Ghost Betweens (20 page)

He spotted her once during the day between classes, but she ducked into the restroom as soon as she caught sight of him. He stayed strong and tried to focus on other things to control his pain. Luckily at that moment he ran into Gerald Simms, a football teammate, and they exchanged hellos and fist bumps. It helped him get through that moment. At lunch, of course, she was nowhere to be found.

After the longest school day he could remember, sixth period finally ended, and he zipped out of the locker room towards Mr. Baxter's class. Halfway there, he saw Whisper ahead of him. Usually he'd speed up to get to her, but today he hung back. He couldn't believe the feelings that poured out of him as he watched her walk. He'd only known her just over two weeks, but he was so comfortable around her that it felt like they'd been together for their entire lives. This past week, when he had no qualms about calling her his girlfriend, had been the happiest time of his life. It didn't really make sense to him, but he felt whole, complete with her. And she certainly was a pleasure to look at. He chuckled.

She must've heard his laugh because she turned around and frowned before continuing towards the classroom. He almost yelled something about enjoying watching her walk, but he figured that'd get him into more trouble. Better to stay on his best behavior and wait for her acceptance. Hopefully it wouldn't be long. He couldn't take many more days like this.

Josh had almost caught up to her by the time they made it to Mr. Baxter's room, but he timed it so she'd get inside first. He wanted to zip past her into the room, just to see if that earned him a smile, but he thought it might just piss her off more, so he kept himself in check. When he walked in seconds after her, he found Mr. Baxter writing some calculations on the whiteboard. He looked up at them and smiled, though it didn't reach his eyes.

"Ah, good, you're here. I think I have the timeline down on when the nasty dream will become a reality. Unfortunately it doesn't give us much time to save Mr. Riley and Ms. Phelps."

"When?" Josh asked.

"Tomorrow night. At least I'm assuming night since it was night in the dream." He checked whatever calculations they were and looked back at them. "It was night in your dreams, right? I'm assuming because it was in mine."

"I didn't really think about it, but yes, it was," Whisper said.

"Same here," Josh said. He glanced over at her, but she didn't look at him.

"Good, good. I'm still stuck on what to do about the demon, but not to worry. I have plenty of leads in my books at home, so I'll have something for you before tomorrow night, even if I have to take another sick day."

"What about the film cameras?" Josh asked. "It seemed to work on banishing the ghosts when I destroyed the film. Could that maybe work on the demon?"

Mr. Baxter stared at him, and he thought for a second he'd said something really dumb. But then Mr. Baxter broke out in a smile, a real one. "Mr. Hart, you may be a genius. I'm sorry to say I forgot all about that this weekend, thanks to the vision. But just to make sure it wasn't some sort of fluke brought on by Mr. Riley, let's get some cameras and you two can run a quick test at the farm. I know where I can get a couple right now. Hold tight."

He rushed from the room and jogged across campus towards the office. Josh looked over at Whisper. She was doing her best to look anywhere but at him.

"Whisper, I'm really sorry I upset you. I didn't mean to. Honest."

Now she looked him square in the eyes. "I don't want to discuss this with you. You'll just say something stupid again."

"Stupid? So now I'm stupid?"

She sighed. "Yes, Josh, that's exactly what I said. You're stupid. Not you said something stupid. God! Try listening and comprehending. Maybe if you did that Saturday night we wouldn't be in this predicament."

He bit back a retort he knew he'd regret, let out a breath, and walked over to examine what Mr. Baxter had written on the board. She let him go and didn't press anything any further. He hoped Mr. Baxter would be back soon as he wasn't sure he could take this tension in the room much longer.

Before they said anything else to each other, Mr. Baxter came back with two camera cases in hand. "Okay, here we go. These aren't the best quality cameras out there, but they should do the trick. They both have fresh rolls of 24 shots loaded in them now, and two new rolls of film in each case." He handed them both one. "Get out there today and take pictures of ghosts until you use up the loaded roll. Then destroy it, see if it works, and get out of there. Stay as far away from that farmhouse as you can, and hopefully the demon won't bother you. Remember, she thinks she's invincible, and that her inevitable escape is upon her. I don't think she'll care one bit about a handful of banished spirits."

