by K. F. Breene
“No,” the other guy said. It sounded like Matt. “I’d sure like to, though.”
“So,” I said, hooking my thumb into the strap of my backpack and trying to act natural. “That’s your car?”
“It is so clear why you have no friends,” Carla muttered, shaking her head.
“It’s my dad’s, actually,” Braiden said. “He’s letting me borrow it. I might end up taking the bus with you.” He laughed and looped his arm through the open window again.
Carla clutched my arm. “That would be so radical. Oh my God.”
“But while I have it, do you want a ride?” he asked.
“Yes,” Carla answered for me. She shoved me into the street. “She definitely does, yes.”
“Are…are you sure?” I asked hesitantly, my face burning. The loud rumble of the bus approaching sounded behind me. “I don’t want to give you any trouble.”
“Yes, he is sure.” Carla shoved me again. “You are definitely sure. Go. Do not ruin this. Go.”
The bus’s brakes squealed as it slowed to the stop. With a last glance back at it, I said, “Sure, okay,” and started across the street. Before I reached his car, I spotted Dirk coming out of his house. He caught sight of me and then the Corvette and stalled on the walkway, staring. He was no doubt annoyed that I got to ride to school with his new man-crush and he didn’t. Ha!
I put a little swagger into my strut, rounding the rear of the Corvette and pausing by the door. I thought about flipping Dirk off, but decided against it. It would look better if I completely ignored him.
The car seat was plush and the interior thrilling. The whole look and design screamed fast as well as luxury. I brushed off my clean jeans and considered running my hand across the smooth dash. “I can’t believe your dad lets you drive this.”
Braiden shrugged. “He’s driving the commuter car. No sense in letting this ride go to waste.”
“That would not be how my dad saw it at all.” I succumbed to the desire and slid my hand across the dash. “My parents barely let me drive their Bronco, and that thing is five years old.”
“Ghost stuff aside, you seem pretty tame. Why don’t they trust you?”
I huffed out a laugh as the engine roared and we shot forward. I clutched the handle on my door. “They say I need to earn my privileges, but I have a sneaking suspicion it has to do with a certain dead woman who haunts the town. They think I invent stories and daydream a lot. Basically, they’re waiting for me to get my head out of the clouds, and they think withholding things like the car will hurry that along.”
His expression closed down. “I hit the library after your ghost story. The general consensus is that the story of the old McKinley Mansion woman is just what you said—an urban legend. But children still go missing. Just three years ago, two disappeared.”
“Alex and Janine. In the same night.” I sighed and stared out the window, the familiar pang of loss in my chest. “Alex came from an abusive home. His dad was a drunk. He ran away a few times, but more often he’d just dally and not go home until after dark. Janine, him, and I had started hanging out because of our shared nighttime visitor, but he lived closer to Janine, so they saw each other more often. They could walk to each other’s houses, whereas I’d have to have my mom drive me. So when they disappeared, and after the police came up with nothing, everyone just assumed Alex had run away for good, and he’d taken Janine with him.”
“Wow. Did they question you?”
“Of course. And I told them that I was certain they’d finally succumbed to the Old Woman. That they would be in the mansion.”
“And that didn’t go well.”
I laughed sardonically. “Nope. The cops were frustrated I was telling stories, my parents were disappointed, and I was labeled a glory seeker. They were pissed that I was still harping on about stories in a time like that.” I shook my head. “That sealed my very unpopular coffin.”
“The write-up painted a picture just like the story you told. That the kids just…disappeared.”
“Yup. They’re all like that. No forced entry, no broken locks, no trace. And some of the earlier stories feature kids too young to have run away.”
He jerked the wheel and stomped on the gas, taking a corner much too fast. I squeezed the handle and couldn’t prevent a curse from escaping my lips. The rear end slipped, threatening to fishtail. Another curse competed with the motor as Braiden corrected, keeping the car under control at a breakneck speed.
“Not used to going fast?” he asked, and I could hear the laughter in his voice.
I did not find this amusing.
“Not used to my life flashing before my eyes. Are you in a hurry, or something?”
“Nope. Just experiencing life to its fullest.”
“Righteous. But can you experience life later, when I’m no longer sitting in the car?”
He laughed and the car coasted, his foot off the gas. “You aren’t a thrill seeker, huh?”
“Definitely not, no. Also, my stomach doesn’t have a superior track record in cars.”
That whipped the smile off his face. The car slowed even more.
“It doesn’t make sense, though,” he said. “That teacher acted like the crimes continued because they didn’t punish the right person, but these crimes extend longer than any one person’s life. Sure, there could be copycats, but then there’s…what I saw.”
“The Old Woman.”
“Except she wasn’t old. I mean, she was hunched over, but she looked more sad than old.”
“That’s just what she’s called around here. Old Woman. She died when she was middle-aged, by our standards. Anyway, to answer your question from yesterday, which you hopefully know better than to ask in public again: yes, I’ve seen the Old Woman. She walks through town whenever there’s a major storm…and sometimes on calm nights when electricity charges the air. There’s no other way to describe it. It’s just a feeling. Now that the other kids have disappeared, she only stops in front of my house. Well, before you came to town.”
