Free Cheat the Grave by Vicki Pettersson Page A

didn’t look surprised. They also didn’t look any different than they did in the real world. Warren donned his favored hobo gear, though the authentic limp in his injured leg was even more pronounced. Tekla was wrapped in a traditional salwar kameez, favored for movement and ease. And Hunter was borne forth in the shape of the man I’d begun to love, even though his arrival in Midheaven meant he should be taking his true form as Jaden Jacks: bigger, both blonder and darker, and completely unknown to me.
    â€œWhy haven’t your appearances changed?” I blurted,and immediately tried to settle. Why should I feel panicked? It was my dream. But they all ignored me, continuing to stare at Olivia, expectancy on Tekla and Hunter’s brows, wariness upon Warren’s.
    â€œThey can’t see or hear you,” Olivia said, and they all cocked their heads. “I have to translate.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œBecause for the intents and purposes of this dream, I get to be your T-Rex brain.”
    She smiled down at me, and unexpected laughter burst from me. T-Rex brain was something we’d coined years ago when discussing a friend who refused to believe her boyfriend was cheating. She’d told us she wanted proof. But T-Rex brain was a primitive knowledge, a fact or piece of information that lay between two people in spite of denial or proof. It was knowledge at the cellular level—he’s cheating, the secretary can’t be trusted, the maid took the money—and whether both parties openly admitted it or not, they knew .
    I’d told Olivia then that some people called this their lizard brain, and she’d wrinkled her nose before informing me that she personally drew the line at anything that slithered, thus the new moniker—something that was large, primal, and strong.
    In glancing at Hunter again, I wondered if that was why I was having such a hard time forgetting him. I hadn’t ever felt he’d been lying to me…though it could be hard to tell. Emotions clouded the T-Rex brain.
    But at least I understood Olivia’s purpose here. She would allow me to step over that emotion, and learn what I needed to from the safety of this dream. So at least something was making sense.
    â€œOf course, there’s another reason you’re invisible,” she said, before gesturing to the mirror behind her. “None of them see you for who you really are. Not yet.”
    â€œAnd you can?”
    â€œI’m dead.”
    It was the first time she’d said it so bluntly, and a look like storm clouds passed over her face. I winced. “I’m sorry—”
    â€œShh. We’re beyond all that, you and me.”
    Yeah, we were. And while I was still tortured by her death, and that it’d come indirectly because of me, the actual memory of it was rubbed out, a blueish line drawing more than a full-colored panel of pain.
    â€œBesides, we’re bound as sisters, no matter what realm we inhabit.” Including Midheaven, apparently. Olivia gestured at the others. “So what would you have me tell them?”
    The words “Fuck off” blasted through my head, and though I didn’t say it, Olivia shook her head. “One by one. Address them each honestly, have your say, and you’ll thereby forever banish them from your thoughts and dreams.”
    If only life were that easy.
    â€œOnce you decide a person has no control over you,” Olivia continued, “they no longer do.”
    I sighed. “So tell them what I really think, and they’ll disappear?”
    She shook her head, curls bouncing. The trio across the room watched, mesmerized. Meanwhile, Mackie stayed slumped. “You say it, but I’ll tell them. Then they’ll go away…as long as it’s the truth.”
    Hesitating, I sighed, but not because I found it hard to tell the truth. I often told a hard truth. Yet voicing what I really wanted to say to