I wanted to scream.
The shadow pressed down on my chest, siphoning the air from my lungs, like hands trying to crush me. A face formed within the shadow, one that was becoming more and more familiar to me. Victor.
You have to stop him, the shadow said in a distorted, discordant voice.
Stop who? I asked wordlessly because my own voice still wouldn’t work.
You have to stop Noah, it replied, stop him before he ruins everything.
A sense of terror gripped me tight. The pressure released. I inhaled a sharp, wheezing breath, sat up in bed and turned on the lamp like I normally did after a bout of sleep paralysis. This was unlike those other times though. The shadow had formed a face. It spoke to me in a voice that made every part of me recoil in terror.
Now I questioned if I ever had sleep paralysis at all. Had Victor’s ghost been haunting me this whole time? And if it was him, what exactly did he want me to stop Noah from doing?
17.
My nineteenth birthday arrived with very little fanfare. Aoife was the only person in my life who remembered the day. And because she was an absolute gem, she presented me with a miniature chocolate cake during lunch, alongside a small velvet jewellery box.
I opened it and found a pretty, delicate gold chain inside. It was almost identical to the one Vee ruined when she thrashed my bedroom.
“It’s for your cross. I’m not into all that religious stuff like you are, Stells, but I know your dad got you the pendant and that it meant a lot to you.”
The reasonably small gesture had me feeling all kinds of emotional. Tears welled in my eyes. “You’re a wonderful friend. Thank you.” I leaned across the table and pulled her into a hug.
“Get a room!” Sally shouted from two tables over, snickering with her friends.
I diligently ignored her. It wasn’t long now before I received my inheritance money and left this town forever. Sally would be stuck in this godforsaken place for the rest of her life, but not me.
“If you’d quit watching us all the time, we wouldn’t need a room,” Aoife shot back loudly. “I swear it’s like she’s obsessed with us.”
Sally scowled. I chuckled. We finished eating our sandwiches and dug into my mini birthday cake. Siobhan had helped Aoife make it. I’d been carrying my cross in my pocket because I always liked to have it with me. Aoife helped me slide it onto the chain and secured the clasp around my neck. I felt so much better to be wearing it again.
I was in an unusually chipper mood as I walked home from school along the beach. Victor hadn’t appeared to me since the night of the séance, and I held onto the belief that it wasn’t real. That the glass of wine messed with my head or something.
That could be it, right? So many ghost stories were recounted by people who were intoxicated during the encounter.
Something in my gut told me I was living in denial.
I entered the house, dropped my bag on the floor and went to see what was in the cupboard for dinner. I was deciding between a tin of baked beans and an old packet of minestrone soup that was a couple weeks past its sell-by date when Noah’s angry voice drifted down from the living room.
“You can’t just go on lying to her like this. It isn’t fair!”
“It’s none of your business,” Vee retorted. “Why are you so concerned anyway? She’s nothing to you.”
“She’s something to me,” he said, voice low.
I frowned, wondering what they were arguing about. Vee had cut down on her alcohol intake and was doing a lot better of late. She’d also been less strict with me, mostly ignoring me and leaving me to my own devices instead of bossing me around and ordering me to do chores like she normally did.
“What’s going on?” I asked hesitantly as I entered the living room. I looked between the two of them. Noah’s posture was strung tight, his jaw ticking with fury. Vee stood with her arms folded, her expression defensive. Both of their gazes landed on me, and Vee appeared almost fearful.
Noah strode toward me, his face full of … Was that pity? Before I could react, he took my hand and dragged me from the room.
“Where are we going?”
“I’m getting you out of this hellhole for a few hours,” he replied, then under his breath, “It’s the least I can fucking do.”
Moments later we were in the car, sailing away from the house and toward the city. I watched Noah, waiting for his anger at Vee to simmer down before I spoke.
“Do you want to tell me what you and Vee were arguing over?”
He huffed a breath. “No.”