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I reached out, twisting onto Cassian’s shirt. “Cass, how high was she?”

He didn’t say anything again. He held me, and I started to realize he was shaking. His whole body was quaking until finally, he answered me.

“She was on the ceiling.”

31

They took Claudia to the hospital first.

I was next, with Cassian riding with us in the ambulance. I was treated and put in a hospital room. Two policemen arrived to question me, but they wouldn’t let Cassian stay in the room with me. When he said he was an adult, they just laughed. The hospital’s social worker acted as the adult in the room so they could question me. They’d already talked to the other girls, who admitted they went in to hurt me. They attacked me first. The police reassured me I wouldn’t be in trouble for defending myself.

They really wanted to know how Claudia was slammed to the ground if I was on the ground, being kicked, and couldn’t see.

“They didn’t say anything?” I asked, my heart pounding so hard in my chest.

One cop laughed. “They said a ghost did it, but that’s insane.”

His partner was quieter, adding, “The boys talked about a little boy ghost.”

It was the only explanation. “His name is Benji.”

The police stopped laughing.

His partner swore under her breath. “This is not going to go down well with the DA.”

“We can’t write that a ghost named Benji body-slammed a girl on the ground hard enough that she’s bleeding out of her ears.”

I flinched as if he’d struck me.

The social worker leaned closer to me. “The girls said you were calling for Benji and someone named Noah. They knew the other boy, Cassian, but they didn’t know who Noah was. Who’s Noah?”

I couldn’t answer that. If they weren’t going to believe me about Benji, Noah would be even harder to explain. Benji could show himself. He could prove he existed, but Noah couldn’t. He could only light fires.

None of this was going to go down well. They were going to blame me.

I shut down after that. There was no point to keep answering.

They kept trying.

I wouldn’t answer.

Finally, one of the cops said, “If you don’t tell us what really happened⁠—”

“She already did.” The social worker had enough. She pushed back her chair. “It’s time for you to leave. Miss Washington needs to rest and heal. You have statements from the other girls, all who confessed that they went in there to assault Miss Washington. They talked about a ghost, as well as three additional witnesses who also described the same entity.”

“Don’t tell me you believe in this stuff.” The cop’s derision was evident.

“I’ve been around and seen enough to know that it’s more ignorant to not believe that there’s something more in the universe. Are you religious, Officer?”

“Fuck no.”

“I am,” his partner said.

“Do you believe in angels and demons?”

She didn’t answer at first. “Yes.”

“Then is it so hard to consider perhaps ghosts also exist?”