. Her face cleared when she saw Rima. “Oh. Hey.”

  Rima was about to launch straight into gently berating her, but Harriet was barely recognizable.

  “Your hair has gone white! What…?”

  “It has?” Harriet touched her head.