All the Pretty Ghosts (The Never Alone Series Book 1) (2 page)

“She should have gone into the city.”

I listened to them all the way into the kitchen. It was nearly impossible to drown them out. I had never met more opinionated people in my life. If I had, they wouldn’t have been in my life for very long.

Pouring my ration of cereal, I looked beyond the yard to see the city. It was no longer glowing, the sunlight drowned out any flames. There was still plenty of smoke, though. Plumes of the grey ghosting mists travelled upwards to the sky. I hated to think of the damage the fire had left in its wake.

Everyone it had killed.

There would be more ghosts in the city today.

I closed the curtains so I couldn’t see it anymore. I didn’t need or want a reminder that something terrible was going on nearby and I hadn’t done anything to help stop it.

Not that I could have done something anyway. It wasn’t like I was a master survivalist or anything close. I wasn’t even a fireman that would know what to do with a damn fire. I would have been useless.

That’s what I told myself, anyway.

I didn’t really believe it.

The phone’s high pitched ringing brought me out of my thoughts as my heart stopped beating in my chest and jumped up to my throat.

I ran for the house phone, practically the only appliance that still worked in the house. Picking up the receiver, I prayed to hear Oliver’s comforting voice on the other end.

“Oliver?” I asked hopefully. I didn’t breathe again until I heard a response.

“Hello? Is Jonah there?” It was a female voice, one I didn’t recognize.

“No, there’s no Jonah here.”

“Oh, sorry, wrong number.” She hung up so all I could hear was the crackling dial tone.

It wasn’t Oliver. He was still out there somewhere.

The chatter started instantly around me. “Jonah? Who’s Jonah?”

“I don’t know.”

“It was a wrong number,” I stated, just to shut them up.

“She was hoping it was Oliver.”

“She’s worried about him.”

“She should be worried about him. Those fires were huge.”

“It’s still burning.”

“Still?”

I turned to face them all, addressing them in a way I rarely did. “If you’re all so smart, tell me what I should do.”

My question seemed to take them by surprise for a moment. There were a few seconds of absolute silence but it was a heavenly few seconds. I had almost forgotten what it was like to just have peace and quiet around me.

But then it started.

“You should go into the city and find Oliver.”

“No, she shouldn’t. It could be dangerous down there.”

“How could she find him in a big city? It’s not like he’s fifty feet tall.”

“She should try.”

“Two souls that care about each other always find their way.”

“She might not come back.”

“That’s probably a good thing.”

“We’ll be lonely.”

“She should do whatever her heart tells her to do.”

“Not if it will cost her life. No man is worth that.”

“I hear ya.”

Clearly I had been stupid thinking they might actually be able to help me. I should have known better, I had brought that on myself. But that didn’t mean I had to stand here and listen to them argue about my life.

I grabbed the book I had read twice already and hurried into the backyard. I settled myself on the deck chair in the sun and tried to get lost in the pages.

It wasn’t going to work. I found myself re-reading the same lines over and over again. My mind was too buzzed with conflicting emotions to allow itself to be absorbed into the fictional world.

Everything used to be so different. Thinking back to the things I once worried about, they all seemed so trivial now. Just days before the Event, it had been the school dance I was concerned about.

I was going with Oliver. Not as a couple, just as friends. Everyone else in our group all had boyfriends and girlfriends. Oliver and I were the odd ones out. So we agreed to go to the dance as friends and help each other find someone to dance with.

I didn’t know what to wear because the weather was going to be cold. A dress would make me freeze but what else could I wear? I didn’t want to be the outcast that wore a tuxedo in some lame attempt to buck the system and be cool. So I knew I needed to find a winter-type dress that looked great but kept me warm at the same time.

It was embarrassing now to think of how much time I actually spent trying to find that dress. Oliver kept bugging me about what color tie he needed so we’d match. I kept telling him the perfect dress was out there somewhere, waiting for me, but I didn’t know what color it was.

I never found that dress.

The Event happened instead of the dance.

