Walking Ghost Phase
Page 27
Emily turned her back and flicked her wrist. “Do whatever you want, just don't expect me to like New York City.”
Darkness.
Emily was staring at herself in the mirror. Her hair, slightly curled, draped over her shoulders.
“Washington D.C.,” Raven said.
Emily dropped her arms to her side. “You've got to be kidding me. We'll be bored out of our minds. I give this trip a day until you all are begging to come home.”
“What do you have against Washington?” Sarah asked. “I know you've never been there.” Sarah scratched her head. “You know what? The decision is yours, Em. Washington or New York?”
“In that case,” Emily said, “Washington.”
Sarah looked at Matt. “A little help here?”
Darkness.
Emily was sitting in the passenger seat of Matt's car as he drove her home. The prom dress chafed her ankles from her constant squirming. She stared through the window at the passing houses. Matt hadn't said anything since they left Sarah's house.
“All right, you win,” she said, and dug in her purse.
“It was never about winning,” Matt said.
She pulled out her cell phone and dialed. “With you, it's always about winning. Why else do you think we've lasted this long? Someone has to prove me wrong every once in a while.” She winked at him. A moment later the line connected. “Dad—I want to see you.” She smothered the phone and glared at Matt. “But after Washington.”
Darkness.
Emily's feet dangled in the air as the wind ruffled over her Sunday dress. Behind her, three children giggled and pushed her in the swing. “Higher, Matty, higher,” she screamed.
The children pushed harder. At the apex of her flight, she saw her house. Her mother and father were sitting on the porch and watching her sail above the tree line.
Then the walls of her house began to decay. The vinyl siding warped and sloughed off the wooden frame. A distant voice echoed in her mind. “She's waking up.”
As Emily opened her eyes, the overhead lights spun. A white-coat-wearing man stood over her. “No…” But she shivered. Her arms didn't find the resistance from the gel or its warmth hugging her body. A dull sensation coursed through her.
The white-coat's head ripped backward as someone shoved him out of the way. Emily's mother cradled her hand. “My baby.”
“Mom,” Emily said. Her voice came out raspy and hoarse.
“I'm here. Dad's here.”
Her father kissed her on the forehead, and his tears dripped into her hair. “How are you feeling, kiddo?”
“Numb.”
Her mother released her hand. Now a different person held her wrist and another clutched her forearm. She turned her head. Beside her, Matt, Sarah, and Raven lay. Their four hands joined at a single point.
“Are you sure you can't do anything?” her father asked a white-coat.
“I have money,” Raven's father said. “I'll pay whatever it takes.”
“I'm sorry, sirs. But we can keep them comfortable, manage the pain.”
Emily's mother let out a sobbing howl.
“Then I want to take her home,” Emily's father said. “She's not dying here.”
“I'm sorry, sir. We can't risk the potential security breach.”
“I'm not asking.”
“I have my orders, sir.”
Emily's father grabbed a wad of the man's lab coat. “You son of a—”
Someone jumped forward and clutched her father's arm. “That isn't necessary, sir,” the man said. Emily recognized his voice but in the kinder tone from her early days inside the program. “They may leave,” Wade Stallings said to the white-coat.
“But Colonel?”
“We may have orders, Lieutenant, but this isn't our decision to make. It's not our place.”
The white-coat nodded slowly. “Yes, sir.”
“Prep your team for transfer.”
Emily's mother knelt beside the gurney. “Do you want go home, baby?”
Emily imagined her feet rising above the trees. Her friends, still children in her memories, giggled and chased one another. “The park.”
Next to her, Raven nodded, and Sarah smiled.
Then Emily met Matt's eyes.
He mouthed the words.
I love you.
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Table of Contents
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31