That last part is the real reason I asked to talk. It is the point I keep circling back to, because it is the one thing I cannot afford to leave unsaid.
When I’m done, I ask the only question that matters. Whether they truly want to stay here. I understand why it might feel like the safest option, especially after everything, but nobody actually knows what is going to happen with these wraiths.
The first one was hard enough to beat. She was not predictable, and even though I was her main target, she still showed she could hurt regular humans too.
The girls stare at me like I’ve lost my mind.
Hailey is the first to speak. She shifts and sits on the edge of the bed.
“Skye,” she says slowly, “you just told us you’re… dead.”
I swallow. “I told you Iwasdead. Now I’m… an in-between kind of being.”
“And that there are… wraiths,” she continues. “In this building.”
“Yes.”
“And that those three men. Your boyfriends.” Her gaze flicks toward the door, toward the corridor. “Are murderers.”
I nod again. “Yes.”
She exhales through her nose. It almost sounds like a laugh. “Okay. Cool. Great. Thanks for the honesty.”
Lila’s knee is bouncing so hard the mattress trembles. She’s sitting closer to the headboard, like she wants distance from the door, from the hallway, from the whole world. “Are they going to kill us?” she blurts.
“No,” I say immediately. “They’re not.”
“How do you know?”
“They only kill murderers.” I lean forward in the chair until my elbows rest on my knees. “They’re… bad on paper. But I actually think they’re doing good.”
“Okay,” she says.
Just that.
“And you came to help us because other dead girls, the ones our captors killed, threatened you into it,” Hailey adds, her voice trailing off at the end like she can’t believe she’s saying any of this out loud.
“Yes,” I admit. “Although, in hindsight, I would have done it without the threats.”
Both of them fall silent. I sit and wait for them to say something. When it becomes clear they will not, I clap my hands to pull their attention back to me.
“So, what do you choose to do now that you know all that?” I ask. “You are free to stay if that is what you want, but I cannot guarantee your safety.”
Hell, I cannot guarantee my own safety. I cannot guarantee anything at this point. Even with my powers back, I will not underestimate the threat waiting in the dark.
“This burden is mine alone to carry,” I add. “I know that going back home to your families may seem scary, but—“
“No,” Hailey interrupts, shaking her head. “Do not tell us to leave. Please.”
“We do not care about those wraiths, or whatever,” Lila adds. “We just want to stay here for a while.”
“Are you sure?” I ask.
“I used to be scared of ghosts back in the day,” Hailey says. “But now I know it is not the ghosts that are truly scary.”
“It is men,” Lila says.
I purse my lips and nod. I do not know if I would compare the twelve wraiths to ghosts, but I suppose it does not matter to them. And I am not their jailer. They have already spent enoughtime in one prison, stripped of their free will, for me to take their choices away again.
