The Ghost Files 2 (The Ghost Files - Book 2)

by Apryl Baker

  We both turn baleful eyes on him. We are NOT children, despite the fact that we’re arguing like them. He laughs out loud at our murderous expressions.

  “Go get your things, Mattie,” he chuckles. “We’re going out to dinner to celebrate your birthday.”

  My stomach growls noisily at the very mention of food and they both give me frowns of concern. I jump up and head for my room. I’m not turning down free food!

  I open the door to my room and run straight for my purse, lying on the bed. Before I can turn around, the room starts to freeze up. I don’t have time for this. I’m hungry, dang it. I turn around to yell at the ghost and stop, the words dying on my lips.

  It stares at me from the barren corner across the room. The entire area around it is shrouded in black, making the pale face staring at me even more stark. Long straggly black hair flows around, shoulders hunched in, like its preparing to attack. I take an involuntary step back at the rage and hate emanating from it.

  When it looks at me, I want to run. Its eyes are pools of liquid darkness, a black so deep it scares me. The thing’s mouth opens and black liquid begins to trickle out, running steadily to pool at its feet before starting to slowly leach towards me. I jump on the bed, my eyes never leaving the thing standing across from me.

  Its head jerks in a motion that reminds me of those crazy people you see on TV that are insane and constantly twitch. The fingers are curled like claws and they clench repeatedly. It simply stares at me. I want to scream at it, to demand it leave me alone, but my voice fails me. There are very few things in this world that can scare me and standing across from me is the thing that just made the top of the list.

  With a twisted jerk of its entire body, it starts to shuffle forward. I inch back, intending to jump off the bed, but before I can so much as move, it’s standing in front of me, the stench coming from it making me gag.

  It touches me.

  Chapter Two

  I can’t breathe.

  I can’t move.

  I can’t see past the darkness of the eyes staring into mine.

  My lungs burn and I want to cough, but I can’t. All I can do is kneel on the bed and scream, but no sound escapes my lips. Liquid, hot and foul, fills my mouth. It seeps out, running down my chin. The stench is unbearable, but I’m frozen, unable to defend against the hatred emanating from the thing in front of me. I can feel its need to hurt me, to consume me.

  “Squirt…what the…what…is…that?”

  Dan sees it?

  “Mattie!”

  I focus on the panic in his voice. This thing might hurt him. I won’t let it hurt him. I manage to close my eyes and I can breathe. It can’t control me if I’m not looking at it. A wail unlike anything I’ve ever heard bombards me. I can hear Dan shouting something, but if I open my eyes, I’ll be defenseless and I will not be defenseless. Not ever again.

  Rotten eggs. Ghosts don’t smell like rotten eggs. What is this thing?

  Cold lips press against mine and I open my eyes, startled, repulsed. Those liquid pools of ink try to pull me back in, but I can see Dan. He looks scared and that look grounds me in a way nothing else could have.

  “Go away,” I tell it, my voice not as strong as I want, but at least I manage to get the words out.

  It hisses.

  “I said go away!” I shout, my voice strong and loud in the quiet of my room.

  Another hiss and it backs away. I start to relax, but then it turns, and it’s standing next to Dan. He stumbles back, and in his haste to get away, falls flat on his butt. His eyes widen as it bends toward him. The brown in them have gone black in panic.

  “NO!” I jump down and grab the only thing I can get my hands on, my laptop, and swing at it. It passes right through the thing and slams into the doorframe.

  “Dan? Mattie?” Mr. Richards calls. “What is going on in there?”

  With a hiss, the thing flickers and fades. It’s not like a ghost. Ghosts just pop in and out, but this thing, it was like watching an image fade in and out of a snowy channel on TV. It jerked and jumped before bleeding into the air around it.

  “Daniel Aaron Richards, what are you doing?”

  We both swivel our heads to see Mr. Richards glaring at his son. I know what this looks like. Dan is on his butt and I’m standing over him with a busted laptop. Oh God, my laptop…NONONONONO!!!!

  “D-Dad…”

  “My fault, Mr. Richards,” I tell him, my voice still shaky. “I saw a cockroach the size of a small mouse crawling up the doorframe. I slapped it with the laptop and Dan dived out of the way.”

