by May Dawson
My arms bumped against the hard wooden trim around the window, and I leaned forward into the open window.
Cool air caressed my hot face. I was several stories up. My view was only treetops, and I looked down a dizzying distance to yellow, unkempt lawn below. I took a startled step back, afraid I’d accidentally fall out the window.
There was a hammering on the wall next to me, the sound of someone’s fist thumping against the thin wall between our rooms.
“Ellis? You up yet?” The voice was muffled. Low. Gravely. Panty-dropping under other circumstances.
Ryker.
“What’s happening?” I demanded. I felt like I was on the verge of tears. My voice came out stronger than I would have expected. I was thankful for that, and I blinked hard, looking up at the ceiling, willing the tears away.
“You’ve been kidnapped by the same people who took me and my brother,” he said. “You’re going to be okay. Don’t panic.”
“Don’t panic?” I hissed. “I’m wearing a straightjacket! There’s no way around panicking!”
“Stay strong, Ellis.”
My new friend spoke as if he knew me so well.
“You told me you’d answer all my questions—”
“Not now,” he interrupted. “Tonight.”
“Not now!” I exploded. “You told me to wait until I was kidnapped by those assholes—”
“It’s not like you listened to me anyway.”
It was hard to tell through the wall, but I could’ve sworn he sounded amused. Amused was not an appropriate reaction to everything that had happened to me in the last twenty-four hours.
“Were you watching?” I asked. “Were you in the van?”
“No,” he said, his voice faux-innocent. “I wasn’t in the van. I wasn’t there at all, Ellis.”
I frowned. I wondered if someone was listening in on us, and he didn’t want them to know he’d been there. But then, I couldn’t trust him, either. “What is this place?”
“It’s a reformatory for specials like us. Or at least, that’s what your mama thinks. It’s also a haunted insane asylum. So that ups the fun factor a lot.”
I shook my head. “I’m not crazy. And I’m not special. I don’t know why I’m here.”
“You are most likely both those things,” he said.
I rested my elbows on the windowsill, looking out at the green trees. We were surrounded by a lush forest. I wished I was walking through it right now on my way back to civilization. Civilization didn’t have much sanity to offer. But at least it was better than this.
“Let’s start over,” I said. “What’s your full name? Why are you here?”
I wouldn’t trust him, but I was curious about him.
“Ryker Alexander. And I’m here for the same reason you are.” He paused. For dramatic effect. If there hadn’t been a wall between us, I would’ve wanted to punch him. “They want us to unlock the secrets of the supernatural.”
I almost laughed. “What secrets of the supernatural?”
“You really have to ask me that, Firestarter?”
“That wasn’t me!”
“It wasn’t the smokes either, was it?”
“I don’t smoke.” I snapped back.
“Yeah, exactly.”
“But I didn’t start that fire. It must have been from somewhere in the house, a bad electrical connection or something…”
“Sounds good,” he said agreeably. “Too bad nobody believes that.”
I rested my forehead against the cool white casing of the window. “I’m supposed to start college in a few months.”
“Maybe you’re not college material.”
“Maybe you’re not a very nice person.” I squeezed my eyes shut, willing this all away. “My mom said it would only be for the summer. That she got to choose where I’d spend my summer.”
“You’re absolutely right.” It was a woman’s voice, soft and lilting; she had a distinct southern accent. I turned in surprise.
In the doorway stood a woman in a doctor’s white coat, her sleeves pushed up above slender wrists and a man’s chunky gold watch. She wore jeans and brown hiking boots, and her long dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail, emphasizing her sharp but feminine features.
“I’m Dr. Parrish,” she said, starting to extend her hand to shake mine, and then her eyes widened, her lip parting, as she took in the straightjacket. “I’m so sorry. Let’s get you out of that now.”
