Coldhearted (9781311888433) Read online

  Edie told them that she’d see them soon, and then she ended the call.

  When she strapped on her seatbelt, and got ready to leave, a cold voice said, “Don’t drive too fast. The ice can be treacherous.”

  “Thanks for the tip,” she said sarcastically.

  He laughed, finding her amusing. “So. Are we friends now?”

  “Never,” she declared. “Now leave me alone.”

  “I’m afraid I can’t do that, Edie.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because you’re mine,” he growled in her ear.

  She’d yet to move, still parked on Main Street, which was deadly silent. The businesses had closed and the patrons had gone. The Gallos had nailed a wooden board to Ravenna’s broken out window, and had left shortly thereafter, probably in search of a priest to ward their apartment against future attacks.

  Now alone, Edie threw question after question at the ghost, hoping that he’d submit to an interview. Her inquiries were met with dead silence for the longest time until he finally said:

  “All in good time, Edie. All in good time.”

  He was drawing this out. Oh, joy.

  Chapter 14

  Edie had been expecting to be greeted by numerous fake gravestones, but when she arrived at Diana’s, and stood next to them, fear took hold of her.

  It looked so real that she thought it was real. And it was a reminder of her parents, of their gravestones back home; although theirs didn’t have creepy-looking hands that came up out of the ground, trying to pull her under.

  “There you are!”

  Mason came out of nowhere and crushed her in a hug. He immediately took her fear away. “I was about to come looking for you.” He kissed her in front of Diana and Madelyn, who were standing nearby. “You’re so cold.”

  “Then warm me up,” Edie said in a sultry voice, much to her surprise.

  “Get a room,” Diana joked. “But not mine,” she added.

  “Cookie?” Madelyn offered, and handed Edie one wrapped inside a napkin.

  “Thanks,” Edie said, and finished it in two bites.

  “More?” Madelyn asked.

  “Please,” Edie begged, and followed everyone inside.

  Diana’s home was decorated for Halloween. In addition to the gravestones were: spiders; hanging skeletons; scary witches; and an overload of pumpkins, plastic and real.

  “Cozy,” Edie joked.

  Diana just laughed.

  Madelyn said, “My family doesn’t go all-out on Halloween. We just have candy prepared for the trick-or-treaters, so they won’t egg our house.”

  “Why don’t you do Halloween?” Edie asked.

  Before answering, Madelyn took another bite of a snickerdoodle and swallowed. “My dad said he doesn’t want to celebrate the occult.” She shrugged. “I’ve never been trick-or-treating, but over the years, they’ve let me come over to Di’s, and watch scary movies and eat candy.”

  “And because of that,” Diana said, “I’ve never gone trick-or-treating, either. Maddie and I have been besties since like the cradle, I think. If she can’t go, then I won’t go. That’s the way I see it.”

  Edie smiled and almost cried. “I’m really glad y’all are my friends.” She and Mason had been holding hands, and she squeezed his now, facing him. “And I’m really glad you’re my boyfriend.”

  Mason kissed her forehead. “And I’m really glad you’re my girlfriend, more than glad, actually.”

  “Aw,” Diana and Madelyn sang in unison.

  Mason was blushing. “All right, all right, calm down. Let’s go upstairs and well...”—he turned toward Edie—“talk…about ghosts.” His tone indicated that he wanted to believe, but seemed hesitant to accept the truth.

  “How appropriate for Halloween,” Diana commented.

  “And scary,” Madelyn added.

  Diana nodded, and then gave Edie a concerned look. “Are you all right? Is the ghost...?” She trailed off, staring around her house. “Is it…here?”

  Edie hesitated, and then replied, “Yes, and it’s a he.”

  “A he?” Mason almost yelled, unnecessarily jealous.

  Edie patted his arm, trying to soothe his worries away. “It’s okay. It’s not like that.”

  Mason relaxed, just a little, but Edie knew that he didn’t like the idea of a male ghost being so familiar with her, and her, him. Edie didn’t like it, either. Mason opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by a cry from the kitchen.

  “That’s Danny,” Diana said, indicating her baby brother.

  Edie said, “I guess I should say ‘hi’ considering I’m a guest.”

  Diana shrugged, and then said, “Okay, but he pukes and pisses a lot, so be on guard.”

