All the Pretty Ghosts (The Never Alone Series Book 1) (10 page)

I was about ready to punch him when David stood beside me. The cold emanating from his ghostly form sent a shiver down my spine. I looked at him for an answer. “Vanilla.”

“Vanilla,” I echoed.

“He’s really here?” Michael asked, his voice wavering. I nodded because I was too exhausted to actually speak. I wanted to be done with him. “Dad, I love you. I miss you.”

“Tell him I love him, too,” David said, not looking at me but at his son.

I did not want to be a messenger girl for the other side. I almost refused to say anything. But it would be quicker to just get it over and done with. “He said he loves you, too.”

“And I want him and Kelly to stick together. I know they can get through anything as long as they’re together.” I repeated it word for word to Michael. Tears started to well in his eyes as he listened.

“We can do that, Dad. I promise.”

“Can we go into the damn sewer and get Kelly now?” I asked. If they wanted to have a heartfelt conversation, they could wait a few months. It wouldn’t be too long before they were dead too with the way the city was going.

“Okay,” Michael agreed. We returned to the entrance to the small hovel and started the descent. It was much darker than I had expected it to be. No sunshine filtered in whatsoever. I had to hold onto the hem of Michael’s shirt to stay with him.

Once we were on level ground there was a light in the distance. It flickered, probably from a candle. We followed it as all my other senses took over. I was acutely aware of dripping water somewhere, the sound of footsteps apart from our own, and the smell of dirt – lots and lots of dirt.

And a stinking sewer that had seen better days.

We eventually made it to the source of the light, a lantern of candles half burned down to the wick. A few kids were huddled around as the tunnel went off in two directions. David said to go right so we went right. We traversed another long, dark tunnel.

There was a dead end with more candles. This one was filled with only one person. A girl. The spitting image of her father.

“Kelly!” Michael exclaimed as he ran for her. The pretty brunette blinked a few times before she returned his embrace. They hugged it out while I felt like a specter myself, watching it all happen but not a part of any of it.

That was how I was living my life.

The thought came crashing into me like a sledge hammer right to the stomach. I was just like David. I walked amongst everyone, wanting more but unable to obtain it because I wasn’t really alive anymore.

It felt wrong watching the brother and sister reunite so I started to walk away. I didn’t need to see it anyway, it was none of my business.

David stopped me. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” I replied. In truth, a small part of me was glad I had been able to help. Being alone in the city was miserable, I should know. At least Michael and Kelly didn’t have to go through that anymore. I doubted they would lose each other again.

As I stared at David, there was one question that burned on the tip of my tongue. “So what happens now?”

He smiled, a look of serenity and amusement washing over his features. “Now I leave you alone. Fight the good fight, Everly.” With that being said, he started to walk down the tunnel before he disappeared.

I half expected him to be swallowed up into some bright shining white light. But he didn’t. He just vanished. Into nothingness. Was that all that was out there? Nothing? That wasn’t a comfort.

Managing to make it aboveground with only a few stumbles, I had an overwhelming need to find Oliver. I needed to apologize for our earlier fight and make everything right with him again. He was the only person I still had, I couldn’t let our disagreement fester into something that would tear us apart permanently.

I had been relying on David’s directions to get me around the city before. I should have taken more notice of where we were because I quickly realized I had no clue.

Walking was the only way out of it. I turned down a street I thought we had come down and continued on, cursing myself the entire way. What I wouldn’t have done for some form of public transport.

The neighborhood started to trigger something in my memory. It wasn’t from earlier, but from years ago. I was in an area I rarely visited, but I did once have a friend that lived in amongst the lush apartments. I attended several of her birthday parties in the area.

Drawing from those memories alone, I managed to find my way back to the main road. From there, it was only a matter of following it back to the heart of the city that I once called home.

Oliver was waiting for me.

He stood the second he spotted me. It took more than a few minutes for me to reach him. I considered running into his arms and blurting out my apology but that wasn’t something I would do.

As it turned out, I didn’t have to.

“I’m so sorry, Ev,” he said the moment I was within earshot. I stood in front of him, ready to crumble from all the walking. “I shouldn’t have spoken to you like that.”

The prideful part of me considered withholding my own apology but I couldn’t do it. “I’m sorry, too. You were only trying to help and I completely threw that in your face.”

