by Alicia Rades
Convinced I needed my rest but not wanting to waste a moment of my company, Robin made me stay in bed while he brought out his laptop and pulled a movie up on Netflix.
“One of my favorites,” he said, peeling back the covers to cuddle next to me. He didn’t bother to kick off his shoes first. I suspected it was because of his leg. Even after all this time, he was still self-conscious about it. I had to wonder if that was one of the reasons we hadn’t made our relationship physical yet—not that I was 100 percent ready to take it to the next level, either. But then again, he did manage to get me alone . . .
“Robin,” I pushed away lightly before he hit play on his laptop. I twisted to look him straight in the eye. “What are we doing? Why did you make me stay home from school? Is this . . . Are we . . .” I couldn’t finish that sentence. “I’m not quite ready yet,” I finally said.
Robin let out a light laugh. “Crystal, that’s not what this is. Honestly, I’m just concerned about you and thought you could use some comfort.”
“Well, with everything, it just seems like—”
Robin cut me off by placing an index finger to my lips. “When the time is right, it’s going to be better than watching some lame movie in your bedroom.”
“I thought you said this was one of your favorite movies,” I said behind his finger.
He laughed again. “I didn’t mean the lame movie thing like that. For real, I just—” His expression shifted to become more serious. “I just got scared, okay? It was bad enough hearing about your first accident this week, and then you told me about what happened yesterday. I just wanted to spend time with you.”
I swear I saw a hint of tears welling up in his eyes. It was a side of Robin I rarely saw, so I knew everything he was saying was genuine.
“I was just scared, okay?” he repeated.
I nodded. “It’s okay. I’m not going anywhere. I love you.” Then I planted a long, passionate kiss on his lips before turning toward the laptop and snuggling up in his arms. After the movie ended, Robin and I lay there in silence long enough that we both fell asleep. We woke to the sound of Robin’s phone.
“Sorry,” he said, pulling away from me while wiping drool off his lower lip. “I set an alarm for when I had to head back to class.” He shifted to turn the alarm off. “I should go, even though I don’t want to.”
I yawned. “It’s fine. You have to get back to class. You really did make me feel better.”
A grin formed across his face. “I’m glad to hear that. Now, you keep getting better so you feel well enough to come visit me this weekend, okay?”
“I will,” I promised.
Once Robin left, I felt at a loss of what to do. At first, all I could do was replay the day in my head and think about how comforting it was to nap in Robin’s arms. I still couldn’t believe the guy had the guts to come over while my parents were at work. I’m sure he knew that if he had told me to begin with that he’d be coming over secretly, I would have never allowed it. Once he was here, though, I didn’t want him to leave. I wanted him right back here in my arms, but I couldn’t be the type of girlfriend who made him skip class for her.
I crawled out of bed for the first time that day to use the bathroom. When I returned to my room, I noticed the plate Robin had brought me for breakfast was still sitting on my desk next to my crystal ball. I decided to take a shot at using the ball, although I didn’t think it would do any good considering I’d never been very good at using it. Now with my abilities going haywire, I wasn’t sure it would work at all.
After taking my breakfast plate to the kitchen, I situated myself in my desk chair next to the ball and hovered my hands over it. I was already calm enough from my earlier nap that I didn’t think I needed to do any more relaxing.
I breathed in a deep breath and then let it out slowly, further relaxing the muscles in my shoulders and face. In and out. In and out. My mind fought to forget about the mysterious ghost and go into my crystal ball gazing with no expectations. Eventually, I managed to clear my head enough that my troubles seemed nonexistent at the moment. When I stared deep into the crystal ball, it appeared as if faint colors were swirling in it—so faint that I may not have noticed them if I hadn’t been practicing and knew exactly what the ball looked like normally. A complete sense of serenity fell over me, but as the minutes passed, the colors failed to take shape. I didn’t let my frustrations get to me.
The sound of the doorbell snapped me out of my trance.
