Page 39 (1/2)

1

I blinked open achy, swollen eyes and stared straight at the pale, translucent face of a ghost

Gasping, I jerked upright Strands of dark hair fell across ainst my chest, where my poor heart pounded like a steel drum “What in the Hell, dude?”

The ghost, who’d been sort of a roorinned at me from where he floated midair, several inches above the bed He was stretched out on his side, cheek resting on his pal sure you’re still alive”

“Oh edly, I lowered ray co that”

“I’m kind of surprised you still think I listen to you half the time”

Peanut had a point

He had an aversion to following my rules, which were only, like, two rules

Knock before entering the room

Don’t watch me while I sleep

I thought they were quite reasonable rules

Peanut looked like he had the night he died, way back in the ’80s His Whitesnake concert T-shirt was legit, as were his dark jeans and red Chuck Taylors On his seventeenth birthday, for some idiotic reason, he’d climbed one of those massive speaker towers and subsequently fallen to his death, proving natural selection was a thing

Peanut hadn’t crossed over into that shiny bright white light, and a few years ago, I stopped trying to convince him when he said to me, quite clearly, it was not his ti him aroundexcept when he did creepy crap like this

Pushing the hair out of my face, I looked around my bedroom—no, not ed to Zayne My gaze flicked fro curtains to the bedrooht before, just in case

I shook my head

“What ti the blanket close to her than humans’ and it was July, so it was most likely hot and sticky as a circle of Hell outside, Zayne’s apartment was like an icebox

“It’s almost three in the afternoon,” Peanut answered “And that’s why I thought you were dead”

Daot back pretty late last night”

“I knoas here You didn’t see ”

I frowned That didn’t sound creepy at all

“You looked like you’d been through a wind tunnel” Peanut’s gaze flickered over my head “You still do”

I’d felt like I’d been in a wind tunnel A ht, after I’d had a complete and utter breakdown by the old treehouse at the Warden co

It had been ht wind, where the stars that always looked so faint to ht I hadn’t wanted it to end, even when an to strain with the effort to breathe I’d wanted to stay up there, because nothing could touch ht me back down to Earth and to reality

That was only a handful of hours ago, but it felt like a lifeti back to Zayne’s apartment We hadn’t talked about what had happened withMisha, or about what had happened to Zayne We hadn’t talked at all, really, other than Zayne asking if I needed anything and otten undressed and cli roo on the couch

“You know,” Peanut said, drawing ht be dead and all, but you look orse than me”

“I do?” I h I wasn’t surprised to hear that Based on the way my face felt, I probably looked like I’d face-planted a brick wall

He nodded “You’ve been crying”

I had been

“A lot,” he added

That was true

“And when you didn’t coht and sat on the edge of the bed His legs and hips disappeared a few inches into thehappened to you I was panicking I couldn’t even finish watching Stranger Things I was so worried Who’s going to take care of me if you die?”

“You’re dead, Peanut No one needs to take care of you”

“I still need to be loved and cherished and thought of I’m like Santa Claus If no one alive is here to want and believe in me, then I’ll cease to exist”

Ghosts and spirits didn’t work that way At all But he was so wonderfully overdraed at the corners of my lips until I reirl who lived in this apartment coelic blood kicking around in her veins, like all huhosts or displayed other psychic abilities Enough to make herdifferent from everyone else There weren’t elic blood, so it was a shock to learn that there was one so close to where I was staying