I wondered for the longest time what life would have been like now if we had all gone to the dance and everything continued on as normal. Perhaps I would have found the perfect guy and we would have fallen in love. We would still be attending school and getting ready to graduate. College would be looming in the distance like a big signpost.

There wouldn’t be one part of my life that resembled how it was now. I couldn’t have imagined how things went. Who would expect something like the Event to happen? Not even all the survivalists and doomsday preppers were prepared for it.

I closed the book because it was pointless keeping up the charade. I stared at the sky instead. How was it possible that it was still the same blue sky I had stared at before the Event? It seemed like nothing had changed above but everything had changed below.

Suddenly another siren started blaring from the city, jolting me upright. I had to stand to see over the fence but I instantly regretted getting up so quickly. Everyone followed me as I rushed to the gate to peer over.

Fresh plumes of smoke were rising up toward the sun, turning the blue into an orange-grey. At least it now looked like a different sky than I was used to. It somehow seemed appropriate.

“What on earth is going on down there?”

“You can go look.”

“I’m not going down there. I’m dead, I’m not stupid.”

“Why? You can only die once.”

“Can’t even do that right.”

“Nobody’s going down there,” I said sternly. Although, I’m not sure why I did. I didn’t care if the ghosts ventured into the city. Nor did I care if they came back. I would have been glad to get rid of them.

But, somehow, we were family. They were the only people I had. God knew they annoyed me as much as a real family did. The thought of being alone in the house at the top of the hill was a thought much scarier than having them around.

The alarm shut off as we stood in shock but the smoke still freely flowed. Two alarms in as many days, that wasn’t a good sign. Oliver was right about one thing when he visited me – they needed my help down there.

And they needed it now.

Chapter Three

T
hree days later, the fires were still burning in the city. I got up every day, expecting to see a clear sky and being disappointed. The air outside was so acrid with the lingering smoke that it seeped into everything. I never thought smoke had a taste before, but it did.

It tasted like death.

I stood in front of the kitchen pantry, trying to put something together for breakfast. My choices had severely dwindled. All that was left were a few cans of food. They had all passed their used-by date months earlier.

“You’ll end up like one of us if you don’t get some food soon.”

“I miss food.”

“Me too. My favorite was ice cream.”

“Chocolate.”

“Jellybeans.”

“Pizza.”

“Guys,” I interrupted. My stomach was growling just listening to them. “Don’t remind me what I’m missing.”

Agatha moved to the front of the crowd and placed her hands gently on my shoulders. I don’t know why she always did that, she couldn’t actually touch me. “You need food, Everly. You can’t delay it much longer.”

I moved from the depressing pantry to look out over the backyard instead. “Maybe I could grow some fruit and vegetables in the garden? Then I would always have food.”

“You need seeds for that.”

“And good soil.”

“I wouldn’t trust anything grown in that ground. Who knows how contaminated it is.”

“Maybe it will make things grow quicker.”

“Or bigger.”

I tuned them out when they started talking about mutant vegetables. My problem was real… and serious. If I didn’t find more food soon, I was going to starve. I had been on rations for so long that I was surviving on very little, but having nothing was not going to keep me alive.

I had already raided all the houses on the hill long ago. It was how I lasted this long. I knew it would be futile returning to the buildings to scour for scraps. If I had left anything behind, the rodents and wild animals would have scavenged it by now.

The situation couldn’t be ignored for much longer. I had enough canned food for one, maybe two days, at the most. If my body got too much weaker, I wouldn’t be able to make it into the city to search for more supplies.

I would be dead halfway down the street.

But it wasn’t only the food situation bothering me. I tried to convince myself it was, but it really wasn’t. I couldn’t even fool the ghosts into believing it either.

Today was the day Oliver normally visited. I would always pretend I didn’t notice and then secretly await his arrival all day long. Even though it was still only early, a voice in the back of my head kept telling me he wasn’t coming.

The fires had been too big, the sirens too loud, for Oliver to make it out of the city. My gut instinct was telling me it would have taken a miracle for him to be okay and then make it up the hill to knock on my front door.

He wasn’t coming.

