I looked around, trying to remember falling asleep. “Yeah, I mean I think I am. I don’t even know what I was dreaming about.”
“Your mom,” Crystel mumbled loudly.
My brows pulled together. How could that be? I never dreamt about my mom. “Are you sure?”
Crystel rolled over and propped herself up on one elbow. “Yeah, you were yelling Momma, Momma, where are you?” She flopped back down.
My frame went cold. “Oh.”
Cam caught the expression on my face, “This wasn’t your mom was it?”
Damn she was so perceptive. I shook my head. “Do you know who it was?” She asked, keeping her voice down.
“Elizabeth.”
Chapter Sixteen
Camryn wanted to know all the details. She and I slipped down to the common room to chat quietly without waking up everyone.
I explained the visit with Elizabeth and how Tyler had helped me see her. Camryn didn’t interrupt, she didn’t move. Her face held a tight, calm expression.
"So, that’s pretty much it,” I folded my hands in my lap, leaning back in my chair.
She leaned back too, meeting my eyes. “Wow. You are so beyond amazing. Like, you are so cool.”
I laughed, “Whatever, I am so the opposite of cool.”
She nodded her head, “Yeah, you can talk to the dead, you can communicate with ghosts that have been dead for however long, and not only talk to them, see them! Do you realize how strange that is? Do you realize how RARE that is?” she scanned the room to assure we were still alone, “Do you realize how special it is? You are truly gifted. Completely magical.” The awe in her eyes was uncanny. It made me uncomfortable.
“Anyway, that’s what happened,” I looked down at my feet. “And somehow I fell asleep thinking of her and dreamt about it.”
“Ok, so no big deal,” Camryn laughed and winked at me.
“I really don’t think it is. Besides, I just want to try and find out what happened to her and move on. Or help her move on, or whatever.”
“Well I hope you can,” Camryn yawned.
Movement over at the corner of the common area made my blood run cold. “Where is she?” His voice sounded horse, thick from lack of use.
Camryn’s sleepiness dissipated as she followed my eyes to where he stood. “What? Who do you see?”
I focused on him standing at the far end of the common room. “I can’t help you,” my words were just above a whisper.
Camryn looked between the empty space and me, silently trying to see what I could see.
“Where is she?” The words came louder this time, closer. He stood halfway in the middle of the common area.
I raised my chin, “I will not help you.” The cold filled my lungs, my feet felt like ice cubes.
“Where is she?” He asked again, this time standing just behind Camryn’s chair. His eyes flickered down to her unknowing frame.
I forced myself to stand and walk towards him. Each step weighed 100 pounds. I breathed deeply with each movement. I grasped the back of her chair as I stood inches from him. “I said, I will not help you. You are not welcome here. You need to leave.” I tried to put power behind my words, but they fell flat.
“Where is she?” the voice raised slightly.
“No!” I drew all the strength I could muster, “You are not welcome. Leave now!” My arm pushed out, still gripping the back of her chair with the other. I reached nothing but air, and yet it cut through his image like I had plunged my hand into ice cold water.
For just a second.
Then he was gone.
I looked around, leaning heavily on the back of the chair. Camryn reached back. “What the actual hell just happened?”
I breathed deeply. “Remember the stalker dude? Well he’s back.”
Camryn looked around the room. Her eyes portrayed the uneasiness she was trying hard to hide.
“He’s gone. At least for right now,” I took another deep breath; “Can we go back to bed? I’m beat?”
Camryn laughed but stood up, with one more cautious glance around the empty room.
We walked through the door as quiet as possible, tiptoeing to our beds. “Hey Han?” Camryn asked.
“Yeah?”
“Can he get in here?” the catch in her voice made the apparent fear she felt now in the dark, more obvious.
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
Yes.”
“Ok, Goodnight.”
I planned to strengthen the door first thing in the morning.
I woke tired but didn’t have any more dreams for the rest of the night that I could remember. I strengthened the seal on the entry to the room and grabbed my books, running late to class.
This was my lab, which I hated because science and I have a mutual understanding. I didn’t try and completely understand her, and she didn’t try and blow me up. There was really no point to trying to understand labs. It was much more a practice to just keep from doing anything stupid.
The class was long and I constantly moved to keep from nodding off. I went and used the restroom at one point, just to keep myself from falling over. Boredom was not the friend of the tired mind.
Walking back, I heard footsteps behind me.
I turned to catch sight of an older man walking towards me, grasping a thin hospital gown. “Excuse me nurse!” he called after me.
I turned away from him, focusing on the classroom, hurrying through the door. I slid into my chair, refusing to look back.
What the hell? two days ago, only a flicker here and there and now we had full on stalker ghosts everywhere I went?
“Hey! I am talking to you!” The man stood next to my table, bent over me.
I angled my chair away, turning slightly into
