Amber slipped her foot from the front door. She stepped back from the screen and let it shut between them. “Thank you for the tea.”
Ms. Flannery fidgeted in the gap. “Amber, please. This is just a way for you to hold on. Let go, and I swear it will make you feel so much better. I want what’s best for you, I really do. I’ve never asked for the money your mother left behind. I don’t need it. I watch you when I can because I care about you. If you care about me, you’ll do this for me, too.”
Amber winced at the words. “The money? Ms. Flannery, I—”
“Shh, no need to speak of it. Like I said, I want what’s best for you. We’ll keep it our little secret.”
“I didn’t mean to steal from you.” Amber’s gaze dropped to her toes. She felt six inches tall and covered in dirt. “I’m sorry.”
“Make amends by leaving the necklace alone. That’s all you have to do. I’ll see you for tea again soon, sweetie.”
The door clicked close. Amber turned and headed down the sidewalk. She reached into her pocket and gripped the necklace. Getting caught in the lie stung, and she hated it. Yet knowing Ms. Flannery had kept the knowledge in her back pocket and waited to use it until she wanted to extract something from Amber dulled the sting beneath a ripple of anger washing through her chest. “Once is all I’ll try, Ms. Flannery. Just once, and never again.”
CHAPTER NINE
The Gift
Amber sat on the bench beside her brother’s grave. The moon was a bruised, milky disc wreathed by a silvery crown. The breeze that comforted her while the sun shone grew teeth once it set and bit her cheeks, sending a shiver down her spine whenever it whistled through her hair.
She unraveled the scarf around her neck and tapped her fingers on the agate stones of her necklace. For the third time, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Toby, can you hear me? It’s Amber. I—I wanted to….”
Her shoulders slumped. “I don’t know what I wanted to do.” A giggle bubbled from her lips, and she threw head back. “What the hell am I doing out here? I look like a total idiot in a cemetery at night. Mom would kill me if she knew, you know that? Ms. Flannery’s probably hiding behind a tree somewhere taking notes on how I lied to her. Ms. Flannery? You there? Come out and sit with me!”
The agate chilled her sweaty palm as she clenched it and sighed. “I guess I just wanted to talk to you. I don’t have anybody but Jason these days, and I feel bad because I know half the time he’s around it’s because he feels sorry for me. At least it’s my last year at St. Luke’s, right? Jason wants us to go to New York, but I don’t know. I’ve thought about LA. I think the warm weather would be nice. I could get out of the cold and the wind, maybe even find Dad one of these days.”
The thought of running into her father knotted her stomach. Amber looked to the stars, leaning back on the bench. “I feel like I’m going insane. I swear I can hear you sometimes, when I’m alone. I want to help if I can.” Amber’s gaze fell to the gravestone. “Toby, let me know what kind of help you need. I’ll do anything. Anything. You know that.”
Amber waited. She pressed a palm to the necklace and stared at the polished gravestone. Nothing came. No otherworldly spirit floated before her, no glowing apparition of her departed brother sparkled from the ether. She was alone. At night. In a cemetery. Like a fool.
“I’m such an idiot for doing this.” Amber lurched from the bench and stalked through the crunchy grass. “What was I thinking? Ghosts aren’t even real, and why would you want Toby to be one? Amber, you’re going nuts. You’re more likely to get mugged or killed out here than to see your brother. Stupid. Stupid.”
The gate appeared beneath a blinking fluorescent streetlamp. She wriggled between the iron bars and threw her scarf around her neck, hiding the necklace beneath its soft folds. The walk home was brisk and silent.
Each time the wind rattled through the trees or sent browned leaves rolling in swirls around her ankles, she would stop and stare into the shadows. Every movement was a stranger, every creak of a branch a voice. The foolishness of her trip sunk into her thoughts. A young, unaccompanied woman on an empty road outside town, in the middle of the night?
“Mom would explode if she knew,” she huffed. Amber paused and rolled her eyes. “Or cared.”