He shook his head, like I was wrong. “I shouldn’t have pushed you. I want to help you so much but I really don’t understand what you are going through. That… clouded my judgment.”

Before the Event, I probably would have given him a big hug and we’d go out for a frappacino and everything would be right with the world again. We would never speak about it because nothing more needed to be said.

Now, things were more complicated.

“Let’s just admit we were both wrong,” I offered. “Besides, I have to tell you about everything that happened today.”

A smile slowly crooked his lips. “Okay, tell me everything. I want to know every last detail.”

As we walked, I told him everything about David, Michael, and Kelly. I didn’t leave anything out, because I didn’t know what was important in the story and what wasn’t. I needed Oliver to know it all. Perhaps then it would help him understand me better.

By the end of the tale, we had found a place to sleep for the night. It was nothing more than an alleyway that appeared to have been forgotten or ignored by the rest of the citizens. But it was dry and gave the illusion of safety.

“Oliver?” I asked in the darkness. A part of me only said it so I could be sure he was still here.

“Yeah?” Even just one word was comforting.

“I don’t know what to do,” I admitted. “Helping David today, it did nothing to help the city. I could help the spirits every day but nothing is going to change.”

The silence stretched out. I wondered if Oliver had fallen asleep or simply stopped listening to me. Perhaps he had given up on an answer because there merely wasn’t one.

“Oliver?”

“I think you did help the city, Ev.”

“I didn’t.”

He shifted, the sound loud in the quietness of the alley. “Michael and Kelly are reunited now. Perhaps together they will do something positive for the city. If nothing else, two people are less lonely tonight because of you. That’s helping the city.”

But it wasn’t.

The city still bled like an open wound. It pulsed with hurt and pain because it was nothing but an empty shell of humanity. Nothing had changed just because two people were together tonight.

Nothing.

I wasn’t going to argue with Oliver again. Neither of us had the energy to fight and there would be no winner. All I could do was voice what I thought was more important. “I’m really glad you’re here, Olly.”

“I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else, Ev.”

The tears stung my eyes but I refused to let them fall. I was still alive, I could fight another day, I would not feel sorry for myself. I had a lot more than most people. I had Oliver.

My next words were cut off by an explosion. The loudest noise I had ever heard.

Chapter Nine

T
he building to my right erupted in a ball of flames. We were thrown back from the impact, the shockwaves radiated out in an abundance of chaos.

Oliver and I ran for the alleyway, crouching on the ground as debris fell from all angles. My hands instantly went to cover my ears from the shattering noise. It seemed to go on forever, awakening the night like it was day.

Even the tight walls on either side of the alley couldn’t really shelter us from the fallout. Pieces of rocks and concrete showered down on us like rain from hell. When I moved my hands from my ears to cover my head, I still couldn’t hear anything. It was like the world had gone silent.

Deathly silent.

“Are you okay?” Oliver yelled through the cotton wool in my ears. He had to repeat himself three times before I could fully understand his words.

“Yeah. You?” He nodded back, his own hands shielding his head.

I started to pull myself from the ground. With an explosion like that, there had to be casualties. Which meant children were hurting, if not dead.

Peeking around the corner, I had to blink the soot out of my eyes before they would focus. Where there had been a full five story building only minutes before, there was nothing but a hole and plumes of smoke.

The tendrils of thick smoke found my lungs, choking in my throat and burning. I pulled my shirt up to cover my mouth and tried to remember to breathe normally. It hurt like hell as every breath was sucked in with force.

A few others had come to see the mess too. We stood around, useless to actually do anything. There was no chance anyone could survive that.

No chance at all.

A few spirits joined us. Most of them were adults, which meant they hadn’t been killed in the explosion. The ghosts of children were a little harder to tell. They could have been brand new. I ignored them all.

All of a sudden, a figure emerged from the remains of the building. I hurried over to help the little boy. But as I reached him, all I could do was gasp.

He was burned.

Badly.

His charcoaled body was ready to give up and he was ready to let it. Escaping those kinds of wounds would be a relief, ending his pain. He collapsed onto the sidewalk, his eyes staring blankly at the sky.

His soul stood and walked away without looking back.

He was even younger than my sister.

