Ghostly (Darkly Devoted Book 1)

by Brooke Kennedy

  “What are you doing? Get off me.” I pushed on the wall to knock her back.

  She let go of my hair and balled her fists at her sides as she glared at me. “You’re going to sit there and break Ryder’s heart for that weirdo?”

  “I’m not breaking anyone’s heart. I’m still single. Neither of them have any claim on me.”

  Celeste stepped forward and stared down at me. She was several inches taller and intimidating, but I didn’t want to fight. That was never something I’d done before. My bark was worse than my bite, but I didn’t want her to see that. I wanted to keep up my tough façade.

  She threw her hands out to push me back against the wall.

  “Ryder thinks you like him,” she growled.

  I frowned and stepped up to face her. “I do.”

  “Apparently not enough to keep from screwing around with that other guy.”

  “You have no right to judge me or anything I do.”

  She poked me in the chest with her finger and shook her head, clearly trying to contain her anger. “Listen little gothic girl. I don’t know what game you’re playing, but you’re not pulling him down with you. I will tell him all about you, and he won’t want to have anything to do with you anymore. He doesn’t do well with liars.” With that, she spun on her Converse and left.

  Meredith gave me an apologetic look at took off after her. “Celeste, wait!”

  I sighed and leaned back against the wall. Covering my face in my hands, I tried to get my thoughts together. The altercation had set me on the edge of a panic attack, and I had to breathe deeply to get myself under control. A pair of hands took a hold of my arms.

  “What was that all about?” Ryder’s voice asked. I opened my eyes to see him looking down at me, his eyebrows pulled together in concern.

  “Your friend has issues,” I spat and pushed him away from me.

  “What’d she say?”

  “Other than threaten me? I dunno, Ryder.” I ran my hand over my face. “You know that we aren’t together—together, right?”

  “Yeah, of course.”

  With a nod, I began to walk off, but he grabbed my arm. I stopped and turned to look at him. “What?”

  “That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t want us to be. Just so you know.”

  “I know. I just need a friend right now, okay?”

  He bobbed his head up and down a couple of times, but I couldn’t mistake the sadness in his face. I couldn’t promise him anything more than that. Especially after last night. Waking up in Cade’s arms after our night together had been a shock to my system, and I couldn’t deny the feelings I had for him any longer.

  I looked up at the clock during computer class to see how much longer I had to stand the torture.

  Twenty minutes. Ugh.

  I’d already completed my assignment and the teacher had left the room, so I pulled up the internet to do a little research on my house. If I was going to beat it, I needed to figure out what I was dealing with.

  The history read exactly like I worried it would—general accounts that led back several hundred years. There were no reports about specific hauntings in the house, just hearsay. A murder-suicide had taken place in the fifties with a family of four.

  As I continued to scroll, I skimmed over the words and tried to find something interesting. I paused when I saw Cade’s name amongst the gibberish.

  Curiously, I clicked the article. If he wasn’t going to tell me exactly what he’d experienced in the house, I would find out myself.

  My heart dropped when the article popped up on the screen. My hands started trembling as I clicked on the first link: Local Boy Found Dead in Home. In the picture, taken almost thirty years ago, Cade looked exactly like he did when I saw him last.

  Tears swelled up in my eyes; my vision blurred and made it hard for me to read. The nightmares I’d been having flashed through my brain. Everything made sense. They’d all come from Cade, transferred over to me somehow. All that time he’d been building me up and begging me to take care of myself, when in reality he’d taken the easy way out. He was nothing like me.

  He was dead.

  The tears finally started streaming down my face; my breath came in hyperventilated bursts. I gripped the table in front of me. “Shit.”

  “Shhh, Briar, or you’re going to get us both in trouble,” I heard Meredith say. She hid Facebook and pulled up her homework screen before grabbing my arm.

  I didn’t move—couldn’t move—my eyes focused on the screen before me. My body threatened to send me to the floor in uncontrollable sobs.

  “Oh my God, are you okay?”

  I shook my head, unable to answer her for fear of the screams rising in my throat. I had to hold them back.

  “What are you looking at? Ho—ly crap.”

  Finally I looked over to her, raising my finger to my lips and begging her to be quiet. “Shut up.”

  She leaned over closer to the screen to take in the picture of Cade. She grabbed the mouse out from under my hand. “Did you read this?”

  “I’m trying, but my eyes won’t focus.” I wiped my face with the arm of my sleeve without streaking my makeup all over my face. I was sure I already looked like a mess. I didn’t want her to read the article. I didn’t want her to know about my past, or anything to do with the secrets I kept, but I couldn’t move.

  She scrolled down through the article, reading bits of it to me quietly as she went. “Twenty year old Cade Michaels was found dead in his home…hanging from the ceiling…holy crap, Briar.”

  “Print it.”

  “Nineteen eighty six? Briar, how is that possible?” She looked at me with confusion.

  “I said print it.”

  She clicked the print button and then clicked the backwards arrow. She glowered at my search terms and clicked on a different link. Another article popped up on the screen with more detail, but I couldn’t even look at it.

  “Print it.”