  “Cockroach?” He frowns and glances over the room.

  “Yeah, Dad,” Dan nods. “What she said.”

  Mr. Richards frowns at both of us, not believing a word of it, but there’s not a lot he can do. He hauls his son up and gives him a good hard stare, which causes Dan to look at the floor. He’s such a bad liar. I get the same look, but I stare back at Dan’s dad with complete innocence. He shakes his head and mutters something about peas and pods.

  “If you two are done goofing off, I’d like to get going,” he says and starts to walk down the hall. “We have reservations.”

  “What the hell was that?” Dan whispers as soon as his dad is out of ear shot.

  “No clue,” I tell him. “You did see it though, right?”

  He nods.

  Wow. Officer Dan, the most emphatic non-believer I’ve ever met, saw a ghost. Well, not a ghost, but it was something and he did see it.

  “We’ll call Dr. Olivet as soon as we can ditch Dad,” he says. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

  He doesn’t have to tell me twice. No way do I want to spend alone time in my room any time soon.

  Dan’s rickety old beat up Ford truck is parked in front of the building with his Dad’s brand new Lexus behind it. Dan and I head for the truck, but his dad cuts us off by asking us to ride with him. We share a shuttered look which causes Mr. Richards frown to deepen. My eyes widen when I realize what he’s thinking. Uh, no.

  “That’s fine, Mr. Richards,” I tell him. “Your car is way more comfy than Officer Dan’s mutant truck.”

  “It is not a mutant!” Dan’s outraged looks distract his dad into laughing.

  “How many different shades of color are on it?” I challenge. I can see primer, red, and brown with just a quick glance. I know he said he was doing some body work on it, but right now it just looks like a mess.

  “Don’t tease him, Mattie.” Mr. Richards hides a smile. “He’s overly sensitive about Myrtle.”

  “Myrtle?” I almost choke on my laughter.

  “That was her name when I bought her,” he defends, his face red.

  “Come on, kids, get in the car.”

  Dan and I pile in the backseat, which earns us another speculative look from his dad. This time Dan picks up on it and shakes his head.

  The car moves into traffic and I for one sit back to enjoy the ride. His dad’s Lexus is a NICE car and it’s not often I get to ride in something so luxurious.

  “There’s something I wanted to talk to you about before we get to the restaurant, Mattie.”

  My attention is drawn back to Mr. Richards. He sounds very serious.

  “I’ve been thinking about your situation for a while now,” he says. “Given that you’re turning seventeen tomorrow, have you thought about emancipation?”

  My eyes widen. I have thought it, constantly, but it’s not something I can do, not given my situation.

  “Yes, sir, I have, but I still have two more surgeries on my hands and a ton of physical therapy. I can’t pay for that.”

  “Well, if the Department of Health and Human Services agreed to cover your medical expenses as related to injuries sustained while in their care, would you do it?”

  Sometimes I forget Dan’s father is a lawyer and then he goes and reminds me with the professional tone he usually reserves for Dan.

  “Dad, she wouldn’t have anywhere to go, to stay. She d
oesn’t have any money…” Dan trails off, his eyes widening and then a grin splits his face.

  “And that is exactly why I was hesitant to broach the topic with her,” Mr. Richards sighs. “It wouldn’t be at all proper, Daniel.”

  “What?” I ask, confused at the almost silent conversation going on between them with facial expressions.

  “Dad knows I’ll let you sleep on my couch.”

  “She’s only sixteen…”

  “Seventeen tomorrow,” Dan reminds his father.

  “Whether it’s the legal age of consent or not doesn’t mean I’m going to condone it—”

  “Whoa, Dad, hold up there,” Dan interrupts him. “You got the wrong idea. Mattie and I are not…we’re friends…we…”

  “I’m not blind, son.”

  My eyes keep darting back and forth between the two of them, fascinated. It always amazes me to watch them interact. It reminds me of what I missed out on growing up.

  “Yeah, you kinda are, Dad.” Dan shakes his head. “She’s…she means a lot to me, but—”

  “But nothing…” Mr. Richards sighs. “You two are not going down that road, at least not until she’s in college.”

