“Eden, the police could be lingering around the building,” Donny says. “I appreciate the idea, but, for now, it’s more important you stay protected.”
I nod and slump back against the wall, wishing I would fall through it.
“And, Nicholas, since you’re so concerned about Eden’s safety, it’s only appropriate that you serve as her security,” Donny says.
I must have misheard him. “What?”
“Griffin will be bedridden for the next few days.” Donny takes a slurping sip from his coffee mug. “DJ can watch him once he’s mobile again. But, Nicholas, you’re responsible for Eden. She won’t go anywhere without you. Consider it your top priority until we apprehend Morrow.”
Nico is giving Donny a look that would wither a sensitive plant.
“Unless there’s a problem?” Donny asks, arching his brow in the same probing way my high school principal did the time she accused Tori and me of drinking at school. She knew the truth but couldn’t prove it, so she was trying to get us to confess.
“No problem,” Nico grits out.
“Good,” Donny says. “Then it’s settled.”
Nico assigns everyone a different list of newspapers in the Midwest to monitor. The team clusters around him, but I hang back, waiting until they’ve scattered before approaching.
“Which papers should I?—”
Nico cuts me off with a raised hand. “Focus on your assigned reading.”
“But we have an active case,” I say. “I can help.”
“We have it handled.”
I hate the twinge of annoyance in his voice. “So, what am I supposed to do? Sit around reading about ghost history while everyone else does something useful?”
“Yes,” he says, already moving toward the door. “And you’ll do it from the library.”
The library is freezing. Rain pelts against the windows in a steady rhythm that would normally be soothing, but right now makes it impossible to concentrate.
I wrap myself in one of the throw blankets and curl up in the chair across from Nico at the table. He opens his laptop, his face a mask of concentration that I know is an act. Tension radiates off him in waves. I can actually feel it, hanging in the air.
As hard as I try to focus on the field guide, my eyes keep drifting to him. I hate not knowing what’s going through his head. Mom used to tell me my big mouth would get me in trouble. She was right about ninety percent of the time, but at least when I blurt things out, I know where I stand.
“If you’re regretting last night, you can just tell me the kiss was a mistake,” I say. “You don’t need to ice me out like this.”
“It was a mistake.” His eyes don’t leave his screen. “And I never want to talk about it again, understand?”
I nod, numb, and force my eyes back to the page. Him calling it a mistake feels worse than it being pretend, somehow, but I’m not surprised. Nico was contaminated with ectoplasm, and in that moment, the ectoplasm was loud enough to drown out the voice in his head screaming that he doesn’t actually like me. We’re back to the Nico who begged Donny to fire me.
I was stupid for thinking it could be anything else.
But knowing I was stupid doesn’t stop my chest from feeling like someone’s sitting on it. I have to swallow six times before I trust myself to keep reading without my vision going blurry.
Possession is a gradual process. An entity cannot simply leap into a body and take over—much as I’m sure they’d prefer it that way.
I read the same sentence three times before the words actually sink in. Wait. If possession takes time, then why are we monitoring the news right now? Wouldn’t Morrow need days, maybe weeks, to bond with a new host?
At least he can’t get to Ed anymore. DJ and Benji are heading to Pittsburgh this morning to give Ed a full debrief on possession and set him up with ways to protect himself. The knowledge comforts me, until I think of the unwitting person Morrow has probably already selected as his next host, who has no idea how much their life is about to change.
The entity begins appearing in the host’s dreams, as that is when the mind is most malleable, sharing images and memories. By the time the host realizes these are not normal dreams, the entity has already begun establishing its connection.
During the initial stages of possession, the entity can only take control for brief periods, usually during moments of heightened emotion. The host might experience blackouts, lost time, or the sensation of watching themselves act without conscious control. But with each short episode, the entity establishes stronger and more sophisticated connections. What started as minutes becomes hours, then days, and once the neural bond is fully established, the entity gains near-complete dominion over the host’s motor functions and decision-making processes.
I wonder how long Caine had been controlling Marcus Walsh. Nico said I was the second girl he went for, so hopefully not that long?
