“Do you feel it?” James asks Bridget. They stand in silence, eyes closed and searching.
“It’s like a void in the center,” Bridget says, more confident now.
James nods, clasping his hands together. “The void changes shape. Sometimes it’s small, and sometimes it reaches past the edges of the island. And now…?”
Bridget screws up her face, concentrating. “There’s another void… I can’t feel it itself, but I can feel around it. Like…” She turns to me, searching for the words as though describing a color without using its name. She has a sense I don’t. “Like noticing shadows in shadows, seeing what you can’t see.”
“It’s Elle,” James confirms. “She’s nearly here. We have little time. I shouldn’t have wasted so much of it.”
“It’s still a day too early,” I protest.
“It’s her.” Bridget’s voice is stronger, surer.
“I don’t…” I step away from them both. A ghost who knows me far more than he should and a woman I’m growing to love. Both on my side, both against my sister. “You think Elle is under some demonic spell?”
James’s eyes are glassy in the lantern light. His edges lose their crispness in tear blots. Textures blur like when he appeared. He must see my reaction because he looks down at himself and grimaces.
“It takes most of my focus to stay here this long,” he explains. “And I wish with all my heart that it were a spell.”
“We need to go.” Bridget takes my hand in hers. It’s clammy but strong. “Liney. Before she gets here.”
We back away to the ladder. I hate leaving James down here.
“May I ask one favor?” he asks. Being a ghost suits him. Those downcast eyes hold mourning tenderly. Like love. Like heartbreak.
“Would you bring my skull up to the lightroom?” He nods to the bone pile. “I can’t go myself. It would give me peace to know I’m where I ought to be. At least a part of me.”
Bridget moves to pick it up, but I tug at her sleeve and draw her toward the ladder. It was my sister who created this hell for him. This ismy responsibility.
I approach the pile. The skull reflects a dull ivory gleam. It’s surprisingly small. A shiver runs through me once again at the image of my own skull beneath skin and muscle.
“You don’t mind me taking you?” I check.
“I’d appreciate you being gentle. And I’m sorry to ask.”
I take the skull. It’s lighter than I expected.
“You haunt this whole place, but you can’t go up there yourself?” I ask as Bridget takes my lantern from me and heads to the ladder.
“One of many little curses.”
James’s presence flickers as Bridget disappears through the trapdoor. I grab the ladder, her outstretched arm holding the lantern above me.
“I’m sorry,” I say, embarrassed I’d not said it before. “You deserved much better than Elle’s butchering. I’d never have wanted her to—”
“I know.” His smile breaks my heart. “You bring out the best in your sister, Liney. Not the other way around. I’m her burden to bear, and she mine. Don’t let this place become yours.”
He’s gone. The room is only rough walls, dank air, and uncovered bones. I climb back upstairs, the skull tucked carefully to my chest.
Bridget moves the chesterfield back over the trapdoor, lining it up with the floor’s scuff marks. Hopefully Elle won’t check downstairs, and I can play my part. No ghost, no days and nights of tenderness. Nothing can linger.
Do I have enough time to make it to the light and back? Elle will be suspicious if she finds me on the stairs from the lightroom. Instead, I hide the skull inside the bedside table’s small cabinet. James’s eyeless sockets stare up at me as I close him in yet another hiding place.
“I’ll take you up later,” I whisper to his skull.
Bridget waits beside the door. She holds a sack with her traveling dress inside. How long will it be until I can see her again?
“I figure I’ll give you some time with her. Then we’ll head to theboat.”
