The four hitchhikers waited with their thumbs up outside the mansion’s gates like before, only this time I didn’t smile when seeing them. My hands shook as I pulled up to the barrier and got out as soon as I put the car in park.
“Get me through.” I didn’t feel like climbing over the fence. I needed to see Jude now. The one ghost with a large hat saw my expression and held out a hand. The other souls looked at their friend then the road with longing.
“Now you know why we want to leave.” He bowed his head, his corpse-like skin pulled tight against his skull as I placed my hand against his skeleton fingers. My body became weightless as he used his ghostly gift that he shouldn’t have to pull me through the gate. It tickled slightly; the bars coasted through me as if I was the gentle fall breeze caressing the steel. The sensation felt like when I used my own gifts to take a soul onward, only this time, it was my whole body and not just my soul that made the journey to the other side.
“Can you stop it?” the hat ghost asked and my lips tightened. I had no idea how stop it.
“I’m gonna try.”
“You might die,” he retorted, and I shrugged. Death didn’t scare me; it never had.
“Then I’ll die for a worthy cause.” I waved goodbye to the ghost as he let go of my hand and I ran toward the mansion’s doors.
As I ran, I thought about my life leading up to this moment, and the future I’d be thrown into once I got to the massive house at the end of the driveway. When I was a teenager, I’d willingly walked into death’s embrace. I was refused and came back to live my life the way it had been meant to be lived, by helping others, solving crimes, and actually doing more than existing in chaos. Until now, I had been coasting through my years, scared to make the true leaps that made this life worth living. Not anymore. Fear of getting hurt and fear of rejection were only that. Fear. I thought being around dead people made me live without fear, but I was wrong.
This time when I knocked on death’s door, I ran into his arms and sealed my fate against his lips.
Chapter Twenty- Two
Jude
I never thought a kiss could be both heaven and hell. A week. That’s how long it had been since I’d tasted Selene’s lips and savored her whimpers against my mouth. I felt like a man on the brink of starvation. I wanted more. No, I needed more. But I couldn’t.
“I’m surprised to see you here.” I hated pulling away from her. I wanted to touch every inch of her warm skin against mine. She looked at me with explosive desire, and the sight nearly brought me to my knees.
“I was just attacked by a soul with a gun. Something is really wrong. It’s not just your mansion ghosts that have extra gifts.” Her hand caressed my cheek and instinctively my head leaned against her touch. My body and soul reacted to her without hesitation, that wasn’t the problem.
“Are you OK?” My fingers checked for signs of any injury along her cheeks and neck.
“I’m fine, but we can’t let anyone get hurt. We have to fix this. I’ve already called the Hero Society but I’m not sure what they can do. What is super speed or changing into an animal or manipulating metal against a ghost.” She took a step away from me and paced, while rambling about the dire situation.
I sensed her pain and frustration. I’d spent the week trying to figure out how to fix the gates to the other side without me dying in the process. Anything to stay alive past my birthday. Anything to have more time with Selene. “They can’t do anything. Maybe the witch can, but that is only temporary.” I sighed; my shoulders dropped from the weight of my words spoken aloud.
“We’re the only ones that can see them and can actually do something.” She rushed back to my side, her hands touching me, and the anger simmering beneath my skin boiled over.
“It’s useless. The only thing that can stop all of this is for me to go fucking hang myself in the tower like the rest of my godforsaken family. Just leave, Selene. I’ll take care of the world’s ghost problem soon.” I didn’t care if I sounded like an ass. She needed to stay away for both of our sakes. I had been starved for her touch, and she will be heartbroken when I died. What was the point of getting attached and chasing heaven when I would be dooming us to misery?
“It’s not useless. We can do something. We have to try!” Her voice raised and I walked away, refusing to fight with her. I could only handle so much of the hope in her words. I didn’t have the luxury of hope.
“Jude! You fucking coward. Fight with me. Be with me.”
It was the hitch in her voice when she uttered those three words that stopped me. “You’ll get hurt.” I wasn’t an idiot, I saw where she and I were heading a week ago, and made the decision to stay away. I’d never had a reason to hate my fate of dying, until her. Now I was bitter, and resentful. . . Didn’t she see it? The only outcome for us is anguish, the same pain that led my mother to leave her child behind while she followed my father into death.
“I’d rather live with hurt than having lived without being with you.”
My heart ached as it thumped hard against my chest, and my head hung low. The weight of my fate was too much. I didn’t know what to do anymore. I tried to stay away and had warned her. I did everything I could to fix those cursed gates to hell, but every attempt I made at changing the course of my future failed.
“Come with me.” I held out my hand, and she latched onto it in seconds. Silence stayed in the air between us as we walked into the house and to the stairs leading to the basement.
We walked past Madam Tully’s doo, and stood before the entrance that housed the doors.
“It may be a lot at first but just keep holding my hand. As long as you have someone to lean on, the darkness doesn’t weigh so heavy.” My words were cryptic but there wasn’t really another way to put it. She’d see, and despite wanting to take her as far from this place as I could, my free hand reached out to open the door.
My teeth clenched as I took the first step into the dark room. My fingers gripped onto Selene’s, and she gave me a little squeeze of support. This room, or portal, appeared dark until the door shut behind us, sealing in the poor souls that walked up the gates of the other side, the only thing that truly kept the dead at bay.
“Is that . . .?” Selene gasped, and her other hand gripped onto my arm.
“Yeah.”
