Ghostly (Darkly Devoted Book 1) (3 page)

“I live here; it’s not like I’m out in public roaming around.”

He shrugged and walked over toward the door. With one hand on the knob, he turned to look at me with a sly smile. “You never know what could be lurking in the darkness.”

“Nothing. I don’t believe in that shit.”

“Interesting.” He opened the door and looked over my shoulders at something. His eyebrows furrowed.

I turned my head to look in that direction, wondering what was so damn interesting. Nothing was there; he was just trying to freak me out.

“I don’t see anything,” I said as I turned back to the door.

He was gone.

I looked outside, eyeing either side of the backyard and seeing no one.
Must have scared him off,
I thought with a smile.

I shut the door behind me and went back upstairs. Grabbing my messenger bag with all its little buttons on it, I made my way to my bedroom, hoping homework would rid me of the sinking feeling that something bad was going to happen.

Chapter Four

Today would be the last day that any of them would have to worry about me. I was no longer safe in the world. My eyes were rimmed with red from the night I’d stayed up crying. I didn’t cry often, but after learning about my parents’ plans, I had no other choice. This was my last option.

Everyone would remember me. I’d straightened my messy hair and pulled on a dress shirt and pants. So very different from the gothic variety I usually sported. It would surprise them today, but everything would make so much sense tomorrow.

When I walked into the school, I could feel their eyes on me. They judged me, whispered about me, and I wanted to hurt them all for it. Soon, though, very soon, I would be rid of the snarky comments. I was done with it all.

I shoved my bag under my seat and leaned over onto my elbows as I took a few deep breaths. I had to make it through the day and be my usual self. If I acted like something was wrong, they would know. I didn’t like feeling out of sorts, and I refused to show them. Within minutes I was empty inside.

So empty.

And it felt so incredibly good.

“Noooo!” I screamed, jerking out of my deep sleep and knocking the books off my desk and onto the floor.

My heart pounded in my chest; adrenaline rushed through my veins as I tried to comprehend where I was. I was in my bedroom sitting at my desk in my new home.

It was just a dream.

I ran my hands down my face to wipe away the sweat. I hadn’t had such an intense nightmare in almost a year. They’d all been flashbacks to my own awful experiences. This one was different.

Just the thought of that eventful day in my past triggered the sound of gun shots in my head—the sound of them echoing off the classroom walls. I thought therapy had gotten rid of them, but they echoed in the back of my mind, waiting to come out.

Those thoughts always led to a runaway train that created a new trail of marks across my thighs from the razor I kept hidden, so I pushed them from my mind and tried to focus on something else. Just like my counselor had taught me.

My hands shook as I reached down to pick my papers off the floor. I must have dozed off while I studied. I sighed and laid my head in my hands. The dream was harder to shake than I thought it would be.

Music would be my only help, so I pushed the play button on my phone and waited for In This Moment to start singing, but it didn’t work. I pushed it again; sometimes the touch screen could be picky. Still, it didn’t play.

“Stupid thing.” I slammed it back against the desk and started to shuffle through my papers.

My door creaked open and my dad’s head popped in. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah, why?”

“I heard you scream.”

“I had a nightmare.”

“Oh.” He scrunched his face together in worry. “If you’re having nightmares again, maybe you should go back to seeing a therapist.”

“No, Dad, I’m fine. It’s not about that stuff…” Well, it could have been, but I wasn’t sure. It was a weird dream, one I’d never had before.

He raised an eyebrow, clearly not convinced. “Well, I’m glad you’re okay. There’s spaghetti in the fridge if you want to get some.”

I nodded. “That sounds awesome.”

“Okay,” he said awkwardly, still unsure of how to talk to me. Mom was always the main parent of the two, and he wasn’t sure how to handle both that new responsibility and my adulthood. After a few weird moments, he left the room.

As I stood up to follow him down for food, my phone clicked and began to play music. It was something dark and scary, taking me back to a drearier time in my life when there was nothing left to live for. I turned around and looked at the device in shock. That definitely wasn’t the song that I was trying to get it to play. In fact, I thought I had deleted that particular song off my phone. Grabbing it from the table, I made a move to turn it off, but it stopped playing on its own. I pushed the button to turn it back on, but it flashed the dead battery sign at me.