The urge to fall to my knees and sob was overwhelming. Because I knew that little boy couldn’t have been the only one inside the building. Collapsing myself seemed like a good option. I wouldn’t do it though, not with so many people around. Weakness was a death sentence these days.

Instead, I turned to Oliver who had followed me. “How can that happen? How does a building just blow up like that?” I was nearly hysterical. I was used to seeing spirits, but I wasn’t used to seeing them torn from their bloodied bodies.

Oliver remained calm, showing none of the panic I was feeling. “It was probably a gas explosion.”

“Gas? Gas killed them?” Surely nothing so ordinary that we had taken for granted for so long could cause so much damage to the boy’s body. He was barely recognizable as a person.

“Most likely,” Oliver replied. How did he always manage to stay so levelheaded in a world full of madness? “There is nobody maintaining the gas pipes. It only takes one little fault and the entire building goes up. It’s been happening right around the city.”

All those explosions I had seen from the house on the hill. I had always wondered. The reality of seeing the destruction and aftermath was horrifying. I ached for the safety of my house, my hill, my sanctuary.

“It could happen to other people,” I stated, it definitely wasn’t a question. This building was not the first, it wouldn’t be the last either. There would be more people burned beyond the limits of humanity.

“We should go,” Oliver said gently. “There’s nothing we can do here.”

I couldn’t move. All the faces around me were as haunted as I felt. We were momentarily united in shock and grief. I made the mistake of looking at one of the spirits.

“You have to help me.”

Ignoring her was my best option.

Until all the others noticed.

“I think my daughter was in there.”

“Forget them, I need to talk to Fleur. Can you find her?”

“She needs to help me. Not you.”

I started backing away until I hit the fence of another building. They swarmed around me, yelling for help I could not give them. They just wanted so much, there were too many of them. It was impossible.

Lilia appeared in front of them all. She looked up at me with her sad little face and deep green eyes. “There are so many of them, Everly.”

“I know,” I replied. If I focused on her, they dulled a little. She was my lifeline in the sudden ocean.

“What are you going to do?” Her voice was so innocent, laced with genuine curiosity.

I wished I had an answer for her.

I closed my eyes and tried to push them all away, reminding myself they couldn’t physically harm me. I needed to go with Oliver, then we could leave the hopeless street. It wouldn’t get rid of the spirits but he would give me the strength I needed.

Pushing past the spirits, coldness shuddered down my spine. Oliver was nowhere in sight. That only left me one option.

I ran.

My feet pounded on the cement, stumbling over the debris from the building. I rounded every corner I could find until the stench of acrid smoke no longer filled my lungs. The smell lingered on my clothes, but it wasn’t invading me like it had been.

The thought of entering a building that could explode at any time was impossible. Instead, I found an underpass and curled up in front of a drain grate. Pulling my legs to my chest, I tried to erase everything I had seen.

The burned little boy refused to leave my mind. He should not have had to die such a horrific death. The world was no longer the gentle place it once was. Left in the Event’s wake was nothing but pain and suffering.

“Everly? Are you okay?” Oliver’s soft voice carried into my thoughts, shaking me from the darkness.

“Are any of us okay?” I asked as he settled himself on the ground next to me. He was always just out of reach, making it impossible for me to fall into his arms like I would have liked at times.

He stared at me intimately with his dark green eyes, a thousand thoughts running through his mind.

I couldn’t take his silence. “Go on, say it. I know there is something you are holding onto.”

Oliver let out a long sigh. “You don’t have to save them all. It’s not up to you.”

“Then why can I see them and no-one else can?”

“I don’t know.”

“Lilia was there, she was scared,” I said before I could stop myself. “She wanted to know what I was going to do about them all.”

Oliver shook his head. It was the slightest movement but it conveyed so much. “Do nothing. Just survive.”

“But you said-”

“I was wrong. Everly, I was wrong. Go back to your house on the hill if you want to. Just do whatever you have to so you don’t end up like them.”

The pain in his eyes hurt me too. I had known Oliver so long, I thought I knew everything about him. But this? This resignation was something new.

And it felt like a thousand daggers pierced into my heart.

“What about you?” I asked. “If I hide away, what will you do?”

“I will be fine.”

“So it’s just me that can’t look after themselves, then?”

He moved closer. Just for a second, I thought he might reach for me. I pictured myself curled up in his lap, holding onto his muscled chest like he was an anchor that would ground me forever.