  Mr. Christensen was in the kitchen, staring out the window. Mrs. Christensen was feeding Danny in his highchair.

  “Dad, what’re you looking at?” Diana asked, as she made her way to the fridge, and grabbed the milk.

  Mr. Christensen turned and found Edie—the new girl—in the crowd.

  He smiled. “Hey, Edie, right?”

  Edie nodded in acknowledgement.

  “Nice car,” he commented.

  “Thanks.”

  “What model is it?”

  Edie shrugged, having no clue. It started when she turned the key, so that was good enough for her.

  “Stop pestering her about the car,” Mrs. Christensen lightly scolded, trying to feed Danny, who was being fussy.

  Mr. Christensen held out his hands. “I’m just curious.” He left the window and swept past Danny, giving him a gentle pinch on his cheek. Danny stopped crying instantly.

  “How’d you do that?” Mrs. Christensen asked, holding a spoonful of baby food in mid-air.

  Mr. Christensen shrugged and stuffed a cookie into his mouth. “Call it a father’s touch,” he said in a muffled voice, while chewing. He swallowed and struck his hands together, cleaning them of crumbs, then he gulped down a glass of milk. When he was done snacking, he said, “Well, I’m off kids, work to do.”

  After he’d left the kitchen, Edie asked Diana, “He works at home?”

  “Computer stuff,” Diana said vaguely.

  Her mom added, “Writing code,” in a proud voice, while successfully spooning a helping of pureed green stuff into Danny’s mouth. He swallowed greedily, and then kicked and laughed, happy.

  “Computer stuff,” Diana repeated to Edie in a muffled voice, inadvertently spitting out cookie crumbs on the kitchen counter.

  While Madelyn and Mason helped themselves to more cookies and milk, Edie advanced toward Mrs. Christensen and Danny. Edie wasn’t afraid of babies, but she wasn’t one to kiss them to death, either. But she wanted to be polite and say “hello” to the little stinker.

  “Hey,” Edie greeted, leaning down so he could see her face.

  Danny’s smile faded to a frown, and then his mouth stretched open, emitting the loudest scream that she’d ever heard, blubbering, and just generally freaking out as soon as he saw her.

  Edie backed away, far away, toward a corner of the kitchen. “Sorry,” she apologized. “I didn’t mean to scare him.”

  Mrs. Christensen gave her a dismissive wave. “It’s okay. He’s been fussy all day. It’s nothing to do with you.”

  “Pinch his cheek,” Diana suggested. “Or spank his butt, whatever works.”

  Mrs. Christensen gave her daughter a look, and then picked up Danny. She held him against her chest, rocking him back and forth. It was working. Danny fell silent, and then fell asleep.

  “Phew,” Diana said. “I can hear my thoughts again.”

  Mrs. Christensen ignored her and turned toward Edie. “Have you eaten dinner?”

  “No, ma’am,” Edie replied politely.

  Mrs. Christensen nodded at Diana. “Fix Edie something to eat while I put Danny to bed.”

  “Oh, no, that’s okay,” Edie protested.

  Diana was already rummaging through the fridge. “It’s no problem. I’m not
going to let you starve.” Diana was moving items around, making noise. “Ah-ha!” She pulled out a heavy glass container with tin foil covering the top. “Leftover lasagna?” she offered with a smile.

  Edie smiled back. “Sounds great.”

  After they’d stuffed their stomachs with lasagna, cookies, and milk, they headed up to Diana’s bedroom. It was a large room in shades of pale yellow and baby blue mingled with Halloween directions, such as a mini-Frankenstein, who danced to the “Monster Mash” song, and a string of pumpkin lights that trailed along the walls.

  Madelyn plopped down on Diana’s bed, at home. Diana took up position next to Madelyn’s lying figure, but sat cross-legged and hugged a pillow against her chest.

  “Sit wherever you want,” Diana said to Edie, gesturing around the room.

  Mason was already sitting on a futon nearby, so Edie sat next to him.

  “Don’t get any ideas,” Madelyn said with a smile.

  Mason put his arm around Edie’s shoulders. “If I did have any ideas, I wouldn’t act on them here.”

  Diana waved a hand. “You’re a guy. Of course you have ideas.”

