Chapter 5
The door slid shut behind them and Erin stopped, while Davis continued until, with their clasped hands, she pulled him to a stop as well. "Okay, now we are away from the guy with the freaky, inappropriate costume again. Why are we running and where can we even run to?"
Davis looked at her, frustration twisting his features. "It's just really not a good idea to be around him right now."
Erin squinted at him. "Right now? As opposed to later? Do you know him?"
Could a guy look more squirmy? He was older than she was, or had seemed to be, but at the moment he didn’t seem so. Davis focused over her shoulder, then at his feet, then…everywhere but at her. He finally settled on staring to the side, but his every movement was awkward. "In a way."
"Well, that's vague," Erin mocked. Every time she was ready to leave him, the wraith appeared and Davis wanted to run. Something she hadn’t been able to do for weeks and she was wasting her newfound energy when it was time to quit avoiding her impending death and spend her last moments with her parents. "Care to explain? He was a bully at your school. Or a bad neighbor…"
"Just another jerk who likes to spread misery and fear." He shrugged, seeming to want to say more, but hindered from doing so in some way. At least she wasn’t the only one getting frustrated.
"Like a wraith." She nodded as if she understood, but she really didn't. Was the bad costume guy a family member she'd been insulting all night? That could explain his reluctance to talk about it.
"People like him really give the rest of us a bad name." He opened his mouth, inhaled, then clicked it shut.
Yep, sounded like a family issue. "You're not responsible for the way other people act. So the reputation they create isn't yours to bear."
"True. Let's just keep away from him as long as possible, though, okay?" His shadowed eyes pleaded for her to follow along with that plan.
Erin looked to the corner they'd turned. The main hallway seemed empty, but she could almost feel the menacing presence waiting to waylay them. She didn’t have “as long as possible” and as fun as exploring with Davis had been, it was time. "Honestly? Life's too short for avoidance."
That lesson had taken her long enough to learn. She slipped around him. Davis grabbed her arm and swung her back, practically dancing them in a circle until she stopped against his chest. "You're the one I'm worried about. Avoidance seems to be what you need."
Erin gasped, and not only at his words. His arms now surrounded her, holding her in place. His chest was broad enough to make it difficult to see around him to the hallway he now had his back to. It felt good to be held against him like this, but she wasn't one to accept being manhandled. Especially not when it hurt.
If he was lucky, the bruising wouldn’t be too bad.
Keeping her voice low to avoid spoiling the evening for the family she could hear leaving the haunted house, she broke his grip. "Do not grab me."
He opened his mouth, but she pushed him back a few steps and interrupted, her independent streak on a roll. "Do not tell me what to do."
Cancer was enough of a control freak, she wouldn’t let anyone or anything else dictate to her. She’d decided that when she was twelve and she was sticking to it.
He held his hands up and away from her in a placating gesture, but she wasn't finished. Erin pushed him a little into the hallway. "In fact, if any guy ever wants to pull me into his arms, it better not be in a foolish attempt to control me."
"I'm sorry!" Davis reached toward her, not grabbing for her, but his expression begging her to listen, to understand. "Erin—"
She fended him off, pushing him farther into the hallway and making room to escape around him. That was her intention, but as he stepped back, a little Cinderella ran through him. Not past him. Not around him. Not into him. Through him, and his image actually disappeared for a fraction of a second.
Erin blinked, shock and disbelief holding her frozen.
Davis lowered his hands and resignation settled over his face. The little girl's parents continued after her, each of them passing through Davis as well. He disappeared for a breath, then returned, his image flickering with each one of them.
Her eyes bulged. She couldn't suck in enough air to be effective. The lack of air was all that kept her from screaming. Instead, she ran down the hallway to another set of elevators, sliding in with the family before the doors closed, blocking him..
The regret and sympathy on his face haunted her the entire thirty seconds of the ride. When the elevator stopped and the doors opened, she walked out. Davis stood beside her, his finger pressing the button for the elevators to stop on this floor. Behind her the dad leaned out and looked both ways before retreating inside the elevator and pushing the close doors button. "I guess whoever it was changed their mind."
Erin’s eyes widened at the man, then burned with the prick of tears. She forced them away and ran to the doors to pediatric oncology. He was there before her, pushing them open so she could run to her room. His words about avoidance hounded her every step, but it couldn't be.
Her lungs swelled and emptied with every breath. Her heart pounded away, pumping blood through her veins. Her hands even shook, for God's sake. But when she reached her room, her worst fears were confirmed. Her family surrounded her bed, crying and holding her dead hands.
Dead. Tears rained down her face as she stared at them and tried to comprehend what she was seeing. There were no more IVs in her arms or her ports. No monitors beeping with the sound of her heart rate. No bags of fluid that made her need to pee every two hours. She sure as hell never thought she'd miss those.
Harsh breathing and sounds of grief filled the room with an oppressive weight. No one talked as they struggled with their loss. Erin's arms went around herself, only to feel Davis's arms already there, holding her. "I was supposed to be here with them."
"You were." He said quietly, his strength supporting her when she wanted to fall to the floor and wail.
"No I wasn't. I was with you." Regret sliced deep.
"Yeah, but the dying part…you were here."
"Why didn't I know? I thought I was alive. I thought you were alive, but you aren’t, are you?”
Davis shook his head, his expression full of regret.
“You mean this whole time we were both dead?" She pulled away from his embrace and faced him.
Davis nodded, compassion in every word. "You've been dead since you woke up from your nap."
Death Is Becoming Page 5