Free B00AO57VOY EBOK by AJ Myers Page B

weren’t in it.  I couldn’t even sense you anymore and you were
standing right next to me.” 
    “I don’t really know what
happened,” I told them honestly, talking to my hands where they rested on the
counter in front of me.  “Casey had already crossed over to the other side, but
there was another ghost there.  She showed me what to do.”
    “I don’t understand,” Grams
said with a frown.  “How could she show you what to do, sweetheart?”
    “I don’t know,” I told her,
shrugging.  “She was…different.  I can’t explain it, but she wasn’t like any of
the other ghosts I’ve seen.”
    Grams and Nathan exchanged a
worried look.  “And what did you see when you followed this spirit’s
instructions?”
    “I saw the last few minutes
of Casey’s life,” I whispered, forcing my eyes back up to Grams’ face.  When
she sucked in a sharp breath, I wondered if I looked as miserable as I felt. 
For someone who’d been communing with the dead her entire life, I’d never felt
more haunted. “I was there with her when she died.  I was standing right next
to her.  And I know this sounds crazy, but I think she saw me.”
    “Why do you think that, sweetheart?”
Grams asked quietly, reaching for my hand. 
    “Because she looked right at
me.  She talked to me.”
    I could tell by the look she
exchanged with Nathan that Grams was trying to not ask, but I knew she wasn’t
going to make it.  Sure enough, less than a second later she whispered, “What
did she say, sweetheart?”
    “She told me to run,” I
whispered, starting to cry.  “She looked at me and told me to run.  She died in
my place and she was trying to save me.  He was carving her up like a damn
jack-o-lantern and she tried to save me !”
    By the time I finished
talking, the tears had turned to sobs and my whisper had turned into a howl of
misery and rage.  I was just so damned mad .  I was mad at myself for not
finishing Jack when I had the chance.  I was mad at Casey for trying to save me
when I didn’t deserve it.  And I was furious with Jack, my Jack, for letting
himself be possessed by a demon in the first damned place!
    But my real rage directed
toward the demon himself.  How many more ways would he find to torment me?  How
many more scars would he leave behind on my heart and soul before he was done
with me? 
    “Do you remember what the
carving looked like, sweetheart?” Grams asked when I started to calm down.  The
way her face had paled told me that I’d just given her an important clue.
    “I don’t have to remember,”
I told her, feeling even more ashamed of myself.  “I took a picture with my
phone before we…um…”  I shot a wary look at Nathan, wondering if bringing up our
game of hide and seek was a good idea.  “Before the police arrived,” I finished
weakly.
    “May I see?” Grams asked,
the tense tone of her voice a perfect complement to her pale, strained
expression.
    Hesitantly, I pulled my
phone out of the pocket of my hoodie.  Rather than hand it over to her, though,
I just sat there and stared down at it.  I mean, it was bad enough that I had
taken the picture in the first place.  Showing it to someone else…just seemed
wrong, somehow.  Still, it wasn’t like I was posting it on Facebook or
something.  This was Grams .  And if it could somehow help lead us to
Jack, wasn’t it worth it?
    It was that thought, the
thought of stopping Jack before he could hurt someone else, that made me pull
up the picture I had taken and pass the phone across the counter to Grams.  She
looked at the picture for a long moment, her eyebrows drawing down in a frown.
    “What does it mean?” 
    “I have no idea,” she said, shaking
her head.  “Nate, have you ever seen anything like this?”
    I knew the second Grams
turned the phone around that something was wrong.  Every muscle in Nathan’s
body seemed to tense at once, and I looked over my shoulder to see that his
pale face was suddenly