  “And girls don’t?” he countered, raising his eyebrow.

  Madelyn giggled. Diana threw the pillow that she’d been clutching at her friend.

  Madelyn threw it back. “It’s got drool on it.”

  “I don’t drool in my sleep,” Diana said, defensive.

  As Diana and Madelyn debated over who drooled, who snored, and who made other weird noises while they slept, Edie snuggled against Mason, and wrapped her arm around his chest.

  He laid his hand on her back and pushed her closer. “This can go on for a while,” he said, indicating with his free hand at Diana and Madelyn’s friendly back and forth.

  “It’s okay,” Edie said. “I’m just glad y’all didn’t march me to the town limits and throw me into the next county.”

  “Why would you say that?” Mason asked, sounding offended.

  Edie looked up at him. “Well, I may not be a witch, but the ghost haunting me, is also haunting those close to me, friend or enemy.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe he did so much damage at Ravenna’s.”

  “Wait…” Diana trailed off, scanning her room, and then turned toward Edie. “So…is he going to try something here?”

  She and Madelyn had stopped debating, and Edie had their full attention. Madelyn edged closer to her friend and stared at Edie, waiting.

  When Edie didn’t answer, Diana tensed. “But I haven’t done anything to him! Why would he mess with my room?”

  Edie leapt off the futon and away from Mason’s warm embrace. “I shouldn’t have come here. It was a mistake. He’s…cruel. He might do something here. I’ll go.”

  As Edie turned to leave, she felt a gentle, warm hand close around her wrist. It was Diana, holding her in place. “No way,” she declared. “I mean, I don’t want my windows to explode or anything, but I’m not going to hide in fear, and I’m not going to push you out.” She let go of Edie and folded her arms over her chest. “If that ghost wants to hurt you, he’ll have to go through me.”

  “And me,” Madelyn said, leaping to Diana’s side.

  Mason was the last to stand. He advanced and tilted Edie’s chin up, kissing her on the lips. “And me,” he added to the quickly-forming defense league.

  Edie got teary-eyed. “Thanks, but…” She frowned. “It’s not just me who he wants to torment. It’s everyone, I think. He enjoys haunting others. It’s my fault, really. I freed him and I don’t know how to restrain him, if that’s even possible.”

  “Is he like…standing…right next to you?” Mason scanned the seemingly unoccupied space around her body, trying to find a ghostly presence. He furrowed his brow, failing.

  “I don’t know where he is, honestly. He talks to me and sometimes it’s right in my ear. He gives me chills. More so than this godforsaken weather you call winter here in Grimsby,” she added in the tone of a disgruntled, new resident.

  “It’s still technically fall,” Madelyn pointed out, and then frowned, when Diana gave her a look. “Sorry, just saying.”

  “Here,” Diana said, and led Edie back toward the futon. “If you want to talk about him, okay. If you don’t, that’s okay too. No pressure, yeah?”

  “No, I need to tell y’all what I’ve been going through, and also, a warning to be on guard, I guess. This ghost means business.” She sat on the futon and Mason followed, next to her. “Ravenna wasn’t lying,” Edie continued. “She saw a man appear out of thin air on that road. It was the ghost. He tried to kill her.”

  Diana and Madelyn had been standing, but now they sat on the bed, huddled together.

  “Kill?” Diana repeated, worry veiling her face. “Did he tell you that he wanted to kill her? Kill others?”

  Edie shook her head. “He only speaks when he wants to. I tried to engage him, ask questions like his name, how he died, and why he’s generally making my life, and others, a living hell.”

  “And what’d he say?” Madelyn asked.

  Edie sighed. “Basically, he’ll tell me when he feels like it. I’m not holding my breath,” she added dryly.

  Mason shook his head. “I don’t like this Edie, not at all. I mean...” He’d been holding her hand, but now he let go, and raked his fingers through his hair. “He can see you, and you can’t see him. He’s like a…voyeur.”

  “Aren’t all ghosts like that?” Diana threw out, speaking logically.

  Mason sighed. “You don’t get it,” he said to Diana. “He’s watching her. While she sleeps…in the shower...”

  “Oh,” Diana and Madelyn said in unison, realizing where Mason’s distress was coming from.