I pushed away from my desk. Even though I couldn’t make out any shapes in the ball, the fact that I’d made some connection with it left me feeling hopeful—hopeful that my abilities would return to normal at some point.
I didn’t rise from my chair right away. Instead, I closed my eyes and attempted to form a mental image of the visitor at the door. It was a game Emma liked to play. It was supposed to help me practice my abilities and make them stronger. Normally, it was a simple task, but now, I could use the practice in hopes of rehabilitating my gift. I couldn’t conjure a mental image of the visitor before the doorbell rang again and a voice called to me from the living room.
“Crystal, are you home?” It was Emma.
I sighed, feeling down that the simple exercise hadn’t worked, but I stood and exited my room to meet her anyway.
Chapter 7
When I made it into the living room, I immediately noticed that Derek was with Emma. I blushed lightly before quickly rushing back to my room to slip on sweat pants and a t-shirt over my pajamas.
“I’ll be right back,” I called. I noticed the clock next to my bed read 3:28. My friends must have come over right after school let out. “What’s up?” I asked once I emerged back into the living room.
Emma dropped her backpack on the couch. “You were sick from school today, so we thought we’d come over and take care of you before the game.”
“I don’t need taking care of,” I told them, but I did appreciate that they were worried about me.
Emma headed to the kitchen while she spoke, and Derek and I followed her. “It’s no problem. After what happened yesterday and last weekend, I get that you may be a little shook up.” She pulled a pot from the cupboard as if she owned the place, but I didn’t mind. She’d spent enough nights at my house over the years that it was like a second home to her. She set the pot on the stove and pulled Derek into her arms before speaking again. “Besides,” she joked, “Derek and I could use the parenting practice.”
I knew her words were only in jest, but Derek immediately pushed away. “Whoa, I am not ready to hear that.”
Emma poked him. “I’m just teasing.”
At least he was able to laugh along.
“You don’t look sick,” Derek pointed out when Emma turned back to the cupboards.
“I’m not,” I answered honestly, sinking into one of the kitchen chairs as I spoke. “At least not physically. I really needed the mental break with everything that happened this week.”
Derek took a seat across from me and nodded like he understood. “Is it . . .” He paused for a second, trying to come up with the right words. “Is it psychic related?”
I eyed him curiously. “Did Emma tell you?”
Emma’s voice piped up from across the room without even turning toward us. “No, she did not.”
I gazed down at my fingernails, which had been chewed down to nearly nothing—apparently a new habit I was forming. “Is it that obvious?”
Derek shrugged. “Not that obvious. It’s just that I’ve seen you go through this psychic stuff before, and you’ve been acting weird, like something is bothering you—something more than your car accident.”
Derek had never admitted to believing I was psychic, but with everything he’d seen, I knew his skepticism had declined over the past year. As Emma pointed out not too long ago, even though Derek was somewhat religious, he didn’t have to abandon his belief system to believe me. After all, we both believed in the afterlife.
My gaze shift
ed between Emma and Derek, although Emma wasn’t paying any attention. Should I open up to Derek? I mean, he was one of the first people I told about being psychic because I love him like a brother, but this whole losing my abilities thing made me wary to admit any of my recent encounters out loud. What else was I supposed to do, though? It was obvious—at least to my best friends—that something was going on.
I chewed the inside of my lip. “I’ve been seeing another ghost.”
Derek gave a slow nod as if absorbing the information. “So, uh, what does the spirit—ghost—want?”
I shrugged. “I have no idea. He never said anything to me.”
“I have an idea!” Emma practically shouted, flicking her mixing spoon into the air, which sent splatters of soup across the room. She ignored it and rushed over to the table and slid into the chair on the end between Derek and me. “We could . . .” she paused for suspense. “We could hold a séance.”
I swallowed. Were my abilities up to that? Derek and I exchanged a wary glance, but Emma continued.
“If we contacted him, you could see what he wants and help him!”
“I—” I started to say, but Derek’s voice cut me off.
“That might actually work,” he agreed.
