“You okay?” Nathan asks.
“Do you think we can switch with someone for a new topic?”
“I like this one,” he says. “Besides, it might do good to face your fears. Local graveyards and psychics can’t be as bad as you think, right?”
I laugh, but it’s far from a happy sound. “Wanna bet?”
We’ve barely cleared the door after class when Jay corners Nathan in the hall. I want to run away so I don’t have to face whatever will happen next, but my feet won’t cooperate. I stand rooted in place, watching as if it’s all happening to someone else.
“Hey, Vale, switch groups with me.”
Nathan swings around to face Jay. “Not on your life, Jameson. Professor Lewis said assigned, so I’m sticking with what he assigned. You may be used to ordering people around and getting what you want because you win a bunch of trophies, but I’m new here, and I will play by the rules.”
“But I’m always with Mer.”
“Maybe that’s the problem.” Nathan’s mouth turns up in a half-smirk. “What’s wrong? Are you so insecure that you can’t spend three weeks working on a research project away from your girlfriend? She’s still in class, Jameson, just not in your group.”
“You can trust me.” The words are out before I realize I ever intended to speak up. “I’ve never given you reason not to, have I?”
Jay looks like he’s considering the idea. “I guess you’re right.” He walks over and kisses the center of my forehead, then both of his hands wrap around my wrists. He taps the Claddagh ring on my right hand with one long finger. “Just remember who gave you that and what it means, okay?”
The world, or at least my world, tips, and I’m lost in the past. I see the same scene that replays over and over, whether I’m awake or asleep, with the ballroom and dancing. This time, a blond man in a fancy, old-fashioned tuxedo steps forward and holds out his hand to me or—more accurately—to Mercy. Mercy takes his hand and allows herself to be led out onto the dance floor where they twirl under the lights until everything becomes a blur of colors and laughter. At the end of the dance, the blond man casually pulls out a ring box as if a girl gets pricey jewelry at the end of every dance. It’s not a Claddagh ring, but the meaning is the same: You belong to me.
I gasp as I pull myself out of the memory. Jay and Nathan come into focus. “I-I’m sorry,” I say. “I have to go. I-I can’t do this. I just can’t.”
I don’t know where I’m going, but my feet take me to the staircase, down two flights of stairs, across the quad, and back to the main dorm building. I hear Nathan calling my name, but I put my head down and keep walking. I stop in front of what I call my safe zone—-the dark little alcove hidden under the rotunda stairs that used to lead to a secret passage or something when the school was still a hotel. I tuck myself inside and close my eyes to hide from the memories and all the amped-up weirdness of the last few days. It’s not like my life was normal before, but it’s gone into overdrive since Nathan’s arrival.
“Meredith?” I crack open an eye as Nathan sticks his head into my hiding spot. “You okay?”
“I can’t go back there, Nate. I can’t. Please don’t make me.”
“It’s Nathan. Stay with me here, okay, Meredith?” He squeezes in next to me, though we both have to sit with our legs tucked up to our chests. Nathan waits for my breathing to stop being all ragged and return to normal before saying, “Tell me what scares you about digging around in the town’s past.”
“Everything.”
“You got to be more specific than that.” He bumps his shoulder against mine. It’s a friendly we’re-in-this-together gesture.
“I should tell you about the school first,” I say.
“What about it?” Nathan asks. “It used to be a hotel. Your dad runs the place. He gave me a big scholarship. You’re here, which means I want to be here. What’s more to know?”
“It’s full of ghosts,” I confess. “If you stick around long enough, you’ll find out what I mean. The elevator does its own thing, and there’s always someone watching you, touching your shoulder, moving your stuff. I don’t know why I’m even telling you this, or if you’ll even believe me, but I needed to tell someone.”
“So, you picked me?”
I shrug. “I can’t quite explain why, but I’ll try. You talk about some connection, and I feel it too. There’s something there, even if I deny it or run away from it. I guess what it comes down to is trusting you. I trust you, Nathan. I’m not used to trusting anyone with my secrets, so that’s why I picked you to talk to about the weird stuff that goes on at school.”
He bows as much as he can while huddled up on a bench. “I’m flattered and honored. Thank you, Meredith. Now define ‘weird stuff.’”
“Things move around or go missing. Music plays in the middle of the night. Doors open and close. Nothing bad has ever happened to anyone on campus until your accident, but everything is so unsettled. There’s too much history here, especially in this building. There’s a restlessness that I can feel almost as if it’s a living, breathing thing. I see them. I see them all, and they need help. They need help, and I can’t save them. I’m just one person. It’s overwhelming. Dad turned a haunted hotel into a haunted school, and nobody knows but me.”
Nathan puts a hand on my knee for added comfort. “Is that why you stick to being a loner? Because you’re afraid everyone will think you’re just the freaky ‘I see dead people’ daughter of the dean of admissions?”
I swipe a hand under my damp eyes. “Well, aren’t I a freak? At least, that’s what everyone used to think when I still talked about it. I learned to keep quiet really quick and just deal alone, silent and afraid. The school is full of ghosts, but the town is worse. There’s too much—too much—for anyone to get any peace here.” I shake my head, trying to clear the memory of the last time I stepped foot near a graveyard. “Trust me, you don’t even want to know what it’s like for me to go anywhere near a cemetery.”
“I believe you, but I still think keeping our project topic and facing your fears is the only way for you to heal,” Nathan says. “Maybe you’re unsettled just like the town. Maybe facing your fears is the only way to be at peace.”
I smile, feeling a little more relaxed already. “Thanks. I never thought of it like that before.”
Nathan bumps my shoulder in that friendly we’re-a-team way of his again. “No problem.” He takes a deep breath before adding, “The real reason I applied to Haunting Academy is not because I wanted to list a fancy, well-known school on my résumé, but because I’ve known about Nate and Mercy since I first had dreams about them three years ago. I’ve been trying to get back here, not run away.”
“Trying to get back here?” The pressure of his hand on my knee is comforting and familiar and makes me want to talk about the past instead of hiding all reference to it away like I normally do. “Why would you want to do that?”