I hesitate at the front door, my hand reaching for the knob, ready to turn it an sto pan>
“All right, loser, get up. We have work to do,” I say, causing Flora to jump out of her skin. Well, okay, not her skin, skin—we don’t have that luxury at the moment—but she pretty much hits the ceiling.
“You scared the shit out of me,” she replies.
Obviously. I want to roll my eyes but decide it’s better to contain myself. “We’re wasting time. Maybe you don’t want to live, but I can’t say I share the same feelings. I actually have a place in this world, and I’m making a name for myself, so you’re either with me or against me. I could care less either way.”
“Wait—we can hear each other? I figured we’d just listen to static for the remainder of our trip, making this ten times more difficult.”
“Well, apparently there’s a lot we weren’t told about the Shadowlands, thanks to Sara. She forgot to mention we can’t hear anything in our world, or that we have to listen to this horrible background noise.”
“I know, right? It sucks.”
Now that I have a front-row seat to the shattered glass all over my living room floor, I cringe at what my mom’s going to say. Collecting fine crystal was a hobby for her. That, and stuffing her face with German chocolate in between yoga sessions. That’s about it, though. What can I say? My mom really wasn’t born with any special talents. I guess I got all of my skills from my dad. Why have I never thought about this before?
I pinch the bridge of my nose and ask, “Do I even want to know what happened?” Turning on my heel, I lock eyes with Flora, but she hasn’t moved.
“Um, I might’ve gone a little bit overboard.” She separates her index finger and thumb by a short amount.
“Ya think?”
“I tried messing with Mia, and it worked,” she says.
I glance around, realizing I haven’t seen my sister at all. “Where is she now?”
“After she fainted, she grabbed her purse and fled.” Flora shrugs. “So, who knows?”
Gritting my teeth, I articulate, “Well, that’s just great.”
“Got any other ideas? Because I’m fresh out of them. Mine don’t work.”
Allowing my head to fall back, I close my eyes. “No, Flora, I don’t have any ideas. I just got here.” Except for Chase. He’s the only other one I can think of, unless I want to attempt one of my friend’s houses, but I’ll be willing to bet none of them are home.
“Then I don’t know what to tell you. We’re screwed, I guess.”
My head returns to its normal position, and I take a deep breath. “So, that’s it? You’ve given up? Wow, someone alert the media. Flora Mackey has sold out and surrendered her life.”
That’s just fantastic. Now, I’ll have to complete the rest of this journey on my own. My frustration with Flora right now has been elevated to a Category Done-With-Her. I mean, she acts like this kick-ass girl, but then she turns out to be a coward.
Whatever. She can stay here while I find somebody who won’t run from me. Chase, baby, here I come.
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chapter fifteen • laney
Honestly, the longer a person stays in the Shadowlands, the closer they are to Alzheimer’s. There are memories I’m trying to summon, but it’s like my brain won’t let me, or it just can’t seem to find what I’m looking for. It reminds me of a bad internet connection, while simultaneously trying to surf the web—broken and disconnected. And a pain in the ass.
Ugh. I need to get out of this place before I turn into a slobbering lump of uselessness.
Chase’s house is on the other side of town. Okay, it’s not that far, but it seems that way when a person is walking through an alternate dimension. I don’t even know what day it is anymore, so I can’t guarantee he’ll be home. It’s just that…he’s the closest thing I have to salvation right now, and I desperately need a knight in shining armor.
By the time I make it to Chase’s subdivision—and it was quite the workout, since I jogged the whole way—my mind second guesses whether this is the correct street. It’s like one minute the memory is there, and the next it’s gone. I might be near his house, but I might also be two blocks away. I’m ready to grab a fistful of hair and pull, honestly. Okay, maybe not; my parents have spent too much money on hot oil treatments to let my beautiful tresses go to waste.
Luckily for me, my brain doesn’t decide to fold in on itself before Chase’s house comes into view. Elation tugs at my heart and flips my stomach upside down. I nearly cry, but none of that pity-party crap Flora pulled at my house.