  Edie was speechless. She hadn’t thought of that before. The ghost knew her.

  She reached over, clasped Mason’s warm hand, and found her voice, saying, “That may be true, but he can’t touch me, not physically.” She was trying to find something, anything positive.

  Mason shook his head again. “That still doesn’t make it all right, Edie.”

  “Well, let’s think,” Diana said. “Put our heads together. How do we get rid of your Peeping Tom?”

  “Take us back to the beginning,” Madelyn suggested. “How did this all start?”

  Diana and Madelyn were leaning toward Edie, eager to hear the tale. Mason was holding her hand, massaging.

  Edie sighed. “Okay, here goes.”

  She told them her story, editing out any and everything about Russell. They knew that he’d been at her house, but they believed the lie that she’d told them, just like everyone else: she and Russell had discussed her studies, the death of her parents, the move to a new town, and her uncle had been present throughout.

  She hated lying to them, but she had no other choice. She and Russell were in this together. Also, she didn’t want to admit to Mason that she’d kissed Russell, her teacher. It’d been a nothing kiss, really. Or had it been a something kind of kiss?

  She pushed that worry away and concentrated on the truth, on the ghost, and what he’d said and done. When she told them that the ghost had claimed her as his, as in property, Mason flipped.

  He dropped the f-bomb and made no apology about it. “Edie, you have to do something! We have to do something!” He paused, and then suggested, “What about exorcism?”

  “Isn’t that for demons?” Diana questioned.

  “Yeah, you have to be possessed, right?” Madelyn added.

  “Well, it could work in Edie’s case too,” Mason pointed out.

  Edie waved her hands in the air. “I’m not possessed. I’m in full control of my body, my actions, and my speech. The ghost is just...”

  “He’s just what?” Mason said, agitated that there wasn’t a simple solution.

  “It’s like what Jules said: he’s attached to me.”

  “Well, un-attach him,” Mason said, as if it were that easy.

  “Wait, who’s Jules?” Madelyn asked.


  “Julianna Desantiago,” Edie clarified.

  Diana and Madelyn said in unison, “Oh, okay,” acknowledging who Jules was.

  Diana asked, “But how does she know about ghosts?”

  “She’s a member of GPS. Grimsby Paranormal Society,” Edie informed, as if that were saying it all.

  Mason snapped his fingers in the air, excited. “Call Jules! She’d know how to get rid of him.”

  Edie indulged her boyfriend (who’d before thought Jules’s belief in the paranormal was a bunch of hooey) and called the co-founder of GPS. After Edie had gotten Jules’s consent to put her on speakerphone for everyone to hear, Diana, Madelyn, and Mason crowded around Edie, staying silent.

  Jules was ecstatic when Edie confirmed she had a 24/7 ghost buddy, and that she’d been talking to him, but Jules couldn’t tell Edie how to get rid of her unwanted attachment.

  “Why would you even want to?” Jules asked. “This is like awesome.”

  “No,” Edie told Jules. “It’s not. He’s dangerous, a poltergeist, remember?”

  “Oh, yeah…well, how about this: come to Grimsby Sanatorium this Saturday. Not all ghosts are scary. Maybe we’ll get help. Maybe a ghost there’ll tell us how to get rid of yours.”

  “Have you ever held a conversation with a ghost?”

  Jules paused, and then replied, “Well, no. Not me. But weird stuff has happened on our investigations.”

  “Define: weird.”

  “Voices. Noises. Cold spots. Shadow figures. White orbs. I’ve got recordings of what I think are ghosts communicating, but the audio is difficult to understand, muffled, distorted. How does your ghost sound?”

  “Crystal clear,” Edie said in a tone.

  “That’s—”

  “Don’t say ‘awesome’,” Edie cut her off, and then sighed. “All right, I’ll come this Saturday. Text me the directions.” They said their goodbyes, and Edie ended the call.

  Mason’s arms were folded over his chest. “One ghost isn’t enough?” He couldn’t keep silent any longer. “You’re going to go out and find more ghosts?”

  “You heard Jules. She thinks the ghosts there will tell me how to get rid of mine.”

  “Yeah, that sounds smart,” Madelyn agreed, speaking up for Edie. “I mean, they’re all in the ghost network or something like that. They know each other.”