All the Pretty Ghosts (The Never Alone Series Book 1)

All The

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Ghosts

All the

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Ghosts

JAMIE CAMPBELL

Copyright © 2015 Jamie Campbell

Jamie Campbell asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the author.

Ghosts crowd around the square at night

Waiting, waiting, to give you a fright,

Be careful when you see the dark,

It just might be a spirit, having a lark.

Chapter One

A
ll these people were seriously starting to tick me off. They never shut up. It was a constant chatter that formed the soundtrack to my pointless, miserable life.

Just one minute alone, that was all I needed. If I could have that minute I would be able to breathe. I could take a deep breath and be still for a moment. It wasn’t much to ask but it seemed the likelihood of getting my wish was practically non-existent.

“What do you think she’s doing?”

“What does it look like she’s doing? She’s reading a damn book. Put your glasses on already.”

“I don’t need glasses. I can see her perfectly well.”

“Sure you can. You’ve been telling me that story for years now.”

I called those two the happy young couple. Even though they weren’t happy, nor were they young. Old, bitter, and annoying were the three words that described them perfectly. But that wouldn’t be polite, would it?

If they didn’t shut up soon I was going to run for the edge of the cliff and throw myself over. That’s what I had wanted to do for almost a year now. So far, I managed to refrain but I feared that day would arrive soon.

Very soon.

Especially if they didn’t shut up. “Be quiet. Everyone, can you please just be quiet?”

“She’s trying to read, y’all.”

“What’s so good about a book anyway? Can a book hug you goodnight?”

“A book opens the mind, it expands the conscious.”

“For what? A lobotomy?” Chuckles filtered through the crowd.

“She should be going into the city, that’s what she should be doing.”

“There’s nothing there for her anymore.”

“She’s happy here, with us.”

“Does she look happy?”

“I don’t think she’s happy.”

Well that worked well.

Apparently, instead of shushing them, I had given the group a new topic of conversation. Everyone, all forty-three of them, seemed to have an opinion about what I should and shouldn’t do. I knew from experience they could go on for hours debating the merits of how I chose to live my life.

I desperately tried to concentrate on my book. It was the only way I could drown them out. If the book was good enough, I could escape for at least twenty minutes before they started creeping in again.

“We should get her out of the house. A seventeen year old girl should not be cooped up inside with all of us.”

“She doesn’t want to go out. We can’t force her.”

“We
can
encourage her.”

“She’s old enough to make her own decisions, leave the poor girl alone.”

“We should play cards. Who’s up for some poker?”

“Poker, yeah right. No way.”

“Someone needs to watch Everly and make sure she’s okay.”

I snapped the book closed, today was not going to be the day for reading. Clearly, my housemates had other plans. “Seriously, you should all go and play cards. I need some peace and quiet.”

They all looked at me, all forty-three of them. If I ever wanted an audience I wouldn’t have to go far. Pity I wasn’t a precocious, spoiled brat, I probably would have enjoyed it.

“I just need some time alone. Please?” I begged them. I would have crawled down on my hands and knees if I thought that would help.

But it wouldn’t.

It never did.

“She wants some quiet time.”

“Apparently we annoy her.”

“It was you, Bill, with your big mouth.”

“I don’t have a big mouth.”

“Yes, you do.”

“Who says?”

A wind whipped up and knocked on the door, a big banging sound that couldn’t be mistaken for anything else. I opened my book and leaned back in my chair. There was no way I was going to answer the door.

Not today and not any other day.

“Someone’s at the door.”

“You should answer it, Everly.”

“You can’t ignore it.”

“Come on, he came all this way.”

“Hurry or he’ll leave.”

“He might not come around next time.”

I sat back up again. “I’m not answering it. Now shush.”

Agatha, one of the few voices of reason amongst them, stood by the arm of my chair. “Everly, honey, you really need to answer the door.”

“I can’t. If it’s him, he’ll go away again. He always does… eventually.” It wasn’t a topic open for discussion. Oliver and I always played the same game. He would trudge all the way up the hill to stand at my door and I would ignore him.

It’s how we rolled.

“Maybe today you should speak with him.” Her eyes were caring as they looked at me gently.

“Today is no different than all the other days.”

“But it is and you know it,” Agatha argued with me. She was right but I didn’t want to admit it. “It’s time to talk to him.”

I really didn’t want it to be the time that I spoke with Oliver. The general consensus amongst everyone was that I should. But they said that every time he came to the door.

