Cemetery Tours (28 page)

“Gav,” Kate whispered in a shaky voice.
  “What did you do?”

But he didn’t answer.
  And before she could fully register what was happening, something ran toward them from across the room.  The sound sent an icy wave of dread coursing through Kate’s body and she braced herself for impact.

It never came.

Instead, a burst of energy, akin to a cool electric shock, traveled through her like a gust of wind, leaving her breathless, but stable.  Suddenly, there was nothing but stillness and a near-deafening silence.  For a brief moment, Kate thought it was all over.  Then the temperature in the room began to drop.  The air grew tense and heavy.  A lamp on the coffee table flickered once and died.  Kate wanted to run, but she felt welded to the spot.       

“Kate...” Gavin whimpered.
 

The next second, he was hurtling backwards through the air, knocked off his feet by a powerful and invisible force.
  And Kate could only watch in horror as her brother crashed into a wall of framed photographs and slumped to the floor, unconscious in a mess of shattered glass and pooling blood.  

~*~

This has got to stop
.

That was the only thing Michael could say, or even think, after he’d received a phone call from a hysterical Kate, telling him that Gavin had been attacked.
 

After the disastrous events of earlier that morning, he hadn’t considered that the day could possibly get worse, but by now he should have figured that things never went as expected.
  Grabbing his keys off of the kitchen table, he dashed out the door and across the landing to Kate’s apartment.  

Inside, he found Kate leaning over Gavin, who was lying bloodied and semiconscious in a field of broken picture frames and shards of glass at the base of their living room wall.
  Although Kate was obscuring most of Gavin’s body, Michael could see smears of red on her hands and clothes.  Trevor was nowhere to be seen.   

“Gav?
  Gavin, look at me,” Kate was saying over and over again.  “Gav, please.  Come on, stay with me.”  

“What happened?” Michael asked, kneeling down next to her.
 

“We - we were having a fight.
  And I started asking him about Trevor.  It was him.  I felt him.  I felt him run straight through me.  And then, the next thing I know, Gav is flying across the room...”  As she spoke, Michael noticed the blood seeping out from a wound behind Gavin’s ear, and an open gash down his right arm.  “We’ve got to get him to the hospital.”  

“Do you want me to call an ambulance?”

“No.”  This time, it was Gavin who spoke.  

“Gav?
  Gav, what is it?” Kate asked.  

“No ambulance,” he murmured.
 

“Okay.
  But you’re still going to the emergency room,” Kate told him.  Gavin closed his eyes and took a deep breath, but he made no objection.  “Gav, I need you to stay awake.  Michael, will you watch him?  I’m going to get our first aid kit.”  

“Sure.”

After she disappeared into the bathroom, Gavin opened his eyes and looked at Michael.  “Can you really see him?” he murmured.

“What?” Michael asked.
 

“Trevor.
” Gavin looked like he was having a difficult time staying conscious, but he spoke clearly and rationally.  “Kate told me you can see him.”  

Under any other circumstances, Michael would have felt compelled to deny it.
  Maybe it was because he knew something needed to be done, or maybe it was because for the first time, he was speaking with a victim who was still alive.  Either way, he answered, “Yes, I can see him.”

“Is he here now?”
 

“No,” Michael replied, though he knew for certain that he’d be back.
  “Gavin, what does he want from you?”

But before Gavin could answer, Kate sprinted back into the room carrying a white kit and a wet wash cloth.
  Carefully, she cleaned Gavin’s wounds and patched them up with gauze and a lot of medical tape.  

“I hope that will hold until we get to the hospital,” she said.
  “Do you think you can stand?”  

Together, Michael and Kate lifted Gavin to his feet, but he got so dizzy that he had to lean back against the wall to keep from passing out again.
  Once he was on his feet, they carefully helped him wrap his bandaged arms around their shoulders before they turned and directed him to the front door.  Michael took one step before he stopped dead in his tracks and stared ahead.  

Their friend was back.

He stood in the entry hall, a dark, looming shadow, watching with utter resentment as Kate and Michael assisted his limping victim.      

“Michael, what’s wrong?” Kate asked.
 

“Nothing,” he lied.
  She knew it too.  If all the crap Luke had spouted out about sensitivity was true, then she could sense the ghost in the room almost as easily as he could.  She just couldn’t see him.  “We just need to get Gavin out of here.”  Kate drew in a shaky breath and Michael knew she understood what he was trying to tell her.  

Down in the parking lot, Michael assisted Gavin as he climbed into Kate’s Land Rover.
  He wished more than anything that he could accompany them on the ride over to the hospital, but something inside forbade him from leaving.  He wanted to deny it was his conscience, but he couldn’t come up with any other reason for the cold knot gnawing away at his stomach.  Knowing what he had to do, Michael took Kate by the hand and asked, “Do you think you can handle getting him into the emergency room by yourself?”

“I think so.
  Why?”

“There’s something I need to take care of.
  But I’ll meet you there,” he promised.  

Michael stayed behind in the parking lot and watched them drive away.
  Then, summoning up every ounce of courage he had, he climbed back up the stairs, walked across the landing, and began pounding on Kate and Gavin’s door.

