The Ghost and the Goth

“Joonie,” I breathed.

“I figure that was right about when she started crying so hard she couldn’t see and lost control over her car,” she said flatly.

“Oh, my God.”

She knelt down next to Lily. “So you see why we have to do this. I need to take it back. I need to undo it.”

“Joonie.” I pulled against the restraints, trying to sit up. “You can’t. She’s gone. Really and truly gone.”

She sighed. “I thought you might say that.” She reached for the Ouija board resting across Lily’s legs. The second her hands touched the planchette, shadows flickered and swirled to life in the corner of the room behind her. Gloomy Gus.Crap. I’d never seen a ghost respond so promptly. It was … weird.

“I know you’re lying,” she said, her tone devoid of any emotion. “I’ve seen what happens to you when I call to her on the other side. She’s angry with me for what I said and with you for helping me.”

“She’s not angry. It’s not her. It’s …” In truth, I didn’t know what it was. This close, with Joonie right here in front of me, I could see a thin wisp of smoke leading from Joonie to the growing monstrosity that was Gus. Like a leash or …a pipeline.

I froze. Energy is just energy until it finds me. That’s what I’d told Alona. If Joonie, in her efforts to communicate with Lily, was sending out massive amounts of negative energy — all that guilt, grief, and shame flowing from her, oozing from her every cell — what was to say my presence wouldn’t cause it to manifest in the same way as a ghost? The door — or rather the call, to use the analogy I started with Alona — went both ways. It was usually energy from the dead side using me to take form, but why couldn’t intense energy, focused through a Ouija board, from the living side do the same thing? That would explain Gus’s lack of personality (other than angry) and why I’d never seen a ghost like it before. It wasn’t a ghost at all.

“I’ll call her,” Joonie said. “You just help me get her back where she belongs.”

How was I supposed to do that? Even if we could somehow reach Lily, which we couldn’t, it wasn’t like stuffing an unwieldy pillow back in its case. There has to be a connection between body and soul. But wisely, for once in my life, I kept my mouth shut. “Okay, I can help you. I need my hands, though.” To get the hell out of here.

She cocked her head to one side and gave me an evaluating look. “No. I don’t think so.”

“You want me to help, I need my hands.”

She frowned, and Gus expanded, spreading out from his corner with tendrils headed straight for me. “No, you’ll only try to run.”

Really? Was there any sane person who wouldn’t at this point? I shook my head. “No, I won’t. I want to help you.”

“I don’t believe you,” she said fiercely. Her fingers on the planchette turned white with the force of the pressure she applied, and Gus oozed forward.

I flinched and turned away.

Joonie sucked in a breath and looked around the room. “She’s here, already?”

“It’s not her, Joonie. Please, I promise you.” If Gus came crashing down on me and I couldn’t run …

Across the room, the door handle suddenly rattled back and forth. “Will?” My mother called. “What’s going on in there?”

I took one look at Joonie’s eyes, warning me without words to stay quiet, and shouted, “Mom, get help.”

After that, things happened kind of fast.

Gus surged forward. It crested above me like some kind of horrible wave and then flung itself down on me. I screamed, and it poured down my throat, filling my airway and sealing off my lungs.

“William!” My mother beat against the door frantically.

I couldn’t breathe, and the sheer coldness of Gus penetrated to my very core. Fighting back took more energy than I had, and everything, including my weak flailing in self-defense, had dropped into slow motion. Except for me dying; that was happening fast enough.

A bright flash of light appeared suddenly in the center of Gus and burst outward, tearing it to shreds. The horrible pressure on my chest and throat eased, and I sucked in air by the lungful, coughing and sputtering all the while.

“Can’t leave you alone for a second, can I?” an all-too-familiar voice asked.

I blinked my watering eyes, clearing my vision sufficiently enough to see Alona standing next to my bed. She looked …amazing. More beautiful and somehow more real. Like I’d only been seeing a projection of her true self before. Her hair was shinier, her eyes brighter. In short, she looked like a vision. So much so that I began to wonder if I hadn’t already started the great transition.

“Dead?” I croaked.

She snorted. “Not hardly. This time, anyway.”

At that point, Joonie seemed to notice a difference in that I was breathing again and not struggling to live.

Gus began gathering the shreds and wisps of itself, building again.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake.” Alona reached over the arm of Lily’s wheelchair and started pushing the planchette around the Ouija board. I couldn’t see what letters she picked, but Joonie, quite helpful in her messed-up and out- of-it state, called them out loud.

“S-T-O-P. U-R-F-O-R-G-I–V-E-N.”

Then, as a final touch, Alona slipped her hand inside Lily’s and moved it to touch Joonie’s on the board. I gaped at the sight. She’d said something about it before, but I’d never imagined …

Joonie looked back and forth between Lily’s hand and her still, empty face, and then she began to weep.

Alona, with a little difficulty, managed to pull herself free from Lily’s hand, looking as disconcerted by it as I felt. Then she smiled at me. “Told you you needed me.”

“Yeah,” I said, my voice cracking. “Does this mean you’re back for good? I could use a little spiritual guidance.”

She bit her lip with a frown. “I don’t know. I’m not even sure how I …” Her eyes widened, and a glow, so bright I had to squint, enveloped her. She stretched her hand out toward me, and I reached for it … but caught only air.

“Alona!” The light surrounding her intensified until I could no longer see any part of her. Then it vanished, with an audible pop, taking her with it.

When the janitor and the security guard finally forced the door open a few minutes later, that’s how they found us. Joonie sobbing on the floor, holding Lily’s hand, and me still tied to the bed, my eyes watering. I wasn’t crying. No, not at all. It was just the light. Or something in my eye. Yeah, that’s it.

Epilogue Will Killian

Twenty-six days had passed since I’d last seen Alona Dare. In that time, my mother had permanently jettisoned Dr. Miller, and we’d realized neither of us was in a big hurry for a replacement. I worked from Alona’s notes and kept the ghosts … spirits … at bay by helping them out as best as I could. I sent Sara’s brother his medal with a fake letter from the hospital, explaining it had been found during routine file reorganization. I’m proud to say that Grandpa Brewster did, in fact, move on into the golden light shortly after I sent anonymous letters to his son and grandson.

Other than that, I did my homework, passed my finals, and, at my mother’s insistence, sent in applications for late admission to a variety of schools. In true parental spirit, she’d bounced back from my revelation about seeing the dead quickly enough to point out that if I wasn’t hiding anymore, I didn’t need to leave town, and could therefore attend classes at a university — as was the original plan for me. Yeah, she kind of had a point.

We celebrated my eighteenth birthday on May 30, just my mom and me. She was getting used to the idea of what I am, but that almost made it harder for her to accept what my dad did instead of just telling her the truth.