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Here’s hoping I have the answers we need.
Raven
“Stop pacing,” Eli begs me as I cross the room for easily the hundredth time. “You’re acting like you don’t know the guy. Didn’t you just tell me how he worried he got too hyper-focused to give you enough attention?”
“I’m sorry,” I mutter, flopping onto the couch dramatically. He’s right, I do know my best friend, but this is a whole new territory and I’m terrified of how things will change. Will we be awkward now; do I hold back kisses in front of them? Will they have second thoughts? Am I being selfish wanting them both?
“Hey, I can see your mind tearing this to pieces, Raven,” Eli says, pulling me into his lap when I draw closer again. He kisses my temple and breathes me in for a second. “Things aren’t going to be weird between us all now. Jayce and I are adults and we both agreed to this. We’re friends, even if we fight like brothers. And you mean more to us than petty egos.”
“He’s been gone for so long, it’s already dark,” I whisper as I look out the window. The curtains are still pulled aside and the large window is reflecting our image back to us. As Eli’s eyes meet mine, an image appears over our shoulders. A scream echoes out of me at the grotesque sight of the flaming man behind us. Eli nearly drops me as he launches to his feet, barely placing me on mine before pulling me away, but there’s no one there when we look behind us.
The scent of smoke is overwhelming and we both start coughing. Slowly, smoke visibly fills the room. The haze fills the room so quickly that I pull Eli to the ground as I drop. We crawl toward the balcony, seeking out fresh air. Thank fuck for the fire escape, though in the back of my mind, I can’t shake the idea that this isn’t a real fire. But what could Wolf have to tell us now? He already warned us…was this an obsession with me because I look like Iris? But even as I have the thought, I shake it off. Wolf has been nothing but sincere, I don’t think he intends anything malicious.
Maybe he’s not the only ghost that latched onto you? That thought sends a shiver down my spine. Because the moment the thought is out there, I fully believe it. This feels far more sinister than Wolf ever has.
“I’ve got the door,” Eli grunts as he yanks it open. A blast of clean air hits us and I sag in relief, pulling myself out there with him. My lungs feel like they’re on fire, pain sharp and intense with each breath I take in.
“Guys, you won’t believe what I found!” Jayce yells as he shoves open the door. The room is mysteriously clear now that he’s burst in. Eli and I look downright insane as we huddle together on the floor of the balcony. “Uh, what’s going on?”
Eli lets out an awful cough as he stands and helps me to my feet.
I try to suck in a few more breaths of the clean air, leaning on Eli heavily as my body protests the abuse.
“Fire, that ghost was back again and then he filled the place with smoke,” he explains around more coughs. “Holy fuck, can you grab us some water?”
Jayce springs into action, nabbing two bottles from the fridge. “Raven, you okay?” He asks when he runs over, handing us each a cold bottle from the fridge. I take a few long pulls of the icy liquid, trying not to cough as it soothes my throat.
“That was crazy,” I admit. The image of Wolf’s face is still burned into my mind, the piercing, green eyes, embers sparking at his hair and beard, and the rivers of fire on his horrifying face. He looked nothing like the man in the portrait. In fact, he felt nothing like the man I’d interacted with.
“Can ghosts follow us?” Eli asks.
“Depends,” I admit. “For some hauntings, they’re stuck in a time loop of sorts, reliving the pain of their death. Intelligent haunts are aware and can manipulate their surroundings. I thought that was Wolf at first but he was aware the other times we saw each other.”
“Maybe he’s a mix?” Jayce points out. “I can’t discount anything now.” His laugh is a bit off, but I don’t call him on it. It’s been a crazy few weeks and today hasn’t been any different.
“We saw him in the window for a flash but then things went south. I don’t think it was just him,” I explain. The others blink at me for a second.
“So, more than one ghost is stalking us?” Eli asks with an obvious shudder.
“Make that three. I think Iris visited me at the library,” Jayce says before explaining the crazy encounter and words he was forced to type.
“This is crazy,” I sigh. “We have to find answers before we go back to work. Imagine trying to do our everyday routines with ghosts popping up constantly.”
“Did you find anything?” Eli asks, his hand clinging to mine. Jayce looks down at our joined hands and his cheeks redden a bit before he takes my other. The move is bold, a silent testament that he hasn’t forgotten our conversation or our kiss. Just the mention of it has the phantom feel of his lips on mine back to my mind, chasing away some of the fear the ghost brought on.
“Actually, yes,” he announces. Then he glances at the kitchens and winces. “Shit, I missed dinner, didn’t I?”
“We’ll order pizza,” I reassure him. “What is it?”
He shuffles his hand around in his bag and pulls out a few pages of an article. “Here, you read it, you’re better at that,” he says, handing it over. Both men stare at me, waiting, and I take another drink before starting to read.
“Charles Beaumont of Casper was hiding a dark secret. When neighbors called in the gunshots, officers rushed to the scene to find a gruesome sight. Anna Taylor was found dead with four gunshot wounds. The coroner determined that she died instantly, saving her from suffering. Charles Beumont then shot himself soon after. The murder-suicide shook Casper to it’s core, no longer the sleepy town we all thought it was,” I read quickly. It goes on to discuss the investigation and the gossip from friends of the couple. My heart breaks for the poor woman and I didn’t even want to imagine what she went through leading up to such an awful attack.
“Well, they say hauntings come from strong emotions. The school was built over this house, in fact, that exact spot was the building Wolf died in.” Jayce points out the address on the page.
“So, two highly emotional events, and with how many died in that fire, that’s just asking for haunts,” I add on.
“Not just two,” Jayce continues, bringing out the article on the mass grave next. “They found this when breaking ground for the college, so sometime between that house being knocked down and the college being built, someone used it for their own personal dumping ground.”
