Chapter 1
“You have popcorn in your hair, did you know that?” the spirit I’m pretending I can’t see asks me for the fourth time, his form flickering in and out like a broken lightbulb. He continues to put his hand through my hair, even though we are both aware he can’t actually touch me. Between the gaping hole in his chest and the old-fashioned clothes, I suspect he has been here a long time and he has no intention of leaving anytime soon. I knew it was a bad idea to try this place when the cinema in our town was closed. New places always mean new ghosts.
But I wanted one date. Just one normal date where the weird fact I can see ghosts and talk to them doesn’t bother me, but of course, that didn’t happen. Finally, the movie, which I have no clue what happened in, finishes and the end credits roll down the screen. My poor date stares at me hopefully, and I’m pretty sure he is thinking I’m the worst date ever. Jordan O’Moran is a cute guy with messy red hair, blue eyes that pop, and soft looking lips. Not that I would know what they feel like, considering the ghost hasn’t left me alone, and touching someone else’s skin means trouble when a ghost is around. Sometimes they can see the ghost with me, and sometimes they just pass out. I stand up and tap the shoulder of Riley Becker, my best friend in the entire world and the only one who knows my secret.
Well, the only one that knows my secret and believes me. My therapist is proof of how crackers my mum and dad think I am. Currently Riley’s tongue is diving down Mandy Maguire’s neck, so he hasn’t noticed me. For a second, I’m jealous of Riley. He gets to be a normal eighteen-year-old. They both snap out of it at the same time, and Riley stands up, brushing a hand through his wispy blond hair that is all over the place, with questioning eyes.
“Code ten,” I whisper to him as we walk through the seats, and Riley looks back at me, nodding once.
“Wanna come back to mine, Riley? My parents work night shifts, so they won’t be home,” Mandy asks when we get outside. I think the only legit reason Riley asked her out is because she tells the entire school about her empty house and low standards. Riley towers over us both with his lanky six-foot form, and Mandy looks up at him so lovingly. That is until Riley talks.
“I can’t. I promised my bestie I’d stay over at hers while her parents are working away. Sorry, another time maybe?” he replies, and Mandy’s blue eyes flicker over to me, pure annoyance flashing in them. My mum always says eyes are the windows to the soul, and I’m certain Mandy’s soul is thinking of ways to get rid of mine.
“Can I come back to yours?” Jordan asks me, touching my arm. I practically jump away from him, and he looks so confused. Poor guy. For a moment, I actually forgot he was still here. I glance down the empty street outside the cinema, smelling the piles of rubbish by the side of the road, hearing nothing but very distant cars and an owl hunting somewhere in the nearby fields. Thankfully, the chill from the ghost is gone, and he isn’t following. Score.
About ten years ago, this town would have been full of people; the cinema would have dozens of people leaving it, but now there is no one but us. Most people live in the big cities these days, and only the rich get to live in the towns, with their kids, of course, like us. Fortunately, my mum and dad are saints with their dozens of charities and thousands of homes they have bought and given to people in need. When I turn twenty-one and finish college, I’m going to help them and hopefully set up my own charity with Riley. That’s the game plan anyway.
“Mandy, you live down Tuckers Lane, right? Why don’t you take Jordan back with you as he lives close by?” Riley speaks for me when I don’t say a word.
Mandy and Jordan look between me and Riley before they both blurt out the same question at the exact same time. “Is there something going on between you two?”
“Nope,” I say with a chuckle, and Riley sighs, wrapping his arm around my shoulders.
“Poor Katy couldn’t handle me if she tried,” he cheekily replies, resting his head on top of mine.
“Plus, he is a brother to me; we literally grew up in each other’s houses,” I remind Mandy and Jordan. Riley and I… It just isn’t like that.
“Right…” Jordan mutters and walks off with Mandy following behind him, tugging her short skirt down so her ass doesn’t pop out. Jordan grins at Mandy, and she steps a little closer as she laughs at something he said.
“Our dates are totally going to bang tonight, aren’t they?” I ask Riley, who grins down at me.
“Totally,” he replies and laughs. His laugh makes me feel better about ruining his night. The date was over for me the second the ghost sensed me, like they all do, and decided to try and get me to talk to him all night.
“We suck at dates,” I mumble, feeling guilty as I tuck a strand of my wavy blonde hair behind my ear.
“Well, I could have been sucked, but our ghost friend ruined that. What happened?” he replies, and I screw my face up.
“One, gross,” I mutter. “And two, the ghost just hovered in front of me throughout the whole movie, trying to pick popcorn out of my hair but failing. I couldn’t see the movie,” I explain. Riley leans down and picks some of the popcorn caught up in my curly blonde locks that bounce around everywhere. Dad likes to joke that he fell in love with my mum because of her curly blonde hair and how he could store his snacks in there and she wouldn’t know. I push my waist-length hair behind my back and out of Riley’s hand, sighing.
“That’s shit, Katy, has the ghost not moved on?” he asks me, looking around, not that he can see them. Sometimes the ghosts are strong enough that Riley can feel the coldness, the feel of death as I call it.
“There’s a light near him, but he doesn’t look at it like the ones who are going to move on,” I explain, as that’s really the only way to describe the light. Some ghosts have a light nearby, and many of them spend days staring at the light before going into it and disappearing. Others have a swirling black circle near them, and they are forever running from it. I gather the light is what some people call heaven, and the dark must be hell.
Or some version of it.
I think true hell is in the minds of the lost souls with nowhere to go…forever trapped, watching the world go by.
“You want to drive?” Riley asks, holding his keys in the air, the shiny Iron Man helmet keyring hanging inches away from my fingers. I won him that keyring when we were twelve and his dad took me, Riley and Riley’s younger sister to Blackpool.
That was the only good part of the trip…turns out Blackpool has a lot of ghosts.
“Really?” I snap the keys out of his hand and run through the car park, pressing the button to unlock the car doors. Riley’s red Land Rover sits in the corner of the lot, and I climb into the driver’s seat, messing with the seat height as Riley gets in. I love Riley’s car; it’s so much better than the tiny pink Mini Cooper that my parents got me.
I hate pink for starters, but I couldn’t tell my parents that. They went to so much effort to find me the car in the first place.
“See, I knew this would put a smile on your face,” Riley comments, knocking my shoulder with his, and I grin at him. Riley just gets me. I start the car up and change the gears as we leave the car park and head down the empty country road to home. The Lake District is beautiful, but it’s miles between anything out here. I leave my full beam lights on as Riley turns the radio station on, making me shift my eyes to his birthmark on his wrist, the one that looks like angel wings. I have one nearly exactly like it on the inside of my thigh, but mine is a lot bigger, taking up nearly all my thigh. Riley jokes that we were destined to be best friends, and who knows, maybe he was right.