They both nodded and turned to leave.

"Mr. Hart? Ms. Douglas?"

They looked at him. He seemed about to say something, but then just shook his head. "Nothing. Good luck. Email me when you know the answer. I probably won't be here tomorrow, so check for a text after school. Okay?"

"Yeah," Josh said, and Whisper nodded. They turned and left, saying nothing to each other as they did.

Neither said anything on the drive to the farm. Whisper inspected the cameras and seemed happy with both, giving as much attention to Josh's as her own. He wasn't sure if that was a sign of her starting to forgive him, or simply her love of photography shining through. He didn't ask. Let her break the silence if she wanted to.

As they pulled into the farm driveway, the sign out front held an ominous message. "Can't wait for tomorrow night." Not good. Whisper shuddered next to him. He took a deep breath. Mr. Baxter would come up with something. They wouldn't, couldn't, let the demon and her supernatural minions out into the world at large. Not after seeing what a ghost could do. He wished they'd stayed around to get any information on the family, though that would have been suspicious. He couldn't get over the fact that that happy-looking family wouldn't have a father anymore. Whisper glanced over at him, and he saw concern on her face rather than the hate she'd been throwing at him all day. He wanted to expand upon it, but before he could, they saw Zach's car in the driveway.

"I figured this is where they were today," Whisper said.

"Yeah, me too. I was hoping they'd be gone by now."

As they got out of the car, Josh looked for footprints in the dirt or any other telltale signs of where Zach and Kendra might be. He didn't want to be in the middle of the experiment and have them interrupt. It could get deadly.

"Shall we get to it?" Whisper asked. She handed him his camera.

"I think we should find out where they are."

She shook her head. "You know they're in the farmhouse, and Mr. Baxter said to stay away from it today."

"But if they're laying in wait, they could make trouble for us. I don't want to see you get hurt."

"So now you care if I'm hurt or not."

His jaw dropped open. "What? I never wanted to see you hurt. I didn't mean to blame you for anything. That's not what I meant at all."

"Could've fooled me. Whatever. Let's just go see where they are."

Josh again kept himself from lashing out at her comment, but his patience was wearing thin. Yes, he'd said the wrong thing on Saturday night, but he didn't find it fair that she wouldn't let him explain. Or even apologize. He took a deep breath and tried to be happy that she took his advice to find their friends.

They turned invisible and rounded the corner onto the farm. "Jeez, look at them all," Josh said. There were more ghosts than he'd ever seen. If they'd been visible, the ghosts would have overwhelmed them before they'd even be able to get off a burst to chase them away, let alone a banishing. Even if this experiment worked, the ghosts wouldn't automatically leave until they managed to pull the film out and render it useless. But maybe they wouldn't have to wait until the entire film roll used.

"Hey, Whisper. When we start taking pictures, we might want to only take a few with one camera to see if this works without using the whole roll. We can still snap every picture in the other camera."

She frowned and looked like she wanted to argue, but instead her face softened, and she nodded. "That actually sounds like a good idea."

He almost quipped back that he got them occasionally, but she wasn't in the mood for him to try to lighten things up. Instead he just kept pace with her to the farmhouse. The ghosts, though still numerous, thinned out a bit as they approached the gate.

"Do you think she knows we're here?" he asked.

"I don't know. I guess the best we can do is hope she doesn't care."

He nodded and they walked into the house. Cold enveloped them as they entered. The first view in was the dilapidate state of a neglected home. There was no furniture that hadn't been smashed or deteriorated by age. The walls had the tattered remains of drab, dreary wallpaper in spots, and gritty, pealing paint in others. The floor might at one time have been hard wood or even carpeting, but now it was all dirt. And a lingering smell of perfume and spoiled meat assaulted their noses.

They found the stairs, and though the wood looked rotted and unstable, Josh somehow knew it would hold, just as he knew Zach and Kendra were up there with the demon. They both hesitated, but started up. About halfway, a slight tingling hit Josh on the back of his skull. He reached up to scratch, but it was on the inside. It soon grew to encompass his whole head.