The only person I listened to was Agatha because I was certain she was the only sane one in the house. And that included me, too. She gave me a slow nod, patting my arm silently to tell me I needed to do it.

“Fine, if it will shut everyone up,” I grumbled as I placed my book on the table and stood. They made a pathway for me to get through so I could make it to the door. They were all nosy enough to stick around and listen to every word we said.

My hand hovered on the doorknob as the person on the other side made my heart race. He called out my name and I knew without a doubt it was indeed Oliver. I should have known, nobody else ever came to visit me. Even the mailman had long since stopped his rounds.

“Go on, open it.”

“Hurry up.”

“What are you waiting for?”

“The girl’s mute all of a sudden.”

“She’s not going to do it.”

“She has to do it.”

Opening the door was probably less painful than listening to them by that stage. I twisted the knob and pulled the door open slowly, like I was scared about what was going to confront me when I did.

Oliver’s face lit up when he saw me. His intense green eyes opened wide with the surprise that I had actually opened the door. His mouth crooked into a wide grin, flashing all his teeth and making his cheeks dimple. He smoothed his black hair away from his eyes as he recovered. “Everly. I didn’t think you’d answer.”

“Neither did I,” I made an attempt at a joke. Oliver gave a nervous laugh in response. At least someone could still laugh after everything.

“How are you doing?” he asked.

I didn’t know what to say, so I lied. I made the same pleasantries that the world expected of one another. “I’m fine. How are you?”

“Worried, actually. About you, about the city, about everything, really. Everyone needs your help.”

I moved to close the door. That was the exact reason why I had never spoken to him during his visits before. “I can’t help. Thanks for coming.”

Quickly, he shoved his foot in the doorway so I couldn’t close it. There was no way I could hurt him. He was quicker than me, that had been my mistake. I wouldn’t do it again. Next time, I would ignore his presence and all the people inside my house.

“Come on, Ev. You can’t stay up here forever.”

“Why not? There’s nothing left for me in the city anymore. It’s all gone, remember? Everything has been destroyed.”

“Not everything.”

“Enough.” I shrugged.

He looked down at the ground, like he didn’t know what else to say. My heart broke watching him. We used to be so close and now we couldn’t even have a full conversation. Just another reason why I didn’t open the door when he visited.

Finally, Oliver looked back up at me. “
I’m
still there.”

“And I’m here.” Once, I would never have spoken to him like that. I would have instantly wanted to take him into my arms and kiss away all those horrible thoughts. I would have tried to make everything right.

But that was before.

This was now.

“Come on, Ev. Just come into the city and listen to what they have to say. It won’t hurt, I’ll be with you the entire time.” His eyes were so sincere as they silently pleaded with me. That look would have got a lot further than any words he spoke if I still had a heart.

I was empty now.

Bereft of emotion.

“Please just go, Oliver. I’m not leaving.”

“You can’t stay up here by yourself all the time. You’re not going to survive.”

How did I even begin to explain that I wasn’t alone? It wasn’t like Oliver could see any of the forty-three people currently living in my house, talking to me non-stop, unable to leave me alone.

He wouldn’t understand.

Nobody would.

I was the only one who could see them.

Because they were all dead.

Chapte
r
Two

O
nce the door was closed, I hurried upstairs. It was partly to get as far away from Oliver as I could, but it was partly so I could watch him leave, too. I needed that extra glimpse of him because I never knew when it would be the last.

He lingered on the doorstep for a long time, long enough for me to wonder if he really was going to leave. Just as I was about to retreat, I saw him move. His mop of black hair bobbed down the pathway in the front yard. He reached the gate and shimmied through. The gate always stuck, it was as if the house was telling people to stay out.

Or perhaps it just needed some oil.

I didn’t move from the window until Oliver’s familiar stride was completely out of sight. It didn’t take long to disappear from view when someone was headed down the hill. It was steep, another warning sign for people to truly think about whether it was worth climbing it or not.

For just a moment I allowed my mind to wander into the city. It would have changed significantly since I last saw it. It had been almost a year since I stepped foot in the places I used to go every day. My school, my grocery store, my grandparents’ house, they were places I visited all the time.

They were probably all destroyed now. If not by the Event, then by those left behind. There were no adults left now, only kids and teenagers trying to figure out a world where nothing made sense anymore.

I didn’t know how Oliver managed to stay sane amongst it all. While I could pretend the world outside my front yard didn’t exist, he didn’t have that luxury. He walked down those broken sidewalks every day, he saw those that were suffering because of what happened. He lived it, breathed it, and he still managed to worry about me.