“How do you know?”
“Because she is a ghost. A strong one. We’re the only ones who feel the maddening pull to follow her, but other people can see her. If anyone bothered to look out of their windows on one of the nights she walks the street, they could vouch for my story. It’s maddening! No matter what people outside of this town think about it, her existence is factual. She’s not a story, and shushing me won’t make the reality of it go away. But people want to believe it’s just an urban legend. It doesn’t make sense.”
“No one wants to go against the grain. To sound crazy. Except you. You steered the conversation away from my talking about the Old Woman and the candle. You thought everyone would persecute me.”
“They would’ve.”
His smile made my heart flutter. “Nah. It’s not what you say—it’s how you spin it. But you were ready to accept the ridicule on my behalf.”
“Sure.” I shrugged. “Why not? I’m already the town nutter; it’s expected of me. The fact that I haven’t disappeared yet means I’m just looking for attention.”
“You have to die before the town as a whole believes you.”
“Basically, yeah. But even then, they might say I went out to California or somewhere. The weird ones do things like that, didn’t you know?” I rolled my eyes.
He shook his head. “People are sheep. They’re scared of what they don’t understand. Be that as it may—”
“Where are you going?”
He finished the turn in the opposite direction of our school. “We have some time. I want to make use of it.”
My fingers tightened on the handle in the door. “How?”
He laughed. It seemed as if my sudden anxiety tickled him. “By driving. Trust me, you’re safe. You’ll always be safe with me.”
His assurance loosened a tightness I hadn’t realized I’d been carrying around since his first night in town. It was nothing more than a gentlemanly gesture, but the sent
iment felt real. It felt like he’d agreed to protect me, and for some reason, a part of me believed him.
That part wasn’t logical, however. I had to remember that. He might think he could keep me safe, but he had just started living in this town. He had no idea how strong the Old Woman’s influence could be.
“Anyway,” I said. “Yeah, the Old Woman was killed in the streets like a barbarian, but the killings kept on going.”
“Did someone else move into her house?”
“Yes. Two families have lived there since, but they only stayed briefly. The first claimed—”
“That the house was haunted.”
“Yup. They were strangely closed-lipped about the place, but the stories are that they couldn’t get out of town fast enough.”
“And the second owners?”
“The second owners, a young couple with more money than sense, much like your parents for moving here”—he barked out laughter—“killed themselves. They both did. The woman hung herself, and the guy shot himself in the head a year later. The owners after that tried to set fire to the house. That’s when the state stepped in and took over. It’s a historical site. They were going to turn it into a tourist attraction, but a few years ago a group of people went in to assess the property, and there was a disturbance of some kind. The cops were really hush-hush about it, but since then, no one has gone in there. No kids, no teens, no cops. No one.”
“But…” Confusion crossed his face. “There isn’t any tape across the doors. I walked by there last night. It just looks like a big old house. How do the cops keep people out?”
I huffed. “We’ve just been talking about kids disappearing and people going crazy in that house. And you wonder why no one wants to go in?”
“Intriguing,” he said softly.
“No. Not intriguing. It’s scary.”
“Uh-huh. And the deaths keep happening, but less now?”
“It’s because of me.” I stared out the window. “So far, I’ve held out the longest. And I’ll keep holding out. I’m nearly out of here.”
He was quiet for a moment while he turned and got us back on track toward the school. We had about ten minutes before the first bell. After a while, he said, “I felt that pull you speak of. It was powerful.”
“I know. You need to resist.”
A pregnant silence stretched over us. His fist clutched the gear stick tightly. Finally, as he parked in the school parking lot, he told me what was on his mind.
“The pull was powerful. But it wasn’t to go to her. It was to protect you.”
Chapter Ten
“Why weren’t you on the bus?” Scarlet asked as I met her at the bike rack.
I stared up at the steps. Braiden had met up with the popular crowd, quickly sucked into their core like a king.
What he’d said in the car, before quickly getting out and striding away, still rattled around in my brain.
“I got a ride,” I said, drifting toward the steps with numb feet.
I didn’t really know what to think. Or how to feel. I’d never heard of anything like this happening before, but that didn’t mean it hadn’t. Given this town’s desire to sweep anything paranormal under the carpet, maybe someone had felt like he did without admitting it. Or maybe no one had listened to them.
“Don’t tell me—you broke down and got a ride with Dirk?” Scarlet said.
I came out of my reverie with a frown. “Why in the world would I get a ride with Dirk? He’d probably take a turn at a high speed and push me out. Or bury me in an unmarked grave.”
Scarlet checked her watch as we merged with the group of students slowly working up the steps to the jam-packed double doors. “We should’ve gone around. I bet the jocks are in the middle of the hall again.”
“We don’t have time. Just don’t push me into the office door again.”
“When do your detentions start?”
“Next week. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.”
“Three? I thought it was two?”
I pushed out my elbows as we neared the double doors, ready for the crush of bodies squeezing together. “Mr. Morris found out that I told the McKinley ghost story and made a bunch of people late. I’m actually surprised he only gave me one more detention and not two.”
