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Since I had decided to stay with Damien permanently, we were going to spiff up the brownstone today for someone else to rent it.
At the back door, Damien paused before opening it. “You sure you want to help with this?” he asked. “You don’t have to come inside if you don’t want to.”
“No, I want to,” I assured. “I need at least one last visit. For closure.”
Damien nodded in understanding, then opened the door to step inside. I followed a bit more slowly.
It smelled musty and abandoned.
Which broke my heart.
“I’ll go up and clean the rest of your stuff from your room,” Damien was saying as he entered the living room. “Do you want to get started cleaning the kitchen?”
“Sure,” I answered in a sad, empty voice, only to heave out a breath and ask, “Are you sure she’s gone? None of you guys have witnessedanythingwhen you’ve come back for stuff?”
“Nothing,” Damien answered, cringing sympathetically. “I’m sorry.”
I didn’t know why he was apologizing. It was supposed to be a good thing that his sister’s ghost was no longer haunting anyone. It meant she’d found her peace and moved on. Her soul was at rest.
I just would’ve liked to have said goodbye first.
Nodding at Damien to let him know it was okay that his sister was truly gone, I gasped when I heard her voice floating down the stairwell.
“Oaklynn? Is that you?”
“Oh my God…” I breathed. Blinking in surprise, I peered past Damien’s shoulder, and my lips parted when I saw her step off the landing and stroll up behind him. “Thalia?”
Damien’s eyes grew and he whirled around. When his shoulders collapsed and he glanced back at me in question, I swallowed, wanting to cry when I realized, “You can’t see her, can you?”
He shook his head, only to turn back and whisper, “Where is she?”
Thalia walked right up to him and smiled into his face with watery eyes before lifting her hand to cup his cheek in her palm. “It always hurts to see how much he’s grown and moved on.”
Damien must’ve felt the chill because he reared back before touching his cheek right where she had.
“She’s right there,” I said needlessly.
Thalia sighed and dismissed him before turning to face me. “Now, can you understand why I prefer to think of him as the adorable, sweet ten-year-old I left behind?”
“So… You know what you are?” I asked in surprise.
She sent me an odd look. “Why would I not know what I am?”
“Well…” I blinked at her repeatedly before demanding, “Why didn’t you tellme?”
Thalia merely shrugged. “If you couldn’t figure it out on your own, it didn’t seem like my place to tell you.”
I heaved out a reproachful breath. “So you just left it all on Damien’s shoulders?”
Damien glanced at me. “You’re talking about me?”
As I nodded, Thalia asked, “Do you think it would scare him if I told him hello?”
“Scare him?” I repeated with a confused frown. “Just how the hell do you plan on telling him hello?”
When the overhead lights began to flicker, Damien lurched closer to me. “Okay, that’s freaky.”
The lights immediately stopped dancing. “Sorry,” Thalia gritted out with an apologetic cringe.