She came near Ms. Flannery’s home on the corner of their block and paused beneath the shadow of a knotted elm. A single window on the second floor cast gold onto the otherwise dark street. Every so often, a shadow would flit across the thin curtains covering the pane.
Amber waited. The movement stilled. Ms. Flannery’s light blinked out. Amber flipped her collar up and stole toward home, leaving the twinkling lights of Portsmouth behind her. Her keys jangled as she unlocked the door and shouldered it open. In less than thirty seconds, the scarf hung on the back of a dining room chair. She unclasped the necklace and tossed it on the counter without a second look.
Her pocket buzzed. Amber jumped, hand slapping her chest. “What’s Jason bugging me about now?”
She swayed around some furniture and undid her ponytail, shaking out her hair as it fell in waves over her shoulders. The couch swallowed her as she tossed herself onto the cushions and pulled out her phone. When she saw the screen, she frowned. “Great.”
The phone buzzed again. She stared at the name, heat rising in her cheeks.
It buzzed once more. Amber rolled her eyes and answered the call. “What do you want?”
“Nice to hear from you too,” Chris said.
“You’re lucky I answered the phone at all.”
“Whoa, whoa, what’s wrong with you, Amber? Cut the crap for once and be a normal girl, I swear. I just called to check up. Ms. Flannery coming by in the morning? How you doing?”
“You’ve got a real pair to be calling me now, Chris. Maybe next time you upload some photos from your stupid parties you’ll make sure I can’t see them.”
The silence on the other end told her all she needed to know. He sighed, long and hard.
“Listen, Chris, I honestly don’t care about you not coming,” Amber said.
“I don’t believe that.”
“Well, fine, okay I might care a little. But that’s not what really hurts. You never miss Toby’s birthday, and the first year you do it’s because you wanted to party? At least it looks like it was fun. Did you have fun? Get totally wasted?”
“Amber.” Chris’s tone hardened. “I’m your older brother. I hate it when you try and parent me. You’re not Mom, and I can make my own decisions. Toby’s been gone for nearly ten years now. We have to move on. It’s time to move on. Dwelling on what happened isn’t healthy for you.”
“I think I’m the only one who’s actually trying to move past it while the rest of you run away. Doing something simple for him once a year isn’t dwelling on shit, Chris, and you know it.”
“Now that’s not fair. You’re being hysterical. Just stop it for a second.”
Amber caught herself shaking. What an asshole. He partied while she cried. She needed him, and here he was on the phone making her sound like she had some sort of mental issue. Her eyes closed, and she tightened her grip on the phone until her hand stilled.
“I’m being hysterical?” she asked, her voice low and utterly flat.
“Now don’t freak out—”
“Screw you, Chris. Never call me again.”
Amber flung her phone. It zipped across the room and smashed against the wall, exploding into a bunch of sparking shards by the living room TV. Her nails dug into her palms. She clenched and unclenched her fists.
Their landline started ringing, but Amber ignored it. Her brother tried calling once more before giving up.
Generally fed up with her crappy evening, she cleaned up and changed for bed. Amber headed from the bathroom to her room, but paused at the stairs. After talking to Chris, she would never be able to fall asleep, but her mom had a prescription that might do the trick.
Amber headed downstairs to her mom’s
bathroom and rifled through the medicine cabinet until she found the sleeping pills. The lid clicked as she popped it open. Her palm opened. She tipped the bottle. The pills caught at the rim, collecting just at the lip.
Frustrated, she angled the bottle a little farther, and the contents dumped into her hand. Twenty or so little pink pills piled in her palm. Twenty or so nights of decent sleep. Or one night of a very, very, long sleep. A sleep she might not ever wake from.
Amber shifted the pills around, wondering what swallowing all of them at once might do. Ms. Flannery wouldn’t find her until Monday. Chris wouldn’t call. Jason might, but he would just think she unplugged her cell for the weekend. No one would know or care enough until it was too late.
To close her eyes and see black. To drift. To sway in a gentle nothing. Amber clenched the pills. She opened her eyes and her hand, shaking her head. “What are you doing?”
She grabbed the pill bottle and cupped her full hand over its mouth. When she unclenched, pills stuck stubbornly to her sweaty palm.