“Did you tell your parents?”
“Mr. Morris took care of that for me last night when he called them.”
Scarlet groaned. “He really has it out for you.”
“I’m a nuisance. A menace. Someone that fills his students’ heads with misinformation. But honestly, I think it was Miss Potters who told on me. She’s not overly fond of me, either. She’s always got her eye on me.”
“Don’t take that to heart. A lot of adults do.”
“Gee, thanks.”
As predicted, the crowd of jocks and their followers waited inside the doors, stretching out to cover more than half of the hall. “This is a fire hazard,” Scarlet muttered. “They give you detention for tripping into the office door—”
“I think you’re remembering who tripped incorrectly.”
“—and telling a story that everyone knows, and yet these hooligans don’t get in any trouble for blocking traffic. It’s not fair.”
“They win us trophies.” I glanced into the group as we passed, seeing Dirk’s thatch of bright red hair next to dark and handsome Braiden. “Whatever, who cares. Soon we’ll be across the country at college and they’ll be here, trying to find work. Our life is about to begin. Theirs is about to end.”
She nodded firmly. “Exactly.”
Nate stood at the edge of the crowd, swaying his big body as he talked with Leo, occasionally hitting a younger, smaller person with his arm or shoulder and sending them careening into the crowd. Nate didn’t seem to notice. When I got close to him, trying to work my way to the other side of the hall through the press of people, he noticed me.
“Hey, Fella.” He held up his hand for a high five.
“What?” I looked around in confusion, then put my finger to my chest. “Me?”
“Don’t leave him hangin’, Fella.” Leo nodded at Nate’s hand. “Hey, I heard you got detention for telling that ghost story.”
I hesitantly offered my palm and received a blistering slap. “Ow.” I shook out my hand before dropping it, almost groaning when Leo lifted his for a high five as well.
“I’ve heard that story a few times,” Nate said as my hand received another too-hard slap. “But you told it really good. I was enthralled.” He winked at me, his face scrunching as he did so. “We need to invite you to the next kegger in the woods. You’d be the hit of the party.”
“Have I entered the Twilight Zone?” Scarlet asked.
“Yes,” I answered Scarlet, but Nate took that as a response to him. His face brightened. “Tubular! Hey, how was the ride in the ’vette? Was it awesome?”
Ah. That was why these guys were suddenly talking to me. I was temporarily cool by association.
“He went really fast. It was great.” I smiled and picked up the pace, getting a free ride through the hall for a moment as people tried to steer clear of us.
“Did I just hear that right?” Scarlet asked, her eyes bugging out. The first bell rang and I stayed way clear of the office as we passed it. “Did you get a ride in the Corvette?”
“Yes.” I couldn’t keep the excitement and thrill from my voice, my anxiety about the ghost forgotten for the moment. “He saw me waiting for the bus and asked if I wanted a ride.”
“No way.” Scarlet beamed. “I am so excited for you. Of course, I’m also horribly jealous, but in a good way. Excited, and a good sort of jealous. How was it? Did you love it?”
“I’m here first,” Sam said as we flanked him at our lockers. “I got here first. You have to wait for me.”
“Sam, time is not on your side, buddy.” I bumped my shoulder against his.
“No.” He flinched away, only to flinch back when Scarlet stepped up. “Come on. Can’t a guy have a
moment of peace?”
“It’s a locker, Sam, not a spa,” I said. Scarlet snickered.
Sam sighed and flared his elbows, pushing us away. Given his size, his efforts were fairly effective. After packing up the books he needed, he shot a final sour look at me, slammed his locker, and engaged his lock.
“At first he was going really fast and reckless.” I placed two books in my locker and balanced my lunch bag on top. “He was taking corners way too fast.”
“Uh oh. You didn’t upchuck in his car, did you?”
“No, thank heavens. I told him I might, though, and he slowed down.”
“Good. Come on, we have to hurry.” She shut her locker and waited for me to follow. We started off toward our first class. “What did you guys talk about?”
“The conversation we couldn’t finish yesterday. About…the sighting.”
Her mouth rounded in an O. “Does he believe?”
“He seems to. I mean, he knows he saw what he saw. But he did a bunch of research, so I’m not sure what he thinks overall. I do know he doesn’t seem afraid. He’s not acting how people around here have always acted.”
“You mean scared or disbelieving?”
“Exactly, yes. And…” I was about to tell her about the strange pull he’d felt, but for some reason I found myself stalling. “Anyway. It was good while it lasted.”
“Yeah. Soon your reputation will catch up to you, everyone will make fun of him for talking to you, and he’ll steer clear.”
“Yup. Just like always.”
I said goodbye and peeled off into my classroom. More eyes stuck to me than usual as I made my way to my seat. Assessing. Calculating.
I ignored the attention and pulled out my notes. A second later, the first four periods were over and I was walking with Scarlet toward the cafeteria. The morning had passed like a blur, lost to the thoughts whirring through my head. Braiden was in my next class. All I had to do was get through lunch and I’d see him again. Then I’d…
“Hello? Earth to Ella.” Scarlet nudged me as we stood in line.