‘How – how can you be here, talking to me? You’re in there!’ She looked back at what she now realised was Danny’s body in the car.
Danny ran a hand through his hair and let out a sob. ‘And you’re there! So explain that!’
She followed his gaze and her whole world seemed to collapse. Because there she was, lying on the hard ground, barely recognisable even with her distinctive costume. Yet she was also here, standing by this crumpled car, talking to a dead man.
Brooke dropped onto the ground and buried her face in her hands. ‘You’re a ghost?’
‘I think,’ Danny said, sitting beside her, ‘that we both are.’
‘And Lee?’
Danny hesitated. ‘I don’t think so.’
‘But he’s definitely dead?’
There was a pause. ‘Yeah. He’s definitely dead.’
Brooke looked up, seeking some sort of reassurance as she grabbed the edges of his hussar style jacket, barely registering the white stripes of make-up across his cheekbones and nose.
‘Danny, what do we do? What do wedo?’
He shrugged helplessly. ‘I suppose we get out of here. Try to make our way home. I don’t know what else…’
Brooke nodded. She didn’t want to be here any longer. She couldn’t bear to see the wreckage of the car, of their lives, another moment. She somehow got to her feet and Danny followed.
‘Which way do we go?’ she asked.
Danny frowned. ‘I don’t know my way back from here, do you?’
‘Maybe we should go back the way we came. There was a sign for a village just back there, wasn’t there? Maybe we can get help.’
‘We’re dead, though. Who’s going to be able to see us? Haven’t you watchedGhost? Patrick Swayze had a heck of a time finding someone to helphim.’ Danny sounded panicked now.
Remembering some of the things that had happened inGhost, Brooke didn’t blame him.
Even so, there wasn’t much else they could do, and there didn’t seem to be any sign of a bright light to guide them to wherever it was they should presumably have gone, so they decided they might as well head back towards the village.
They hadn’t spoken a word to each other as they walked, each lost in their thoughts, and it was someone else’s voice who had eventually broken the silence.
‘Oh, you poor things! Now, don’t worry yourselves. You’re safe now. We’re here to help.’
Two men in fancy dress were hurrying along the road towards them. Had they come from the party? Brooke couldn’t recall anyone dressed in old-fashioned clothes like these. It had been a1980sparty, not a1780sparty, or whatever. But, wait, these two could see them. Were they ghosts, too?
‘I’m Peter,’ one said. He was small and thin with grey hair and a sad expression. ‘This is my friend, Isaac.’
Isaac was also quite short but rotund, with thinning hair and a wide smile.
‘Danny,’ Danny said flatly. ‘This is Brooke.’
‘Well now, Danny and Brooke,’ Isaac said cheerfully, ‘Don’t look so glum. I know you must have had quite the shock but the worst is over, trust us. We’ll take you to Harling Hall. Lawrie will know what to do with you and you’ll soon feel better.’
‘I think…’ Brooke swallowed and gave them a terrified look. ‘I think we’re dead.’
‘Well, that’s one way of putting it,’ Peter said, nodding kindly. ‘On the other hand, you’re still here, aren’t you? Maybe the way to look at it is that you’re not alive, strictly speaking, but you’re certainly not done yet. You’ve got your whole afterlife ahead of you, so that’s nice, isn’t it?’
Brooke hardly knew what to say to that, but she was grateful when Danny’s hand found hers for the first time ever, and they drew comfort from each other. Whatever was happening to them, at least they weren’t alone. At least they were going through it together.
Brooke had no idea which way they walked to Harling Hall, and she barely heard a word of the conversation that Isaac and Peter kept up as they went. What jolted her back to the present was the shock of seeing Isaac walking straight through the solid wooden door of a grand stately home. She felt a surge of fear at the reminder that these two men were, in actual fact, ghosts, and that she and Danny were now ghosts, too.