My feet jerk to a sudden stop when I see a car that I don’t recognize in the driveway. There’s only one way to find out who it belongs to. vidth=that I doI focus my energy from head to toe as I glide through the front door. Nobody’s in view immediately, so I check out the rest of the first level, and then move on to the basement. I don’t want to believe the mental image that’s floating around the back of my head, the one that might be mine and Chase’s doom. The one where I catch him in bed with another girl because he’s frustrated with me. No, I won’t think about that. I’ll think about something else. Maybe if I’m lucky, my brain will forget the idea altogether.
Now who’s being dramatic?
But when nobody turns up downstairs or in the basement, that leaves one option: upstairs. Either Chase’s room or the media room. Since his bedroom is on the way to the media room, I stop by there first. Closing my eyes, I step through the doorway…and see that it’s empty. Whew! I can almost breathe a sigh of relief. Almost. That doesn’t mean Chase is off the hook, though.
It’s weird, feeling the hardwood flooring underneath my feet. I figured nothing would be the same once I was here, like I’d float everywhere I go. There are so many questions I want to ask Sara, and now I can’t. Like, why does it take energy to pick something up and throw it across a room but walking on a solid surface requires none? I don’t understand this dimension. To be honest, I don’t think I ever will. Nothing makes sense in the afterlife.
With each new step, the fear in my mind grows worse and worse, until I stand in front of the door to the miniature theater Chase’s parents built. My heart pounds against my chest as dread rushes through me. One peek is all it’ll take. Working up enough courage, I poke my head inside.
He’s not here...
What the hell? Where else can he possibly be?
“Have you checked outside?”
I whirl around so quickly, I nearly trip. Flora. What is she doing here?
“No,” I respond. “I was going to check there next.” Okay, I wasn’t, but she doesn’t need to know that; my pride is too valuable.
But Flora being Flora, she sees right through me. (And I don’t mean literally, because that doesn’t even happen when you’re a ghost.) “Right,” she says, with a smirk.
Narrowing my eyes at her, I ask, “How did you find Chase’s house?”
She snorts. “I stalked you. I’m the freak, remember?”
“Oh, trust me, I haven’t forgotten.”
Breezing past her, I march downstairs and through the living room, which has white French doors leading outside. Taking a deep breath, I reach for the knob and focus my energy, actually imagining I twist and then tug. It works. At first, though, I don’t see anything except the pool—which is covered this time of year—the Jacuzzi, and the hammock suspended between {ndejusttwo trees (they never put that thing away for the winter). Movement near the side of the house catches my gaze. Closing my eyes, I sigh and bite my bottom lip. I can do this. I’ll march myself over there and at least try to figure out what’s going on.
Inhaling and exhaling deep breaths, I wander to the area next to the house. Chase and another girl are together. Okay, maybe not together, together—they’re about three feet apart—but they are in a conversation. Actually, judging their body language, they seem to be arguing. They throw their hands around wildly, Chase
’s eyebrows rise and fall, and both cross their arms as they take turns pointing fingers.
What’s this disagreement about? I’d give anything to hear what they’re saying.
“Who is she?” Flora asks, as if it’s any of her business. Seriously, why is she still here?
Setting my arrogance aside once again, and because I want to know the answer to that question, too, I tread over to where Chase and the girl stand, so I can get a better look.
“Hilary?” I shriek, like she can hear me and will react. Up until now, I’ve only seen her backside.
“A friend of yours?”
“Yeah, you could say that.” Although, I’m not sure where that clunker in my driveway came from. The Hilary I know doesn’t drive a piece of shit from 1982. Was she trying to be secretive when coming over here? I mean, why else would her mode of transportation be completely different from the Mercedes she drives to school?
Then the whole scene plays out in my head, like I’m watching a movie: she and Chase have been sleeping together for awhile now. Secret meet-ups. Stolen kisses. Sext messages.
