The Ghost Files 2 (The Ghost Files - Book 2) (7 page)

I don’t answer. I can’t. The minutes tick by and I can hear Dan talking to someone on the phone, probably either Meg or his dad. Great. Now, I’ll have to play twenty questions once his dad gets here. I just want to hide out under my covers and cry like a girl. Instead, I call the only other person who means anything to me. I call Dr. Olivet.

He picks up on the first ring. “Mattie? What’s wrong? Did something else happen?”

“Doc, I need a favor.”

“If I can, you know I will.”

“Do you want a real live ghost girl with you on your hunt?”

There’s a long pause. I can almost see him trying to figure out what my angle is.

“Mattie, of course I’d love to have you here with me, but aren’t you going away with your friend for the week?”

“Not anymore,” I say bitterly. Friends don’t go behind your back and steal the guy who means more to you than anyone else ever has. “Do you want my help or not?”

“Of course, Mattie. I’ll call you back with the time of the flight. When you get to the airport, just print off the ticket and I’ll have someone pick you up when you land if I can’t.”

“Thanks, Doc.” I don’t even bother to say bye, just hang up the phone. Now I just need to wait for Dan’s dad to get here to take me to Jane’s. I can get Mary to pick me up and then take me to the airport. I’ll even leave the room purple if she can just keep Dan and Meg away from me until I leave.

“Mattie, if you don’t open this door, I swear I’m going to break it down!”

There’s just a hint of panic in Dan’s voice. I think deep down he might still be afraid I actually did try to cut my wrist. Stupid. He should know me better than that.

“Go ahead and lose your security deposit!” It would serve him right.

“Please open the door, Mattie.”

The doorbell rings and I hear it open and close. There’s a muffled conversation and then footsteps lead back to the bathroom door.

“Mattie?”

I close my eyes. Meg is here? Freaking fabulous.

“Go away, Megan.”

“No, I won’t go away, Mattie,” she says. “We’re friends…”

“Friends?” I shout and jump up, unlocking and yanking the door open. “Friends? Don’t you dare call yourself my friend anymore.”

“Mattie, we didn’t want you to find out like this…”

“Do you know I thought I was lucky to have found a friend like you? Me, the foster kid who’s never had real friends or family, finally found people I could trust, people who cared about me.”

“I
do
care about you.”

I slap her and she stumbles back. Dan catches her before she falls.

“Don’t,” I warn her. “If you were my friend, you would never have gone after him. You told me you wouldn’t until I figured out how I felt. You lied to me, Megan. You broke my trust.
Both
of you did.”

There’s another knock at the door. Dan frowns when he sees his dad standing in the doorway, looking confused and concerned as he stares at the three of us.

“Thanks for coming to get me, Mr. Richards,” I say, trying to keep my voice even and steady.

“Honey, what’s wrong?” he asks.

“Nothing’s wrong, I just need a ride home.” I can see he doesn’t believe a word of it. He looks at Dan, who looks at the floor. Mr. Richards’ frown deepens. “Can we go?”

He nods. I step around the backstabbers and attempt to leave with a little dignity.

“Mattie, I know you’re upset…” My back stiffens at the tameness of that word. “Call me when you calm down, okay?” Dan pleads.

I pull the phone he’d given me out of my pocket. I really, really like this phone, but I throw it at his head. “No,
Officer Dan
. I don’t think I’ll be calling you. Keep your phone.”

“Mattie, you need that phone, that’s why I got it for you…”

“I don’t want anything from you!” I hiss and march out the door, down the stairs, and wait for Mr. Richards beside his Lexus. Lord knows how long it’s gonna take him to come downstairs. He’ll probably grill Dan first.

Now I just need to get through the rest of the day without breaking down.

I can do it.

I can.

Chapter Eight

I can’t, I can’t, I can’t!

I feel closed in, sweat rolls down my back, and I have the sudden urge to hurl. The airplane isn’t loud, but I can feel the dip as we start to dive down to land. What if the landing gear doesn’t release? What if an engine goes out? Please, please don’t blow up.

Up until this point, I’ve been semi-fine. Mary loaned me her iPod and I’ve distracted myself by listening to music I normally wouldn’t touch. She and I have very dissimilar tastes in music. I won’t be borrowing it again, but I needed something to take my mind off the death trap I was in and to try to block out thoughts of Dan and Meg.

