It didn’t last long enough, but her body had still cried out for more energy. Mindless, she had lunged at another Shell. They were all wailing now.
The second Shell disintegrated in her grasp, which was frustrating – and quite clever, for a Shell. To her horror, the others all followed suit, collapsing into the ashy remnants of their molecules before she had a chance to take them in.
Harriet had been furious, screaming up at the early morning pink of the sky, and feeling her rage unravel. She’d tried to push it back inside, like she usually did when she felt this way, but the fresh energy had made that impossible. She’d screamed until the feeling subsided.
Her skin had started glowing with a fluorescent, hyper-bright colour. Energy oozed from her pores, harsh and electric. It ached in the roots of her teeth, a bone-deep throbbing richness. It would keep her going for a while, even without any more Shells.
The energy was still thrumming through her veins, but the buzz had calmed down enough that Harriet was aware of what she was doing again. It was like she was watching her actions from a great distance. Even as Harriet had shouted at Rima, she had known that she shouldn’t be doing it – that it wasn’t fair or rational. But though Rima had looked hurt and sad, hunching her shoulders inwards and avoiding Harriet’s gaze, she couldn’t stop herself.
The energy was twisting everything in Harriet’s head.
In one night, she’d messed up all her progress – sleeping with Kasper, upsetting Felix, shouting at Rima. It was going to be hard to convince them that she would be a good friend now.
Plus, Rima might still be helpful. Harriet had put a lot of work into staying on her good side.
The entrance hall was crowded with so many ghosts that Harriet couldn’t even see her corpse. Qi and Greg were there, along with most of the other ghosts she’d met during the last few days. Presumably, they were waiting to see if Harriet had a catastrophic emotional breakdown when the police moved her body.
The police officers shone torches around the foyer, illuminating spiderwebs, broken glass; and then stiff, yellowing skin; the black congealed blood surrounding Harriet’s head.
An officer let out a gasp, her hand rising involuntarily to her throat. “Jesus Christ.”
Harriet couldn’t control her breathing – she gulped air down uselessly, faster and faster. She could feel the eyes of all the ghosts on her, waiting for a reaction. She wasn’t going to give them one.
Don’t show weakness. Don’t give them anything they can use against you. Her gran’s words comforted her. She stood straighter.
There was a long moment of silence – among both the living and the dead – and then it was all action. Radios began crackling with static, and the room filled with more police. When Harriet still didn’t start wailing, several of the ghosts drifted away, disinterested.
Kasper appeared at her side. He silently tugged her towards him, fingers sliding up her wrists to smooth warm lines down her veins.
“This is good, right?” he said, trying to read her expression.
Harriet was too tired and numb to care what her face was telling him.
She couldn’t even bring herself to reply. She was so sick of the feelings that her death had forced on her. In the last few days, she had needed to acknowledge more of her own emotions than she had since her parents had died.
After a few minutes, the radio dispatcher said, “Can someone tell the grandmother?”
Harriet’s heart stuttered. Her gran was going to be told she was dead, that her only surviving family member had died. She was the last one left, having lost her husband, her son and his wife, and now her granddaughter.
Harriet wanted to cry. No, she wanted to hit something.
The forensics team were taking samples from the bloody concrete around her corpse, filling evidence bags with tiny fragments of her skull. Harriet’s hand rubbed at the hole in the back of her head, hidden under her hair. If she pressed hard enough, she could feel the sharp edges of bone. She shivered, pulling her fingers away even though it didn’t hurt at all.
Qi came over and said, “My condolences, Miss Stoker. I do hope you’ll feel more settled, now that this inconvenience is out of the way. You’ll be able to move on.”
Harriet tried to accept this kindly. Her body was more than an inconvenience to her, even if that’s all it was to Qi. But she wasn’t going to snap at Qi like she had at Rima.
“I hope so,” she said.
“You’re looking very bright today. The new hair is pretty. You must be getting on well?”
Heat rushed through her in an odd mixture of guilt and dread. Was it that obvious that she’d absorbed so much energy? Harriet couldn’t meet Qi’s eye in case she worked out what she’d done to the Shells. To explain why she was glowing so much, she said, “I’ve been very well, thank you. Everyone has been generous. I’ve been given lots of rodents.”
Qi said, bemused, “How unusual. I’ve clearly underestimated the kindness of the Mulcture Hall residents. This was a gesture of goodwill, was it?”
“Something like that,” Harriet replied. She could barely manage to make the words audible. After everything, Qi still scared her. The memory of her lightning bonds skittered over Harriet’s forearms. She wrapped her arms around her torso.
“What else have you been doing?” Qi asked. “Apart from charming everyone into giving you spirits, of course.”
Harriet swallowed. Why was she asking these questions? Did she want something from her? “Nothing much. Getting to know everyone, you know! Idle chit-chat. Nothing too exciting.”
“I hear you’ve explored the lower floors, too. Someone saw you going down to the basement earlier.”
Harriet blanched. “The basement? Huh.