"Are you feeling this?" he asked.

She shook her head, not to say no, but like she was trying to get something out of her ears. As he focused back up the stairs, the buzzing grew and hit him with intense pain. He almost fell to his knees. Whisper grunted something from the back of her throat and grabbed his upper arm. He teetered but didn't fall.

"We're stronger together than apart," she said through gritted teeth. "Concentrate on being invisible."

"I already am." His head was close to bursting.

"Trust me. Think about being invisible." Her entire body shook, and he saw she was in as much agony as him.

"I trust you." He grabbed both her hands and thought about being more invisible than he was. It took a few seconds, but the pain drained away, and the buzzing shrunk until it was gone.

Whisper sighed and slumped against him. He moved his arms to hug her, but before he could, she shimmied away from him. The look in her eyes proved that she was now just doing it out of principle.

"How did you know that would work?" he asked.

"I don't know. I just did." She paused and gave him a half-smile. "You trusted me."

He smiled back. "I did. I do."

She gave him a real smile, but then turned away. "It's a start. Let's go see what's going on."

They climbed the stairs, still clutching hands. Being invisible had become second nature, so much more so that he didn't even have to think about it anymore. How often did he turn invisible even when he didn't need to be? With no ghosts around, who would know? With whatever this was, though, they needed the extra concentration.

The demon dwelled somewhere up on the second floor. Not right at the top of the stairs, but in one of the rooms. Josh could feel it clear as day. They snuck up, tense but ready.

Nothing met them at the top. A long hallway with doorways lining both sides greeted them. Most doors were shut, but there were a few with cracked and broken ones hanging on their hinges or lying on the floor. The first one on the left looked intact, but was half-open. Whisper pointed at it, and Josh knew that not only the demon sat in there, but Zach and Kendra, as well.

They made eye-contact, neither wanting to chance giving away their position with talk, and advanced to the door. No one popped out at them, so they peeked in. It took him a second to realize what he was seeing, and when he did, he couldn't breathe. Whisper gasped next to him.

On top of a tattered and stained mattress, Kendra lay naked, a sheen of sweat covering her body. She looked as if she were in a trance. Josh had seen pictures of naked ladies before, both on the Internet and one time when he and Zach had found a dirty magazine under the high school bleachers. But he'd never seen a nude girl in person. If it wasn't Kendra, he might have stared longer, but he couldn't look at her. She wasn't just his friend, she was like a sister.

He scanned the room, doing his best to focus on anything else besides Kendra. On the other side of the bed, on an armchair that might collapse at any moment, the demon, as naked as Kendra, though her back was to the door, sat on Zach's lap. Were they having sex? He couldn't quite tell at first, but when the demon started bouncing a bit, he had no doubt.

Whisper stared in, a look of horror on her face. Josh tugged her away from the door, and she moved without protest. They left as quietly as they came, and Josh wasn't sure if he breathed the whole way down. Once they exited the house, they let go of each other's hands, though he was careful to stay invisible to the gaggle of ghosts wandering the farmlands.

"They were . . ." Whisper started.

"Having sex," Josh finished.

"Yeah." She shuddered, and then gave him an apologetic look. "I'm not ready for that."

He bent down and kissed her forehead. "And neither of us is possessed, so you're safe."

She tilted her head up, and he moved his lips into position for a kiss, but before it happened, she gave him a light shove. "I'm still mad at you." At least she smiled when she said it, so his heart didn't plummet into his stomach. Maybe she wasn't going to break up with him after all.

He looked into the fields at the ghosts and held up his camera. "Shall we get started?"

"Yeah. Let's get our minds off of that."

"Deal," he said. "I'll take four or five pictures, and then destroy the film, and we'll see what happens. Either way, you can use up your whole roll. Okay or not?"

"Yeah, that sounds good. Let's move back closer to your car in case we need to make a break for it."

As they walked, she glared up at him.

"What did I do now?"