All The Pretty Ghosts (The Never Series Book 1)

by Jamie Campbell

  He took a breath. “The spirits are trapped here. Nobody can leave.”

  Now it was my turn to be completely confused. “What do you mean?”

  “Nobody can cross over into the afterlife – whatever is meant to be after this world. That’s why all the spirits want to speak with you. We’re all trapped.”

  “But… you can’t be. I saw…” What had I seen? I thought I saw David enter the hereafter but he had turned up again at the shelter.

  Besides him, I hadn’t seen one spirit disappear never to be seen again. But I also hadn’t been looking very hard either. Mainly, I had done my best to ignore all the spirits. I assumed some unfinished business was keeping them lingering in limbo. I hadn’t considered they might not be here by choice.

  “They’re really trapped?” I said.

  Oliver’s brows were knitted together as he explained it to me. “When I… died, I woke up as a spirit as I was leaving my body. There were some adults there, telling me it would be alright if I remained calm. After a few days they started telling me how they had been stuck as ghosts since the Event.”

  “So they’re all here? Why can’t I see them all?” I was thinking of my parents, of all the reasons why they hadn’t been around me since they died. Why they didn’t think it was important to return to their daughter.

  “They’re all stuck in the spirit world, but they can move anywhere they like on earth. If they don’t know about your… ability, they won’t know to come to you.”

  It seemed plausible, but my own parents? Surely they would want to visit me even if they thought I couldn’t see them? What about my grandparents? My aunts? My uncles? Why didn’t any of them care enough to check on me occasionally?

  I didn’t voice those fears, they were mine alone to lock away and stalk my nightmares while asleep. I wasn’t going to start to air them in public, not when I was surrounded by gossiping ghosts.

  “So what does this all mean?” I asked instead.

  Oliver didn’t have a chance to speak before all the spirits watching us chose to speculate. The voices swam around me like a school of fish in the ocean.

  “It means we’re never going to get any rest.”

  “We’re always going to be here, unable to move on.”

  “What is the hereafter, anyway? Maybe it’s not better than here.”

  “I didn’t want to go anywhere. I like it here.”

  “You’re just scared.”

  “Am not. Who wants to die anyway?”

  “We are dead, you idiot.”

  “I want to go to Heaven. I didn’t go to church every Sunday for nothing. I deserve to cross over.”

  “Going to church doesn’t guarantee you entry into Heaven, sweetheart.”

  “What’s the girl going to do about it? She’s just a girl.”

  “She might be a girl, but she’s strong.”

  “I didn’t mean it like that. I meant she’s so young.”

  “They’re all young, they’re the only ones left.”

  “The boy knows what to do, he seems smart.”

  “He knows nothing.”

  “He knows more than you.”

  I couldn’t take it any longer. As fast as my burned leg could let me hobble, I ran into the kitchen. The familiar strangle I felt before was quickly enveloping me, threatening to take all the air out of the atmosphere.

  Leaning over the sink, I drunk straight from the faucet. Afterwards, I splashed some of the ice-cold water on my face. It helped – marginally. At least it drowned out the voices for just a moment. I had forgotten how to tune them all out, not that I was particularly good at it in the first place.

  One voice broke through them all. “Everly, I’m really sorry you have to go through all this.”

  I laughed, the chuckle of a girl on the edge of insanity. “You’re the one who died and you’re sorry? This is nothing compared to what you’ve gone through.”

  “I wish I could stop them,” Oliver said, never averting his gaze from mine. There was no doubt in my mind he was being sincere. He wasn’t lying about this.

  He wouldn’t.

  Neither would I.

  “It’s not up to you to stop them,” I replied. “It’s not your problem.”

  “Anything that hurts you is my problem.” He gave me a small smile.

  I leaned against the bench, crossing my arms. “What are all the spirits going to do?”

  “They need help.”

