AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“How’s life been treating you, dear? Still seeing them ghosts?”
Next to me, Sara stiffens, leaning forward. She opens her lips to counter, but before she can say anything, I place a hand on her forearm and shake my head. Mrs Collins laughs at her own joke, if you can call it that.
“All in good fun, I hope you know. What is it that the other kids used to call you?” She taps a finger on her lips as if she needs to think about it. In reality, I’m certain the horrid nickname has been the only way she’s referred to me since they gave it to me in seventh grade. “Oh, yes, Creeperalda. How cute.”
Indeed not cute.
“Esmeralda,” Sara says, enunciating my name. “I think I hear the phone ringing. Can you go answer it for me, please? I can help Mrs. Collins with her purchase today.”
No phone is ringing. Sara doesn’t even keep a phone in the stockroom.. A part of me doesn’t want to back down, to leave Mrs. Collins with the satisfaction of insulting me. It wants to fight back, to unleash a decade of pent up anger and frustration. But I know speaking my mind, letting that darkness out from the pit of my soul, only brings trouble. So I nod, and fall back into the old habit of running.
chapter 6
a two-way hunt
teizel
I made a point of giving Esmeralda space, avoiding her as long as possible, which the pull of the curse allowed me to do for a whole six days. On the seventh, I can’t hold out any longer. If anything, I’m looking forward to her accepting the challenge to be rid of this constant nagging feeling in my chest. It makes tracking her easy — all I had to do this morning to find the coffee shop was follow the direction this invisible fist clenched around my heart drags me towards.
The cafe is a little hole-in-the-wall place, long and narrow and lined in dark red bricks, smelling of burnt coffee and chocolate and the scent of contentment, which tends to smell the same on all humans, like caramel apples. It’s the kind of mellow emotion that seeps from person to person, putting everyone in a good mood. Humans, gregarious creatures, often underestimate how much influence they have over each other.
Esmeralda and her apricot-and-rosemary scent overpower everything else for me, though, as if having smelled it a couple of times has primed my senses to search for it, a predator attuned to its prey.
She’s at the register placing her order. Behind her is a line of at least four people, so I slide in.
“Ah, chocolate. Now that’s something I miss from being alive.”
My body turns rigid at Meilin’s voice. I distinctly remember telling her to stay home; I’m not fond of hunting with a companion.
“What are you doing here?” I ask as quietly as I can muster. To anyone around me, I must look like a bloke mumbling to himself.
Meilin, settling by my side, shrugs. “How long do you plan on keeping me away from her?”
“However long it takes for you to forget about me and leave me alone. Spirits have a short memory span.”
She laughs. “You’d think after forty years of this, you’d know that’s a hopeless task. I’m not going anywhere. I enjoy watching them fall for your bullshit.”
Meilin finds some kind of sick comfort in knowing nobody resists my bargains, as if that can justify her doing so as well.
At first I didn’t mind allowing her the twisted pleasure. It was none of my business how Mei coped with her death. But as the years have gone by, I find myself less and less comfortable with allowing her to relive her own downfall over again.
Meilin deserves peace. It’s within her reach. And yet, she’s obstinate enough to deny herself it.
Why I’d even care about that is something I do not wish to ponder on.
Esmeralda swipes her card and moves off to the side, waiting for her order. Meilin watches her with her head cocked. “She could make a good addition to our band of misfits, don’t you think? Maybe she’ll want to stick around in the end.”
The reminder that I’m condemning the poor girl to death with my bargain is an unwelcome one. I focus my attention away from Meilin just as the barista hands Esmeralda a carrier with two large drinks and a brown paper bag. She thanks them, then turns on her heels.
She’s power walking to the exit when she stumbles, eyes falling through Meilin. It’s the perfect in. I reach for her, steadying her by the elbow.
“Careful there,” I say.
She looks up to me with wide eyes. “Teizel? What are you doing here?”
I point to the hot drinks in her carrier. “I heard this is the place to come get coffee in this town.”
She sighs and shakes her head, like the answer is painfully obvious. Except it’s a complete lie, and if her instincts had been telling her I was here for her, she’d been right.
