The Haunted (21 page)

I held the back door open for a couple of extra seconds when I walked into the house, and Caspian came in.
I’m totally not letting my invisible boyfriend in. The hinge was just stuck. Or something
.

Facing Ben, I tried to pretend that Caspian wasn’t right behind me. “Ben, I need you to do me a favor.”

Ben was still scarfing down chips, and he paused with the bag in midair. “What?”

“Nice,”
Caspian murmured.

I forced myself not to let any reaction show on my face. “I need to get out for a while. I have something to take care of. But my mom’s coming home, and I told her I’d be going to your house to finish studying. So can you cover for me?”

He looked down at the half-started report. “But we have to work on this.”

“Please, Ben? You’ll be on my top-friends list forever. I
really
need this favor.”

Caspian snorted, but Ben stood up and started gathering his books. “Okay, fine. But you owe me.” He came around the table and was dangerously close to going through Caspian, but I moved to help him pick up his stuff and stopped him from getting any closer.

I led the way around the opposite side of the kitchen and held the door open for him. Ben walked through it, and then stopped outside. “Abbey, I…” He gave me a funny look. With his free hand, he brushed a piece of my hair away from my face.

I pulled back and cast a quick glance over my shoulder. Caspian’s face was furious.

“Don’t even
think
about it,” he warned Ben.

But Ben had no idea what was going on. “I have to talk to you about something soon, okay?” His gaze dropped to my mouth, and instantly, vivid memories from the diner dream slammed into me.

Good Lord, this was really not going well.

“Okay,” I said. “Thanks for helping me out with this, Ben.” He turned and stumbled before regaining his balance, then moved toward his car. I slammed the back door shut and gave Caspian a look.

He put both hands up in the air. “What? I didn’t do anything.”

“No, but you
wanted
to. And besides, we don’t really know yet what you
can
do.”

“Well, I know I can’t make people disappear,” he muttered darkly. “Or else he would have been gone a half an hour ago.”

I was a bit shocked at how serious he sounded, and then I looked into his eyes. “You’re jealous!”

“He wanted to
kiss
you!”

Now I was dumbfounded. “How do you know that?”

“Because,” he said, running a hand through his hair and pushing it back. “It’s what I’d want to do.”

“You’d want to kiss me?” I teased. “I never could’ve guessed.” He shook his head and I laughed. “Come on, green eyes. Let’s get out of here before my mom gets home. Take me downtown; I’m all yours.”

“Promise?” he said, holding my gaze steady.

“Promise,” I whispered.

We walked side by side downtown, moving quickly from store to store. At first it was strange for me to see him walking among people while no one else noticed he was there. I kept wondering what would happen if someone suddenly moved
right through him. I didn’t think I was ready to see
that
yet. But Caspian moved aside when anyone got too close, and eventually it almost felt normal.

Normal.

I was walking downtown with someone only
I
could see. There really was something wrong with me.

We passed an antique store and the pizza place, but another building was coming up, and I felt a happy smile creep over my face. It wasn’t rented yet. My shop was still available.

“Follow me,” I whispered to Caspian, moving across the street and toward the shop. He was right behind me, and we ducked down the alley.

“There’s a trick to it, if you want to go inside,” Caspian said, sizing up the door frame in front of us. He leaned down to mess with something at the bottom of the door.

“I don’t think it’s going to work. I was here before, and the owner was too, and he—” A scraping sound and then a clicking noise interrupted me. Caspian smiled as the door swung open. “How did you… ?”

“There’s a piece of cracked wood at the bottom. When the door is closed, it’s wedged into place, and the lock stays. But loosen the wood, and the door sags a little, slipping out of the lock.” He held the door open and ushered me in. I stepped into
my shop and closed my eyes, imagining it all set up the way I would have it.

When I opened my eyes again, Caspian was leaning against one of the walls, looking at me. I suddenly grew shy. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I like seeing you happy, Abbey.” He placed a hand on the middle of his chest. “It makes me feel…”

“Feel what?”

“Just feel. I don’t know what, but I like it.” The look in his eyes changed, and he leaned away from the wall, coming to stand next to me. “Tell me about your plans for your shop. Come on, start over here.”

Caspian led me to a wide wall space, and I studied it for a moment. “Here I’ll put the reading section. I’ll bring in a fireplace mantel, arrange some chairs around it, maybe even an ottoman, and put out some of Irving’s books. People can read or just lounge while I create their perfumes.”

He spun and pointed to the open floor space behind us. “What about there?”

“An armoire that holds perfumes based on Ichabod Crane, Katrina Van Tassel, Brom Bones, and the Headless Horseman. With a scattering of fall leaves on the floor, and white baby pumpkins to decorate it. Nearby, I’ll have a tray that holds apple cider
and warm pumpkin pie. Or caramel apples and roasted pumpkin seeds!”

My mind was filling with pictures, and I could see it all. I pointed to our left. “I’d put an old-fashioned register there, with a big metal scale that holds Halloween candy. And, next to the register, three giant glass jars filled with bath salts, soap samples, and black licorice sticks.”

I frowned then. “Hmm… I can’t have the candy so close to the bath stuff. It will pick up the scent.” I paced closer to the door. “Here,” I said. “I’ll have jars of candy set up here by the door on a row of wooden egg crates.”

“And what about the windows?” Caspian asked. “What will your grand display there be?”

“A cast-iron claw-foot bathtub filled with soaps,” I said, without hesitation. “All wrapped in bits of parchment paper and old string. Shades of robin’s-egg blue, soft dusky rose, coffee bean-brown, and aged yellow books.”