  I knew that look in his eyes but he was wrong. I couldn’t help the spirits even if I wanted to. I didn’t know why they were trapped in some sort of sick purgatory. Let alone begin to know how to find a solution to the problem.

  My head was shaking before I realized I was doing it. “I can’t do it, Oliver. I’m not the one to help them.”

  “You’re not going to do it alone. I’ll be there every step of the way.”

  “But I don’t know where to start.”

  “So we’ll figure it out, just like we have always done.” Oliver sounded so sure but I just couldn’t believe him. No matter what pretty words he used.

  “Figuring out how to juggle Chem. homework with Sarah Mason’s party is a bit different to this, Olly,” I pointed out. Our problems used to be so much simpler, we’d never tackled something this big before.

  It seemed so stupid now to remember how big our problems used to seem.

  We didn’t really know what a problem was until the Event.

  “We’ve got to try, Ev,” Oliver said, his voice more like a sigh.

  I knew what he was saying was true. I knew the spirits needed help to find some kind of eternal peace. They didn’t deserve to be ghosts forever. They hadn’t asked to die and they certainly didn’t ask to be restless spirits for all of eternity.

  I also knew it was my duty to do something about it. I was given the ability to see them for a reason. If there was something I had learned, it was that nothing was random in this world. I had an obligation to help wherever I could, this wasn’t something I could merely ignore.

  But if I did help them, if the spirits somehow found a way to crossover, what would that mean for Oliver?

  He would go, too.

  Along with a large chunk of my heart.

  It was selfish and horrible. I was a selfish and horrible person for even thinking about it. But I was thinking about it. It played on my mind like fingers down a chalkboard. When I thought about being without Oliver, even in spirit form, my chest ached. The pain was so bad I knew it would consume me whole, turning me into something grotesque and shriveled.

  Helping the spirits meant I would lose the one man whom I loved more than anything else in the world. I had already lost so much, I couldn’t lose him too.

  But it was as inevitable as death itself.

  “Everly…”

  Tears streaked down my cheeks when I looked up into his beautiful face. He seemed so real, it was so difficult believing he wasn’t alive anymore. In many ways, he was more alive than I was. He still had hope.

  I didn’t.

  This time, my head was nodding. “Promise me you won’t leave until we say goodbye.”

  “I told you, I’m not going to leave until you tell me to.”

  A sad smile spread across my lips. “I might never be ready to let you go.”

  “Then I’ll stay forever.”

  “You promise?”

  He held a hand across his heart. “I promise.”

  With that same hand, he held it up between us. I took a few cautious steps closer, my own arm rising to be the same height as his.

  Carefully and slowly, I moved my hand to rest against his. Perhaps, if we wanted it bad enough, we would be able to feel each other. He could materialize into a solid form so we could forget all about his death.

  Surely, the world owed me that.

  Our hands met in the air and I held my breath.

  I couldn’t feel anything but coldness.

  My heart contracted in my chest and I didn’t think the pain c
ould get any worse before that moment. But it did. I wanted to rip out my traitorous heart so I didn’t have to feel anymore. It burned a lot worse than my leg wound.

  My eyes flicked up to Oliver’s. His green eyes to my blue ones. He was looking at me with such love that it took some of that pain away.

  Perhaps it didn’t matter that we couldn’t touch. I loved Oliver and he loved me. Maybe that was enough for now. He was here and that was the main thing.

  “I love you, Ev.”

  “I love you, too.” The words choked in my throat but I wasn’t going to cry anymore. It was time to be strong. I trusted Oliver not to leave me, he wouldn’t do that to me.

  A promise was a promise.

  The nosy spirits still watching us had plenty to say about our declarations of love. The general consensus was that they knew our hearts were going to be broken because a human could not be with a ghost.

  But I didn’t care.

  I continued to hold my hand against Oliver’s, feeling the cold sensation on my palm and relishing it. The feeling wasn’t the touch of death now, it was a part of Oliver.