  “Briar…”

  “Do it, or I will.”

  She clicked the print button again and looked at me with concern. “You need to tell me what’s going on.”

  “You can’t say anything about this.”

  “About what? I don’t understand what’s going on.”

  “I don’t know, Meredith, but if we tell anyone, people will think we are certifiable.”

  “Yeah, ‘cause even I think we’re crazy right now.”

  “I can’t go into a mental hospital.” I was lucky to escape one when I’d tried to kill myself, and I didn’t want to take the chance of being put into one because of the house. “I’m serious. You want me to trust you? Please.”

  “I swear. I won’t say anything, but you gotta tell me what’s going on when you figure it out.”

  The professor returned and released us. I grabbed the stack of papers and shoved them into my bag, trying to get my tears under control as I raced out of the room.

  “Hey, honey,” my dad said as I walked into the house after school, oblivious to the foul mood that I was in.

  “Don’t sweet talk me.” I let him see the anger in my eyes and tried to walk past him.

  He grabbed me by the arm. “Have you been crying?” Concern filled his voice, but it only fueled my fire. I didn’t want sympathy.

  I jerked away from him. “Don’t touch me.”

  “Did I do something?”

  “I don’t know, did you?”

  He looked at me, confusion playing over his face. “I give up. What’s wrong?”

  “Did you know about the people who died in this house before we moved in?”

  “What?”

  “The people that died here, Dad.” I crossed my arms and noticed the guilty look that crossed his face.

  “Well…I had an idea…”

  “You had an idea? I know the person that sold you the house had to tell you something. It’s the law.”

  “She told me about the previous tenants that lived here dying. I had to look up the rest,” he
explained, admitting that he had been keeping it from me.

  “How could you not tell me?”

  “I didn’t think it was information you needed to know. You have a tendency to have bad dreams when you hear about stuff like that and after your mother and the shooting…”

  “You had no right to keep it from me.” I twirled around and stomped off.

  “Briar, we need to talk about this,” he called behind me.

  “Do not follow me,” I spat, continuing until I reached my destination.

  I threw open the door of the basement, knowing it would be a place where I could scream my head off and not be heard. I slammed the door behind me and flipped on the light. After I reached the bottom of the steps, I dug into my messenger bag and retrieved the stack of papers I’d printed off. I slung my bag and paced around the large room. Screams erupted from my mouth until my throat became scratchy.

  Then I knew what I had to do. There was nothing Cade could say that would ever make up for his lies because it hit too close to home.

  “Cade!”

  It took him a minute, but I finally saw him creeping out of the shadows. “You’re in a crappy mood.”

  “Shut the hell up.”

  “You call me out to tell me to shut up? Really, Briar? What were you and your dad fighting about? It must have been bad.” He stepped forward and reached out to touch my cheek, but I stepped back.

  “You’re a liar! I trusted you!”

  His face fell; his façade faltered for a moment. “What—what are you talking about?”

  “This!” I exclaimed and threw the stack of papers at him.

  “What is that?” He leaned down to pick up the closest paper—the one with his face on it.

  “Don’t act like you don’t know. You killed yourself, Cade!”

  He crumbled the piece of paper in his hand and shook his head. “Shit, Briar, I didn’t want you to find out like this. I was going to tell you…”

  “You were?” I threw my hands up in the air in exasperation. “When? After I told you about the dreams I was having? After I told you how I struggled with the same problem? Oh wait, I did tell you those things. And you didn’t say. Anything. I thought you understood me and knew what it was to fight that part of you.”

  “Briar—” he started and stepped toward me.

  I held my hand out and shook my head. “No, stay away. I need some time to think.”

  He spouted profanities and kicked something across the room. “I can’t stay away from you.”

  “That’s bullshit, and you know it.”

  “The house lost its hold on me when you showed up.”

  “No.” I shook my head and backed away from him.

  Thinking back to Ryder’s stories, I knew that the house had a hold of Cade at some point. There was a reason he’d lied to me, a reason that he killed himself, and a reason that he was still there.

  “Please don’t hate me. I couldn’t stand it.” He frowned and ran his hands through his hair. Tears pooled in his eyes. “Just talk to me, please.”

  “What are you talking about? How do you have any right to be upset right now? You tricked me! You knew I was vulnerable, and you took advantage of it! You knew exactly what I’ve been through. I’ve experienced suicide, first hand, and you thought this wasn’t important information?”

  “That’s why I didn’t want to tell you. I didn’t mean to fall in love with you. It was just a game at first.”

  “A game?” At that point I lost it. Tears ran down my face, large drops that poured out uncontrollably.

  “Not now. No. You aren’t listening to me. Please, just listen.”

  “No, you aren’t listening,” I said quietly, trying to make the tears stop.

  His face turned stoic, but I could see the anger boiling in his eyes. He lowered his head and looked up at me. “You need to stop and listen to me.”

  I couldn’t stand it anymore. Just looking at him made my heart crush under the weight of the truth. He called out to me as I ran up the stairs and toward my bedroom. My dad was home, so I knew he wouldn’t follow me.

