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“Maybe you should wait a day or two. See what happens. ”
She laughed. “And join your band of superheroes? Sorry, but I’m allergic to spandex. ” Her sneakers scuffed on the concrete as she turned away. “Say bye to Liz for me. ”
“Wait!” I tugged off my shoe. “Take some money. ”
“Save it. I don’t plan to ever get the chance to repay you. ”
“It’s okay. Just take—”
“Keep your money, Chloe. You’ll need it more than I will. ” She took a few steps, then stopped. For a moment, she stood there, then she said quietly, “You could come with me. ”
“I need to get Simon his insulin. ”
“Right. Okay then. ”
I waited for a good-bye but heard only the slap of her sneakers, then the creaking of the door as she left.
When Liz returned from patrol, she said she’d seen Tori leaving. I explained, then braced for a chewing out. Why had I let Tori take off? Why hadn’t I gone after her? But all Liz said was, “I guess she didn’t want to hang around,” and that was that.
We were both quiet for a while, then Liz said, “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you. About me being dead. ”
“I handled it wrong. I should have made it easier for you. ”
“I don’t think there’s any way to make that easier. ”
We sat side by side in the darkness on a piece of cardboard I’d dragged over. My back rested against a crate. I’d stacked more around me, like a play fort. A small, dark, cold fortress.
“Why’d they kill me?” Liz asked.
I told her about the experiment and the genetic manipulation and what the file said about terminating us if we couldn’t be rehabilitated.
“But I could have been rehabilitated,” she said. “If they’d just told me what was going on, I wouldn’t have been freaking out about poltergeists. I would have taken lessons, pills, whatever they wanted. ”
“I know. ”
“So why? Why?”
The only answer I had was that we didn’t matter to them. We were subjects in an experiment. They’d try rehabilitation because we weren’t animals, but Lyle House had been only a token effort, to prove to themselves that they’d made some attempt to save us.
They said they killed us because we were dangerous. I didn’t believe that. I wasn’t dangerous. Brady wasn’t dangerous. Maybe Liz and Derek, but they weren’t monsters. Derek had been willing to stay at Lyle House just so he wouldn’t hurt anyone else.
They played God and they failed, and I think what they were really scared of wasn’t that we’d hurt people but that other supernaturals would find out what they’d done. So they killed their failures, leaving only the successes.
That’s what I thought. “I don’t know” was what I said, and we sat quietly for a while longer.
Next time, I was the one to break the silence. “Thank you. For everything. Without you, Tori and I would never have gotten away. I want to help you in return—help you cross over. ”
“Cross over?”
“To the other side. Wherever ghosts are supposed to go. The afterlife. ”
“Oh. ”
“I’m not sure why you haven’t gone. Have you…seen anything? A light maybe?”
A small laugh. “I think that’s only in movies, Chloe. ”
“But you vanish sometimes. Where do you go?”
“I’m not sure. I still see everything here, but you can’t see me. It’s like being on the other side of a force field, where I can see—Well, I guess they must be other ghosts, but they seem to be just passing through. ”
“Where do they come from?”
She shrugged. “I don’t talk to them. I thought maybe they were other shaman spirits, but I…” Her gaze dropped. “I didn’t want to ask. In case they weren’t. ”
“Can you ask them now? Find out where you’re supposed to be?”
“I’m fine. ”
“But—”
“Not yet. Just not yet, okay?”
“Okay. ”
“When you do find Simon and Derek, I’m going to take off for a while. I want to visit my nana, see how she’s doing, and my brother, maybe my friends, my school. I know they can’t see me. I’d just like to see them. ”
I nodded.
Liz wanted me to sleep. I closed my eyes to make her feel better, but there was no chance of drifting off. I was too cold, too hungry.
When she slipped out to patrol, I stretched and shifted. The chill of the concrete came right through my cardboard mat. I was crawling over to grab more layers when Liz reappeared.
“Good, you’re awake. ”
“What’s wrong? Is someone coming?”
“No, it’s Tori. She’s in front of the warehouse. She’s just sitting there. ”
I found Tori crouched between the warehouse and a Dumpster, staring at the rusty bin, not even blinking.
“Tori?” I had to touch her shoulder before she looked at me. “Come inside. ”
She followed me without a word. I showed her the spot I’d made, and she settled in, crouching in her strange way.
“What happened?” I asked.
It took a moment for her to answer. “I called my dad. I told him everything. He said to stay where I was, and he’d come and get me. ”
“And you changed your mind. That’s okay. We’ll—”
“I went across the street to wait,” she said, as if I hadn’t spoken. “I was in an alley, so no one would see me before he got there. The car pulled up and I started to step out and—and I didn’t. I kept telling myself I was being stupid, that I’d been around you too long, getting all paranoid, but I needed to see him first, to be sure. It was his car—my dad’s. It stopped right where I said I’d be. It idled there, all the windows up, too dark to see through. Then a door opened and…” Her voice dropped. “It was my mom. ”
“She must have intercepted the call,” I said. “Maybe they switched cars. Or she got to his car first, knowing you’d be looking for it. He was probably on his way, in her car and—”
“I snuck away and called my house again, collect. My dad answered, and I hung up. ”
“I’m sorry. ”