It’s still hard to believe what they did. I mean, I know I didn’t have any real claim to him and I wasn’t old enough until today to even think about it, but still, you don’t do that. It’s part of the unwritten code of best friends. You just don’t touch another girl’s guy even if they aren’t together.

God bless Mary, though. Once she found out what happened, she went into bulldog mode. Neither Dan nor Meg ever got near me. Both of them showed up at Mary’s wanting to see me and she told them both where to go in no uncertain terms. By the time she was done, even my ears were ringing. Mary’s good people and I’m lucky to have her. We went through a lot together and I know no matter what, she’ll never betray me. She’s family.

But so is Dan. I don’t know if I can forgive him, though. Once you break my trust, I never give it back. He and I might end up losing everything we’ve built, but he will always be my family. That much even I know is true. It’s weird and I couldn’t explain it to Mary very well, either. Probably because I can’t even explain it to myself.

Deep down I think I decided to come to New Orleans to test him. If he really cares, and he meant what he said about never letting me push him away, he’ll come find me. He’s supposed to be here anyway to check out what the PI found out about my mom. If I mean more to him than Meg does, he’ll come find me. I hope.

The plane jolts as we touch down on the runway and I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding. Thank you, God. I send up my prayers and take a deep breath. I survived my first plane ride.

The heat slaps me in the face as soon as I get near the exit door of the plane. Great, I came from one heat box right into another one.
Suck it up, Mattie
, I tell myself. Better here than listening to Meg and Dan try to explain themselves.

Not that the heat bothers me for more than a second. I am surrounded by cold seconds after I step foot on the tarmac. I want to run right back on the plane. Whispers bombard me, so loud they are deafening. I can’t even make out what any of them are saying. It makes me dizzy and I stumble. Someone catches me and asks if I’m okay. I think I mumble a yes and manage to stagger inside. How could I forget that New Orleans is the city of the dead? I shouldn’t be here.

I only packed one carry on. Finding it, I push through the mass of people fighting to get downstairs to the baggage claim area. Everywhere, the ghosts are everywhere. The need to scream at them to go away claws at my throat. My eyes water from the pain exploding in my head from the magnitude of ghosts whispering to me. Their emotions crowd into me and I want to curl up and cry. So much pain and anger.

“Mattie Hathaway?”

I hear my name called and look up through blurry eyes. There’s a guy standing about twenty feet from me with my name held up on piece of paper. I blink, clearing the moisture from my eyes. He’s tall, really tall, probably well over six feet. And muscular. Maybe a bit too muscular for me, though. His brown eyes are warm and full of concern. They remind me so much of Dan’s in that moment, tears threaten. I have to forcefully remind myself I do NOT cry. I refuse to do it. I’ve shed enough tears over that boy in the last 24 hours to last a lifetime. No more.

“Yeah?” I ask, trying to stay focused on him and drown out the voices smothering me.

“I’m Caleb Malone. Dr. Olivet sent me to pick you up.” His voice is just as warm as his eyes. He fishes his phone out of his pocket and hands it to me. “He said you’d want to call him.”

He’s right about that. No way am I getting into a car with some strange guy without verifying who he is. That’s how girls get raped and killed.

“Hey, Doc,” I say when he answers. “Just checking to make sure Muscles here is the guy you sent.”

Dr. Olivet laughs at my comment. “Yes, Mattie, Caleb is who I sent to pick you up. How are you feeling?”

By the eagerness in his voice, I’m guessing he knows how badly I’m being affected by the ghosts here in the city. I can see them streaming towards me from all corners.

“Doc, you and I have to have a chat about your eagerness when it comes to ghosts.”

He chuckles. “I’ll see you soon, Mattie, and thanks for coming down. I know you hate talking about your gift, let alone letting anyone see you when you use it.”

My eyes widen. I’d completely zoned that out. No one knows what I can do outside the Doc and Dan. I never let anyone see it. I’m not that kid, the weirdo everyone laughs at. I’ve worked too hard to hide this from everyone.

“Um, Doc, about that, can we please keep it between you and me?”

He’s very quiet and I get the distinct impression he might have already spilled the beans. Dang it!

