“Can you come with me?” Kasper asked Felix, stopping him before he could follow the girls inside Rima’s bedroom. “I have something I need to say to you.”
HARRIET
“Now, Harriet,” Norma said, once they were out of hearing distance of the others. “We have some work to do. We need to move quickly. There’s a ghost here called Qi, is that right?”
“How did you know that?” Harriet asked, hurrying after her.
Norma shook her head once. “Never mind that. She lives on this floor?”
“Yes…” Harriet said, a little late. She was too confused to pay attention to where they were going, until she realized that Norma had led them right to Qi’s room.
In a lowered tone, Norma said, “Right. I have a job for you. I need you to turn into one of your friends. The plump girl, maybe. Knock on Qi’s door and make up a lie to get her out of her room. Say there’s been an accident or something – you make it up, you’ve been here longer than me. Then I want you to lead her down to the basement.”
Harriet’s mind raced. She was asking her to do the very thing that Harriet had been attempting only a few days ago. It was uncanny. How did Norma know all this? “Could you hear ghosts when you were alive?”
It was the only way to explain it. She must have heard some of the ghosts talking about Qi and the basement.
Norma nodded shortly. “Yes, of course. I heard the ghosts talking before I died. They were saying that it’s very important to get the ghosts in the basement on our side if we want to survive here.”
Harriet considered this. Norma was right. She did need to get help from the Tricksters, and they wanted Qi more than anything in the world. By giving her to them, they’d be in debt to Harriet and Norma. Harriet had a power that might help her do it, unlike last time. But choosing to condemn Qi wasn’t the easy decision it was before. Now it made her stomach twist into knots. The only reason she’d ever considered it was desperation, when her emotions had been burnt away by her energy highs.
“I don’t think I can, Gran. I’m sorry, but you don’t really understand. Once they get hold of Qi, the ghosts down there aren’t going to have a friendly chat with her.”
“Harriet,” Norma said sharply.
Harriet took a step back, flushing hot in panic. Every muscle in her body knew what was coming.
Norma pinched her ear between two sharp fingers. “Harriet, I am a fragile, elderly woman who has just died, all alone. You are already going against my pleas for help. Out of everyone, I thought you’d support me here. Are we not a family any more?”
Harriet tried to shrink away, but Norma’s grip on her ear kept her close.
She continued, “Have you no compassion for what I’ve been through? You’ve been defying me for your entire childhood, and you’re going to continue doing so now that we’re both dead? It’s clear from the state of you that you’re still not mature enough to make responsible decisions. It’s a good job I’m here, for your sake.”
“Sorry, Gran,” Harriet mumbled.
Norma’s touch gentled, releasing Harriet’s ear and moving down to cradle her cheek. “It’s time that you grew up, young lady. I’m only looking out for you. Doing what’s best for us, as a family, like your parents would have wanted. Only, you’re making it very difficult. Don’t you want me to look after you, like I always have? I need you to do this. For us. Please, darling?”
“OK. Whatever you need, Gran.” Something had shrivelled up and died inside her.
However wrong it might be to send Qi down to the Tricksters, she would do it. No amount of guilt was worse than disappointing her grandmother.
“I love you, Harriet.” Norma kissed her forehead, hand cupping the back of her scalp, just like she’d done to Claudia. Her voice was satisfied, like a cream-filled cat. “Good girl.”
KASPER
Kasper drew Felix away from the others. He couldn’t stop staring at him. He knew Felix’s face so well, yet it seemed completely new. There was no longer a lens of fear distorting everything between them.
Kasper touched Felix’s cheek with the back of his fingers. Something had been building up inside him since they’d left the basement that he could no longer ignore. He wanted him. He couldn’t hold back any longer.
Felix blinked at him, startled. Then his expression changed. The sudden awareness between them felt familiar. Felix had always watched Kasper through half-dipped eyelids, with a barely-there intensity that made Kasper shudder. The only difference was that now Kasper was looking back.
Kasper had told himself that everyone looked at men, as well as women. He’d thought that he could still be straight.
Now he was fearless, it was so easy to see the truth. He had been frightened that people would think he was greedy, or a cheater, or confused. It had been easier not to think about it at all. But he wasn’t straight. He’d never been straight. Felix had always been more than just a friend.
He couldn’t take his eyes off Felix’s lips, plump and dark and parted just slightly. His breathing kept hitching. Kasper was overcome with the trembling feeling that he didn’t deserve this. This delicate, new thing was going to be torn away from him before it had time to solidify.
“What is it?” Felix asked, the words barely a whisper, like he didn’t want to interrupt the moment.
Their mouths were so close. Kasper bent his head, infinitely closer. He wanted Felix so badly that his teeth ached.
Land this plane, Kasper, he told himself. Land. This. Plane.
HARRIET
Harriet could barely focus enough to make a transformation stick. Every time her body changed to Rima, she caught sight of Norma watching her, and flickered back to