“Weird…” I whispered and sat it down on the table. Technology and I didn’t always get along but that hadn’t happened before. My phone had always worked like it was supposed to. It had never turned itself on without me pushing buttons or downloaded a song without me doing it. Maybe there was some weird kink in the storage system.

I was still a little weirded out though, so I left to get my dinner before it decided to turn itself back on.

Chapter Five

Over the next few weeks, Ryder continued to meet me after class to take me home. He was fun to spend time with, even though I kept boundaries up in our relationship. I didn’t want him to get the wrong idea. Seeing the look on my dad’s face every afternoon was also fun.

Halloween was getting closer, and my excuses for not attending or having a party were running thin. 

“Are you sure we can’t have this party at your house? It’d be so cool to have it there. You could take us on a tour and—”

“Or I could not. It’s my house, Ryder, not a museum.”

“Oh, okay then. Well, could you show me around then?”

“I, uh, yeah sure. If my dad’s not home. He’s a little particular about…boys.” Before all the trouble with my ex, he was fine with me spending time with them. Now, he always had something negative to say.

“Hey, I get it.” He walked toward the other part of the parking lot. “So, how do you like St. Augustine?”

“It’s okay, I guess,” I mumbled. “It’s really hot.”

“I love it. There’s not much of a winter.”

“I don’t like too much summer. I prefer the snow.”

He grew quiet.

“I’ll miss the snow this year,” I whispered.

“I haven’t seen much snow in my lifetime, but I know I don’t like it. You like Halloween though, right?”

I cocked an eyebrow. “Um, yeah. It’s my favorite holiday.”

“Awesome.” He opened the passenger side door for me and motioned for me to get in.

I let myself enjoy the feeling of the leather seats underneath me and pulled on my seatbelt as he got in and did the same.

“So, do you have any siblings?”

I nodded. “One. A younger brother, Dillon; he’s four. You?”

“Yep, one older sister. She says that some of her sorority sisters are afraid of you.”

“What? Why?”

“Because you live in the scariest house in town and you wear black all the time
and
you don’t ever smile at them. They think it’s weird. They are used to smiling, friendly faces.”

“That’s just my style. They’ll just have to deal with it. How do you know all this anyway? Are you a closet prep?” My voice was accusatory as I crossed my arms and looked over at him. Silently I prayed for a no. I didn’t need that shit in my life again.

He laughed. “No, but my sister is a full on prep, and she’s talked about you.”

“I see.”

We pulled up to my house a few minutes later. I frowned when I saw my father’s car in the driveway. “Looks like I have to save the tour for another day.”

“That’s a shame.”

“Well, thanks for the ride.”

He reached out and tucked my hair behind my ear. “Anytime, Briar. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I picked up my bag and exited the truck. As I slipped inside the house, I saw my dad sitting on the couch reading the newspaper. I tried to sneak past him, but the clearing of his throat signaled that I’d failed miserably.

“Sounded like a truck out there. Again.”

“Well, that’s probably ‘cause I rode home with my friend.”

“That boy again?”

I cursed under my breath. “Maybe.”

“Briar, we’ve talked about this. You need to be careful. You can’t just be getting into cars with boys.”

“Well, if you’d let me drive the car every now and then maybe I wouldn’t ride home with
boys
.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose, obviously frustrated with me. The car was something he was particular about, and he wasn’t giving in. “You’re definitely not going to be driving it now.”

“Aw, come on.”

“No, absolutely not.”

I crossed my arms and scoffed. “You suck.”

“It’s not like you’ve made any friends to hang out with.”

“Have so.”

“Who? Other than that boy.”

“Celeste and Meredith.”
Kinda.

He eyed me suspiciously. “Then why aren’t you dying to have a Halloween party like you usually are?”

“Because parties are lame, Dad. I’m eighteen now.”
And because you won’t let me have a fun one.
“And I’m not just going to have two people here. That’s stupid.”