In the next second, it was gone. He crossed his arms, holding them tight against his body. Whatever he was going to do would never be known. Especially not to me.

“I know you can look after yourself,” he finally muttered. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“You could come to the house with me? We could live there together with nobody to bother us.”

“That house is your refuge, not mine.”

I didn’t know what else I could say and I didn’t have answers for any of our problems. The weight of the day was bearing down on me like a heavy boulder resting on my shoulders. I tilted my head against the wall, closing my eyes.

Before I knew it, I was asleep.

Ghosts didn’t plague my dreams that night, but the smell did. In the thick fog of my nightmares, I was choking on the dense smoke. No matter how many times I gasped for breath and fresh air, it wouldn’t come.

I woke up gasping equally as hard. It took a few moments for the nightmare to dissipate around me as reality sunk in. I was in an underpass.

Safe, but alone.

Oliver was gone.

I pushed myself to my feet, feeling every ache in my bones from the night before. My stomach was the part of me demanding the most attention. I couldn’t remember the last time I had eaten. All I knew was that it had been a while.

Wandering the streets, I went in the opposite direction of the exploded building. I didn’t need to see that boy’s body still lying on the sidewalk. There was no doubt nobody had moved him or given him a proper burial. That kind of thing didn’t happen anymore.

Not without adults around.

I found myself back at the shelter, lining up for a portion of food like the rest of the desolate. Oliver was nowhere in sight, no matter how many times I tried to find him. I didn’t know what he had done with my supplies. He always disappeared on me, only to emerge later on. Hopefully he would do that magic trick again soon.

A girl of about seventeen gave me some bread and soup when I reached the front of the line. I took it gratefully and found a corner to sit and eat.

“The sky is blue today, have you noticed? It’s not grey like it was yesterday.” The voice startled me. I looked up to see a girl staring down at me with the same portions of food as I had. I wondered if she was real or a spirit. It was so difficult to tell anymore.

“I didn’t notice, no,” I replied.

She sat down on the floor next to me without an invitation. “Remember rainbows? They were always so pretty. I haven’t seen one in a very long time. Have you?”

“No, I haven’t.”

I wanted to touch her, see if my hand would actually feel anything or whether I would only experience the cold sensation of a spirit. If she wasn’t real, I didn’t want to risk being exposed to all the other spirits in the area by holding a conversation with her.

“Food’s good, huh?”

“Yeah.”

“I haven’t seen you around here much,” she continued. “I stay close to this place. There’s safety in numbers, right?”

“Right. It’s important to stay safe,” I replied.

She repositioned herself, moving her feet from under her to sit cross-legged. As she did, her boot grazed my leg. I felt it. She was real. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Now I knew she was alive, I could think more clearly. “How old are you?”

“Eleven. How old are you?”

“Seventeen.”

She nodded, like she should have guessed it already. “Do you know what they’re going to do once the food runs out? I mean, it’s gonna happen soon.”

“No, I don’t know.”

“I’ve heard of a few people that live in the countryside. They have a garden so they will never run out.” She stared into space, lost in a memory. “Gardens used to be so pretty, didn’t they? My mama kept a garden. Roses, daisies, so many pretty things. Now all we have are pretty ghosts.”

She wasn’t the first kid I’d seen driven mad by the Event. Nor would she be the last. “Maybe you should go and join them? You could plant your own garden.”

Her eyes drifted back to mine but they were still a world away. “Will you come with me?”

“Sorry, I can’t. I have to stay.”

She nodded, her disappointment not even lasting for a second. She had probably asked a dozen people to go with her and none of them said yes. What was a bit more hurt when you had a constant ache?

I finished my meal and said goodbye to the girl. By the end of our time, I wasn’t sure if she still realized I was there. I hoped someone would go to the countryside with her one day.

With some food in my stomach, I could think again. I wanted to find Oliver so we could figure out what we were going to do. I missed him when he wasn’t around and I always held the fear I wouldn’t see him again. He was my only friend in a world full of enemies.

I did a thorough sweep of the shelter but only saw the faces of the haunted. No-one even resembled the gentle and kind features of Oliver. We had known each other for so long that I had every part of him memorized. The crook of his nose, the shade of his lips, the tinges of gold in his green eyes. They were as familiar to me as my own face.