I turned my back on her, and she quickly closed the distance between us. I felt a series of tugs as she worked at the fastenings. I inhaled and exhaled slowly, trying to calm my racing heart. Think, Ellis, think. My head felt foggy, like I needed a cup of coffee and a hot shower. I might say the wrong thing, things I couldn’t take back later. I pressed my lips together tightly. I didn’t want to make a mistake and find myself locked away forever.
“Don’t fall for it, Ellis,” Ryker said.
“Oh, be quiet, Ryker,” she said. “You’ll get your chance to tell her your little stories tonight.”
The warm canvas weight slipped off my shoulders. I pushed the sleeves down hastily, shaking the jacket off me like I would find myself trapped again if I didn’t get away from it now.
“I’m sorry,” she said again. “Sometimes they get a little…carried away…if you put up a fight. You must have been frightened.”
“Yeah.” Still was.
Her face was sympathetic. “Your mother didn’t think you would come here willingly.”
“Not so much, no.” I kneaded my shoulders, which tingled with pins-and-needles. My fingers felt numb, and I shook my hands back and forth. “You kidnapped me. Why? Why am I here?”
She shook her head. “I know it must feel that way, but we didn’t kidnap you. Your mother is so worried about you, Ellis. She’s been in touch with us a few times, but last night? The fire you started? She asked us to come right away to help you.”
Her face was smooth, unlined, even though she looked older. She didn’t wear any makeup, and her eyes were wide with sincerity.
“How are you going to help me?” I couldn’t help my lips quirking up slightly in a smirk at the strange question; I wasn’t sure these people were here to help me one bit.
“I’m going to help you find Ashley,” she said.
My lips fell open. Ash, Ash, Ash, running away in my dreams, satin slipping through my fingers.
How did she know?
“When you find her,” she said, “In the other world. Then you’ll be able to take control of your powers. But for now, you’re too lost in your grief and bitterness to own your power.”
“What powers?”
“You’re very special,” she said fondly. “We don’t know exactly what powers you’ll have in the end, not yet. For now, it’s clear that you can manipulate manner. Because of the fires. Which makes us think that, with effort, focus, and training, you could manipulate other forms of matter.”
“Other forms of matter?” Water. Air. Earth. “I think I’ve read this comic book before.”
Dr. Parrish said, “I know it’s a lot to take in. But you know something’s been different since your sister’s accident.”
“It wasn’t just her accident.” I leaned against the window frame, crossing my arms over my chest. “It was my accident too.”
“But you walked away. The first time your gifts manifested.” She suddenly leaned forward, animated, to take my wrist and tug me away from the window. “Please come away from there. You’re making me nervous. I don’t want to watch you fall to your death.”
“You sound like such a mom,” I said, because she reminded me of my own mother, in the good old days when my mother loved me enough to scold me.
“I am a mom,” she said. She seemed to hesitate and then said, “Come on, Ellis. Do you want me to show you around?”
“I’d love a tour,” I deadpanned. “And then can I leave?”
She hesitated, as if she might answer, but instead she turned and swept to
wards the door. She held it open, and I followed her.
We walked through the hall. It was just one short hallway, with a nurse’s station at the end before heavy blue wooden doors. I eyed the door, but didn’t make a break for it. Not quite yet. I wanted to know more about how I could find my dead sister.
There was a day room, with a TV in one corner, a leather sectional, a small bookcase with yard-sale paperbacks and DVDs, and a kitchen table with four chairs. I poked around the room, looking at the peeling covers of the paperbacks, and then turned around. “There aren’t many of us here, are there?”
“Not yet,” she said.
“Is that what you want? You’re trying to collect a bunch of people you think have…” I couldn’t bring myself to say powers.
She nodded. “It’s so exciting. I never thought we’d see proof, tangible proof, of parallel dimensions in our lifetime—”
“Dimensions?”
“I’ll explain it all in your classes,” she said. “We’ll start tomorrow. We want you to understand the physics behind your powers. To take control of them.”
“My mom seemed to think this was some kind of…camp for wayward girls.”