  I was so naïve for letting myself believe I could be with someone—that I might have found someone who was a lot like me. So stupid for thinking he wanted anything out of me other than a piece of ass. I was so gullible and stupid. I believed everything he said, even though deep inside I knew something was off.

  He was just like all the other boys I’d ever met. He didn’t give a shit about me. He was a liar. He was someone who wanted to have me around until there was a better reason not to. I had known better than to open up to him and spend so much time with him because in the process of doing so, I feared that I had done exactly what I hadn’t wanted to do.

  I fell in love with him.

  I shut the bedroom door behind me and threw myself on the bed, gut-wrenching sobs coming over me as I cried into the comforter.

  I didn’t see or hear from Cade for the rest of the night.

  Chapter Sixteen

  My nightmares were terrible for the next few nights. They came in spurts, each one worse than the other. Some of them seemed to be a failed attempt at an apology and others were just terrifying. By the time the sun came up, my eyes were so tired I could barely hold them open, but I managed to make it through the days. Even if I couldn’t focus. When the weekend came, I lay in bed and tried to sleep longer, but I still couldn’t drift off.

  Finally, I rolled out of bed and forced myself to get dressed. The coldness at the nape of my neck told me Cade was nearby, but he didn’t show himself. Tears stung at my eyes at the thought of him so near, but I wasn’t ready to face him. Each day that had passed made me miss him more. I couldn’t get him out of my head, even when I was at school.

  With a sigh, I pulled out my phone and texted Meredith. If nothing else, it would get me out of the house. If she was willing to have me over, maybe I could get a good night’s sleep. She agreed to pick me up, so I packed a bag and rushed downstairs to wait for her on the front porch.

  “Briar?”

  My hands tightened on my book at the sound of Cade’s voice. I pretended not to hear him; maybe he would leave.

  “I know you heard me.” His combat boots formed in front of me.

  Without looking up, I addressed him. “What?”

  “We need to talk about that article you found.”

  I stared at the pages of my book, but I couldn’t concentrate on the words. Really, I wanted things to be better. I didn’t like the sinking feeling in my stomach when he was around.

  “Seriously, Briar, you can’t ignore me forever. I live here. With you. I want everything to be okay with us.”

  A chuckle escaped my mouth. There wasn’t anything he could say to fix things with one small conversation. My world had been flipped upside down, and I wasn’t sure how to deal with it yet.

  “Briar—”

  His words were interrupted by the honking of a car horn. Slamming my book closed, I shoved it into my messenger bag and stood up. I threw my bag over one shoulder and made my way down the path. Cade followed beside me, but I kept my eyes on my escape.

  “Where are you going?”

  “It’s none of your business anymore.”

  “Yeah it is. You’re my girl—”

  I stopped walking and whirled to face him. “I’m not your anything right now. I need some space, and I plan on getting it.”

  The sadness in his eyes hurt, but I forced myself to continue to Meredith’s car and get inside.

  “Who were you talking to? You looked pretty pissed.”

  At least he hadn’t shown himself to her. “Just myself.” I rubbed my eyes and slouched down in the seat.

  Meredith looked over at me. “You okay?”

  “I just need some time out of that house.”

  She nodded and pulled away from the curb. “Celeste is staying over tonight. I hope you don’t mind.” She shot me a worried glance.

  My frown deepened. I didn’t want to deal with her
drama too.

  “Surely you two can get along for one night…”

  “It’s not me that’s hard to get along with.”

  “Listen, I know that Celeste can be a pain, but she’s an Aries and like I said, they are difficult. She does what she wants and looks out for herself, but she’s also protective over her friends. She’s a good person, and I’m sure if Ryder wasn’t interested in you—”

  “So, she’s got a crush on him. Is that what all this is about?”

  Meredith chewed on her lip but kept driving.

  “I’m not going to say anything.”

  “They dated in middle school when she first moved here, then he broke it off.”

  I was surprised the two of them had dated. “Why did he break it off?”

  “I dunno…probably something to do with her being wild and crazy. Even back then her parents let her do whatever she wanted to. Ryder isn’t one to get into trouble, so he probably wanted to steer clear of being with someone who did. Ya know?”

  I shrugged. I didn’t know Celeste well enough to make a judgment call on that one. All I had to go off of was that she was really nice to me until she found out Ryder liked me. That was when she became an uber bitch.

  She pulled down a gravel road and back into a wooded area. “I think she always thought he would end up choosing her. Goddess knows I don’t want him.” She made a gagging sound and parked her car in a grassy spot in front of a small, brick house. As we pulled up, several dogs ran from the back of the house to meet us.

  “You’ve got a lot of dogs…”

  “They don’t bite. They’re just excited to see me. Just tell them to get off you.”

  I pushed open the door and stepped out of the car. One of them jumped up toward me, and I jerked back. “Get down!”

  Meredith slammed her door and ran over to my side. “Down, Daisy, down!”

  The dog backed up, and I followed quickly behind Meredith. She kept them away until we reached the door.

  “No judgments, ‘kay? My house isn’t, uh, totally awesome or anything.”

  “I live in a creepy ass haunted house. No judgment here.”

  She laughed and opened the door. “True story.”