“You thought you were careful—”
“Thinking we were nothing and nobody would notice.”
“You loved it.”
“No…” I growl. “I didn’t like it,” I admit, because I don’t, but it’s what needed to be done. The room warps again and everything hits me hard and fast. I gasp then look around the room, reaching for something to grab onto to ground myself.
Jagger is pacing. Killian is watching. Lucifer is smiling, and Lolli—is the only thing that doesn’t flicker.
“You always pick the quiet ones,”the woman says, and I look at her with narrowed eyes.
“I pick the ones that need to be removed.”
She laughs, throwing her head back.“You picked me,”she says, and I step forward and she steps closer. Wrong move, Cunt! They never step closer. They didn’t ever get the chance.
My breathing changes as my heart beats uncontrollably in my chest. I don’t fucking like this. The drug hits me in another wave, deepening inside me. Like it’s peeling something back I never show anyone.
“You remember them… you kept them,”the voices whisper.
“I didn’t keep anything.”
Liar! But that voice isn’t mine. That sounds like someone else, but I don’t look. I know they’re everywhere. Hands that aren’t touching me feel like they are. Voices that aren’t real feel too close.
“Vinny.” That voice again cuts right through me. Clean. Real, but yet, I don’t answer. Not yet. Because if I look, they’ll be there too. The dead. Standing where the living should be.
“Vinny.” Closer this time. Jagger. I know his voice. The ghosts don’t sound like that. They don’t have the weight—his heat.
“Look at me,” he commands, but I don’t—I can’t. If I do, they’ll be between us—blocking him—blocking everything.
“You don’t get to freeze,” Jagger spits, the words hitting me straight in the chest like a snowball during a snowball fight after school on a cold winter day. Hands caress my face, but I step back and shut my eyes.It’s not fucking real. It’s not his hands. They aren’t rough and cracked. I know how he feels.
“Ghostboy. Come back to us,” her voice slips in. Different. No giggling, and a nickname I’ve never heard of. “We’re here. It’s okay,” she whispers, but I shake my head, tightening my eyesshut even more. But the voices all warp and get louder, making me want to scream.
“You’re not,”they say.“You’re still with us.”
“No! No! No!” I yell as my words shake. I don’t like this. I don’t react to anything. My voice is shaky and that’s not me.
“Yeah,” Jaggers says, closer now. “You are,” he says as his hand grips my jaw, roughly forcing my head up. My eyes snap open and I see him. Jagger with his shaved head and those light green eyes I’ve missed so much. He doesn’t flicker.Good.
“Stay with me,” he says as the ghosts press closer.
“You left us—”
“You thought you were better.”
“You’re one of us.”
“No,” I say, gritting my teeth
Then Lolli steps beside Jagger, ducking under his arm and stepping between us. He doesn’t let go of my face though as she reaches up, tracing her fingernail over my lips. She giggles, and I blink.
“They’re loud, aren’t they,” she says, and I nod once. Too many.
“They don’t stop. I don’t like this,” I admit, and she tilts her head.
“Then don’t listen to them. Listen to us,” she says, pulling at my bottom lip while Jagger's thumb caresses my cheek. I feel a small weight lifting off my chest the more they touch me—grounding me. “They don’t get to talk,” she continues.
“Yeah. She’s right,” Jagger adds, and the ghosts laugh mockingly.
