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

by Apryl Baker

  “That’s simple, Mattie. Knights were created to see evil and destroy it. Your ghosts, up until now, haven’t been evil. They’ve been lost souls looking for help. Dan hasn’t been able to see them because of that.”

  “You can’t really expect me to believe that?” Dan scoffs. I can see the terror in his eyes, though. He’s seriously spooked. “I am not…not some freak of nature!”

  “Oh, so I’m a freak because I can see ghosts?” I ask, hurt.

  His eyes soften. “No, that’s not what I meant, Mattie…”

  “That’s what it sounded like.”

  He sighs and runs a hand through his hair. He is good and truly freaked. He’s pacing and he keeps flexing his fingers, his tell if you will. I learned to pick up on it when we played poker.

  “You grew up seeing ghosts,” he says after a minute. “It’s normal for you. Then I see a…a demon and the Doctor tells me it’s because I’m a long lost descendent of angels? It’s a hard pill to swallow, Mattie. You go to church and believe in all that. I don’t. My parents never went to church. I didn’t grow up believing in angels and demons or even ghosts for that matter. I was raised that the only real evil in the world is in the form of humanity. That’s not who I am.”

  “Doesn’t matter if you believe in God or not, Officer Dan,” I say softly. “He believes in you.”

  “Mattie…” The warning is clear in his voice. Best not to push him too hard right now. He’s overwhelmed and not coping very well.

  “Well, think about this. Your compulsion to help people might come from your ancestors,” I tell him. “You have wicked skills as a police officer. So, maybe it follows that you were born to find evil and fight it.” “No, that’s not what I do now,” he denies hotly. “I’m a rookie cop who walks a beat.”

  “Dan, your captain wouldn’t have sent you to Quantico for training with the Behavior Analysis Unit if she didn’t think you were going to be a great cop.”

  “I’m studying forensics,” he counters. “I won’t be on the streets after I get my degree. I’ll be working behind the scenes to help the detectives.”

  “No, you won’t,” I tell him. “You’re a good cop, Dan, it’s who you are. You’d never be happy just puttering around in a lab examining lint and you know it! You’d want to be out there looking for clues, interviewing witnesses, and working to solve the mystery.”

  “Kids…”

  “WE’RE NOT KIDS!” we both yell and I can almost see the Doc wincing. He’s gotten between some of mine and Dan’s fights before. It’s never pretty.

  “Sorry,” he mutters. “What I wanted to say is that it’s just one theory. Dan can mull it over and I’ll keep looking for more answers.”

  “Or,” I say sweetly, “Dan can stop being pig-headed and accept the fact that he’s Angel Boy.”

  “Mattie…that is not…you…” Dan sputters, unable to finish his sentence. He obviously hates that nickname. I likey.

  “Mattie!” the Doc’s tone is very sharp. “Stop teasing him. Did Dan tease you when you told him about your gift?”

  Dang it. Why did he have to go and remind me of that? The Doc just took all the fun out of it.

  “Fine,” I mutter. “I won’t tease him. Great way to suck all the fun out of this, Doc.”

  Doc sighs. I can tell he is not amused. “It’s late, and I know you guys probably need to get to sleep…”

  “Wait,” Dan interrupts and tells him about my dream. “When she woke up, her wrist was bleeding all over my white carpet.”

  So not my fault his carpet is stained.

  “You mean she physically manifested a wound she received in a dream?” the Doc asked, his voice extremely worried. That can’t be at all good if the Spook Doctor is spooked.

  “Yeah,” Dan sighs. “I guess that means we should be worried?”

  “You should probably be cautious,” he says slowly. “What she experienced is very uncommon, but coupled with the demon stalking her, I wouldn’t take any chances. I’ll be in New Orleans tomorrow and will make sure I get her a protection charm.”

  My eyes narrow. “Doc I am not wearing chicken feet around my neck.”

  He laughs outright. “Oh, my girl, you shouldn’t watch so much TV. Most gris-grisses are not made of chicken feet. Most have herbs in them.”

  “I don’t do Voodoo, Doc.”

