He should stop thinking about Felix. This was supposed to be about Harriet.
“Very fancy,” she said, admiring the flowers. “I bet you do this for all the girls.”
Kasper’s smile dropped. He had been trying to make her feel special, not one in a long line of girls.
“You’ve got me all wrong,” he said. “I’m not like that.”
He plucked one of the flowers and tucked it behind her ear, twisting a curl of hair around his finger. He let the backs of his fingers touch the skin of her neck.
“Hey,” she said suddenly. “Do you know anything about these ghosts who live in the basement? The Tricksters?”
He grimaced. Where had Harriet heard about them? She’d only been here a few days. “You should stay away from them. They’re no good.”
“Why?”
Kasper’s brain and mouth didn’t seem to want to cooperate. The truth was, the Tricksters terrified him. “They’re always trying to collect new powers to add to their trade. They’ll do anything to get the ones they want.” Kasper shivered. A girl called Lisa had got into debt and disintegrated a few years ago. She’d got fainter and fainter as the Tricksters called in interest on the debt.
She’d begged Kasper to help her, but there had been nothing he could do. Whenever he’d gone down to the basement to ask them to release her, Rufus had just silently picked at his teeth with a slither of bone. Then one day, Lisa was gone completely.
“Wow,” Harriet said, taking this in. “How did the Tricksters get control of the whole building like this? Practically everyone is scared of them. Who are they, really?”
This was not the romantic date he had imagined. “I don’t know. I heard Rufus was a priest when he was alive.” Kasper shivered. “And not a good one.”
Rumours about the Tricksters spread through the building like wildfire. He’d heard that Vini had a weird and incredibly specific predilection for squirrel spirits – no one ever wanted to say why.
He’d also heard that Rufus made the ghosts in the basement gather every full moon to listen to his operatic concert performances in the pale moonlight that reached through the vents. He doubted if that one was true, but it was possible.
“But what do they want?” Harriet asked.
“They want control,” he said dully. “They want everyone here to do what they say without question, immediately. They keep sending their goons after me, to try and force me to use my power for them. They hate the fact that I won’t do it.”
Greg came to find him sometimes, trying to bring him down to the basement to see the Tricksters. Greg could make you do what he wanted, if he set his mind towards persuading you. His power was potent. You couldn’t even use threats to frighten him off, because apparently the Tricksters had eaten all of Greg’s worry years before.
He’d heard that the Tricksters fed on emotions until they were gone completely. It was how they convinced people to work for them. Greg had no conscience now. He wasn’t scared of anything people said to him any more, and he got threatened a lot. He would do everything the Tricksters asked of him, in exchange for rewards. Even if it meant condemning someone to disintegration.
Harriet leant forward. It was the first time that the full focus of her attention had been on Kasper. “Why are they so determined to have you? What is your power?”
There was a glint in her eyes. Kasper was flattered. She really wanted to get to know him, inside and out. This was it; he could feel it. She was finally connecting with him; looking at him like he was someone. Her someone.
He took her hand. Her warm skin was even softer than it looked. His thumb glided over the grey slick of her nail varnish.
Carefully, he kissed her. Harriet froze, and then her lips yielded. While Kasper’s brain was buzzing with the rush of it all, she took control of the kiss.
With one hand in his hair, she tilted his head further to the side, guiding him into a deeper kiss. When her tongue pushed its way into his mouth, Harriet became everything. Nothing mattered but the softness of her hair; the forceful, determined way she held him in place to kiss him.
Was this how Felix would kiss, or would it be different with a boy? Not that he would ever know, of course.
All too soon, Harriet pulled away, her hand tightening on the back of his neck.
“Now … tell me about your power,” she murmured, tickling the hairs on his forearm with her fingertips, “babe.”
Before he could reply, Rima burst into the room, followed by Felix and Leah.
“It’s party time!” Rima hollered. She must have made a trade with someone, because she was wearing a skeleton costume over her pyjamas. She was the kind of person who got really into parties. She didn’t just celebrate her birthday on the day itself. The whole month beforehand revolved around planning the festivities. Between birthdays, death days and Halloween, they practically had a reason to celebrate on every day of the year.
“Let’s rattle our booooones!” Rima yelled.
Kasper was suddenly filled with immense relief at the sight of his friends. The reaction surprised him, because he’d been enjoying kissing Harriet. It was hard to talk to her, though. Especially when she asked about his power.
FELIX
They were drunk. That was inherently obvious, even to Felix, who was almost certainly the most drunk of them all. In autumn, the air was filled with scattered energy from disintegrating insect ghosts and fallen leaves. It was possible to take it in, if you made a very determined effort.
“Unhand me, cur!” Leah said to Rima, as they duelled along the edge of the balcony wall.
Rima jabbed her in the side, making her wobble. “You aren’t ever going to fit into modern society if you keep talking like that.”
“Do I look like I have ever, in life or death, wanted to be part of society?” Leah hooked her ankle around Rima’s calf, dislodging her.
“Foul villain, daddy-o!” Rima shouted. “Lily-livered airhead!”
“I think you’re mixing time periods,” Felix said, a laugh rumbling in his chest.
Rima tumbled off the wall and dive-bombed into the bedroom. The crowd parted in self-preservation. She had invited all their friends in the building, including some of Kasper’s rowing mates and the fashion girls from the fourth floor. Even Qi was dancing in the corner with Marilena, a girl from the second floor who had once accidentally burst into flames when she’d lost control of her power.
“Wait! I’ve – I’ve got…” Rima towered above Felix and Leah, laughing too hard to finish talking. “Haha, wait, wait, I’ve got – I’ve – hang on, gimme a sec, hah, I…”
“Absolute scenes here tonight, guys,” Kasper said, when it was clear she wasn’t going to stop laughing any time soon. He had the deep creases around his eyes that Felix knew meant he was trying hard not to laugh. “Simmer down, will you, Hamid?”
Kasper was curled up on the windowsill, almost sober even though he’d been drunk as often as possible when he was alive. Below him, Harriet was leaning against the wall. She seemed happy to just watch the party, though her quietness could have something to do with Kasper’s dangling arm. His fingertips kept grazing her collarbone.
Something had changed about her, but Felix couldn’t work out what it was.