I turned to him and wanted to throw my arms around him. “Can you see it? Can you see all of it? I want this so badly, Caspian. Without Kristen I thought… I didn’t think I would want this anymore. I thought my dream would be empty and hollow. But now… it’s like, I don’t know, it all feels like I can
do
this suddenly. Like I can share it with someone new.”

“Did you feel like this when you were working at the tattoo place? Or when you were talking to your dad about his shop?”

Caspian slid down to the floor and patted the ground next to him. I took a seat and waited for his answer. “Yes, I did,” he said. “I felt that way too.”

“Do you think you could… ?” I looked down at my hands and tugged at a loose string on the bottom of my shirt. “Ever feel that way again? Maybe… about
my
shop?”

He looked away, and I heard him sigh. The floor we sat on was warm, and tiny, almost invisible dust motes swirled around us in the rows of sunlight that slanted through the window.
What’s he thinking?

Time crawled by, and still he didn’t speak.

“I’m kind of putting myself out here,” I said eventually, “asking… well, I don’t know what I’m asking.…”

Caspian started tracing an outline on the floorboard next to him, a triangular pattern that he made over and over again. Finally, he turned to face me. “I’m not so great with the mixed-signals thing, am I?”

I shook my head no.

“I’m really sorry, Astrid,” he said. “Really, I am. I know I’m the one asking for more, but I just don’t know how to deal with any of this.” His face was serious. “I need you to know that I
want to be with you every second of every day, Abbey. I
want
that. I
crave
it.”

He made a fist and slowly unclenched his fingers one by one. “But I don’t know what’s right. Before, when I was pretending to be normal, I thought it would be okay. You were so real, and here, and I wanted it so much… and then I broke you. I thought the reason why you went away was to punish me.”

His eyes turned glassy and far away. “I spent those months in the dark. In my tomb. I hid away and went to sleep. I don’t think I dreamed, but I
felt
. Vast and endless and alone. Always alone.”

I nudged my knee closer to his, and passed through him. A dull hum of sensation rippled through me, and I knew he could feel it too. His eyes focused, and he came back to me.

“I just don’t want to hold you back from anything,” he said. “I don’t want you to forget, and speak to me in front of someone, make people think you’re crazy.
I
don’t want to forget, and freak someone out by helping you move boxes or something.” He laughed a dark, harsh laugh. “Although maybe that would be good for business, a haunted store and all that.”

“We won’t forget,” I insisted. “And you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. We don’t even have to make any decisions right now. There’s plenty of time.”

He just looked at me, with heartache and hopelessness in his eyes, and a sense of determination filled me. “Let’s go talk sometime to Nikolas and Katy,” I suggested. “They’ve dealt with this. I went to visit them, and it was good. They know a lot.”

His face turned skeptical, but he agreed. “If you come with me, I’ll go. I won’t promise to believe them, but I’ll listen to what they have to say.”

I could feel my face light up with a grin, and I made a vow. “We’ll make it work, Caspian. I promise. Somehow, we’ll make it work.”

T
HE
B
IG
D
IPPER

Stars shoot and meteors glare oftener across the valley than in any other part of the country…

—“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”

Time to get up,” Mom said, knocking on the wall above the sofa I’d fallen asleep on at Aunt Cindy’s house.

“Later,” I mumbled. “Why so early? Picnics are in the afternoon.”

“Your father’s grandmother Lurlene is going to be at the picnic,” she said. “And we want to leave early so we can spend some quality time with her.”

I groaned and stuffed my face into the cushions. An hour later Mom yelled at me again, and I rolled off the couch. “I’m up, I’m up!” I yelled back. After fumbling my way into clean clothes, I hurried to the car and went back to sleep.

When I opened my eyes again, we were pulling up to Uncle Bob’s house. Three cars were already parked in the too-small driveway, and I realized that this was going to be more of a family reunion than I wanted.

We came to a stop, and I got out, stretching each leg as I stood. Mom carried two Tupperware containers of egg salad to the house, muttering the whole way about how Uncle Bob’s fridge wasn’t going to be big enough. I grabbed my iPod from the car, then walked around the house to the backyard.

A big white tent was set up with several picnic tables underneath it, and there was only one other person sitting out there, an old lady.

Must be Lurlene.

I lifted up a netted tent flap, ducked under it, and chose a table next to her. I didn’t want to sit close enough so that she could talk my ear off, but I didn’t want her to think I was rude, either. Being a teenager is a tricky balance.

I sat down and gave her a friendly smile before angling my body in the opposite direction. She had a four-legged cane resting next to her, and immediately I felt bad. So I put only one earbud in and turned my iPod on low. I thought the banging that I started feeling was part of the bass, until I realized she was trying to get my attention.

Pulling the wire from my ear, I turned to her. “Yes?”

She had a mean look on her face, probably due to the fact that it was July and she was wearing a long-sleeved maroon sweater over a pinkish frilly blouse. That
had
to be suffocating. “I was trying to get your attention, girl. But I didn’t want to yell. Not polite, mind you.”

I smiled my best
You’re old; I understand and will be nice to you anyway
smile. “Well, you have my attention now. What can I do for you?”

She raised her cane and then thumped it on the ground. “For starters, you can come sit next to me so I don’t have to keep yelling. It isn’t polite.”

Yeah, well, it isn’t polite that I have to put up with you, either.
I got up and moved closer. I thought about sneaking my earbud back into my ear so I could just ignore her, but then she poked me in the right foot with her cane.

“Hey!” I said. “Watch—”

“Eh? What’s that?” She grinned a toothy, denture-filled smile, and I could have sworn the smell of Polident wafted out at me. “Speak up. I’m an old lady; I can’t hear as well as I used to.”

I rubbed my right foot against the back of my left shin. “Watch out for mosquitoes. I think I just felt a big one bite me on the foot.”