  “If you want to stay safe, you will, Mattie Louise,” he tells me matter-of-factly. “No arguments. I’ll overnight it to you as soon as it’s ready and I don’t want you to take it off.”

  “I’m not going to be here,” I tell him. “Meg is taking me somewhere for my birthday.”

  “Where’s she taking you?” he asks.

  “Not sure.” I shrug. “It’s a surprise.”

  “Will Dan be with you?”

  “Uh, I don’t think so?” I look at Dan questioningly.

  “I have to go to New Orleans myself first,” he tells Doc. “I can pick it up and then deliver it in person.”

  He knows where she’s taking me and he’s been holding out? I give him an outraged look and he winks. At least some of the shock is wearing off if he can wink.

  “Good,” the Doc says, relieved. “Mattie, I need to do some more research on your transference dream, but I’ll get back to you within a day or so, I promise. I just have a lot to do the next few days. We’re investigating a very haunted house, one that has terrorized its occupants for over a hundred and fifty years.”

  “No worries, Doc,” I tell him. “You take your time while I torture Angel Boy here into telling me where Meg is taking me tomorrow.”

  Dan growls, the Doc sighs and I hang up on him

  “Now, Officer Dan, where am I going?”

  I can see by the stubborn set of his jaw, this is going to take a while. I flip the Twilight reruns back on and quirk my eyebrow. He wants to torture me, I’ll torture him.

  It’s going to be a long night.

  Chapter Seven

  I ignore the constant pounding on the bathroom door. Dan is being impatient. We have plenty of time to get to the airport. I’m in no hurry to board the death trap. I can so imagine surviving the plane crash and being bombarded by the ghosts of the mangled passengers…I have enough to deal with without that complication thank you very much.

  Speaking of complications, I glance down at the white bandage on my wrist. It’s glaringly obvious what it is, at least to me. If Meg has half a brain cell, which she does, unfortunately, she’ll start buggering me with questions the minute she zeros in on it. I’m supposed to leave my bandages off my hands periodically, but seeing the wrapping on my wrist, I think I’ll opt for putting them back on. It’s too hot outside to wear long sleeves. Weatherman said it’s going to be over a 100 today with a heat index of about 115. This way I can at least hide the bandage on my wrist.

  “Mattie! We still have to swing by your place and get your bags!” Dan yells through the door. “Or did you forget about that?”

  I sigh. No, I haven’t forgotten that fact. I’m still wearing my clothes from yesterday. I just don’t want to hurry to the airport and the possibility of my death. There are very few things that scare me, but planes do. Face it, being up in the air thousands of feet above the ground, if one of those engines malfunction…I shudder at the thought.

  “Dan, it’s six-thirty in the morning! We have plenty of time.”

  “No, we don’t,” he shouts through the door. “Meg has already texted me five times. Your flight boards at nine, which means you need to be through security before eight-thirty. It can take an hour just to get through TSA.”

  Did he just say Meg texted him? I rip open the door and stalk out into the hallway. Dan is staring at me with a frown. “When did you two start texting?” I demand.

  He looks slightly embarrassed, as well he should, since he almost kissed me yesterday. Texting my best friend?

  “She demanded I keep her updated when you went missing,” he says slowly. “We’ve just sorta been talking since then.”


  Fury runs through me unlike anything I have ever known. I want to hit him and Meg in that minute. I’m so angry I go back into the bathroom and slam the door in his face.

  “Don’t get mad, Squirt,” he calls.

  Don’t get mad? Don’t get mad? Oh the nerve. “She’s too young for you!”

  “She’s eighteen, Mattie.”

  That feels like a sucker punch to the gut. So because she’s a year older than me, and prettier, and rich…and…ohhhh. I just want to scream.

  I open the bathroom door and stomp to the kitchen. I pick up Dan’s phone, which he conveniently left on the kitchen island, and dial Meg’s number.

  “Dan?” She picks up on the first ring. “Are you guys on your way yet?”

  “No, we are not on our way, Megan, and nor are we going to be!” I hang up and dial Mary’s number. It goes to voicemail, dang it.

  “Mary, it’s Mattie. Can you pick me up at Dan’s, please? Call me back and I’ll give you the address.”