Chase and I have had our fair share of problems in the past, and most of them are sexual in nature. So what if I’m a little vain and don’t want to kiss him without ruining my lipstick? So what if I don’t want his hands all over me in the hallways at school for everyone to see? So what if I don’t want to touch his deep-V diver after a manicure? That doesn’t give him the right to see other girls. If he dislikes me that much, then he should just break up with me.
I honestly don’t know whether I should laugh or cry. Well, I can’t really do either at the moment—I need to focus on what’s at stake—but if I make it out of this chaos alive, both are in the near future.
Flora interrupts my brief moment of reflection by asking, “Do you think they’re…you know…?”
“Shut up!” I retort, cutting her off. I don’t want to hear whatever’s on her mind. God, I can’t think with her asking me stupid questions that are none of her business. Why isn’t she still at my house, convincing Mia that our bodies lay at the bottom of Death’s Cliff? She needs to make herself useful. Ugh. I can’t be m { ca2em" ad at her, though; she’s only voicing the same idea aloud as what was in my head. Wait—am I playing the devil’s advocate? Apparently, I’m in need of a major intervention.
The argument between Hilary and Chase stops when he pulls out his cell phone and begins talking to someone on the other end. He better not be calling more chicks to join in, so he can use his submarine in the hot tub or something. Oh, my God, I want to vomit.
As soon as Chase hangs up, Hilary moves in for a hug. I guess after having a mini fight she wants to be reassured there’s still affection between them. Chase takes a step back, throwing his hands up and signaling for her to stop. In return, she gives him a brief, wide-eyed look but is able to keep her emotions under control, if her fake smile counts for anything. He points toward the front of the house, like he’s ordering her to leave. Hilary doesn’t protest. She silently walks through the side gate, gets in her car, and backs out of the driveway.
After Hilary’s departure from his property, Chase’s lips puff out as he scratches the back of his head. Glancing around, he latches the gate shut and strides inside, one of the French doors closing behind him.
“That was weird,” says Flora.
I grit my teeth. “Not as weird as you following me here and not staying at my house to convince Mia we’re still alive. We would’ve had a better chance at being rescued if we were split up.”
“Yeah, well, I tried that with my crystal-smashing party. Didn’t work. Your sister was too busy trying to sleep with my ex-boyfriend. I then punched a hole through a painting which symbolically represented our friendship, and that didn’t work, either.”
My head snaps in her direction. “You guys are, like, the definition of best friends. That doesn’t make any sense.” Does some part of me actually, dare I say it, pity her? What’s wrong with me?
“Apparently, all it takes is her best friend”—she grimaces at the words—“disappearing for a few days for her to run straight into his arms. It’s not like it happened overnight. She has his number, so it was probably transpiring before the accident.”
“Sorry.”
“At least I know so when I return—” Wincing, she doesn’t finish.
“You all right?”
“I used too much energy back at your place, but I’ll be fine.”
She’s a horrible liar.
“We need a plan, and we need one fast. I could admire Chase’s good looks all day, but that doesn’t help me if I ever want to see him again.”
Flora stands, slowly but surely. “We need to find a piece of p { a h="2em"aper, so you can write a note to Chase.” She reaches into her jeans pocket and pulls out a pen. “I’ve been using my energy to hold on to it.”
I wave my hand back and forth between the pen and her pocket. “Then we need find something to write on. Like, pronto.”
“Here, you take it,” she says, gripping the pen. “I can’t anymore. I’ve used too much energy.”
Oh, hell no. She is not doing this to me. She is not giving up when we’ve come this far.
“Where’s Flora Mackey, and what have you done with her?”
“Laney, I can’t go on much further. So whatever plan it is we come up with better be a good one. I’m fading…fast.”
“Quit being a baby. God, you’re worse than Mia.” I won’t tell her that she’s scaring the shit out of me. To be completely honest, I can’t do this without her. Yeah, I tell her all the time she’s worthless and stupid, but she’s the one who’s the fighter, who acts like she has it all figured out. I sure as hell don’t.