  A sharp knock on the door interrupted us. The spirits all hurried to the foyer, keen to see who was visiting our refuge. Oliver and I exchanged a worried glance as the knot twisted in my stomach.

  Nobody visited me except Oliver. And it definitely wasn’t him. The only people that cared enough to track me down were the gang. They might have traced me, Taz ready to finish what he started with me at the factory.

  All I knew for sure was that whoever was on the other side of the door were foe and not friend.

  They pounded on the door again, louder this time.

  I did not want to answer.

  Chapter Nineteen

  My feet were glued to the floor of the kitchen as the knocking continued. A male voice called out my name, muffled by the heavy wooden door.

  I turned to Oliver. “Can you see who it is?”

  He nodded and disappeared into thin air. I mentally went through the house, trying to work out if I had a better chance of survival if I found a place to hide or if I tried to make a run for it out the back door.

  Both options seemed unlikely to keep me alive for very long. Not when I was injured and Taz seemed to delight in torturing me. He would enjoy the thrill of the chase no matter what I did.

  Oliver reappeared and I swore I would never get used to him doing that. “It’s Jet.”

  Relief flushed through me but it was only momentary. Taz and Jet were friends. Just because he had pulled me from the burning room didn’t mean he still meant me no harm.

  “Everly! Let me in!” he called out again.

  “I don’t think he’s here to hurt you,” Oliver said quietly.

  I didn’t really have the choice of ignoring the knocking, not when Jet knew where I lived. I made my way through the coldness of the spirits as they didn’t bother moving away to let me through. They were too caught up in the intrigue to notice my movements.

  Opening the door, Jet was still covered in black soot. One of his eyes was red, a bruise forming around the socket turning it into a dark blue. A cut to his lip told me he had been in a fight.

  “Everly, thank God you’re alright,” he sighed, letting out a breath. He was puffed, whatever brought him to my door made him hurry.

  “What happened to you?” I asked. It wasn’t the most pressing issue on my mind but it was the only one that made it off the tip of my tongue.

  “I taught Taz a lesson. He’s not going to hurt you anymore.”

  “He tried to kill me. Almost succeeded.”

  “I know, I’m sorry. I didn’t know what they were doing,” Jet admitted. “I told them to get blankets, I had no idea they’d find you at the factory. What were you doing there?”

  “I don’t answer to you.”

  We had a stare down as I refused to look away. My arms were firmly crossed over my chest, reeking of contempt and distain for him. I didn’t know why Jet was here and I didn’t really care. I just wanted him gone again.

  “Can I come in?” he asked, nodding toward the foyer.

  As much as I didn’t want to, I stepped away from the door. It was enough of an invitation for him to enter. He took one look around the foyer and turned left to go into the living room. By the time I caught up with him, he was already sitting on the lounge.

  “He’s coming inside.”

  “Who is he?”

  “The boy said his name was Jet.”

  “What kind of a name is that?”

  “Sounds like a hippie name.”

  “What’s he doing here?”

  “She’s gone for a couple of weeks and everything has changed.”

  “Maybe he’s a new friend?”

  Jet’s face was deathly pale, and for just a moment, I panicked that he was dead, too. It took a moment for me to realize he was sitting on the couch, he wouldn’t have been able to do that if he was merely a ghost.

  At least the panic helped drown out the spirits.

  “Make yourself at home,” I said, sarcasm dripping from my words. I sat in the armchair, making sure to keep a safe distance from him. “You’re dripping blood on my couch.”

  His hand automatically went to his lip, he winced when his fingers touched the cut. “Sorry.”

  Against all my good judgment, I actually felt a little sorry for him. “You’re a mess.”

  He gave me a smile before wincing again. “You should see the other guy.”

  I rolled my eyes and stood, my fingers grasping around his wrist. “Come on, I’ll clean you up.” I moved to pull him into the kitchen but stopped, too many spirits could fit in there. Instead, I took him upstairs into the small bathroom. Oliver trailed after us, waiting at the door.