“Well, if you promise to behave, you can have them over next weekend. It will be the first one in October, and you can watch scary movies.”

I scrunched up my face. I didn’t want to have people over, but I did wanna celebrate Halloween. “Um, ok…”

“That way I can meet them and know they are appropriate. I don’t want you hanging around with negative kids again.”

“Oh my God, Dad, I’m not a kid.”

“Keep up that smart mouth of yours, and I will change my mind. I’m going to be going to a small get together that night, and Dillon is staying with Sandy next door. After I meet the girls and set some ground rules, you will have the house all to yourself.”

“You’re what?” I asked and burst out laughing. “I’m sorry, I, um, are you going on a date?”

I could tell by the blush in his cheeks that he was. The two of us were just alike in that aspect; neither of us was able to hide a blush. “Well, Briar, I’ve made some new friends here, and they invited me to go with them.”

“But you don’t even drink.”

“It’s not about the drinking.”

“You don’t dance.”

“Or the dancing.”

I scowled. “Then what is it about?”

“Just trying to find a way to deal with this pain, Briar. I’m sure you understand.”

I did; it hurt every time I pictured her face in my head. I understood his pain, but he was the one to initiate the divorce in the first place. Part of me was still bitter about that.

“Go see a counselor.” I waved my hand to show my unhappiness with his decision.

“I didn’t expect you to be okay with this, and I’m sure it’s a shock. I’m going and that’s the end of that.”

“That’s putting it lightly.”

I dropped the subject though because I didn’t want to say something too harsh and push my luck. At the end of the day, it was his house and his rules. Until I felt comfortable moving out and leaving Dillon there, I had to abide by them and not get kicked out.

Chapter Six

Saturday arrived quickly, but my father woke me up at seven o’clock, much to my irritation. It was way too early for a Saturday, but then again he had saved me from another horrible dream. It was almost a continuation of the one before. I was planning something terrible, but I wasn't able to decipher if it was murder or suicide.

In my life, I’d dealt with both of those situations. I was a survivor. I just couldn’t figure out why my nightmares had returned.

My father, however, insisted that I get up and help him peel the wallpaper off the walls so we could paint them something brighter and not so outdated. Make it look a little more “homey” as he said. I agreed that it would look better after a new paint job, but I hated getting up early.

I’d insisted that he let me go back to sleep before I killed someone.

Somehow he’d won the fight.

I pulled my hair into a ponytail and threw on an old Cure t-shirt and jeans. I followed him into the hallway, noticing the pile of objects that were lying on the floor to help us remove the paper.

“I hope you told Dillon not to come in here. That’s a serious pile of tools you have there.”

“He’s busy playing in his room.”

“It’s still dangerous.”

That exasperated look crossed over his face. “Do we have to do this today?”

“Yes, it’s a teenage requirement that I make your life hell,” I said blankly. He was too much fun to tease.

He smiled, shaking his head and pushing the stepladder over to me. “Here, get started. I am going to get us some water.”

He walked into the other room, and I started working. With my tool in hand, I climbed to the top of the stepladder and started to peel back the wallpaper. It was a stingy material and stuck stubbornly to the wall. I thought I might mess up the surface if I wasn’t careful. My patience quickly grew thin. Why in the hell hadn’t anyone taken off the horrible wallpaper already? I was sure it dated back to the 1800s. It probably hadn’t been changed since the place was built. Gross.

I heard the pile of tools rustle.

“Dad, I don’t know how much help I’m going to be at this. It’s pissing me off,” I said with irritation as I yanked at it again. 

Silence.

“Dad?” I turned my head expecting to see him. What I saw, however, was a large knife floating in the air about five feet from me.

My mouth fell open in horror as I put my own tools down to my side. I watched it for a second in awe, confused at how it could float there. I had never seen anything like it. Everything weird that had happened in the house had an explanation. Until now.

“Who’s there?” I whispered, my voice shaky and cracking as I asked.

As if to answer, the knife started to twirl in the air. Then it pulled back and shot toward me.

“Shit!” I exclaimed.

