The Ghost and the Goth

to pin on our party, but the driver hadn’t been drinking, so they had nothing to hold over us. But that was, like, all the way back in September. She’d been like this since then?

The utter stillness about her was the worst part. She still moved — even as I watched, her fingers, resting on the top of the bedcovers, jerked and twitched — but she seemed …empty. I’d never thought about life as energy before, at least not until Killian talked about it like that, but now I could see what he meant. Even someone sleeping, eyes shut and not moving at all, would have seemed more alive than she did, and I could see that from across the room.

Joonie, however, did not seem to notice or care, and that was my second clue that something was really wrong. She was racing around the room, setting what appeared to be little silver hockey pucks on the floor at set intervals around the bed and talking to Lily at the same time.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I tried to get Killian to come with me. I thought it would work better with him here, but he …” She paused, probably remembering his reaction to the Ouija board. “He wouldn’t. I’m so sorry, Lil.”

I snorted. He wouldn’t. Right. Well, I mean, he wouldn’t have, but she didn’t even try to explain what was going on or what she wanted him to come to the hospital for. Speaking of which, why did she want him to come to the hospital? This was obviously more than just a friendly, keep-coma-girl-company visit.

“But it doesn’t matter,” she said firmly. “I’m going to make this right, no matter what it takes.” Her gaze wandered to the still form on the bed. “I’m going to get you back where you belong.”

Joonie jerked back into motion and her combat-booted foot knocked one of the silver disks toward the door, where I still stood, half in and half out. I looked down and found it to be a little white candle in a metal wrapper, like the kind my dad used to put in my carved pumpkin when I was little.

Candles, living-dead girl, creepy declarations of intent, plus the Ouija board Joonie was packing … uh-oh. I knew nothing about magic, witchcraft, voodoo, or whatever else this might be (and I bet Joonie didn’t either, given the results so far), but I’d seen enough Charmed reruns to know this was trouble.

“Okay, then.” I pushed myself the rest of the way into the room. “Hey, Joonie, stop. Whatever your freaky little self is up to, cut it out.”

Joonie ignored me, of course, and reached into her bag to pull out the lighter and the Ouija board.

Oh, crap. I paced a step or two and lifted my thumbnail to my teeth — what now? It wasn’t like I could march out into the hallway and shout at the nurses for help.

Nurses. Help. Call button. If there wasn’t a lightbulb hanging in the air above my head, there should have been. If I had the strength to concentrate and shove folders around the floor, surely I could push one little button.

I strode confidently across the room, avoiding Joonie as she crouched down to begin lighting candles, but I hesitated when I reached the bed. Up this close, Lily was tragic … and eerie. The light of the television flashed in her blank eyes, adding a creepy and superficial spark of life. The remote with the bed controls and the nurse call button lay half under Lily’s arm, a big sign of someone’s wishful thinking.

“Don’t be such a baby,” I told myself. Trying not to think about the germs that had to be floating around here — it was a hospital after all, full of disgusting sick people — I reached down, intending to scoot the remote out from under her arm with a series of little pushes. My hand should have passed through her arm with little more than a cold tingle, but the second I touched her skin, I felt it. An intense heat radiated up my fingers. Then the solidity that was Lily’s arm melted beneath my touch and my hand sank into her arm. Not through, but in. My skin, the darker of the two, thanks to my hours in the sun for prom prep, melded with hers.

I sucked in a breath and jerked my hand away. Her arm followed, lifting off the bed. I watched in horror. For an endless moment, the bond between us held tight, then something loosened and let go. Her arm flopped back onto the bed, landing squarely on top of the remote. It didn’t push any buttons. Oh, no, that would be too good to be true. It prevented me from another attempt to reach the call button, though, unless I wanted to touch her again.

No freaking way. I stumbled back from the bed, clutching my arm against my chest. I didn’t know what had just happened, nor did I want to know.

I bolted past Joonie, who, her acolyte duties finally completed, was settling herself on the floor with the Ouijaboard in her lap. I passed through the door, barely even feeling the tingle of it, and darted down the hall.

I ran for the nurses’ station. But what could they do? What could anyone do? I was terrified to even look down at my hand, afraid I’d see Lily’s pale skin instead of my own.

When I drew even with the nurses’ station, the elevator dinged and the doors opened. Some instinct made me look up and over. Killian, head tucked down and hands tucked in his sweatshirt pockets, strode off the elevator and then down the hall toward me and Lily’s room.

“Will!” I darted toward him, relief at seeing him here washing away any of my leftover anger from earlier this afternoon.

He looked up, startled. “What are you—”

“Joonie’s in there right now and she’s doing something with that stupid board.” I spoke as quickly as I could.

He started down the hallway toward Lily’s room. I stayed next to him, trying to explain. “I told you, she’s the one that’s doing it, calling up that creepy ghost, and when I tried to stop her, my hand touched Lily’s arm and …” I shuddered. “Something is just wrong. I don’t understand—”

The air suddenly turned to ice around me, and Killian stopped suddenly. I watched the color drain out of his face as he stared at something down the hall.

I turned away from Killian slowly, knowing already what I would find. The creepy shadow ghost was back. This time, it grew, rippling at its edges, to fill the entire hallway, blocking out the light from the windows at the end of the hall. Inside its misty body, things moved beneath the surface, like snakes sliding under a blanket.

It gathered itself, pulling together at the edges until it hung over us like a wave waiting to crash.

“Killian,” I said, my voice wobbly.

“Yeah?” He didn’t sound so great either.

“Run!” I shoved him away.

With a roar that should have shaken the building, the shadowy spirit crashed down on me. Slivers of what felt like frozen metal tore through my skin, and I screamed. Then everything went dark.

14 Will

I was beginning to think that the universe was united against me in some kind of vast conspiracy. I was supposed to be in detention right now, and I would have been … if someone hadn’t accidentally set fire to a bunch of straws in chem lab during last period. The fire alarm went off right as school let out for the day. Recognizing the hopeless prospect of keeping all of us delinquents in one place in an area as unconfined as the parking lot, Ms. Bernadino, the detention teacher for today, had canceled detention and rescheduled it for next week. I’d gone there for four years and had had more than my share of detentions probably, but I’d never heard of them canceling it before.

Feeling unexpectedly lucky — really, I should have known better — I headed to the Dodge, which started on the first try, and then on to St. Catherine’s. I knew that’s where Joonie would be.

I couldn’t forget what Alona had said about her. She, Joonie, had been acting so weird lately. But she’d been my friend, pretty much my only one, for years. Why would she want to mess with me like that? Of course, she’d have no way of knowing what a Ouija board did when I was around. But Alona was right. Why else would she act so guilty? Why run away? Why didn’t she just laugh or seem confused at my strange reaction to seeing her with one?

I was afraid I already knew the answer, but I needed to know for sure. I needed to talk to Joonie. If she was involved, that changed everything, including — most likely — the true identity of the entity Alona called Gus. As an angry and despondent ghost, my father might have attacked me to show his disapproval. Maybe. But he wouldn’t need Joonie or a Ouija board for that.

I’d gotten to the hospital in record time and found a parking space in the first visitors’ row. A waiting