“Yeah, I snuck into the prepping area at the funeral home,” I said, remembering the cloying smell of chemicals as I walked through the shadowy room at the back, while Matty and Marcus dealt with arranging to have my parents’ bodies brought to the church the next morning. I’d found the refrigerated drawers with their names on them and had opened one. And what had I seen? Well, I hadn’t seen them like this because they had been naked, but their bodies had looked exactly like they did now. It took almost twenty minutes of me staring at them before someone found me, but by then it was too late.
“You’re not ghosts,” I told them, pushing my drink away. “Ghosts don’t exist. You’re just memories, fucked up memories from when I saw something I shouldn’t have because I was a stupid ass, stubborn kid. That’s all.”
“What are ghosts but memories that won’t leave?” my mother asked.
“And we wouldn’t leave because you didn’t know how to let us go,” my father added. “Just like you don’t know how to let Levi go. He’s always haunted you too.”
“He’s out there,” I said, looking toward the lobby to find the door and frowning when all I saw was a wall that had never been there. “Fucking weird ass dream.”
“Probably all the painkillers they have you on,” my mother said with a grin that turned my stomach. “He’s gone, Dominic. It’s time to let him go.”
“You don’t know if he’s dead or not,” I said, fear gripping me harder than when I first saw their mutilated corpses sitting there, talking to me. “You don’t know that.”
“There is more than one way to lose someone,” she warned. “You should remember that better than anyone.”
The hotel was gone, replaced by...the hospital room again. Things were still fuzzy, but not as fuzzy. There was sunlight coming in, and I realized I wasn’t alone. Ward was here, but not Arlo, his back to me as he stared out the window. Mason was in the chair in the corner again, and I hated seeing him there. He had always hated hospitals; they reminded him too much of when his dad died, but I swore that every time I crawled to being awake, he was there.
“You sent him away,” I said, the words leaving my mouth before I could think.
Mason looked up, and the video he was watching paused. “What?”
“Levi,” I said, looking down at myself. “God, yesterday?”
Ward chuckled. “Levi was here a few days ago; that was the last time he was here.”
“What?”
“They have you on the good stuff, Dom. That’s what happens when you take a van to the face,” Mason said, eyes narrowing. “You’re fucking lucky all you got was beat the fuck up and a few fractures...well, and a concussion.”
“So it was a van,” I said, wanting to reach up to rub my face and frowning at the lines in my arms. “Jesus.”
“If you think that looks bad, you should see what you look like. A giant walking bruise,” Mason said with a sigh. “Well, not walking but still?—”
“I need...my phone,” I said with a frown, trying to wrap my head around things, but it was still hard. “I...fuck this is annoying.”
“Careful,” Ward said, turning to face me. “They’re weaning you off the pain killers, but you’re still going to be out of it. Your phone is gone. It took a hit from the van, too, but didn’t fare as well as you did. Christ, to be built like you, I would have exploded into dust if I took a hit like that.”
“If they’d hit his head, then we’d be dealing with an insurance claim and not all this worrying about his body,” Mason said with a snort.
“I need...Levi,” I said, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath. It was hard to make my...thoughts make sense, but Levi...Levi made sense. “You can’t...keep him...away.”
“No...no one’s keeping him away,” Mason said softly. “Well, Moira would probably try, and I’m sure Milo is still waiting for the chance to swing on him, but Levi’s staying away on his own. He’s been...busy.”
“What?”
“I...” Mason looked at Ward, who grimaced. “He said he made you a promise, and that he was going to keep it. He didn’t tell us what it meant, or what he was going to do.”
“You only need to look at the news to see what he’s been doing,” another voice muttered, and I turned to find Kayden there, on the other side of the bed. He looked like he hadn’t been sleeping much, and I didn’t understand why he looked more exhausted than the rest of my family.
“What?” I repeated, closing my eyes and fighting the wave of darkness rising inside me again. “Make them...take me off this...stuff.”
“They are,” Mason said. “But you’ve been on it long enough that they’re worried about your body being dependent, so they’re going slow.”
“Levi—”
“Is...doing his thing,” Mason said.
They were keeping something from me, I could tell. I didn’t have the ability to say something about it, though, because every thought I tried to put into words felt like it was made of cotton candy, and the process of bringing it to my mouth was like a stream of water. It all just disappeared, and they goddamn knew I was having a hard time, taking advantage of the fact that I couldn’t say or do a fucking thing about any of this.