  “Do I get a say in this?” I ask.

  “No.” They both give me glares.

  “Why even bring it up then, Dad?” Dan asks, frustrated. “You know she can’t afford to be on her own. She can’t work, not with her hands still damaged. They have bandages on them more often than not. She has to have a way to get to all her physical therapy appointments, school, and she has to be able to feed herself, which she can’t do without working!”

  “Until today, I had thought about her staying with you,” Mr. Richards says. “You two act more like brother and sister, but then sometimes, I don’t know, I see more there than that.”

  “Mr. Richards,” I say, my voice soft. “Dan and I are not involved, if that’s what you’re thinking. He would never take advantage of me like that. You raised a good man.”

  “But you could be, Mattie, if in close proximity for a long time,” Mr. Richards replies. “The look you two were sharing just a little while ago, you were hiding something from me.”

  “Yeah, we were hiding something,” I tell him, “but not that.”

  “What were you hiding, Mattie?”

  I say the first thing that comes to mind. “I think Joan is on the powder train.”

  “She’s on drugs?” His dad swerves the car at that statement and I think for two seconds we are gonna end up splattered against the semi-truck in the other lane, but he recovers almost instantly.

  “I don’t know.” I shake my head. “I haven’t found any drugs, but I’ve been around enough junkies to recognize the signs.”

  “Plus I don’t think she’s getting fed enough,” Dan tells his dad and my stomach picks that moment to rumble.

  “How would you know that, Dan?” I ask him. I haven’t seen him in over a month.

  “You’ve lost weight, Squirt,” he says.

  “Could be stress,” I deny. I can’t get removed from this foster home and he knows it.

  He snorts when my stomach growls again.

  Mr. Richards’ face is troubled, but we are pulling into the parking lot of Jake’s. It’s my favorite little hole-in-the-wall in Charlotte. They serve the absolute best burgers in town. And their chili fries…ohmygod! So good!

  “We’ll talk about this on the way home, kids,” Mr. Richards pulls into a parking spot. We both wince at the word “kids.” We are not kids.

  The restaurant is packed when we enter but that doesn’t stop me from seeing Meg, my best friend, jumping up and down and hearing everyone shouting “Happy Birthday!” I smile. I’ve never, ever had a birthday party. I glance up at Dan, who is grinning like an idiot.

  “Happy birthday, Squirt,” he whispers in my ear.

  “Thank you, Officer Dan.” It’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.

  Someone grabs my hand and I’m pulled away from Dan. I look up to see him rolling his eyes at Mason as he drags me towards the table. I’d met Mason a few months ago and he has been a good friend since.

  Mason stops a few feet from the table and then turns to look at me. I blink and blink again. He looks kinda blurry and distorted.

  It hurts my eyes for a minute, but then I can see…Eric?

  Chapter Three

  Ohmygosh! Eric…how? He grins at the question on my face and instead of heading for the table, he leads me towards the back where the rest rooms are. I see Meg wink at me knowingly…she has no idea.

  As soon as we’re out of earshot, Eric wraps me in a hug and whispers, “Happy early birthday, Mattie!”

  I stare up into Eric’s blue eyes and I feel the butterflies start in my stomach, no scratch that. They’re on a marathon flutter-a-thon. Why is it that the only person who can make me feel like this is dead? So not fair.

  “How?” I ask.

  He smiles that cocky smile I’ve grown so fond of. I’d met him while still at Mrs. Olson’s when he’d tried to scare me away from finding out what happened to my foster sister. In his eagerness to keep me safe, he’d accidentally landed me in the hospital. Back then I’d nicknamed him Mirror Boy, as that was the first place I’d seen him—in the mirror with his face so mangled, it was hard to tell he was a guy. Now, I just see him as the cute boy he’d been before Mrs. Olson killed him.

  “I hijacked a body.”

  I roll my eyes. “Obviously, but how?”

  “It’s not as easy as you think,” he tells me. “I actually tried to body jump Dan over there, but that didn’t work out so well. He’s got some kind of internal shielding that makes me bounce right off. Freaky weird. Mason here was easy. He has an open mind and it let me in without any resistance.”