Wait. What? Derek was willing to be in on this? So he did actually believe me now?
My best friends stared at me expectantly. If I refused, that would look suspicious. I had to comply.
“I don’t know if it’ll work.” I sighed. “Remember when we tried contacting Sage’s sister, Melissa? She didn’t appear that time.” At least it wouldn’t seem so bad if this time didn’t work, either.
“It’s worth a shot,” Emma pointed out.
“Okay,” I decided cautiously. “We’ll try, but after soup.”
“After soup,” Emma agreed.
My friends and I formed a triangle on my bedroom floor. I had lit a few tea candles to set the mood.
“So for this to work,” I explained, “we all have to be in the right mindset, which means you need to be relaxed and open to any possibilities, even if we end up contacting someone who isn’t the ghost I’ve been seeing.” My eyes bore into Derek’s.
“What?” he asked innocently.
“You have to believe,” Emma told him.
“Come on,” Derek said, “you guys think after everything I’ve seen Crystal do I’d still question that psychics are real? She found Sage bleeding to death and saved her life at the exact time she said it was going to happen. If that’s not a miracle . . .”
“It’s not a miracle, you dummy.” Emma swatted at him lightly. “It’s paranormal—supernatural—whatever you want to call it.”
“Okay.” Derek held his hands up defensively. “All I’m saying is that I believe it now.”
“Okay,” I agreed. “Now that we have that out of the way, let’s focus on our ghost.” I filled my voice with confidence, but the truth was, I was anything but confident. In fact, I was sure this wouldn’t work. “The thing is that we don’t have anything that belonged to the ghost. We don’t even know his name or anything, so we’ll have to focus harder than normal.”
Emma’s smile widened, and I knew she was fully enjoying this.
“Let’s start by linking hands and doing some breathing exercises to clear our minds,” I instructed.
Emma and Derek followed my lead while I guided them through relaxation exercises and continued to remind them to clear their minds of nothing but our ghost. I didn’t know how much time passed. It could have been 10 minutes or half an hour. It wasn’t long enough for me to give up, but then I felt something tingling my senses. I sucked in a sharp breath, and without consciously realizing it, I squeezed my friends’ hands tighter.
“Something’s happening,” I whispered, focusing my mind even more on the mysterious ghost. What could I do to help him? What did he need?
The tingling in my fingers grew more intense, though not to the level I was used to when I saw a ghost. I took in another long breath and let it out slowly, picturing the silhouette of the shadowy ghost in my mind. A chill spread throughout my skin, raising the hairs on my arms.
Focus. Focus. I repeated this in my head, locking onto an image of the man’s outline. He was almost here, almost ready to tell me what he needed my help with. The tingling sensation grew stronger, and then swiftly, my eyes sprung open. The shadow ghost hovered only inches from my nose, but I didn’t have even a moment to take in the scene before the energy in the room exploded.
There wasn’t a noise or a light as one might expect from an explosion. Instead, it was as if a strong, silent wind had blown through the room to whip my body back. My shoulder blade slammed into the sharp corner of my desk. I cried out in pain. When I managed to focus on the room, I saw in the dim light—thanks only to daylight behind my curtains since the candles had blown out—that my friends had been forced back from the circle as well. Emma was rubbing her head after hitting the wall, and Derek’s body was pressed up against my closet door. He looked around in a daze.
“Is everyone alright?” I asked immediately, rubbing my aching shoulder. Add that to the list of aches and pains I’d accumulated this week.
“What happened?” Emma’s eyes went wide. “That was wicked!”
I wasn’t sure how far off she was with that statement.
“Derek?” I asked.
He looked at me with an expression like he couldn’t really recall where he was.
“Derek?” I repeated. “Are you okay?”
He pushed himself up to a more comfortable position. “I’m—yeah.” He looked down at his hands, flexing them, making me wonder if he’d gotten hurt as well.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Emma asked worriedly. She touched him lightly.
“I’m good,” he assured us.