I just knew it.

Oliver always came before noon. He was more reliable than clockwork, he always had been. I never needed to wear a watch when he was around because he kept a keen eye on his own and would tell me if I had to be somewhere.

Noon came and went with the echoing
bongs
from the old Grandfather clock in the living room. One of the ghosts insisted I kept it wound, although I had no idea why. It wasn’t like time meant anything to anyone anymore.

Nighttime fell as the full moon made its ascent into the sky. The city was barely a dim glow in the distance. Oliver never came. It was the first time he had missed his visit since he found me after the Event.

But wasn’t that what I wanted all this time? I had decided long ago I was never going to return to the city with him. I was never going to listen to a word he said. With every visit, I had told him to leave me alone and not come back.

I had received what I wanted.

Oliver wasn’t coming back, exactly like I had begged him to do on so many occasions. I was being left alone, alone with my forty-three ghosts that were slowly sending me insane. Alone to starve to death in the deserted street. Alone forever.

I went to bed exhausted. My stomach ached for something to eat but I didn’t dare delve into the few remaining morsels I still had. They needed to last longer than humanely possible. Perhaps the leaves on the few trees in the yard wouldn’t taste so bad? Maybe contaminates from the crumbling city had time to dissolve or evaporate? There had to be a slim chance they wouldn’t kill me.

Even through my heavy eyelids, I wasn’t able to sleep. Oliver filtered through my thoughts relentlessly. I wondered if he had chosen not to visit or if something really had happened to him in the city fires. Perhaps there was a lot more going on down there than I realized.

It wouldn’t have surprised me.

The night dragged on, impossibly long. The growling of my stomach was louder than the ghosts’ midnight chatter. The ache in my chest was even worse for my lost friend.

It became clear in the darkness I had a choice to make. I could give up completely and wait for death to take me away. I could then join the ghosts and roam the earth unbidden for the rest of eternity.

I could do that.

Or I could choose life.

I could choose to fight and leave the safety of my house to search for food. But more than that, I could go in search of Oliver. Something told me that if I could just see he was okay, half the aches in my body would settle. The hunger wouldn’t feel so bad, the demons in my head would be quieted.

For breakfast that morning I allowed myself five baked beans. That left six for dinner or lunch, depending on how long I could make myself wait. I drank water, trying to convince myself it would keep my stomach full. I don’t know what made me think I would be able to trick my own mind into believing it.

It wasn’t fooled.

I was starving.

I wrapped my only woolen coat around my shoulders and put on my thickest boots. Even on the warmer days I felt cold now. It was like I could feel the breeze right down to my bones and they would shiver underneath my skin.

The cold steel of the front gate was underneath my hands. I stood there, taking a few deep breaths to stop the dizziness. The food situation, I could handle. It was the constant concern for Oliver I couldn’t take anymore.

I had to move, I had to find him.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t alone.

“Here we go again.”

“I don’t know why she bothers, it’s not like she’s going to go anywhere.”

“Maybe she likes the view.”

“Of the dead city? I don’t think so.”

“She misses Oliver.”

“Yeah, what happened to him anyway?”

One of the ghosts stepped forward to stand beside me. His hands attempted and failed to grip the gate like mine did. I smiled at him, thinking maybe he was here to help make the decision easier.

I was wrong.

He grinned. “Hey, look at me, I’m Everly. Will I go or will I stay? Ah, who are we kidding? Of course I’m not going to go.” They erupted into laughter. So much for my own personal cheer squad. I was surprised they didn’t just hand me a knife so I could be done with it all.

Perhaps they would if they could actually touch things.

“Shut up, all of you,” I begged. They couldn’t hear me over the sound of their own giggles.

It was impossible to stay a moment longer. I had to find Oliver or I was going to be driven mad. If not by the ghosts then by my own mind.

My hands pushed on the gate. It made a terrible squeak as the rusty hinges protested against it. I hoped it wasn’t a warning sign of things to come.

It couldn’t be and I couldn’t think like that. I needed to find Oliver and there wasn’t anything I could do about that at the house. It was the city for me.

