“So he’s a metrosexual ghost as well?” Dex asks.
I glare at him. “No. He was outside of the store. But I saw him. We looked right at each other. Then I lost sight of him and he was gone.” I pause. “I wasn’t dreaming then.”
Dex scratches at his sideburns. “Well I suppose that’s better than being haunted by a guy that shops at Sephora. You know you’re more than welcome to come stay with us till your school starts.”
“More than welcome?” Perry repeats, coming over to me. She grabs me by the elbow and looks me deep in the eyes. She’s nothing but determined and when she’s determined, I feel safe. “You are coming with us. And tonight, you’re sleeping with me in your old bedroom. Dex you can sleep in here.”
“Delightful,” he comments dryly. “Okay, in Seattle can I at least sleep with my wife?”
Perry leads me out of the room and I eye my father’s door down the hall.
“What about dad?”
“What about him?” she asks as we get into my old bedroom, the bed in the middle of the room, the window beside it illuminating all my extra dressers and rolling racks full of clothing.
“We can’t leave him here all alone,” I tell her.
“Dad will be fine,” she says. “He’s not like us. He’ll always be fine. You know that.”
But I didn’t.
“I’ll make sure to talk to the Knightlys before we go, let them know he’s alone. I’ll talk to Debbie down the street too, I’m sure she’d be more than willing to keep an eye on him.”
“Do you trust the Knightlys?” I ask.
She bites her lip, thinking as she goes around to her side of the bed. “I’m not sure. Sage was nice, even if he was keeping a lot of things close to his chest. But I think we have to trust them for now.”
I wasn’t sure either but deep down I felt they were just older versions of ourselves. If we went on to have a badass rock star career, of course.
I get into the bed, the room strangely cold despite the persistent heat wave. I know it’s kind of silly to be sleeping with my sister for the second night in a row, like a frightened child, but I’m grateful for it all the same.
“Is Dex going to be okay in there?” I ask her softly after a few moments, the night settling back around us. “I mean, if it was Michael in the closet . . .”
Two years ago, Dex, Perry, and I were sitting here, in this house. They’d just come back from filming their last episode of their Experiment in Terror show. Dex was upstairs editing. I was doing a workout video in the living room. Perry went for a walk. My parents were out somewhere. Then a man showed up at the door, claiming to be Michael, Dex’s estranged brother, and all hell broke loose.
I mean Hell literally broke loose.
Michael made me black out and when I woke up, he was gone and so was Dex. Only Perry and I remained. We immediately hopped on a plane to New York to get Dex back, who we figured had been manhandled by Michael. And my parents, once they learned where we’d gone, did the same. That brought everyone to Manhattan like one big happy family. Except we weren’t happy—we were being used and manipulated by a demon that had possessed Michael a long time ago. Me, my mother, Perry, Dex, and his friend Maximus all ended up in the house that Michael and Dex grew up in, a place that wasn’t a house at all but a portal to Hell, existing in its own horrific reality.
My mother wasn’t the only one lost thanks to Michael’s demon. Maximus died as well. And we were all forever changed.
Look, I never said my backstory was easy.
Or normal.
“If that is Michael, or whatever demon it was who possessed him,” Perry whispers, “Dex has nothing to fear. He has defeated him once, he could do it again.”
“Perry, Dex died,” I point out, even though I’m sure she never needs reminding of that horrible moment when she found him lifeless on the floor in the house of Hell. “He made the same sacrifice that mom made, only you were able to go in and get him out, bring him back to life.”
She falls silent and I feel I’ve hit a nerve. “Not that you would have been able to do that with mom,” I quickly add.
She just nods, swallowing thickly. “Dex will be fine. But you, you won’t be.”
Normally I would protest over something like that, get defensive or find it belittling, but in this case Perry is right and I’m not about to argue.
I’m not fine at all.
And I don’t fall asleep, no matter that Dex is in my room, no matter if I’m safe here or not. I just can’t.
My mind keeps playing it all over and over again. The dream, the pond, my mother’s words. The thing in my room. The closet.
Jay.
He could be a ghost, I could be going insane.
But there was no doubt he was in my room.
A dream brought to life.
CHAPTER SIX
I don’t know how long I lie there in the bed beside Perry, praying for that first show of dim morning light, the sign that you’ve made it, that you’re going to be okay.
It doesn’t seem to come, though. I can hear Perry’s soft snoring, and if anything the room grows darker as the night wears on.
Finally I get up, wanting a glass of water.
I slowly ease of bed, careful not to wake Perry. I stand there, trying to figure out whether I should go to bathroom or kitchen, both equally creepy on nights like this, when a light illuminates my face.
I glance at the window that looks straight into the upstairs window of one of the Knightlys’ rooms.