“We’ll talk about it when you get here,” he says. “Can you put Caleb on the phone, please?”

I hand the phone over and glower at everyone around me. Freaking great. Now they all know what a freak show I am.

“Ready?” Caleb asks and attempts to take my carry on.

“I got it.” I wave him off. I can roll my own bag. Besides, I need it keep myself from falling. The ghosts really are affecting me more than I can handle right now. It hurts. I follow him outside and we board one of the shuttle buses that take us to the east parking deck. Caleb drives a beat up Ford pickup just like Dan, only Caleb’s F150 is huge compared to Myrtle.

I stow my carryon in the bed of the truck and then climb in. The seat is cloth and very, very comfy, like it’s seen a lot of wear over the years. Caleb turns the air on full blast, making me shiver even more. The oppressive heat outside actually helped me warm up just a bit, but now I’m back to freezing.

“Hey, do you mind if we cut the air down?” I ask after about twenty minutes. I’d love to turn the heat on, but I don’t want him thinking I’m weirder than he probably already does.

He smiles and I blink, seeing Dan for a second. It’s the jaw, I realize. His facial structure is so much like Dan’s, it’s amazing. They could be brothers.

“I’ll do you one better.” Instead of turning the air down, he flips it to the heat and leaves it on full blast. “You’re not the only one who gets cold when they come around.”

My head whips around and I stare at him. Does he mean what I think he means?

He grins at me. “Yeah, I see ghosts, too. How are you holding up? I know the first time I came to New Orleans the pain got so bad I passed out for a couple days. Freaked my parents out like nothing else.”

He was a Reaper, too?

“My brothers and my sister can see them, too,” he continues, ignoring my mouth-hitting-my-chin moment. “From what the Doc said, you’re a little different from us, though.”

“Different?” I ask.

“We really only see the bad ones, the ones who have gone vengeful and you see the good ones as well as the bad ones. He told us you were supposed to be a reaper or something.”

Doc had been very busy blabbing my secrets to all. I purse my lips at the thought. He and I are so gonna have a chat when I see him.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen him this excited,” Caleb says. “He’s like a kid at Christmas.”

“Is the house really haunted?” I ask, keeping my voice low. My head is killing me. I’d sell an organ right about now if someone offered me some Motrin.

Caleb sighs. “I don’t know. We haven’t seen anything, but then you know ghosts only show themselves if they want to be seen.”

“But don’t you feel them?” I ask, shivering as more of them crowd into the truck. I close my eyes to keep from seeing the mutilated corpses, bloated flesh, and hollow eyes begging me to help them.

“Sometimes I get cold,” he says with a nod. “Like right now, I feel like we’re knee-deep in snow in an arctic blast. I’d guess there are a couple of them with us right now?”

I nod. “More than a couple,” I whisper. “Hundreds of them.”

My hand shakes as I raise it to push my hair out of my face. The pain is starting to get worse and my vision is blurring again.

“Mattie?” Caleb’s voice is full of worry.

“Yeah?”

“Your nose is bleeding.”

I touch the area between my lip and nose and my fingers come away bloody. Oh, this is so not good. Black spots start to appear and the voices scream at me, stabbing into my head one after another. It feels like someone is drilling away at my skull while someone else gleefully stabs my brain with an ice pick.

“Hurts,” I whisper. I’m down to one word sentences.

“Dad’ll know what to do,” Caleb tells me. “Don’t worry, Mattie. You’re gonna be okay.”

I don’t think so, but instead of stating the obvious, I concentrate on not passing out. The truck picks up speed and I can’t even pay attention to the gorgeous scenery I know is flying by us.

The farther we drive, the more intense the pain becomes. They’re screaming something at me. I can feel the fear pulsing in waves around me. We turn off the main highway onto a dirt road. The pounding in my head worsens and as we drive up to an old plantation home, I finally understand something. The fear they are giving off is fear for me. They are trying to warn me not to go into the house.

“Mattie are you ready to go inside?” Caleb asks as he parks the truck in front of the steps.

“Yeah,” I pant, my breath coming in short gasps. The ghosts are doing their best to warn me, but they’re hurting me. “Please stop shouting,” I whisper. “It hurts.”