Page 128 of The Devil and His Ghost

Without looking away from her, I wrapped us in shadows. When they cleared, we no longer stood in a sun-soaked field. The sky had gone gray and cloudy with the hint of rain in the damp, chilly air. Somewhere in the distance stood my friends, though I’d asked them to stay out of sight. They’d know when to come over. Hundreds of stones surrounded us, but I didn’t focus on any of them. I kept my attention fixed on Kendyll as she looked around in confusion before turning toward the large stone we stood by.

Her whole body went rigid, and she paled to an unnatural shade of white. I didn’t need to look for myself to see what was engraved on the polished stone. After all, I’d made sure Terrance had the correct name placed on the tombstone.

Kendyll Grace Ruan

October 12, 2001—August 25, 2025

Chapter 44

Xander

(One Year Ago)

AN UNSETTLING YET SOMEHOW FAMILIAR horrified scream filled the air amid cars honking as I materialized on the balcony Kendyll had texted me. I was confused when I didn’t see Kendyll but only an older man. He bent down to pick up something off the ground by the railing. I was wondering if I had the wrong balcony when I saw what the man now held.

Kendyll’s phone.

The fading scream that had stopped seconds ago suddenly rang clearly in my head. It was a sound I’d heard countless times upon waking to find Kendyll fighting off a nightmare. I froze for one terrified second, sure I was wrong. My mind had to be jumping to wild conclusions.

Yet, unable to think past the horrible thought, I vanished and rematerialized outside on the street below.

It was fine. I was fully prepared to find a different source for the screams. It was probably just a car accident. I’d go back to Kendyll’s room to find her waiting on me. I’d kiss and tell her how silly of a worry I’d had, which we’d both laugh at. I’d—

I appeared in the middle of the deserted street, and I sucked in a sharp, agonized breath. My ability to stand vanished as I crumbled to my knees on my own guttural wail, crawling across the bloody pavement toward Kendyll’s lifeless, contorted body. Catsper mewled and wailed while pacing back and forth around her.

“No!” I cried, tears streaming down my cheeks. I scooped Kendyll into my trembling arms and placed a shaking hand to the back of her head. The spot I touched caved in and squished beneath my fingers, drawing another painful sob past my lips. “No! Kendyll, please. Fuck! Please, no!”

This wasn’t real. This wasn’t fucking real. She’d just texted me. We’d just talked. We’d just been together that morning. She was just alive. This wasn’t real.

“Please,” I begged and pressed my forehead to her bloody one. “Please open your eyes for me, Ghost. Please. Fucking please!”

Every window on the hotel at my back and across the street shattered following my desperate plea. Glass shards rained down on us, and strangers inside and out scurried away to avoid getting blasted with the sharp shards. I merely curled my body around Kendyll’s limp one, shielding her from the assault.

I pulled back to look down at her face, noticing Catsper stared at her, too. He yelped and whimpered the most terrible sounds as he zipped and darted all around where I held her. But I couldn’t pay attention to him. I stared at her and could almost pretend she was just sleeping. If not for the blood coating her lips and running down her chin or gushing through my fingers at the back of her head, I could almost convince myself that she was just resting.

A nearly transparent white haze floated up from between her parted lips. It expanded and grew next to where I knelt on the ground until the buoyant, white wisps shaped themselves into the shape of Kendyll. There she stood, her ghost, looking around in confusion. After a few seconds, she peered down at me with her lifeless body still cradled in my arms.

Her eyes widened and lips parted before her shoulders slumped. “So this is what it feels like to be a ghost.”

Her soul continued to tether to her body through the ethereal matter flowing between her spectral form and her physical body’s open mouth. This was typically when ghosts decided what they’d do and where they’d go before the connection severed, freeing them to the next point and sometimes, taking their memories of their death, too.

I couldn’t get my voice to work. I just stared up at her with tears streaming down my face.

She slowly drifted closer and crouched on the ground across from me, her body between us. Her lip trembled as she reached out her hand toward my face, but her fingers passed through me. I choked around another sob and reached up to touch her spectral hand, funneling energy into her so that I could feel even a whisper of her touch against my cheek.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

“Why are you apologizing? You—You’re fine.” I tried to force a smile. “Everything is fine. We can still fix this. I know we can. Get back into your body. Hurry.”

I’d never seen a ghost cry, and yet tears gathered in her ghostly eyes before dripping down her cheeks. They vanished the second they fell into open air. “It’s too late, Xander. I can feel it. I can feel … that I’m beyond saving.”

“No you’re fucking not!” I yelled around another tearful wail, squeezing my eyes shut and pressing her hand harder into my face. “Don’t say that!”

She lifted her other hand to cup both sides of my face as much as she could, and I peeled my burning eyes open to stare at her. She searched my face with a devastated smile, which only broke my heart into more pieces.

“I’m sorry I spent so much time running. If I had known this …” She shook her head. “I wish we had more time. For the things we planned and promised. For … Biluo. Boba tea. Us. I’ve always … you, Xander. Always … telling you late.”

Her form flickered, and her eyes fluttered shut with the threat of not reopening.