  I throw his phone down and storm past him into the bathroom, slamming the door behind me and locking it.

  Dan’s phone is ringing and I hear him talking softly. After a minute, he knocks on the door. I ignore him. I can wait in here until Mary comes to get me.

  He knows that I don’t trust people very easily and here he goes flirting with my best friend behind my back. I’m doing my best to hold onto the anger, because if I let it go, I’m going to hurt. The truth is, I guess maybe I do love Dan more than just a friend or a brother. I love him a lot and this proves to me just how badly he can hurt me.

  “Mattie, open the door, please.”

  “Go away!” I shout.

  I can hear him sigh through the door. “Meg wants to talk to you.”

  “Well, I don’t want to talk to either one of you!”

  Just yesterday I was thinking what a great friend she was for not going after Dan because I might like him. I can’t believe I didn’t see it. Dan has softened me up too much. I can’t wait to graduate and just get away from everybody. Maybe I should look into the whole emancipation thing and transfer to a school out in California. It would be warm and I wouldn’t have to deal with back-stabbing friends.

  “Mattie, you’re being a brat about this,” Dan says, frustrated. “It’s not like we planned for this to happen, it just did.”

  Planned for this to happen? “Are you two dating?”

  “Yes.”

  I slide down the wall, unable to breathe for a second. Pain goes straight through me. They were dating and hiding it from me? How could they do this to me?

  I pull out my phone and call Dan’s dad. It’s one of the contacts Dan had pre-stored in it. I ask him to come get me and he agrees.

  “Mattie? Who are you talking to?”

  I don’t answer. I can’t. The minutes tick by and I can hear Dan talking to someone on the phone, probably either Meg or his dad. Great. Now, I’ll have to play twenty questions once his dad gets here. I just want to hide out under my covers and cry like a girl. Instead, I call the only other person who means anything to me. I call Dr. Olivet.

  He picks up on the first ring. “Mattie? What’s wrong? Did something else happen?”

  “Doc, I need a favor.”

  “If I can, you know I will.”

  “Do you want a real live ghost girl with you on your hunt?”

  There’s a long pause. I can almost see him trying to figure out what my angle is.

  “Mattie, of course I’d love to have you here with me, but aren’t you going away with your friend for the week?”

  “Not anymore,” I say bitterly. Friends don’t go behind your back and steal the guy who means more to you than anyone else ever has. “Do you want my help or not?”

  “Of course, Mattie. I’ll call you back with the time of the flight. When you get to the airport, just print off the ticket and I’ll have someone pick you up when you land if I can’t.”

  “Thanks, Doc.” I don’t even bother to say bye, just hang up the phone. Now I just need to wait for Dan’s dad to get here to take me to Jane’s. I can get Mary to pick me up and then take me to the airport. I’ll even leave the room purple if she can just keep Dan and Meg away from me until I leave.

  “Mattie, if you don’t open this door, I swear I’m going to break it down!”

  There’s just a hint of panic in Dan’s voice. I think deep down he might still be afraid I actually did try to cut my wrist. Stupid. He should know me better than that.

  “Go ahead and lose your security deposit!” It would serve him right.

  “Please open the door, Mattie.”

  The doorbell rings and I hear it open and close. There’s a muffled conversation and then footsteps lead back to the bathroom door.

  “Mattie?”

  I close my eyes. Meg is here? Freaking fabulous.

  “Go away, Megan.”

  “No, I won’t go away, Mattie,” she says. “We’re friends…”

  “Friends?” I shout and jump up, unlocking and yanking the door open. “Friends? Don’t you dare call yourself my friend anymore.”

  “Mattie, we didn’t want you to find out like this…”

  “Do you know I thought I was lucky to have found a friend like you? Me, the foster kid who’s never had real friends or family, finally found people I could trust, people who cared about me.”

  “I do care about you.”

  I slap her and she stumbles back. Dan catches her before she falls.

  “Don’t,” I warn her. “If you were my friend, you would never have gone after him. You told me you wouldn’t until I figured out how I felt. You lied to me, Megan. You broke my trust. Both of you did.”

