“And how am I supposed to say yes to him when Alona is still so upset?” she asked in a small voice. “She's, like, not at rest because of us.”
I let out a silent breath of relief. I hadn't lost her completely. I still mattered to her, even if it wasn't really me who was doing the haunting that had her so concerned. That somehow lifted a burden from my shoulders I hadn't even known I was carrying.
“Well.” I cleared my throat against the lump of unshed tears. “Let's go see what we can do about that.”
She gave me an odd look — and why not? Ally Turner had no reason to be emotional about any of this — and gestured for me to walk ahead of her. Her room was the last one at the end of the narrow hall, past the tiny guest room and the former master bedroom that her three brothers now shared. Dr. E. and Kevin had renovated the study downstairs last year, turning it into their room.
Misty's room looked much the same as when I'd been there last, a couple of months ago. Yeah, I'd visited her a few times after I'd died. Her grandmother's quilt was still on her bed, rumpled from where Misty had slept beneath it. The television on her dresser blared a rerun of
The major difference in her room appeared to be the pile of college stuff — a new comforter still in the plastic, a laundry basket stuffed full of notebooks, folders, and other school supplies, and a stack of plastic plates and utensils — in the corner.
She caught me looking at it. “Millikin in the fall.” She rolled her eyes. “Free tuition because of my mom. But at least I get to live on campus.”
I nodded, knowing that had been the plan for years. I'd been considering going with her. The school had fit my dad's requirement of being close enough for me to drive home to check on my mom on a regular basis; hence, the car I was supposed to get as a graduation gift. Only, that car had been traded in for a minivan with a car seat for my new half sister, as I'd discovered last month.
I forced away thoughts of my evil stepmother — and her potentially evil spawn — to focus on the task at hand. “This is where you sense her presence most often?” I asked, trying not to squirm at the supreme cheesiness of that line.
But Misty apparently saw nothing amiss in it. She nodded, rubbing her hands over her arms as though chilled.
I didn't feel anything out of the ordinary besides amped up air-conditioning, which I knew was Misty's standard protocol whenever her mother was out of the house. Dr. E. was very environmentally conscious and probably wouldn't have installed A/C at all if she could have handled the whining from the other members of her family.
I didn't see any obvious blurry spots, but seeing ghosts still wasn't something I was particularly skilled at. So I focused on listening instead, trying to screen out the noise of the television for the sound of whispers or movement nearby, but all that garnered me was Leanne downstairs, apparently yapping away on the phone.
“No, seriously, she just showed up here. Can you believe it?” She gave a bark of laughter. “I should invite her to Ben's party tonight. Now, that would be worth seeing, I bet. Freak-out of the Century, part two, you know?”
Wonderful. News of my arrival and recently acquired weirdo status would reach the entire graduating class before I could even leave here. Fortunately, most of them would be going to college in the next week or so, and I wouldn't have to deal with them much after that.
Though, of course, there was no way I'd be stuck in this body for that long. Right?
“Anything?” Misty asked anxiously, looking around the room as well.
I shook my head with a grimace. I really wanted to catch this jerk who was pretending to be me. “She was here this morning? Are you sure?”
Misty nodded rapidly, then hesitated before adding, “Well, I'm pretty sure. Nothing was knocked over or anything. It was just that feeling again.” She shivered.
Great. Maybe Will had been right, and this was all in Misty's head. “Anywhere else we can check?”
She thought about it for a second and then gestured to the half-closed door to the attached bathroom. “That's where the message showed up on the mirror.”
Might as well check it out while I was here. God, it was going to suck if I had to leave without anything. Will, assuming he ever spoke to me again, would never let me live it down.
I crossed the room, feeling Misty's gaze on my uneven stride, and yanked open the door, expecting nothing scarier than the heap of wet towels Misty was prone to leaving on the floor until they mildewed. Gross.
Instead, though, I almost walked face-first into a spirit, a big blurry spot leaning over the vanity, probably hard at work on another message.