“Get off!” Amber shook her hand. The pills unglued, but they missed the bottle and clattered all over the tiles.
Groaning, she threw the container into the sink and stomped from the bathroom. The pills could wait until the morning. Right now, she needed sleep.
Steps creaked under her weight as she trotted upstairs. In her room, she streamed Jerry Maguire just quietly enough so she couldn’t understand the dialog and just loudly enough to make the house feel like someone other than her lived within its four walls.
Her downy comforter cocooned her, the warmth of her body swelling beneath the plush cover. The mattress hugged her, enveloping Amber’s frame like a springy cloud. Her lids grew heavy. She blinked. The world blurred, and sleep took her.
Help me.
Amber rocketed up. “Toby?”
Help me.
The voice came from just beyond her bedroom door. Amber’s heart battered her ribs, her pulse thundering in her ears. She whipped out of the covers and yanked the door wide. “Toby? Is that you?”
Help me.
It came from the first floor now. A shadow flitted across the wall at the base of the stairwell. Amber bolted downstairs and swung around the bannister. A dark swath shifted in the kitchen.
“Toby!” Amber raced into the room. Frigid wind ripped through the open back door, swinging it wide. The world beyond waited, its vibrant colors extinguished by the night.
Help me.
His voice echoed from the yard. Amber shifted on her feet. “This is insane. Insane! Toby, I’m scared. I can’t follow you out there.”
Help me.
“Okay, okay. Amber, you can do this. Maybe. Okay. Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God….”
Help me.
“I’m coming!” She bolted to the dining room and grabbed her jacket. She passed the necklace and hesitated, her fingers wagging over the gaudy jewelry.
She nearly left it. Nearly. At the last possible moment, Amber snatched the necklace and shoved it in her pocket, tying her hair back as she vaulted through the door and into the bitter night, running around the house to the wide drive with its old elm.
Something dark flitted beneath the single streetlight on their block. The form turned the corner at Ms. Flannery’s house and vanished.
“What am I doing? This is stupid. Go to bed, Amber.” She shut her eyes. “Go to bed.”
Cold breath washed across her cheeks. Help me.
Her eyes shot open as she recoiled. Nothing stood before her, but she knew something waited beyond the streetlight. She felt it, felt him.
Amber took a parting glance at her house before sprinting down the street. She passed beneath the light and rounded the corner, chasing a shadow that led her closer to the city.
“No, not the city,” she whispered, spinning around a wide curve. Ahead, the cemetery’s gate swung wide. The fluorescent light blinked out, and a night lit only by the moon remained.
She reached into her pocket and clenched the necklace. The metallic frame holding the center stone bit into her trembling palm.
Help me.
His whisper came from beyond the gates. Amber swallowed and edged forward. “Toby, I’m scared. It’s dark. This is a freaking cemetery.” One foot stepped uneasily before another. “I’m alone. I’ve got nothing but a jacket and a cheap necklace. But I’m going to help you if I can. Toby? Toby!”
She reached the gates and squeezed the necklace. Amber took a deep breath and stepped into the cemetery. Toby didn’t call her again, but she didn’t need his voice any longer. Wide eyes casting about, she hurried through the graveyard’s winding paths. Still angels lorded over cracked obelisks. They looked at her, watched her. Some reached out. Others smiled. Still others mourned.
She hugged her jacket tighter and came to the far end of the cemetery where her brother’s grave waited. Nothing stirred around her. Not so much as a whisper of wind or falling leaf broke the fragile still.
Amber took a seat on the stone bench and shivered, looking around. “Toby? I came. Where are you?”
Her breath came out in cloudy puffs. She shuddered again, wrapping her arms tightly around her chest. Toby’s headstone sat a few feet away, a pile of black calla lilies before it.
Something caught her eye. Crystals on the petals. Ice crystals. They spread along the black like a glassy, cracking fungus. They reached the grass and coated it in crisp white. They radiated from the grave so far she lifted her feet to keep her toes from icing.
Help me.