  “You didn’t hurt Mason, did you?” Mason is a really, really nice guy and I didn’t want him to suffer no matter how excited I am to see Eric in the flesh.

  “Nah, he won’t even remember this,” Eric shakes his head and then his face turns serious. “You have to promise me something, Mattie.”

  “What?” I ask.

  “That you won’t get into any kind of ghost trouble for at least a week.”

  “A week? Why a week?”

  “It takes a lot of energy to possess someone,” he says. “It’s gonna take me at least that long to recover once I leave this guy’s body. He has the hots for you, by the way, and I don’t mean just a crush. He has it bad.”

  “Why would you do this if it costs you so much?” I demand.

  “Glad you asked that, Mathilda Hathaway.” He smiles and there is no trace of Mason in his face. I just see Eric. He leans in before I can do anything and kisses me.

  For all of five seconds, I freeze. I mean…wow. Then emotions flood me and I realize I’m feeling Eric’s emotions. Even though he’s in a body, he is still a ghost and I can feel that part of him. He’s elated, triumphant, and…and happy. This is all he’s wanted to do since he first saw me. I see all this in a flash and it overshadows everything I feel.

  Now, does that mean I don’t enjoy it? Heck no. The boy can kiss and kiss well.

  “Mason!”

  Eric ignores Dan’s shout. So do I for that matter, which only makes Dan mad. He yanks us apart and glares holes into Eric. “What do you think you’re doing?”

  “Giving Mattie a birthday kiss,” he replies with his cocky smile. “What’s it to you?”

  “What did I tell you about this? She needs time to get over everything.”

  “Chill, man,” Eric winks at me. “Mason won’t remember this in the morning.”

  Dan frowns and I laugh. “Um, Officer Dan, that’s not Mason. That’s Eric. He kinda hijacked Mason’s body for my party.”

  Dan’s facial expressions range from outright disbelief to a kind of comical horror. He was forced to admit I can see ghosts, but a part of him still doesn’t want to believe it. Though after that thing we saw in my bedroom…

  “Come on!” Dan whispe
r shouts. “You can’t really expect me to believe that… that… that…”

  “Dan, didn’t you agree that when it came to ghosts, you’d trust me?” I ask him.

  He nods reluctantly.

  “Then when I tell you that this is Eric, this really is Eric.”

  Dan opens his mouth as if to argue then thinks better of it. Smart boy. After that thing from earlier, you’d think he’d be a little more believing…wait, maybe…

  “Eric, what kind of ghost smells like rotten eggs?” I ask. His kisses had momentarily distracted me.

  “None,” he frowns. “Where did you smell that?”

  “There was this thing in my bedroom,” I tell him. “At first I thought it was a random ghost, but it wasn’t like my normal ones. It touched me and I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move, couldn’t do anything. If it wasn’t for Dan, I don’t know what might have happened.” I shudder at the thought. “It was weird. It’s face was all distorted, almost a solid white, but its eyes were black.”

  “Don’t forget that nasty black goo that oozed out of its mouth,” Dan grimaces.

  “Goo?” Eric asks. “Did you see it, Dan?”

  He nods.

  “Mattie, that’s not a ghost. I’m not sure what it is, especially if your boy here can see it, but you need to stay away from it.”

  “Not like I have a choice, Eric,” I tell him. “And Dan is not my boy.”

  “If you say so,” he laughs. “We’d better get back to the table. They look like they’re going to hunt us down if we don’t.”

  True enough, Meg looks like she wants to burst over here and demand answers. She has a thing for Dan, but refuses to act on it because she thinks I might like him. Makes her a great friend in my book. Truth is, I might have a thing for him, I just don’t know myself. Mr. Richards could be right in that having us live together could force the issue. The real question is, do I want to force the issue and find out?

  “Are we late?” I hear a breathless voice and turn to see Mary Cross and her mother coming over to our table. Mary was the only one of Mrs. Olson’s victims I actually managed to save. She and I shared a hospital room for over a month while we recovered from our torture. To say we were friends would be a gross understatement. You don’t survive something like that and just be friends. Mary’s family, same as Dan, at least to me.