I didn’t deserve his kindness.

I should have been one of those forgotten ones, those left to fight for their own survival any way they could. There had to be millions of us in the world. I’m sure nobody else was fortunate enough to have someone worry about them.

I wondered what it would be like to walk the streets with Oliver at my side. Would it be easier? Would I notice all the pain and suffering as much? Would the forty-three ghosts that haunted me still follow me there? So many questions I didn’t have a hope of answering.

It was fanciful anyway. Oliver deserved to find some happiness in the city, if he could. He needed to forget about me and knocking on my door once a week was not going to achieve that. Hopefully my sullen attitude toward him earlier would be enough to convince him I was not worthy.

“I found her, she’s up here.” It only took one voice for them all to shuffle in and gather around me.

“Why’d you let him leave?”

“He’s such a good boy.”

“You should have been nicer, he would have stayed.”

“He said the city needs you, what was that supposed to mean?”

“Don’t you feel bad making him leave like that?”

“It’s because she’s spent so much time up here alone.”

They went on and on while everyone gave their comments. No matter what I did, no matter where I went, the ghosts followed me. There was never a moment in my life since the Event that I was truly alone.

And it drove me crazy.

I couldn’t take it anymore. All the walls in the small room were closing in on me. As my vision started fading to black, all I could see were the faces of the ghosts as they incessantly talked and stared at me.

I needed to get out of here. I made a dash for the stairs, not caring if I was about to run through any of the ghostly forms or not. I didn’t care about the shiver it would cause both of us, I just had to get out of here.

Taking the stairs two at a time, I ran through the house. I hurried as fast as my legs could take me to the back door and burst out into the fresh air.

The oxygen filtered back into my lungs, making the black spots in front of my eyes less black. They disbursed the longer I stood inhaling and exhaling like some deranged lunatic. At least I didn’t have any neighbors to watch and judge me.

When my chest wasn’t heaving anymore, I took the few steps to reach the fence. In the distance were the remains of the once vibrant city. The tall skyscrapers still jutted up over the horizon, creating a bricklike effect. Most of them were starting to fall apart from a lack of maintenance. Nobody knew how to look after them now, all that knowledge had died in the Event.

I wondered how many people still survived down there. I could have asked Oliver and he would have told me. But then he might think I cared.

And I didn’t.

Not really.

I had escaped. I had enclosed myself in the house and refused to let anyone in. I didn’t know who owned the house but I knew they wouldn’t be coming back for it. With running water – although only cold – and the electricity run by a solar-powered generator, it was sufficient to keep me alive. Food was my only problem. My dwindling supply reminded me every day.

“You know it’s not too late,” Agatha said, startling me from behind.

“Too late for what?” I asked, only because it was Agatha. I tried not to engage in conversation with the others. They could talk for hours about nothing.

“Too late to rejoin the world. There are people down there living their lives together, you could be a part of it.” She nodded toward the city and its crusty buildings.

“It’s a nice thought, but it’s not that simple.”

“You could
make
it that simple.”

“Things have changed too much, I’m not a part of their world anymore. Everyone I know is probably dead.” I truly believed that, too. What was the point of going into the city when it would only bring disappointment? I wouldn’t know anyone, they would all be wary of me because I was a stranger now.

“Oliver would appreciate it,” Agatha continued. “You heard what he said, they need you down there.”

“They just want to use me.”

“You don’t know that.”

Except, I did. People only stayed together long enough to use one another. That’s how the world worked now.

Agatha placed her hands on my shoulders, all I felt was the coldness emanating from her. “Just think about it, honey. You don’t have to be in any rush. But I think the sooner you go, the better.”

She left me, shooing away the audience that had started to gather. The ghosts could go anywhere, they weren’t restricted to any one place. I often encouraged – and by
encouraged
, I meant
yelled at them
– to go find someplace else to hang out. Some explored further than the yard, but they always came back. For some reason, they always came back.

It was kind of funny, the city needing my help when I couldn’t even solve my own problems. Maybe the day I finally managed to get rid of my forty-three ghosts would be the day I’d be able to turn my attention to helping others.

I went to bed early that night, exhausted from Oliver’s short visit. He always made my head hurt. I wished I could forget all about him so he wouldn’t haunt my thoughts when I least wanted him to.

Back before the Event, we used to hang out all the time. He lived across the street from me so we would walk to school together. He would drop me off at the gate to my private girls’ school before heading down the next block to his own private boys’ school. We repeated the process in reverse after school.

