“Sweetie, I told you, he's only after your money,” Leanne said with a condescending smile. “Someone was probably on to him, and he bailed.”
Wow. So Leanne and I actually agreed on something. Though she'd obviously let Misty go to Malachi in the first place, which I would not have allowed.
“No.” Misty shook her head vigorously. “I'm telling you he's for real. He knew stuff about me and about her.” Her voice took on a hushed urgency. “Stuff he couldn't have known.”
Leanne rolled her eyes and spooned another bite of cookie dough into her big fat mouth.
Misty turned to me. “You know,” she said defiantly. “You saw them. The ghosts in his office. The ones he says are his guides.”
Interesting that Malachi was apparently aware of his spirit companions. Maybe he wasn't the fake he seemed to be. Or maybe he was really good at being that fake. Having spirit guides wasn't an uncommon fact about mediums/ psychics. He'd probably just done his research.
“She was with that creepy dude from school, Will something. Remember him?” she asked Leanne.
I winced on Will's behalf, and Leanne gave a noncommittal grunt.
“They were both seeing something that wasn't there. It was the weirdest thing.” She gave a shudder and then turned back to me. “Ghosts, right?”
I hesitated before responding. I needed Misty to believe me if I was going to figure out what was really going on here. But if I spoke up now, I'd be cementing Ally's reputation as a freak, which I might have to live with for a while.
What to do?
Finally, I nodded. Figuring out who was pretending to be me was more of a priority at the moment. Besides, I'd be out of this body before too long… probably.
Leanne snorted, and I hoped she'd choke on a chocolate chip. “Ghosts don't exist, Misty. I told you.”
“Then why did you insist on sleeping in the guest room last night instead of my room?” Misty demanded.
Leanne focused on digging out another bite of dough. “Whatever,” she muttered. “It was warmer in there.”
Misty looked to me. “She's here again. Alona, I mean.” She twisted her fingers together nervously. “Since last night.”
My ears pricked up. “She's here now? How do you know?” I tried for a discreet look around the room and saw nothing out of the ordinary, no blurry spots.
Misty shook her head. “I just feel it sometimes. Like there's someone watching me.” She smiled sadly. “I know it sounds ridiculous, but I'm not crazy. I know it's her.”
“Do you want to show me where that feeling is strongest?” I forced myself not to sound too eager. “Maybe I can take a look?”
Leanne smirked. “Miss Pathetic here suddenly has special spooky powers.”
Forget choking. I hoped that cookie dough was chock-full of salmonella.
“It's called a near-death experience. You should try it sometime,” I said sweetly. “Maybe without the 'near.'”
Leanne gaped at me.
I turned to Misty. “So?” I asked briskly.
She nodded, wide-eyed. “Uh, sure.”
I stepped out of the way and let her lead me back into the hall and up the stairs. I couldn't help noticing the changed photos on the stairwell wall. I was no longer in any of them.
Not that that was entirely shocking. Kevin, who was about ten years younger than Misty's mom, was obsessed with documenting his new family, which had included Misty and me at one time. He had a bunch of these artsy, wrought-iron picture frames/art pieces all the way up the wall. He changed the photos out about every month, swapping in the latest family images.
This particular selection appeared to be about summer activities. The twins, Owen and Ian, with their older brother, Colin, all in matching water wings. Colin attempting to drink from the hose but mostly spraying his face. Misty and her mom sitting together on the porch swing, talking to each other, their faces serious and their dusty toes dragging across the boards. And some kind of picnic with all of them… and Chris, my ex and Misty's current boyfriend.
There were a few pictures of Chris, some with him in the background, as I would have been once, and others focused on him.
In the one closest to me, he had Colin on his shoulders and a twin (don't ask me which was which, I'd never mastered that) wrapped around each ankle. He was pretending to struggle to move forward, but I could tell that beneath the faked strain on his face, he was having fun. His eyes were crinkling up at the edges like he was fighting not to laugh. And behind him, Misty was out of focus, but I could still see her grinning.
They were happy. Kevin was a good photographer, catching the truth in a moment like that.
“So you and Chris Zebrowski, huh?” I asked, and immediately wished I could pull the words back.
She glanced warily over her shoulder at me, pausing on a step.
“I don't know what you've heard, but it wasn't like that,” she said.
“Yeah, that's what you said. So what was it like?”
I could see her weighing the moment, deciding whether she should have to answer me or not. After all, who was I to her? “He sees me,” she said. “And I see him.”
I frowned. Huh? “I saw… I mean, I'm sure Alona saw you.” I mean, I'd been a lot of things, but visually impaired was definitely not one of them.
But Misty wasn't done yet. “Alona… Alona was like this giant storm, you know?” Her voice was distant, like she was seeing something other than the stairway. “You got swept along with her, and after a while you weren't really sure where you were or who you were except as it related to her. I wasn't Misty. I was Alona Dare's best friend. Chris was Alona Dare's boyfriend.” She shook her head. “Know what I mean?”
Not exactly.
“But Chris and me, we found each other, and it's real.” Her voice rang with fierceness, and her gaze met mine without hesitation, as if she was daring me to challenge her words. “We see each other for who we are, not as accessories to somebody else.”
In that second, I felt a wave of envy so strong it nearly knocked me backward down the stairs. Not because it was Chris, but to have someone know me like that… I wanted that with a craving I felt in my borrowed bones.
She started up the steps again.
I followed, taking each stair one at a time with my hand on the railing, and wrestled with the mix of emotions churning in me. I'd had Chris in my life, but he'd never looked one-tenth as content as he did in those photos. It hurt, seeing proof that it wasn't him but me who was flawed.
My eyes stung with tears. Every instinct told me to blame the two of them — Misty and Chris. They had been greedy, selfish, and cruel. They'd done this to me. But how can you deny something when the proof is right in front of you? The truth was, they'd done this regardless of me. I was a nonentity, which somehow hurt more than if it had been a deliberate strike against me.
She reached the top of the stairs and turned to wait for me.
“So why aren't you wearing his ring?” I asked in a voice that was probably harsher than it should have been. I wasn't sure if I wanted to know, but I couldn't stop myself from asking, either.
“I didn't say yes yet,” she said, looking at her bare left hand as if making sure the ring hadn't somehow appeared there suddenly. “I'm eighteen. We're going to different schools.” She gave a little shrug.
On the top step now, I waited, sensing, hoping, there was more.
“And how am I supposed to say yes to him when Alona is still so upset?” she asked in a small voice. “She's, like, not at rest because of us.”
I let out a silent breath of relief. I hadn't lost her completely. I still mattered to her, even if it wasn't really me who was doing the haunting that had her so concerned. That somehow lifted a burden from my shoulders I hadn't even known I was carrying.