“It is,” she said. “In a manner of speaking. You’re a danger right now, Ellis. To yourself and others. But you won’t be when we’re done here. You’ll go back out into the world. You’ll go to college. You’ll be happy again.”
Her voice was soft and soothing, almost hypnotic.
I brushed my hand over my face. I couldn’t believe her. But I was fascinated by what she had to say. I had that nightmare every night, Ash running through the flames. I didn’t think my sister had gone to Heaven.
What if I could find her?
“Okay,” I said.
She stepped back out into the hallway, her hiking shoes squeaking slightly against the linoleum. I followed her down the hall, where she pointed out the women’s bathroom.
“Actually, I need to…” I said. She nodded, and I pushed open the door.
I was in a big, green-tiled, windowless room. There were several stalls, the doors swinging open slightly. There were no locks on any of the stalls, just holes where the locks had been unscrewed. At the end of the room was an open-bay shower with multiple spigots. No curtains, no privacy.
Well, that was a strike against this place. My sense of creepy was back full-force.
I quickly did my business, holding the stall door shut with one finger hooked through the hole where the lock should have been. As I washed my hands at the bank of sinks, I looked into a mirror that seemed grimy with age. The girl who looked back at me had long brown hair that was a disheveled mess around my thin face; my cheekbones stood out starkly, and my dark blue eyes seemed lost. I used to be a pretty girl.
Now I looked like I’d been rolled around in soot and grass, and kidnapped, and generally had an epically bad Tuesday. I frowned at my reflection. Was it still Tuesday?
The frown made me look even worse, with my forehead crinkling with lines, and I tried to make myself smile into the mirror instead. I wet my fingers and combed quickly through my hair, and then splashed water on my face, clearing away the traces of dust.
I looked back up expecting things to be better, but I still looked wan and sad.
And there was a ghost reflected next to me in the mirror.
Chapter 3
I screamed.
The ghost-face regarding me in the mirror was a pale circle of a face, the eyes and mouth and nose translucent outlines. I turned in a hurry, but there was no one behind me. I whirled again to face the ghost in the mirror, and before I could make out what I saw, ice-cold fingers brushed against my shoulder.
I ran for the door, my feet slipping over the tile.
The door burst open. Dr. Parrish ran in. Her eyes were wide, and she stopped between me and the door. “What’s going on?”
I shoulder checked her. I didn’t mean to, but nothing could get me to break my stride and stay in that room; I pushed her out of the way and skidded out into the fluorescent-lit hallway. From the side of my eye, I saw her stumble and catch herself.
Then she ran after me, so close I could feel her shoe catch my bare heel. I stumbled, my hands hitting hard against the opposite wall. I felt the shock travel up my arms and jar my shoulders, but at least I was out of that windowless trap.
“Ellis! What is it?” She demanded.
I faced her, my heart still pounding wildly in my chest. “I thought I saw a ghost.”
Instead of doubting me, her lips quirked up in the faintest smile. Then she went serious, her eyes narrowing and lips tightening. That micro-expression was the real one, though, I was sure of it. She was happy I’d seen something.
“Maybe it was nothing,” I said. “I don’t know.”
“I don’t think that’s the case.”
I shoved my hands into the pockets of my sleep shorts. “Why don’t we just finish the tour?”
“What’s all that screaming like a little girl?” Ryker asked from the end of the hall. He leaned against a white cement wall, his arms crossed over his chest. “Usually, that’s Tom’s department.”
“Nurse Tom,” Dr. Parrish corrected.
“You say that,” Ryker said, “as if it’s going to sound any more respectful coming from my lips.”
Speaking of Ryker’s lips. Even with my heart hammering, I couldn’t help but notice the way his lush pink lips formed into a smirk, the corners of his mouth turning up. His lips were soft, not like the rest of his hard-angled, masculine face. I wanted to see him smile nicely. That mean smirk was the only expression I’d seen from him since we met. But I was willing to bet Ryker had a nice smile when he was genuine.
“Come on,” Dr. Parrish said. “Come meet the boys.”