I pulled myself from the floor and flipped the light back on. “I—I don’t know what happened, but I don’t think I want to try that again.”
Emma looked at me warily. She was still crouched next to Derek.
“Yeah,” he said. “Best not.”
“I think we really freaked him out,” I told Emma after Derek left to use the bathroom.
“To be honest, it freaked me out,” she admitted. “But at the same time, it was really cool, whatever it was.”
“I couldn’t tell you what it was.” Even if my abilities were working properly, I may not have been able to explain it. It was like a surge of paranormal power, only I had no idea what it meant.
Chapter 8
After a while, Emma announced it was time to head to the game. She asked if I wanted to come, but I insisted I still needed my “sick” day. Emma dragged Derek from my house and went to the game without me. I was slightly disappointed that I wouldn’t be there to watch it, but I wouldn’t be playing anyway.
I lay down on the couch knowing Mom and Teddy wouldn’t be home for a while. Mom was at her shop, and Teddy had said he’d be over at Roger’s working on the baby crib they were making in Roger’s workshop. I flipped on the TV to kill time. I needed something to take my mind off everything, although I really should have been working to solve the mystery of the shadow ghost. I must have fallen asleep because I jolted awake to the sound of someone entering the door.
“How was your day?” my mom asked. “Did you just watch TV all day?”
I shrugged, pushing myself up. “I watched a few things.” It wasn’t a lie. No way could I tell her about Robin popping in for a visit, and that sent a guilty sensation to form in my stomach. I still hadn’t decided if I’d tell her about the other thing that happened. I’d been hiding enough lately. What was one more thing?
“What is it?” My mother sat beside me on the couch.
“Nothing,” I told her, but she didn’t buy it.
“Your face says otherwise.”
I had to give her something, so I spit out the first thing I could think of. “I’ve just been thinking.”
“About?”
“I know what I’
m capable of, but I was curious what kind of powers ghosts have.” Hopefully I made it sound like a simple enough question so it wouldn’t prompt her to ask about the creepy encounter from earlier. I still wasn’t ready to talk about it.
“Well, you’re the one who sees ghosts.”
“Yeah, but you know more about all this than I do.”
“From what I do know, ghosts can’t do much but communicate with us. That’s how we get visions. The longer they’ve been dead, the more power they have.”
I recalled the time when a ghost I knew, Olivia Owen, was able to push over a guy with the power of the wind. She’d been dead for a year at the time.
I nodded. “That makes sense. Thanks for satisfying my curiosity.”
“Are you hungry?” my mom asked as she rose from the couch and finally slipped her jacket off.
“No, I—oh, my gosh! What happened?”
A strip of gauze wound its way around her forearm. A thin line of blood was visible under the bandage.
She inspected her arm. “Dang, it’s still bleeding.”
“What happened?”
“I was unpacking some inventory, and I was stupid and put the box cutter on top of a pile of unstable boxes. When I bent down, I knocked the pile over. The box cutter fell on me and sliced my arm open.”
“I’m glad you’re okay. Now you have a wound to match mine,” I teased, pointing to my head.
“It’s not a perfect match, but we can grieve together. Let’s do ice cream for supper.”
Ice cream for supper? My mom was awesome.
My day off didn’t seem long enough. When my alarm buzzed Friday morning, I audibly groaned as I pulled my butt out of bed and sluggishly prepared for the day. I thought about asking my mom if I could stay home again, but I needed to collect my homework from the day before and didn’t want to fall even further behind in class.
I met up with Emma at our usual corner and walked with her to school. We arrived just before the bell rang that released students from the commons and to their lockers. Everything about the day felt positively normal, like the last week hadn’t even happened. I wasn’t even surprised when Derek met up with us at our lockers and had to ask Emma for his combination again. He’d misplaced his class schedule for the second time in the few weeks since school had started and had to pick up another copy from the office. It was so typical that it almost felt strange to me with everything that had been happening lately. The pulse of my headache, however, reminded me that everything that had happened this past week was, in fact, real.