AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Laura held up her hands in surrender. “I promise I won’t go sticking my nose anywhere you don’t want it to be. But I think you should tell me about the case.”
“No.” Cassie grabbed a pair of coffee mugs from the cupboard. “Absolutely not.”
Laura groaned. “Fine, but will you at least tell me how you help them? How’d you even get started with this? You never told me. And before you say anything, I’m not trying to weasel my way into anything. This trip was about bonding, right? This is a big part of your life, it seems. I’m curious.”
Cassie finished pouring the coffee and then led her sister to the dining room table. “I’m sure you are.”
“I’m serious.” Laura’s eyes were pleading as she sat down. “I really want to know more about what
you’ve been up to. What interests you?”
Cassie didn’t want to lie to her sister again, but she had to figure out a way to be truthful without painting the full picture. “I know a lot of the cops around Savannah. I don’t remember how I met half of them, to be honest. They figured out I had a talent for, uh, picking up on details other people missed.”
“Like Monk?”
The question was so genuine, so innocent, that Cassie burst into laughter. “No, not like Monk. I don’t have OCD.”
“More like Psych then?”
“Oh.” Cassie hadn’t expected Laura to hit so close to home, even if it wasn’t a bullseye. “Yeah, I guess it’s a bit like Psych.”
“That’s pretty cool.” There was a beat of silence. “Does it ever bother you?”
Cassie took a sip of coffee and felt the heat slide down her throat. “Does what bother me?”
“Looking at murder cases? Being that close to death. That close to serial killers.”
“They’re not all serial killers,” Cassie said. “But yeah, sometimes it bothers me. Sometimes it brings up terrible memories. Sometimes it gets scary. But it feels good to help people. They can get closure. They can move on.”
Cassie didn’t mention that sometimes those people were really ghosts.
“Well, I’m happy for you,” Laura said. “Really. But I just hope you’ll be careful.”
“Always.” Cassie laid a hand on Laura’s arm. “You don’t have to worry about me.”
“I’m always going to worry about you,” Laura said. “You’ll just have to live with that.”
9
Cassie gripped the steering wheel until her knuckles turned white and her hands ached. Her headlights illuminated the road in front of her, and the rest was so dark she felt like she was driving through a void in space. She could sense, rather than see, the trees whipping by as she sped down an empty highway.
Her foot slid off the gas pedal, but the car didn’t slow down. She slammed her foot on the brake, and it went right to the floor with no resistance. The car didn’t shudder or stop, no matter how many times she pressed her foot against the pedal. There was no slowing down.
Cassie looked around, wondering if she could use something—anything—to help her slow down and stop. There were no guardrails, and the inky blackness scared her more than the road ahead. If only she could find an exit and maybe an empty field to help her slow down.
An itching sense that she had been here before grew at the back of her neck. She didn’t know exactly what was coming, but she didn’t like it. This wasn’t going to be good.
The car drifted to the left, but no matter how hard she yanked the steering wheel to the right, she couldn’t change directions. She saw no headlights in the distance, but that didn’t mean another car wouldn’t come barreling around the corner at any second. Her panic grew, her chest constricted. Her breaths became shallow. Her head grew light and her vision spotty.
A soft glow in the distance caught her attention. If it was another car, there would be no time for her to move out of the way. She tried once more to turn the steering wheel, but it had locked in place. Her trajectory was certain.
As she closed the distance between her and the soft glow, forms took shape. The illumination didn’t look like headlights. Instead, it looked like an invisible lamppost shining its light across the center of the highway.
A figure appeared in the center. Then two. Then three.
Cassie once again slammed on the brakes, but instead of slowing down, the car shuddered and barreled down the road with renewed vigor. She leaned forward, squinting, trying to figure out what she was seeing in the distance. And as soon as they came into focus, she couldn’t control the scream that escaped her mouth.
Her parents stood in the road with blank faces. The light washed out their features, making them look pale and lifeless. They held hands, her father on the left and her mother next to him, but there was no indication they knew what was about to happen, no indication they could even see her bearing down on them.
