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“This is absolutely disgusting. Where the hell are we?” I look at my hands in horror at what germs are now on them after hanging onto the toilet that I can see has stains all over it. My stomach starts to roll again, and I’m moving from this room before it makes me sick again.
“Beggars can’t be choosers, Cassie.” His voice isn’t soft and caring like it was before when he was holding my hair back.
“Obviously! But this place needs to be condemned, surely.” I look around the room I’m guessing is the living room. Not that it has anything in it. “Why do I have the feeling that we’re in someone’s house who is on the wrong side of the law?” I didn’t even realize that Ghost wasn’t still in the room with me, that he had left to grab me a bottle of water from my bag.
“Rinse your mouth. Wash your hands with the same water and get in the car.” This guy’s split personality is really testing my patience.
“Don’t speak to—” Before I even get to finish, he’s talking.
“Stop! Just do what I said.” He holds his hand up in front of me, signaling that he wants me to do as I’m told. In my head I’m telling him to get fucked, but my body obeys his words like they’re orders. What is it about his warrior voice and body language that has me almost mesmerized to do what he wants.
Standing frozen and swallowing, the revolting taste snaps me into moving and washing out my mouth. I spit it into a sink in the bathroom next to the toilet. The brown rust stains on it tell me what I suspected. This place isn’t lived in. It’s just used as a place to hide, but fromwhatis the question. I know I should be grateful we could get some rest, because from what Ghost said yesterday, we have another big day of traveling ahead of us. But to be honest, I think I would have rather taken the risk and slept in the car parked off the side of the road somewhere.
Yeah, right, like Ghost would have agreed to that or would have slept one minute. Trying to wash my hands with the water that is left still doesn’t make them feel any cleaner. I follow the sound of the door opening, where I’m guessing Ghost has gone with our bag. Not that I remember seeing much of the room I was in because my stomach didn’t give me a whole lot of warning from the moment I started to wake.
The back door of the house is open and no screen door on it. I notice it lying on the grass, broken, and part of the frame off the house still attached. The disgust I was feeling before is morphing into fear. I don’t feel safe here. Even with Ghost, this place tells me that bad things have happened here, and I don’t want to touch anything else. I have enough darkness in my life, I don’t want to be caught up in any more.
Looking at Ghost loading the bag and his computer into the back of a brand-new-looking black car in the barn to the side of the house, I’m confused. I know we need to swap cars, but how the hell is there a brand-new Range Rover in this dump? With my head spinning more than the churning still happening in my gut, slowly I make my way toward him.
“Ghost?”
“Don’t ask, just get in.” He still isn’t in the mood to talk obviously, and I’m not feeling great again, so giving in, I just walk to the passenger side and climb in. I almost want to strip off the clothes I’m wearing so I don’t dirty the car with whatever was in that house. Part of me is glad I didn’t really see the bed I was sleeping on. I push the thought out of my head when the bile rises in my throat again.
Ghost is in now and programming his phone into the Bluetooth. Then he reaches across in front of me, opening the glove compartment.
“Same thing as before. There if you need it. Understood?” He’s not yelling at me, but his tone is short and to the point.
Just nodding, I don’t want to open my mouth to speak because I’m afraid of what I might say. Or more to the point, what I might scream at him. Maybe I shouldn’t be such a hypocrite about his split personality because I feel like I’m having a bit of it myself these last few days.
Driving back out onto the road, silence settles in the car until Ghost pushes a few buttons on the steering wheel and music cuts in to break the mood.
The old saying that music soothes the savage beast might just be true. I feel my shoulders start to drop a little and my body melt back into the seat, the voice ofFly By MidnightsingingTomorrow. I don’t know if it’s a random pick in his playlist or if Ghost is trying to tell me something. The song is asking me, if we get through today, will I still be here tomorrow? Maybe it’s words he’s not sure how to say or just that he is as scared as I am, and if that’s the case, then we are in deep, deep trouble.
* * *
I’m not sure how long we’ve been on the road when Ghost pushes the call button on the steering wheel and the phone starts calling someone on speaker. The name on the screen says Badger. I’m guessing he’s the person Ghost was talking to yesterday that has been helping him.
“Did you sleep?” a raspy voice breaks through the thick silence that is hovering in the car.
“Enough to get through. Badger, meet Cassie. Cassie, meet Badger. You can trust him with anything, including your life.” I don’t know what to think of this guy that I’m being introduced to. Ghost obviously trusts him, but trust is something I don’t know how to give out that easily.
“Hello.” That didn’t come out too confidently, but it’s the best I’ve got at the moment.
“Cassie, nice to meet you. Is he treating you right?” I’m picturing the man behind this voice and try to imagine what he’s like.
“Most of the time.” I can’t help myself smirking at Ghost which finally breaks the stone face he has been carrying since I finished being sick.
“Well, we better fix that. Ghost?” Badger starts to laugh, which interrupts the tension in the car.
“Fuck off, asshole, I’m not the one who had us sleeping in that brothel last night.”
“Oh my God! Please tell me you are joking.” I can’t help myself, I yell at both of them. “You better not have had me sleeping in come stains on that bed last night. Ghost! What the hell!” Pulling back my ranting, I hear them both laughing at me.
“What!” I slap him on the arm, but he grabs my hand before I can pull it back.
“Cassie, it was a figure of speech. It might have been filthy but not in that way.” He entwines his hand around mine and places it down on his thigh.
“That’s on me. Don’t blame Ghost for that one. We didn’t have much time. Sorry, that’s all I had in that area out of sight. We can’t afford for you to be seen.” My heart drops, and I feel guilty firstly for being ungrateful, and secondly, that I took it out on Ghost.
