on the Ouija board without you.”
“It won’t work, though,” I said, “with or without me. Lily isn’t here anymore. She’s … moved on. Like I said before, people who are really gone are gone. There is no reaching them.”
“But I bet Joonie doesn’t know that,” Alona pointed out.
“Probably not,” I admitted.
She took a deep breath. “It gets worse.”
“How?”
“She’s not
“No,” I said instantly.
She looked at me in exasperation. “What else could ‘get you back where you belong’ mean? She was staring right at Lily’s body when she said it, and she definitely mentioned you.”
“No, I mean it’s not possible. It’s a one-way door. It has to be,” I tried to explain. “Once you’re out, you’re out. Otherwise, you’d see walking corpses everywhere when people like Grandpa Brewster or Liesel got tired of being trapped in between.”
“But Lily’s still alive.” She gave a shudder.
“Not really.” As much as it hurt to say that, I made myself keep going. “Her heart still beats and everything, but she wouldn’t be able to function, even if you could get her spirit back inside her body. The connection between the two is broken.”
She rolled her eyes. “Again,
My mouth worked for a second, as I tried to find an answer. “But Joonie doesn’t know what I can do. How would she even think to—”
Alona held up her hands. “I don’t know. Not my problem. You figure it out. I’m just telling what I saw and heard.”
I shook my head, angry at the suggestion. “No, she knows better than to mess with stuff like this.” Even if it was possible, which it wasn’t … as far as I knew, there were so many things that could go wrong. What if Joonie successfully managed to get Lily’s spirit back into her body only to discover that it was little more than a prison of flesh and bone?
How would she even know she had contacted the right spirit to begin with?
“Desperate people do really dumb ass stuff,” Alona said. “Trust me on that.”
“Joonie would never take the chance of hurting Lily,” I insisted. What was left of her, anyway. “It almost killed her when Lily ended up here.” Joonie had spent most of the month of September locked in her room, not leaving for school or anything until Brewster threatened to keep her from graduating if she didn’t return. After that, she’d dragged herself back to school, but it had taken a couple more months for her to show even some spark of her former self.
“I bet.” Alona’s voice was bland, but her tone hinted at something she wasn’t saying.
“What is that supposed to mean?” I demanded.
“You know.”
“No, I don’t.” I ground out the words.
She sighed. “Was Lily your girlfriend or not?”
I shifted uncomfortably. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“Just answer the question.”
“No. She wasn’t. We were friends. I looked out for her. At least, I tried to.” Obviously, I hadn’t done such a great job of that.
Alona arched an eyebrow. “I saw the picture of the two of you.”
“How …” I shook my head. I didn’t want to know. “Okay, so she might have liked me a little or something, but it never turned into anything. She had a crush on Ben Rogers, too,” I pointed out. Which was probably the reason my friendship with Lily had stayed just that, a friendship. I liked her. She was sweet and funny. Hell, she even made Joonie happy, and that was a true miracle. But obsessing over the popular crowd and their entanglements had been one of Lily’s favorite pastimes, one that I did not share. So, it hadn’t been that big of a shock, at least not to me, when she dumped us to climb the social ladder after she and Joonie had that big fight.
“Lily wasn’t the only one with a crush,” Alona said.
“What are you talking about? Joonie?” I laughed. “Joonie doesn’t like me like that.”
“Not you,” she said pointedly.
“What?”
“Oh, my God, could you be more dense?”
“What are you talking about?”
“You know what, just forget it. Even if I tell you, you won’t believe me and you’ll just get angry, so it’s not worth it. I don’t know why I’m even here in the first place. You don’t listen to anything I say—”
“You’re not saying anything!”
“You don’t do what I tell you to, you dismiss all of my ideas. I mean, what’s the point of having a spirit guide if you’re just going to ignore her?”
“Trust me,” I said. “You are impossible to ignore. I’ve tried. As far as I’m concerned, you can’t leave here fast enough.”
She froze, a wounded look flashing across her face.
I felt like a shit. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that.”
“Yes, you did. I’m done here.” Alona swung her legs off the bed. “I don’t have the time to waste on you anymore.”
“Alona, wait.”
She ignored me and pushed her hands against the mattress to climb down. I grabbed for one of her wrists … and my hand passed right through her.
I gasped.
Alona glanced back over her shoulder with a sigh, more bruises flickering to life. “Looks like you’re getting your wish.”
15
Alona
Will stared up at me, his face pale except for the black eye he’d gotten from Chris and his bruised and swollen cheek. “What’s happening to you?”
I turned away from him, closing my eyes against the tears that suddenly stung them. “Shut up, I’m trying to concentrate.” I’d been fighting this sensation of being pulled away since the moment I’d woken in his hospital room. It felt like I’d left part of me behind in the place I couldn’t remember, and something on the other side was working as hard as possible to get the rest of me.
“Think positive thoughts.” He sounded panicked. “Um, makeup sales, prom dresses, sex in the backseat of a limo.”
I shot him a look over my shoulder. “Exactly what kind of prom night do you think I was planning?”
He raked his free hand through his rumpled black hair, making it stand out even more crazily. “I don’t know. I’m just trying to help.”
I shook my head. “Thanks, but it’s not working.”
“Maybe if you think positive thoughts about other people—”
“Killian. I’ve been here two hours, and I’m fading in and out, no matter how often I think about puppies, rainbows, and your surprisingly large biceps.” Ha, let him chew on that one for awhile.
A pause. “My what?”
“Forget it. You were right. There’s a time limit for everyone, and mine is just about up.” Oddly enough, the thought brought relief. I was tired of fighting this … whatever this was. I just wanted to be done.
