Page 64 of The Devil and His Ghost

“I know,” the lady agreed with a puff of air. She tucked her chin-length chestnut hair behind an ear. “I can’t believe they’ve found each other again. And by accident, no less. Terrance has looked so hard for her, yet it’s when he wasn’t searching that he managed to find her.”

“Who are you? Are you a sibling, too?”

She laughed and waved a dismissive hand. “Absolutely not. I’m Terrance’s fiancé, Becca. Are you and Kendyll together?”

“Yeah, that’s my girl,” I answered without hesitating.

Becca smiled. “You’re protective. That will make Terrance happy. I’m sure you know about … you know … her being a patient at Mountview Psychiatric Hospital.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Yeah. So?”

“Terrance has been so worried about her ever since he and his parents learned that she was suddenly released from there but didn’t come home. He and I had just started dating back then, so I don’t know all of the details around everything. All I know is that when she didn’t come home or reach out to anyone, especially Terrance, he began searching for her. He said they’d been like best friends before she went into the hospital.”

You mean, before she was wrongly admitted, I wanted to growl but settled with keeping that to myself.

Still, I couldn’t stop myself from asking, “They were close, huh?”

If that were true, why hadn’t Kendyll mentioned missing him or wanting to find and see him as much as he seemed to hope to? When I’d helped her out of Mountview, she had been adamant that she didn’t have a family or home to return to.

“Yeah,” Becca answered. “But then her … issues started. That put a strain on things, I think.”

“And what issues would that be, Becca?”

Her cheeks reddened at my biting tone, and she quickly held up her hands in appeasement. “Please don’t misunderstand. I’m not judging her or anything. Terrance’s parents told us how Kendyll couldn’t help lying and making all of that stuff up. She was sick, after all. But I’m glad she’s better now. Maybe this can be a fresh slate for their family. I know Terrance would like that.”

I was typically a very calm being, much different than my fellow spawns of Hell. I didn’t take life too seriously. I usually let stuff roll right off me. But the longer this woman spoke about Kendyll, the more I found that calm giving way to something volatile. What did Becca know? She was merely dating Terrance. Who was she to speak about Kendyll when she didn’t know a goddamn thing?

Even as I thought that, the bitterness swirling inside of me grew, because it wasn’t Becca who knew nothing. It was me. However misguided Becca’s impression of Kendyll’s “illness” was, she had an insight into Kendyll’s younger years that I didn’t. She knew about a part of her that had been blocked from me.

I looked across the park, which had grown overcast with a slight chill. Kendyll and Terrance were deep in a conversation with Terrance wearing a pained frown and Kendyll a startling blank one. I wanted to strain to listen, but we were too far away, even for my superior hearing.

“I think he partially blames himself,” Becca eventually revealed quietly. “It’s obviously not his fault. But he thinks that if he’d been a better big brother, she wouldn’t have ended up at that place, and consequently, never returned home.”

“Or maybe he should’ve simply believed her,” I responded, cocking my chin higher.

Becca’s lips parted, and a pregnant pause followed. “She said some pretty horrible things that weren’t true. At such a young age, too. How could anyone believe something so wrong and obviously untrue?”

“She wasn’t hallucinating or hearing things,” I defended, even while knowing this human couldn’t hope to understand.

She frowned. “I mean the other things she said.”

“What other things?”

Becca’s brow knitted tighter as she searched my face. “I don’t know the details. Terrance never told me everything she said or did. All I know is that she apparently had a problem with lying in a really harmful way. Not to mention her psychosis.”

The fucking woman was really pissing me off now. Her vague words were only serving to prod at my insides with anger and concern while not actually making any sense. She talked without truly comprehending the topic at hand. I was over listening to her shit, so I ignored her for the remainder of our time at the table, watching the far away siblings.

Terrance tried reaching out to hug Kendyll at one point, but she quickly held up her hand to keep him back. His face fell in despair as she talked, no doubt explaining that she didn’t like being touched. Eventually, Terrance gave her his phone, and she typed something into it. Probably her phone number. I didn’t even have her number.

By the time Kendyll and I left that park and duo behind, I was wound tight with what felt like an angry hive of bees in my stomach. Her face, still alarmingly pale, remained stoic as she stared ahead while the two of us walked.

“Are you okay?” I asked softly, placing a hand on the small of her back. Though, as soon as the question left my lips, I knew how stupid it was. The answer was obvious.

“I’m not hungry anymore,” she replied flatly. “Let’s go back to your place.”

The knot at the bottom of my gut only got worse. “What happened?”

“Nothing, Xander,” she snapped. Her gaze stared far ahead. “Nothing happened. I want to go back now.”