AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“He said he had been finishing up paperwork, but I know for a fact that isn’t true. Tonya at the front desk says he hands in everything half an hour early and does one more sweep of the museum until the night shift arrives.”
Cassie rattled off whatever came to mind, and Apollo responded with various intonations of his meow whenever she paused to take a breath. She knew he was looking for his dinner and maybe a couple of treats, but part of her liked to believe he enjoyed the sound of her voice, too.
&n
bsp; And it was better than listening to the dead silence of the house.
For the rest of the evening, Cassie moved from room to room, watering plants and washing yesterday’s dishes and tidying up spots she had already tidied up yesterday. She kept herself busy, all while talking to Apollo or humming whatever song had been playing on the radio during her drive home.
Anything to avoid her bedroom. Anything to tire herself out so she’d be able to fall asleep. Her bedroom was the one area in her house that defied the rules the rest of her life had followed over the last four months. The one area that held the anomaly.
That’s what she had been calling it, anyway. The anomaly. Like giving it another name changed what it was.
It didn’t.
But it was midnight, and she would have to be up in six hours. There was no avoiding it. She looked down at Apollo, who responded with sleepy eyes and a yawning meow, and made her way to her room. It was always a few degrees cooler in there. It was nice during the hot Savannah summers, but Cassie wasn’t sure the tradeoff was quite worth that perk.
Apollo stopped at the threshold to her room and stared into the corner Cassie always avoided looking at. Instead, she washed her face, brushed her teeth, and changed into a pair of shorts and a tank top while keeping her back to the southern wall of her room.
Not that it mattered. Ghosts didn’t care if you wore clothes or not. She wasn’t sure if they saw her the way humans saw her. Did she glitch in and out while they stayed static? Was she a hologram to them? Could they see through her?
Cassie peeled back her comforter and crawled under the top sheet, fluffing her pillow into the perfect shape. Apollo stood guard at her bedroom door. Her uninvited guests didn’t alarm him, though there had been exceptions. She’d had him long enough that he was accustomed to all but the angriest of spirits. But there was something about this one that had made him reluctant to get close.
Settled into her usual spot, Cassie forced her gaze to the corner of the room she had been avoiding. It was her nighttime routine. She called it her very own brand of exposure therapy. Ghosts hardly scared her or took her by surprise these days, but she’d gotten so used to their absence over the last few months that when this one showed up at random, it was like she was starting from the beginning, back when she was learning ghosts were real for the very first time.
As Cassie’s gaze found the boy in the corner of her room, their eyes locked. He always stood there, pressed up against the wall, his arms hanging loose at his sides. He was almost solid. She could still see the wall through his head, even in the dark. He never broke eye contact and he rarely blinked.
He was dressed in an oversized t-shirt and neon shorts, clearly from the ‘80s. The colors were dull, but not from age or use. That’s how most ghosts appeared—like the color had been drained from their skin, their clothes, their souls.
The boy was maybe eight years old. If he were any older, he’d have been tiny for his age. He never spoke to her. At times, it was a relief. And at others, it was maddening. She had no idea what he needed from her, and she didn’t know why all the other spirits had faded when he had not.
She spent ten years seeing and speaking for the dead, but Cassie couldn’t land on a set of rules for the otherworld. Some spoke in words, while others spoke in images. Some could move objects with ease while others passed through everything they touched. Some refused to move on until she helped them, while others faded away before she had the chance.
The little boy didn’t break eye contact, and Cassie knew he wouldn’t. She gave him a few minutes, hoping and dreading that he might say something. But he stared and stared and stared.
She shifted away from him and closed her eyes. As she fell asleep, her mind drifted from one memory to the next. Magdalena and Jason filled her with a warmth she tried to hold onto, but she could still feel the spirit in the corner of the room staring at her. The inability to wish him away cast a deep shadow across any happiness the day had brought her. And she knew tomorrow would be the same. So would the next day. And the next.
When Cassie slipped into a restless sleep, she didn’t dream. She hadn’t dreamt in months. The portents that had once filled her nights were absent.
She saw and felt nothing at all.
Four
He stepped out of his car and looked up at a sky littered with stars. Out here in the country, he could breathe. The clean air energized him. Nature connected him to the world. To the entire universe. He could do everything he wanted. Nothing would stop him.
No more fear.
Not even death could stop him.
He circled his vehicle and opened the rear passenger side door. In the back seat sat a large plastic storage container. The kind with handles on each end that flipped up and secured the lid in place. He had learned a thing or two since the first time, including how important it was to make certain everything stayed cool for as long as possible. He had to complete all his tasks before deterioration, and there was always so much to do.
Unable to help himself, he popped open the lid. On one end was a covered bucket, and on the other was a small, empty container. Seeing the dash of red on the inside of the plastic made his heart beat faster.
This was the answer to all his problems. This would grant him the freedom to look up at the stars for years to come.
He restrained himself from opening the lid to the bucket despite an incessant need to make sure everything was safe. This time had been smoother than the last. His learning curve no longer hindered the mission. He was now working toward mastery.
With that skill came a calm he couldn’t put into words. It was faith in himself and trust in the outcome. He had no other option but to believe this would work. Anything else would have been quitting.
