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Gretchen winced, glancing between her arm and the bed, before she settled her wide-eyed gaze on me. “Here, in the bed with you?”
I looked over the fancy room and the only bed, too, then I shoved away my embarrassment and nodded at her. “Okay, yes, very weird. But I don’t want to be alone. What if the person who did this to Alexander comes back? Sorry, but I’d rather have four fists than two.”
I didn’t need pride. I needed sleep. I felt myself growing more and more tired as the seconds drew on. Going into the Netherworld clearly drained my energy and I suspected crying didn’t help either, nor did the emotional experience of seeing Kipp again. I’d feel a lot more comfortable with Gretchen there.
After a long search of my eyes, her expression softened, and she smiled in her sweet way. “Sure, I can stay. Let me put my pajamas on, grab my book, and I’ll be back.”
“Thanks,” I exhaled, releasing her arm, which I seemed to have had a death grip on, and I hoped I didn’t bruise her. Leaving me behind, she shut the bedroom door behind her. The old floor squeaked under her footsteps as she headed down the hallway. I returned to the bed, grabbed the blankets off the floor, and remade the bed.
After I finished with fluffing up Gretchen’s pillow on the left, I did the same to mine, and then a soft voice said, “Hi.”
I gasped, spun around, and spotted the woman ghost I’d seen out at the swamp, Victoria. Her blue eyes were warm and her smile friendly. “Oh no. Not this again. Go—”
She rushed forward at a speed a live person couldn’t match. “Don’t send me away.” She reached for my arm, but her hand went right through my flesh, causing icy shivers to wash through me.
“Do you mind?” I snapped, jumping back. “I’m not in any mood to be frostbitten.” Especially by some ghost I didn’t know, when I would’ve preferred it to be from the ghost I loved.
Victoria stared at her hand a moment longer before her gaze lifted to mine, and sadness filled her eyes. “Is it true—you can help us?”
I wrapped my arms around myself to warm the coldness out of my body and I scowled. “Yes, I can, but,” and this was a big but, “only if you promise to leave me alone until I say so.”
Tears welled in her eyes. “Please.” Her voice trembled. “Don’t send me away again. I need you to help me.”
I shut my eyes, drawing in a long breath to settle the slight annoyance flittering through my veins. I honestly had enough going on and didn’t want to take on anything else, but she didn’t deserve to be lashed out at, even if I so wanted to.
After I controlled my raw emotions, I opened my eyes to her and found her crying. “Okay, what do you need?” I softened my voice. “But please, be quick about it. I’m so tired and need to go to bed.”
“I lost a necklace,” she stated.
I stared at her, waiting for her to say more, but she didn’t. “You lost a necklace and…?”
She took the final steps to reach me, since my jumping at her touch had put a good distance between us. “I found it.”
I waited yet again to understand exactly what she was asking of me, but she continued to stare at me as if I should know, which I hadn’t a clue. Another long second passed before I waved her on. “And?”
“I need you to take it to my grave.”
Oh, yeah I heard her. I wished I hadn’t.
I blinked, looking for any humor in her eyes to suggest this was a joke. None appeared. “You are kidding?”
She shook her head slowly with a nervous smile. “There’s a cemetery over that way.” Pointing to the right, she gestured to the window by the bathroom door. “Can you take the necklace there?”
“Now?” I gasped, backing up another step and banging into the bed behind me. “Go and walk in the dark to a cemetery?”
Her expression became pinched as she took a step forward and matched my retreat. “I know if you bring me the necklace, then I’ll finally leave here.” Her bottom lip trembled. “I need to leave here.”
The desperation in her eyes and voice always got to me. Eve
ry ghost that begged to cross over had it, exactly why I always ended up helping them. “Why is this necklace so important to you?”
“My husband gave it to me before he died in a mining accident. I lost it a year or so after his death. I’d searched and searched for years for it, but couldn’t ever find it.” She glanced down to her dark brown trailing skirt and swirled her hips, making it flutter. “I didn’t die horribly, but had pneumonia a month after my thirtieth birthday and didn’t recover. I know it’s why I’m still here. I need that necklace with me.”
This was an absolute first request. Usually, my help was more people related, such as apologizing or settling some kind of emotional trauma. But I could actually see how this could make someone stuck. If she had mourned the loss of the necklace while alive, that desire would never let her rest. “You’ve been searching ever since you died?”
She nodded, smiling brightly. “I finally found it.”
I glanced at the bedroom door and then looked at the bed, wishing I could crawl into it. But I also doubted this ghost or any of the others would leave me alone. The sooner I got one ghost off my to-do-list, the better. Besides, I wasn’t doing anything right now, but planning to sleep. Gretchen would be a few minutes anyway, so I sighed. “How close is this graveyard?”