  I pushed Jet onto the edge of the bathtub and found a rag in the cabinet. Running it under the water, I wished I had some kind of antiseptic. “This is going to hurt,” I warned before dabbing at the wounds on his cheeks and lip. “Sorry.”

  “It’s okay.”

  “How did you find me?”

  He winced again as I finished up cleaning all his cuts. There were no plasters so he was going to have to put up with the open wounds for a while and stay out of anything remotely dirty for a bit. “I followed the trail of blood you left. Plus, a few people told me you passed by them.”

  My leg must have been bleeding more than I realized. Although, I was in such a state when I ran away from the factory that I could have gone through a nuclear war and I wouldn’t have noticed.

  “Is your leg okay now?” Jet asked, looking at my bandage.

  “Hopefully it won’t need to be amputated.”

  “Dibs on not doing that.” He gave me a small smile. “I’m sorry for what Taz did. I really am. If I could take it back and change it, I would. I really would.”

  “Did you tell him to kill me?”

  “No, of course not. Why would you think that?” I shrugged. “I would never do that to you.”

  For some stupid reason, I believed him.

  “Why did you come here?” I asked, taking a seat beside him on the bathtub. It wasn’t the most comfortable place in the house but it was guaranteed to be the quietest.

  “I needed to make sure you were okay. You were really upset when you ran off like that,” Jet replied. I’d never seen him so sincere before. There was more, too. Concern? It had to be a trick he was using on me, some plan to foster his ulterior motive.

  “I almost died. Was I supposed to stick around so Taz could finish the job?”

  “No, of course not.” He paused and I didn’t know what to say so I let the silence settle over us. “I thought you might trust me enough to protect you, though.”

  “Because I’m your property?”

  “Because I’m your friend.”

  I snorted. “You’re not my friend. A friend wouldn’t kidnap someone, hold them hostage, and play mind games with them. I don’t need to know people like that, there’s enough thugs in the city to fill tha
t position in my life.”

  “I had hoped we’d moved past all that. I apologized for it.”

  “Actions speak louder than words,” I said quietly.

  “I just saved your life,” Jet pointed out.

  “Saved me from your people,” I shot back. Of course I was grateful for Jet getting me out of the fire. If he hadn’t been in that room, there was no doubt in my mind I would have died a few hours ago.

  But it didn’t change the fact I wouldn’t have been in the position if his gang hadn’t placed me there. Taz could have let me go at any point. He didn’t. Which meant Jet was just as much to blame being the leader of them.

  When Jet spoke next, he surprised me. “I will apologize for the rest of my life if that’s what it takes for you to believe how sorry I am.”

  I eyed him suspiciously, trying to work out if he was joking or teasing me. The look in his eyes was honest but I had been mistaken before. I barely trusted my own judgment anymore. I needed to be cautious, especially with what I said to him. “Thank you for getting me out of there.”

  He nodded slowly and the silence settled again. I was all out of questions and suddenly gripped by fatigue. I wanted to be able to sleep and not worry about everything that had occurred in the last twenty-four hours.

  Jet broke the silence, apparently not done with his questions. “Who is Oliver?”

  My head snapped up at the mention of his name. So did Oliver’s at the door. His lips remained tightly closed, not joining in our conversation. “He’s none of your business.”

  “He seemed pretty important to you when you were screaming out his name in the fire.”

  “He’s a friend,” I stated. It was the only piece of information he was ever going to get out of me about him. Oliver was mine, I wasn’t going to share him with the likes of Jet.

  Jet took a deep breath, almost like he was preparing himself for something. I hoped it wasn’t a fight. “I guess everyone’s entitled to their secrets, princess.”

  For just a moment, I thought Jet was showing me his true self and the façade he kept up for everyone else was just a show. In that one sentence, I knew I was wrong.

  I put up all my defenses again, determined to never let him break through them. “You’d know all about secrets, wouldn’t you? You’re the master at keeping them.”