He was always waiting for me.

Without fail.

We spent so much time together, people always assumed we were a couple.

We weren’t.

Oliver and I were just… what we were. Friends. Buddies. Partners in crime. Whatever you wanted to call it, that’s what we were. I knew him better than I did anyone else and he knew all my secrets that I wouldn’t dare reveal to anyone else. That’s what we were.

Even now, almost a year later, it felt weird not seeing him all the time. Sometimes the guilt of leaving was enough to overwhelm me. But when I went to cry over it, all the ghosts would ask me a million questions about why I was so upset and my tears turned into anger. I hated how things were now, it didn’t seem fair. But I didn’t have anyone to blame, the Event was nobody’s fault.

Despite my restless mind, I managed to drift off to sleep. It wasn’t for long. Somewhere, in the early hours of the morning, an alarm started blaring in the distance.

Alarms were normal. They weren’t usually something to be too concerned about. This one was different, it was far louder than any I had heard since the Event and it was coming directly from the city.

I pushed back the bed covers and hurried to the window. My only concern was for Oliver. He was somewhere in the city, he could be right where the alarm was going off. Every part of my body drained of warmth, leaving me cold as I moved.

Pulling back the curtains, the city glowed down the hill in the distance. Between all the dilapidated buildings were plumes of smoke. Something was burning.

Something big.

I wanted to run down to them, find Oliver in the crowds and make sure he was okay. I desperately needed to know he wasn’t caught up in whatever was causing the huge fires. For the city to be so lit up the blazes had to be consuming a large portion of the streets.

Surely Oliver would know better and stay away from that kind of danger? Surely he would do everything he could to keep himself safe?

But he was still Oliver. And Oliver felt compelled to help every person he could. It was what made him such a beautiful person. His sense of selflessness had been proven to me time and time again. If there was a fire and people needed help, he would be in the thick of it.

Now I really needed to find him. I had to know he was alive and well. I wouldn’t be able to think of anything else until I knew for sure. If anything happened to Oliver… I didn’t know what I would do.

I didn’t bother dressing. I ran through the house and burst through the front door. I barely had shoes on my feet before I made it to the front gate.

And then I stopped.

Because I could not go any further.

I had not stepped foot outside that gate in almost a year. Not since I had chosen the house to be my home and refuge. Opening the wire barrier and passing through it seemed as impossible as the world being able to restore itself.

“She’s leaving.”

“No, she’s not.”

“She’ll never leave this place.”

“She could.”

“What’s stopping her?” The running commentary from my forty-three
friends
was invading my thoughts. That was all I needed at that moment.

“What’s the alarm for?”

“It’s coming from the city.”

“Oooh, it’s a fire.”

“A darn big one.”

“I hope it doesn’t come up here.”

“Why would it do that?”

“It’s a fire, it can do whatever it wants.”

“Kind of like you.”

“Not like Everly, though.”

“No, she can’t even leave.”

“She’s a coward.”

“You can’t say that.”

“I can if it’s true.”

The worst thing was they were right. I couldn’t leave. No matter how much my heart ached to know Oliver was okay, I couldn’t step one foot past the gate.

And I hated myself for it.

Oliver could be hurt somewhere, he could be in dire need of help with nobody else there to care for him. He could have been lying down hurt and hoping I would find him to save his life. And I wouldn’t come.

Apparently not even that horrible thought was enough to get me to overcome my fears. If Oliver needing me wasn’t enough, nothing ever would be. I was destined to spend the rest of my life in that house.

Alone.

With my ghosts.

I ran back inside and slammed the door behind me, regardless of who had followed at my heels. They kept up their chatter as we moved upstairs.

I crawled back into bed and pulled the covers up over my head. I didn’t need their opinions and judgments. I already loathed myself for choosing the path of the coward, I didn’t need to hear it from them, too.

Sleep was impossible from then onwards. There was no way I was going to get any more shuteye when the city was burning only a short distance away.

I tossed and turned as I thought about Oliver. I needed him to be okay, he had to be okay. If he wasn’t, I would have absolutely no reason to stay connected to the city. I could run further away, disappear into the world at large and never have to be reminded of everything we’d lost.

Or my guilt.

Morning was almost a relief as I had a reason to get out of bed. It was only to feed myself so I didn’t die of starvation, but it was something. I wasn’t ready to die yet, I was too much of a coward for even that.

“She’s up.”

“She looks terrible.”

“The poor dear didn’t sleep at all.”