Okay. The creepy ghosts were just a thing that happened around here. We could all just move on.
“Does he haunt all the bathrooms or just the lady’s?” I said. “Can I go to a bathroom in another hall?”
My heart was still hammering, beating so fast that the bottom of my throat ached, but suddenly I could imagine a way to trick Dr. Parrish into letting me of this hall. I desperately wanted to know the layout and security for the rest of the building.
I would listen to what she had to say about my sister. But I was not going to wait to be released for good behavior.
She shook her head. “You can’t leave this hall. Not during the day.”
“Not during the day.” That was cryptic, but she was already walking away from me towards Ryker.
She turned to say, over her shoulder, “Now you’ll have a face to put with the voice.”
For a second, I was confused, and then Ryker winked at me behind her back. Did she really not know that Ryker had been there in my driveway? I’d have to chalk another point up for the idea that maybe he hadn’t been there with her little kidnapping team.
Which left… what?
For now, knowing that he didn’t want me to give away our meeting, I held out my hand. “I guess we should meet for real now. I’m Ellis. The one who screams like a little girl, apparently.”
He took my hand in his. He had a firm handshake, his palm dry and warm. “Ryker. What happened?”
“I saw a ghost in the mirror,” I said the words flatly. I was curious how he’d react.
“Oh yeah, we call him Roger,” he said. “Roger is kind of a prick. Sorry about that.”
“Ghosts are real.” There was wonder in my voice. I’d never believed in anything I couldn’t see and touch. I had only begun recently to wonder if ghosts could be real.
“Ghosts are real,” he repeated.
“Where’s your brother?” Dr. Parrish asked, her tone impatient.
“Well, you can bet he’s within five hundred feet, since we aren’t allowed to leave the hall.” Ryker’s tone was innocent.
“Mm-hmm.” Dr. Parrish brushed past him. She pushed open the door to the room he stood in front of. I glanced in and saw a long, white room like mine, and it had
the same scent of fresh paint.
“Six rooms like this,” Ryker said. “I don’t know if she mentioned that on the tour. I wonder when she’ll fill them.”
She turned on her heel, exasperation written across her face. “I am trying to help you. I’m sorry that you can’t trust me.”
“That’s funny coming from someone who keeps us locked up in a haunted mental hospital.”
“Because you and your brother and your delusions are a hazard to the rest of the world.”
“The world,” Ryker repeated. His eyes were on mine, light and mocking.
It wasn’t funny to me. I was here because my mother thought I was dangerous.
I had never meant to start any fires.
Weeks ago, I’d found my mother unpacking groceries like frosted flakes and strawberry yogurt and also four fire extinguishers onto our long white granite kitchen island. Before that there had been the fire at my high school the night before graduation, the graduation I hadn’t wanted to attend anyway. I couldn’t bear the thought of walking across the stage without Ash. A neighbor had called my mother with the news, and the color had drained out of her face, her eyes on me as she hung up, even though she didn’t accuse me.
And of course, there was the fire that engulfed our car after the accident. The first responders had dragged my sister’s body out of the car and started CPR in the headlights of an ambulance. But one of them had found me, sitting under a canopy of brush just a hundred feet away from the accident. Unharmed. At least, my mother thought of me as unharmed. I didn’t remember any of that. Not the accident, not the hospital. Not even prom, which we were coming home from before the wreck.
“Ellis?” Dr. Parrish asked, her voice full of concern.
I tried to smile like I was okay.
There was the creak of a door behind me, and Dr. Parrish’s lips tightened as she looked at something over my shoulder. I turned to see what it was.
A tall, broad-shouldered guy with long blond hair pulled back into a wet ponytail came towards us down the hall. He was naked from the waist up, a towel wrapped around his hips. I quickly raised my eyes to the ceiling before I could stare, but good lord, his body was a vision that stayed with me: a broad chest that gave way to a narrow waist, six-pack abs, and muscular shoulders still beaded with drops of water.