I jerked backwards and tipped the ladder over. My tools flew across the hall as I hit the floor with a thud. I whimpered and pulled myself along the ground to get away from the pile of tools in case it sent something else my way. The knife changed direction and came at me again. I screamed and covered myself with my hands. A burning pain hit me as the knife sliced my arm and embedded itself into the wall behind me.

In desperation I scrambled to the other side of the hallway and threw my back against it. My eyes stayed glued to the knife. My blood dripped down in large drops across the wallpaper where it resided. I threw my hand over my arm where it had nicked me. As I looked down, I realized it wasn’t bad enough to leave such a huge amount of blood on the wall.

When I looked back up at it, the red shimmered and moved into a puddle around the knife before disappearing into the wall.

I screamed again. 

My dad ran down the hallway with two bottles of water in hand as I scrambled from the floor. “What in the world is going on?”

I talked fast, mumbling incoherently. “The knife flew at my head! Look at my arm! There was blood all over the wall!”

“What?” he asked and looked at me in confusion as he stepped closer to me. “What happened to your arm?”

“Don’t move! It might hurt you!” I exclaimed as my body shook tremendously. I was scared to death that he was would get hurt too. Losing him would be the end of me. 

He ignored me, walked over to where I stood, and examined the knife protruding from the wall. “Briar, I can’t believe you did this. Have you lost your mind?”

He looked at me and crossed his arms, waiting for an explanation.

“I—I told you! It flew at my head! It was something from this house!”

“Don’t lie to me. Knives don’t just fly around unless someone throws them.”

“Or a ghost! Because this house is obviously haunted!”

“Briar, it’s just old.”

I shook my head and stomped over to where the tools were. That’s exactly what I had thought up until the knife took on a life of its own. I did the only thing I could think of and took action, picking up all the sharp objects and tucking them in against my body. If he wasn’t going to do something, I would.

“What are you doing?” he called after me.

Without responding, I continued toward the kitchen. I didn’t stop until I reached the trashcan and dumped the objects in it. I rushed over to the drawer where we kept all of the knives. My dad’s footsteps echoed in the kitchen as I pulled out the entire drawer and took it over to the trashcan.

“Don’t do that!”

He rushed over to my side and grabbed a hold of the drawer. I held on tightly.

“If you aren’t going to do something, I am!”

“I’m not dealing with you acting like this. Whatever has gotten into you needs to stop. I’m getting tired of it.”

I let go of the wood and jerked back from him. His words slammed into my heart like a hammer. I couldn’t believe he was blaming everything on me.

“Well, I hope you have fun at your stupid party tonight. Maybe I will be alive when you get back.”

“Briar—”

I shook my head in anger and spun on my heels, walking away. I had to get out.

“Sissy?”

Dillon’s voice sounded over my loud music, so I opened my eyes to see him walking to me from the house. I took out my ear buds and then lifted my hand to hide the bright sun from my face.

“Hey, buddy.”

He plopped down beside me in the grass and crossed his legs. “Why Daddy upset with you?”

I shrugged because I didn’t want to answer that question and scare him. “He doesn’t believe me.”

“‘Bout what?”

“I just don’t like it here.” I reached out to run my finger through his hair, and he smiled.

“Is it because of my friends?”

My interest piqued. I hadn’t given them much thought before but after the knife incident, I was curious.

“Those secret friends of yours?”

He nodded. “Why you don’t see them?” With one little finger he pointed toward the house. “There.”

My gaze followed, but I still didn’t see anything. Maybe it would be good for me to do some research on the house, or meet up with Ryder to learn everything he knew. Apparently I was missing something. There was no explanation for the flying knife.

“Try harder, Sissy!”

I sighed. “Okay.”

Once again I looked in the direction where he pointed. I concentrated on the nothingness and tried to make myself see something. Anything. I didn’t believe in ghosts or spirits or demons, none of that, but I could try to force myself to.

Something flashed in the distance, and I pushed myself up onto my legs. “What the…”

Dillon giggled. “You see him, Sissy?”

For a moment, I’d thought I saw the outline of a figure, but then it was gone.