I’ve known Rufus for a long time, and he’s always been this way – just like his brother. If other people are unhappy, then he’s satisfied. By the end of all this, he’s going to have made Harriet truly miserable.
Chapter 9
HARRIET
When Harriet opened her eyes, days or hours or minutes later, the sky was dark. Her entire body ached, like her flesh had been attacked with a meat tenderizer.
She tried to move her arms, but a searing, scalding pain ran down her muscles. She wanted to sleep for three months. This must be what being electrocuted felt like. Being electrocuted whilst running a full marathon. Dehydrated. Post-surgery. Her mouth tasted of chemicals. She fell back into a deep sleep.
When she woke up a second time, the pain had gone. This time, she felt … fantastic. Better than fantastic – invulnerable. The thrilling feeling had come back once more. Harriet let out a giddy, overjoyed laugh; shouting it into the night sky.
She had done it! She had absorbed a Shell’s energy!
She had done it.
The Shell had disintegrated, which was disappointing. She’d expected to be able to pull the Shell’s power free, leaving the girl to drift aimlessly around the fifth floor like before. Instead, the Shell had dissolved into nothing.
But … they were brain-dead anyway, weren’t they? It was euthanization, really. If she gained a new power from it, then it had to be a worthwhile sacrifice. Anything to get home.
The Shell had tasted so good, too. Better than anything she’d eaten when she was alive. Nicer, even, than that first rat spirit. Harriet had always struggled with food. Her gran had never been a good cook – leaving meat slightly raw and drowning food in bizarre sauces and gravies that she’d invented. She’d just said Harriet had a sensitive stomach and certain things made her feel woozy, but Harriet had never managed to pin down what exactly she was allergic to. The Shell’s energy had been a revelation.
Closing her eyes, she tested her control to see if she had gained a power. Nothing was different, but then, her body was still exhausted. Meanwhile, her mind was racing.
In the distance, the university tower’s clock struck eleven. Somehow, she had found her way onto the remains of the concrete-clad rooftop, alone under the stars. It was peaceful, with only the sound of the wind blowing through the rotting rafters.
She was supposed to be meeting Kasper for their date at the Halloween party soon. A party suddenly seemed like the best idea ever. She needed to do something with this high of victory and energy and adrenaline. She had never felt this good.
KASPER
Kasper felt light enough to float up to the ceiling. He was actually going out with Harriet on a legit date. Squinting into his cracked bathroom mirror, he readjusted his fringe so that it stuck up, then nudged it so it fell over his eye. He wished he could still use hair gel. It was so much harder to sculpt without it.
Ineffectually, he tried to pat the creases out of his shirt and peered out of the window to see if it had stopped raining. The Halloween party had to go perfectly. He’d been preparing all day. Rima had helped him to memorize the patterns of the constellations, and he was ready to point them out to Harriet.
He’d also managed to make a trade with one of the ghosts who lived on the floor below him. In exchange for a future favour, the third-floorer had grown some of Harriet’s favourite flowers to decorate the room. Basically, it was gonna be freaking flawless. It would be right in a way that things had never been with any of the other girls in the building.
There was a space inside him that craved and ached for someone who was his. Someone who turned to him first; who loved him most. He had been consumed with a low-level loneliness for so long now that he had forgotten how anything else felt. Sometimes his stomach fizzled just talking to Felix, which had to be a sign that he needed to start dating again.
Maybe Harriet needed someone as much as he did. He had only known her for a few days, but she was special.
They had arranged to meet in his room. When the clock tower struck eleven, a deep fear rose from where he’d buried it. What if she stood him up?
To his relief, she stuck her head through the door a few minutes later. She had dressed up, too. She was bright with energy – in fact, she was almost glowing with it. She’d somehow transformed her grey shirt into a more elegant formal look; tying her scarf around her waist like a belt and adding some sort of twist to the side of her shirt.
“Your, er—” he waved at her hair, which she’d managed to manipulate into a plaited twist. “Looks nice.”
“Thanks,” Harriet said. “It’s a fishtail plait; they’re hard to do without hairspray.”
“Oh?” he asked, holding out his arm. She took it, talking him through the hairstyle step by step while they walked to Rima’s party. Kasper nodded along, as if he was listening instead of coasting along on pure relief that he hadn’t had to come up with a conversation topic just yet. Girls were so much harder to talk to than Felix.
A group of lads were pre-gaming the party on the stairs to the second floor. They were playing volleyball with someone’s shoe.
“Harriet’s staying at Hotel Back Yourself, I see?” Jonny from Rowing Soc cat-called.
Kasper ignored their wolf-whistles, hurrying Harriet past. This was why Kasper spent so much time with Felix and the girls. The other ghosts here were a lot meaner.
Hotel Back Yourself was something the Rowing Society boys had done when they went travelling. They didn’t book hotels, instead trusting that they’d find someone to take them home. Backing themselves.
Jonny meant that Harriet was only dating Kasper so that she’d have somewhere to sleep in Mulcture Hall. But that wasn’t what Harriet was doing. She was going on a date with him because she liked him, obviously! Wasn’t she?
He led Harriet over to the window in Rima’s room, grinning. “I’ve got something to show you.”
Kasper launched into a running jump through the window, grabbing on to the edge of the floor of the balcony above. He swung out over the side of the building, twisting his hands one over the other, spinning to face Harriet.
She looked confused, but he gave her a moment to stare at him dangling from the floor above. He was fully aware of how large his biceps looked when he flexed them to hold up his own body weight. Sometimes he caught Felix – who was lean instead of muscular – staring at his shoulders in jealousy.
When he couldn’t hide his smirk any longer, Kasper tugged down the cascade of honeysuckle which the third-floorer had grown for him on the balcony above. It tumbled over the edge, hanging in a perfumed curtain of tangled leaves and flowers. The sunset spread through the ghostly pink blossoms, making them glow almost golden.
Kasper dropped back down to the floor, ridiculously pleased with himself. He’d got the idea from Felix, who (very occasionally) had conversations with Rima about what their dream weddings would look like. Felix had described an altar covered in flowers, and the idea had stuck in Kasper’s mind. He hadn’t been sure it would work, though. If it had failed, it would have been as embarrassing as the time he’d forgotten the word “elbow” in front of Felix, who was basically a walking dictionary. He’d called them “arm knees”. Arm knees. It had taken Felix six years to stop bringing that up.