Toby’s voice came from the grave. Amber’s brows pinched together. The frozen lilies didn’t just lay on the grave, they covered something on it. She slipped from the bench. The grass cracked underfoot. She fell to her knees. A chill shock hit her as she hit the ice.
Slowly, she reached into the lilies. Her fingers found something hard, something icy. She pulled her hand away. Red tinged her fingertips. She shook them and speared the pile, yanking whatever hid beneath the petals into the open.
Amber grimaced and blew on her fingers as she dropped what she found into her lap. She’d pulled a box from the flowers. It didn’t look like much. It was black and worn and unadorned save a dark pearl capping the lid. She bent to its level and looked for a latch or a keyhole, but found nothing.
“What is this, Toby?”
Her brother didn’t answer. Amber straightened. She flexed her fingers and grabbed the pearl. She pulled. The box clicked. The lid creaked open.
Amber threw the top back. Empty sockets of a skull stared at her. An intricate design centered on the skull’s brow radiated around the bone, covering every inch of exposed surface. Deep lines braided one another and overlaid even smaller etchings. Beneath them, even fainter patterns appeared. The skull was one grotesque, hypnotic piece of art that pulled her to it.
I’m sorry, Amber. You were the only one I remembered, Toby whispered.
She ripped her gaze from the skull and peered into the cemetery. The light at the gate blinked on. A figure stood beneath it, then darted beyond the graves and vanished in the shadows.
“Toby!” Amber lurched forward.
The box hissed. Amber screamed as a snake scaled in shades of charcoal shot from an eye socket and buried its fangs into the soft flesh between her thumb and finger.
Fire raced through her arm and ignited her heart. Her throat closed, and she flung back, slamming her head against the ground. Each breath was like swallowing glass. Spasms wrenched her body in awful angles. Tears coursed down her cheeks. Her scream sputtered into choking, foaming gasps.
The ground shifted. The ice melted. Frigid water soaked her jacket. It covered her form. She sank into the ground as water poured down her throat and filled her burning nostrils. Deeper and deeper she sank, the moon dwindling as the watery soil encased her.
She reached for the moon, but her fingers couldn’t find the surface. Water pressed on her chest. Poison turned every vein into a hot knife buried in her skin. Her lungs filled with fluid
. The last rubbery bubbles of air slid across her cheeks and floated away.
Amber’s watery grave burst into mist, and she crashed onto a hard, cold floor. Her burning veins cooled, and she gagged water from her lungs. Her sopping coat burdened her shivering shoulders. She hacked and coughed, rolling to the side as she struggled from the jacket and wobbled to her feet.
Shadows ruled the room, save for the dim, sad column of moonlight lighting her shoulders. The floor she could see was a perfectly flat, polished slate, but other than it, she saw only an impenetrable black.
“Toby?” Amber pressed her fist against her lips and coughed the last of the water from her lungs. When she pulled her hand away, she saw the snake’s bite marks, all round and red and swollen on her skin.
Tears threatened, but she sucked them back. “Toby! Where are you? I … I’m scared.”
“Don’t be frightened,” a woman cooed. Her voice echoed through the room, slow and measured and ending on a sigh.
“Where am I? What is this place?”
Something glided across the floor, just beyond her sight. It moved softly and circled her column of moonlight. It completed a full circle and paused before her. Warm air washed across Amber’s face and rolled over her shoulders. Two enormous red orbs appeared in the black, wet and serpentine. A fire burned deep within those eyes, and their power held her like a steel vise.
“We will do wondrous things, you and I,” the woman said.
“I came for Toby.” Amber tried to back away, but the eyes trapped her. “Please—Where is my brother? Where is Toby!”
“Free,” she sighed. “I am finally free.”
A massive snake’s jaw tore from the darkness with dripping, curved fangs and swallowed Amber.
CHAPTER TEN
Rise and Shine
Amber screamed, clutching at her throat. She rolled to the side and fell, smacking against a hard, cold floor. Something soft cocooned her, tied her up. She struggled against it until daylight peeked through the hot folds.
Afterlife (Second Eden #1) Page 8