  There’s another knock at the door. Dan frowns when he sees his dad standing in the doorway, looking confused and concerned as he stares at the three of us.

  “Thanks for coming to get me, Mr. Richards,” I say, trying to keep my voice even and steady.

  “Honey, what’s wrong?” he asks.

  “Nothing’s wrong, I just need a ride home.” I can see he doesn’t believe a word of it. He looks at Dan, who looks at the floor. Mr. Richards’ frown deepens. “Can we go?”

  He nods. I step around the backstabbers and attempt to leave with a little dignity.

  “Mattie, I know you’re upset…” My back stiffens at the tameness of that word. “Call me when you calm down, okay?” Dan pleads.

  I pull the phone he’d given me out of my pocket. I really, really like this phone, but I throw it at his head. “No, Officer Dan. I don’t think I’ll be calling you. Keep your phone.”

  “Mattie, you need that phone, that’s why I got it for you…”

  “I don’t want anything from you!” I hiss and march out the door, down the stairs, and wait for Mr. Richards beside his Lexus. Lord knows how long it’s gonna take him to come downstairs. He’ll probably grill Dan first.

  Now I just need to get through the rest of the day without breaking down.

  I can do it.

  I can.

  Chapter Eight

  I can’t, I can’t, I can’t!

  I feel closed in, sweat rolls down my back, and I have the sudden urge to hurl. The airplane isn’t loud, but I can feel the dip as we start to dive down to land. What if the landing gear doesn’t release? What if an engine goes out? Please, please don’t blow up.

  Up until this point, I’ve been semi-fine. Mary loaned me her iPod and I’ve distracted myself by listening to music I normally wouldn’t touch. She and I have very dissimilar tastes in music. I won’t be borrowing it again, but I needed something to take my mind off the death trap I was in and to try to block out thoughts of Dan and Meg.

  It’s still hard to believe what they did. I mean, I know I didn’t have any real claim to him and I wasn’t old enough until today to even think about it, but still, you don’t do that. It’s part of the unwritten code of best friends. You just don’t touch another girl’s guy even if they aren’t together.

 
God bless Mary, though. Once she found out what happened, she went into bulldog mode. Neither Dan nor Meg ever got near me. Both of them showed up at Mary’s wanting to see me and she told them both where to go in no uncertain terms. By the time she was done, even my ears were ringing. Mary’s good people and I’m lucky to have her. We went through a lot together and I know no matter what, she’ll never betray me. She’s family.

  But so is Dan. I don’t know if I can forgive him, though. Once you break my trust, I never give it back. He and I might end up losing everything we’ve built, but he will always be my family. That much even I know is true. It’s weird and I couldn’t explain it to Mary very well, either. Probably because I can’t even explain it to myself.

  Deep down I think I decided to come to New Orleans to test him. If he really cares, and he meant what he said about never letting me push him away, he’ll come find me. He’s supposed to be here anyway to check out what the PI found out about my mom. If I mean more to him than Meg does, he’ll come find me. I hope.

  The plane jolts as we touch down on the runway and I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding. Thank you, God. I send up my prayers and take a deep breath. I survived my first plane ride.

  The heat slaps me in the face as soon as I get near the exit door of the plane. Great, I came from one heat box right into another one. Suck it up, Mattie, I tell myself. Better here than listening to Meg and Dan try to explain themselves.

  Not that the heat bothers me for more than a second. I am surrounded by cold seconds after I step foot on the tarmac. I want to run right back on the plane. Whispers bombard me, so loud they are deafening. I can’t even make out what any of them are saying. It makes me dizzy and I stumble. Someone catches me and asks if I’m okay. I think I mumble a yes and manage to stagger inside. How could I forget that New Orleans is the city of the dead? I shouldn’t be here.

  I only packed one carry on. Finding it, I push through the mass of people fighting to get downstairs to the baggage claim area. Everywhere, the ghosts are everywhere. The need to scream at them to go away claws at my throat. My eyes water from the pain exploding in my head from the magnitude of ghosts whispering to me. Their emotions crowd into me and I want to curl up and cry. So much pain and anger.