“Trevor!” he called, sounding a lot braver than he felt.
  “Trevor, I know you’re in there.”    

He appeared on the landing almost instantly, glaring at Michael with visible disdain.
  However, Michael could swear he also detected the slightest hint of curiosity.  It was for that reason alone that Michael was able to stand his ground.

“What?” Trevor growled.
  His voice was low and gravelly.  It fit his rough, intimidating exterior perfectly.  

“What did he do?” Michael demanded.
  For the first time, Trevor’s expression faded from one of intense hatred to one of genuine and outright shock.  As a result, Michael felt oddly empowered.  Now, instead of feeling afraid of the ghost standing before him, he felt angry and annoyed for everything he had put Kate through in the last four months.  When Trevor failed to answer him, he asked again, “What did Gavin Avery do to you to deserve this?”  

“You - you
can really see me?” Trevor asked.

“Yeah,” Michael answered shortly.
   

“Have you always been able to - ”

“Yeah.  Stop changing the subject.  What did Gavin do to you?”  Trevor gave a snort of derision.  

“It’s not what he did to me,” he answered.
  “It’s what he’s doing to
her
.  It’s what they’re all doing to her!”  Suddenly, Michael felt his irritation begin to ebb, only to be replaced by a fresh wave of concern. 

“To Kate?” Michael asked.
  Trevor looked as though hearing him say her name made him sick.  “What are they doing to Kate?”

“They’re lying to her!
  They say it’s to protect her.  But they have
no idea
!” Trevor growled and punched the wall.  The result was a barely audible
thump
, like a small rubber ball being bounced against a surface.  Michael waited for him to calm down before he spoke again. 

“Then talk to me.”

“What do you care?” Trevor snapped.

“I care about Kate.
  And I don’t want to see her or Gavin suffering anymore because of you.  Do you have any idea what you’ve put her through?”  Michael instantly regretted his words.  Trevor threw him a look of such vile contempt that for a moment, Michael thought he was going to send him flying over the railing.  Instead, the ghost heaved a heavy sigh.

“I never wanted to hurt her,” he said.
  “I just don’t know what to do.  It wasn’t supposed to be this way.”

“I know.
” Michael tried to choose his words carefully.  He didn’t want to antagonize him further.  And he really didn’t want to be punched in the face.  “But taking it out on Gavin isn’t going to make things better.”  Trevor looked like he very much wanted to dispute that, but he remained silent.  “Talk to me.  Maybe I can help you.”  

Trevor gave a short, mirthless laugh.

“That’s the thing.  If I talk to you, you’re not going to want to help me.”  

Michael didn’t doubt that.
  In fact, he would have liked nothing better than to turn his back, walk down the stairs, drive off, and never speak to Trevor, or any ghost, ever again.  But that wasn’t going to happen.  No matter what Trevor had to say, Michael was going to listen.    

“Try me.”
 

Sitting alone in the waiting room of Medical City Plano reminded Kate of how much she hated hospitals.  Everything about them resurrected bad memories, from the heavy smell of medication mingled with dying flowers to the bare, colorless walls to the sounds of wheelchairs and gurneys being pushed down long, narrow hallways, that, for so many, held no escape.  Kate had been one of the lucky ones.  She’d walked out of that very building.  But knowing how close she had come to death unnerved her.  Now, waiting for Gavin, she couldn’t imagine how her family must have felt during their three week stay, not knowing when or if she would ever wake up again.  It made her feel guilty for being so short with them.  

Pining for any sort of distraction, Kate pulled out her cell phone.
  It had been almost an hour since they’d left Michael in the parking lot.  She hoped he was alright.  

Just as she was pressing the
Call
button on her phone, the door to the waiting room swung open and Michael appeared.  It took only a second for him to locate Kate.  When she stood to greet him, he took her in his arms and held her for a long time.  She didn’t mind at all.  His embrace was warm and his arms were strong and comforting.  But she did find it a little peculiar.  The way he held her, it was almost like he expected her to disappear and he wanted to savor her.    

“Is everything okay?
  I was starting to worry,” Kate said after he finally let her go.  

“Yeah, I just got caught up,” he replied half-heartedly.
  He didn’t sound at all like things were actually okay, but before she could press him further, he asked, “Where’s Gavin?”   

“They took him back for X-rays about twenty minutes ago.
  He seemed to be talking a bit more clearly, but he was still pretty dazed.”

“Do you think he has a concussion?”

“I don’t know.  He hit the wall pretty hard.”

“Do your parents know?”

“No.  And unless there’s something critically wrong with him, I’m not going to tell them.”  

“That’s probably a wise decision,” Michael said, but he still sounded distant and his eyes were fixed on a spot on the floor.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Kate asked.  He glanced up at her.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”
 

“You look like you’ve got something pretty heavy on your mind.”

“It’s nothing,” he told her.  She didn’t believe him.       

“Did you talk to Trevor?”
  Michael didn’t answer her.  She knew him well enough now to know that when he didn’t answer her questions, she was usually correct.  “What did he say?”

Michael blinked, and when he finally did answer, his words surprised her.
  “I’m not sure I should be the one to tell you.”  Kate wasn’t sure what to make of that.