She pins me with a glare. “Don’t say your sister’s name.”
“Fine, I won’t. In the meantime, you can come up with a brilliant scheme to get us out of this place.”
A light flashes against mine and Flora’s cheeks, dims, then returns—over and over again. Peering through a crack in the side fence, I see police cars parked in the driveway. I might actually screech from excitement.
“Is that who he called earlier?” Flora questions.
I shrug. “Probably. I was on my way to his house when we crashed, and I’m not exactly the type to leave town.”
“Maybe Hilary was worried, too, and that’s why she was here.”
But I doubt it. “You know how you don’t want me to say my sister’s name in your presence? It’d be great if you could do the same with her. ’Kay? Thanks.”
Flora chuckles. I give her the stink eye, so she tells me, “A missing-person report can’t be filed for the first forty-eight hours. I bet Chase has been waiting all this time, and since you didn’t show up here, or any of your friends’ houses, he called the police. Your boyfriend might be our redemption. I wouldn’t be so quick to crucify him just yet.”
I hate it when she has a point.
Flora continues, “I thought my parents or Derek wou { orlight flald’ve been our heroes. They were searching for me, I’m sure of it. Why else would they have been riding around town in separate vehicles?”
“Are you sure they didn’t find you?”
She gives me a Duh, Laney look. “We’d be lying in hospital beds by now if they had, not roaming around the Shadowlands.”
“True. So, if you saw them earlier, what happened? Why aren’t we rescued yet?”
Flora rolls her eyes. “I might’ve scared the shit out of Derek. It was fun, at first, but then he fled, and I couldn’t catch up. I don’t know about my parents. After I ran after him, I saw Mia, and the rest is history.”
I sigh. “This sucks. And don’t think this will happen often—because it won’t—but I think you’re right about Chase. I think he’ll be the one to find us. Unless your parents somehow beat him to it.”
“I won’t hold my breath,” she coolly states.
Traveling through the French doors, I note Chase talking to the police on the foyer, whic
h is where I advance to. I can’t exactly know what they might be talking about if I’m not close enough to read their lips. One of the officers pulls a ballpoint out of his shirt pocket and begins scribbling information onto the pad in his hand. This is the best thing I’ve witnessed since I arrived in the Shadowlands (it certainly wasn’t landing in a garbage bin or seeing my living room wrecked, that’s for sure).
“Think they’ll start searching for us right away?” Flora asks as she creeps up beside me.
Having no freaking clue what they’re saying, I answer, “Don’t know. Maybe. Maybe not.”
Flora and I stand side by side until the police leave. Even then, I don’t know what to do. Just being in the same room as Chase without him seeing me is like a swift kick to the ovaries—it hurts. Pacing the living room, he drops to his knees, planting his forehead and fists against the hardwood floor. His back heaves up and down in what might be a serious case of gut-wrenching cries.
Oh, Chase. My poor baby. “I’m so sorry,” I whisper, dropping down beside him, wishing there’s a way to let him know I’m here, even if it’s only in spirit.
The Shadowlands isn’t my favorite place in the world, and it definitely doesn’t offer much help for lost souls. This would’ve been ten times easier had I been able to hear what Chase was saying, or if I could write a simple note to let him know I’m present and accounted for, without using energy.
The more I think about it, the more I realize the laws of the universe don’t apply here; this place is far from the normal I know. But maybe that’s just it. Maybe what’s normal to everybody on earth isn’t standard anywhere else. We’re, like, in our own little, separate universes.
Whoa. Okay, no more deep thinking for me.
Tilting my head and angling it so Flora can hear, I remark, “I can’t concentrate right now, not with him like this.” God, I just want to run my fingers through his light-brown hair, or have him wrap me in his arms, telling me everything’s going to be okay. “We need a plan. So, I need to know where we begin before our time runs out. If that means putting aside our differences to save my life, then whatever, I’ll do it.”
Almost Dead (Dead, #1) Page 11