I took the first step that would take me over the threshold of safety. It was the first time in almost a year I had left the property. I took another step, and another one after that until I was completely away from the property boundary.

I was in the street.

“She’s doing it.”

“She’ll be back.”

“Give it a few minutes and she’ll come running.”

“Maybe she won’t. Maybe she’ll leave us.”

“For good?”

“We can find her, we’re not the ones stuck here.”

“I think it’s good for her.”

“She should leave. It’s not healthy staying here.”

They all had an opinion but none of them followed me. I didn’t dare look back over my shoulder to see them but their voices grew softer the further I went.

Every step away from the house made a voice in my head scream that I should turn around and hurry back. It was warning me that I was going into the unknown. I had no way of predicting what would await me in the city.

I didn’t even know what awaited me at the end of the street.

But I had to keep going.

Oliver was down there somewhere and I had to find him. He had never missed one visiting day since he found me. I couldn’t leave him to languish in the city alone. I had to find him. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t.

My legs were heavy with trepidation. As I passed the last remaining house on the street, I had an overwhelming urge to run back as fast as I could.

But I kept going.

I may have had to wade through what felt like concrete to get there, but I was going to do it. The fear of staying and starving was worse than the fear of going into the city and facing what awaited me.

It had been so long since I travelled this way, I actually had to think about the path I needed to take. It wasn’t like I had a map or GPS. The skyscrapers in the distance were my beacon, the guiding light to lead me into the darkness.

An eerie silence wrapped itself around me. Even the gentle cool breeze didn’t bring any sound with it. What once would have held cars whizzing by and people chattering happily, now only held a deathly quietness. After listening to the forty-three ghosts occupying my home, it was almost too much to bear. I truly felt alone for the first time in a long time.

As I moved, faces would appear at the windows of the houses I passed. I knew they weren’t real, but more dead people. They hid when they saw me, we rarely made any eye contact. If they knew I could see them, I wouldn’t be able to get rid of them. That’s how my house had become so full.

It all started with just one ghost.

Going down the hill was probably far easier than it would be to return again. The road was steep. If I had a bicycle or a skateboard, it would have taken me a fraction of the time to reach the bottom. Perhaps I should have searched around for one? But it would probably have been a waste of time.

The houses started to become more condensed, the first sign I was getting close to the city. The buildings weren’t as small anymore either, proving I was approaching. I tried to mentally prepare myself for what I was going to see, but I couldn’t. It brought back too many memories I would rather forget.

Like seeing everyone I loved die.

A horrible, painful death.

I shook my head to get rid of the thoughts. The only way I had been able to cope with it all was to pretend it didn’t happen. If I could squash those thoughts into a tiny little space in my mind and never let it unravel, I could function. If even a tiny corner started to peel back, I commenced my shutdown.

I continued to force my feet to keep going. One step at a time I wound my way through the suburb until I reached the city. It was when the faces started to become real that I seriously wanted to turn back.

I knew these faces weren’t ghosts because they were only children. They peeked out from front doors and behind alleys to stare at me. They were filthy, gaunt, and held a look of sadness so terrible it was heartbreaking.

They each reminded me of Faith.

But she was gone, too.

I locked my eyes on the street and tried desperately not to look to my sides. The dilapidated buildings were almost as sad as the children that roamed through them. Nobody had maintained the structures in a long time, nobody knew how.

Except me.

And I wasn’t helping.

The lump in my stomach lurched up to my throat and lodged itself there. No matter how many deep breaths I took, it refused to budge. But I couldn’t break down. I had to find Oliver, it wasn’t a choice now. My journey into the city would not be in vain. I wouldn’t let it be.

The further into the heart of the city I went, the more apparent it was that the past year had not been kind to it. So many of the houses were burned out, just empty shells that used to hold happy families.

Just one moment was all it took to destroy everything.

Barely a window was still whole, no gardens grew in planters. What was once the main parkland was now just a patch of brown dirt. Everything was a bleak beige or grey. Gone, along with hope, were all the bright colors.