Page 81 of If I Stopped Haunting You

Something wet and sticky slid down his lips and chin, and he cupped his hands over his face, blood dripping into his palms. Penelope ran, kneeling before him. She hovered her hands over him, uncertain how to help.

“Neil, Neil, oh my god, I’m so sorry!”

He heard a door click open down the hall and someone screamed. Another door opened, and soon Laszlo and Daniela were huddled around them with bleary faces. Someone offered a hand to Neil, and they stood, touch gentle under his elbows as they guided him down the hall. Neil’s nose throbbed, a sharp, stinging pain traveling from behind his eyes to his chin.

“Do I want to know what happened?” Laszlo asked.

“It was an accident!”

Neil laughed as they helped him toward the stairs. “She’s not lying,” he mumbled around his hand.

“Are you okay?” Laszlo asked.

He waved a bloody hand at his friend, stumbling a step before Laszlo caught him.

“I don’t think I can answer that honestly,” Neil said. His mouth tasted like copper, and his face felt like it was on fire, but Neil was certain about one thing: Penelope Skinner couldn’t be trusted around throwable objects.

Which, Neil supposed, was approximately too many things.

“I’m not violent,” Penelope promised as Laszlo led them into the kitchen and lowered Neil into a chair.

He groaned as Laszlo returned with a damp cloth and pressed it gently to his nose before using another to wipe his hands. Neil felt like a useless child.

“I thought you two had worked out your… differences,” Laszlo hissed to her.

“I’m right here,” Neil protested, voice muffled by the towel.

“We… well, wedid,” Penelope said.

Laszlo looked at Neil suggestively, brows raised, lips puckered in thought. That made Neil blush.

He kicked Laszlo, and the other man grunted. “Don’t you dare say a word.”

“Wasn’t going to.” A pause. “What happened?”

“A misunderstanding,” he said after a moment.

“Why do I get the feeling you’re lying to me?”

Because we are.

Neil wanted to tell his friend the truth. How many years had he and Laszlo been friends? Too long for Laszlo not to suspect something, but Daniela and Laszlo were clearly not experiencing the same castle as Neil and Penelope. Laszlo narrowed his eyes, and Neil mirrored the action, sending a sharp pang down throughhis nose. Laughing, Laszlo patted his shoulder as Neil winced, and the tall man turned to go.

The castle was still and silent as Laszlo’s footsteps disappeared down the hall. Neil squeezed his eyes shut and tilted his head back, sighing.

“Neil?”

He recognized her touch instantly. Penelope’s fingers traced his tattoo, skimming over his skin. She hadn’t said a word about it, even though she must have known what the tattoo meant to him. Was she that scared of facing things?

“I didn’t mean to hurt you,” she said. Neil opened his eyes. She smiled warily, and the sight calmed his racing pulse. “I know things between us are still really new, but I promise I wouldn’t hurt you on purpose.”

Neil lifted the towel away; the blood having finally slowed. He beckoned to her, and Penelope stepped forward, sliding into his lap. She brushed a few stray curls from his forehead, her fingertips gliding over his skin. Neil sighed under her touch.

“I love your hands in my hair.”

“Neil,” she admonished. “We just saw a ghost.”

“What’s one more?”