Ghost Betweens (21 page)

"If anything happens, I don't want you blaming me for taking pictures this time. Remember, we're supposed to."

"I didn't mean to blame you. Honest, I didn't."

"But you did."

"I know, and I'm sorry. I am. I know how it came out, and I'm sick that it did. You may not believe it, but it's true."

She frowned. "But you didn't let those ghosts into the miniature golf course. I did."

"I should have stopped that last one. I saw what it was doing, and I should have made us get there faster. No matter what. It was a family, and the ghost went right for the dad. You have an awesome dad, so you don't know what it's like to have one die on you, to have to grow up without one. I do, and now those kids do, too."

Her face fell, and tears sprang to her eyes. "Oh, Josh, I'm so sorry. I didn't realize. I mean, I knew, but I didn't put it together with this." She flung herself at him and sobbed. In doing so, she dropped her invisibility, and the ghosts swarmed towards them.

"Whisper, they can see you."

She leapt back and disappeared from them. They stopped coming and went about their business of milling around the fields. "Oops. Maybe we should make up later."

He ran his hand across her cheek, scooping up a few tears. "As soon as we're done here. Deal?"

She grabbed his hand and kissed it. "Deal. So let's hurry."

Josh looked out at the fields and the barn caught his eye. A new plan formed. He wasn't sure he wanted to implement it, but knew they should try.

"Hey, Whisper, we should go out to the barn."

"What? No!"

"Hear me out. I don't want to do it, either, but the farmer has more power than the regular ghosts. We should see if the camera trick will work on him."

She hesitated and bit her bottom lip. After looking out at the barn, she turned back to him and nodded. "I don't like it, but you're right. We should stick to the same plan, though, and have you destroy your film after a few pictures, and I'll take the entire roll."

"Yeah, good. If it works on him, it might work on the demon, right?"

"Worth a shot. And a direction Mr. Baxter can go in his research."

They walked over to the barn, hand in hand. Josh tried to keep his thoughts focused on the task, but being so close to Whisper again almost overloaded him. The way she fidgeted next to him, he guessed she felt the same. Once they approached the barn, both regained their focus and readied the cameras.

"Be prepared to scare the ghosts off," he said.

"But don't banish them."

"Right."

Josh snapped a few pictures, and when the ghosts rushed him, he turned invisible. Whisper grabbed his arm, and they shot off the scare power, sending ghosts fleeing. The barn door creaked open, and the headless ghost wandered out. Josh took a few more photos, making sure to get the farmer's lackey in each shot, and then went invisible again.

"That's enough," Whisper said. "See what happens."

Josh pulled the film out and tossed it to the ground. He brought his foot down and smashed the roll into the dirt. All the nearby ghosts vanished.

"Cool, it works," he said.

"It banished the headless one, too," Whisper said, pointing at the barn. "I watched it go."

Before they could congratulate themselves, the farmer burst out of the barn door. His voice infiltrated their minds. "What have you done? Show yourselves."

Whisper knocked out a few pictures, and then went invisible. The farmer stared at them, evil and rage bleeding off of him. As they walked out of his line of sight, Josh was afraid his eyes would follow, but the invisibility held.

They continued their pattern. Whisper took three or four photos, turned invisible, and then they wandered to a different spot around the barn so the farmer couldn't lock onto their position. He was unable to leave the direct vicinity of the barn, and even seemed a bit weaker now that his minion was gone. He tossed curses and threats into their minds every time Whisper appeared.

With their task going so well, they grew a bit complacent. They moved to an area in front of the barn that had too many ghosts, but instead of scaring them away, Whisper snapped her pictures. Before she could turn invisible, ghosts overwhelmed her. She screamed and panicked before Josh could dive down and grab her leg. As soon as he did, he shot off a stun. Whisper turned invisible, and he helped her up.

With tears in her eyes, she said, "Sorry. I thought I could get those last few off without any problems."

He hugged her. "Don't worry. It's a good reminder to us both to stay vigilant."

She nodded and pulled the film out of the camera. As she tossed it to the ground, the farmer stepped forward, though he went no further than a few steps. "Whatever you're doing, stop. She'll know and destroy you for it. Walk away and don't come back. You'll both live longer lives."

Whisper let out a sound of disgust and stomped on the film. Most of the ghosts in their vicinity, including the farmer, vanished. Josh felt a wave of negative energy fly out from the farmhouse. The demon must've known what they'd done. Before she could launch any sort of attack, they hightailed it back to the safety of the driveway.

As they reached his car, Zach's was still there. He took a deep breath and told himself that wasn't really Zach and Kendra doing those things up there. He hoped the real them were able to block it all out.

He opened the passenger side door for her, and as she pulled away to get in, she sniffled. He stroked her cheek, smiled, and said, "Been an emotional afternoon, huh?"

She launched herself at him, attacking his mouth with hers. He spun her around and pinned her to the side of the car, steadying them both, and kissed back with gusto.

They lay on Whisper's bed, her head on Josh's shoulder and hand under his shirt, tracing patterns on his chest with her fingernails. He suppressed an almost constant moan, her touch the burn of lava and the tickle of a feather all at once. He hoped it never ended. But he still couldn't help glancing over at her closed bedroom door.

"I can't believe they didn't make us keep it open."

She leaned up and gave him a gentle, lingering kiss. When she finished, she put her head back on his shoulder. "They knew we needed to talk. I promised nothing would happen, but we needed privacy." She smiled up at him. "Lucky they like you."

He smiled down at her, ran his fingers through her hair, and then moved them down to her back. He contemplated putting his hand under her shirt to feel the skin of her back, but decided maybe he should save that for sometime when her parents might not open the door. "So, do we need to talk?" he asked.

She shrugged. "No, but I kind of want to. But not about what happened. It was a misunderstanding fueled by a nasty scene. Let's leave it at that."

He kissed the top of her head. "Okay. So what do you want to talk about?"

She moved her mouth to his neck. "Us. Our future." As she said it, her lips brushed his skin, eliciting a groan out of him. She giggled.

"What do you mean?" he asked when he had his breathing under control.

She sat up and looked him in the eyes, all playfulness gone from her face. "How did you feel yesterday and today? When we weren't talking, I mean."

"Bad. Like the worst I've ever felt. It was like a part of me was gone, and I wanted nothing more than to get that back." He kissed her. "Get you back."

She nodded and ran her hand through the hair above his left ear. "Yeah, me, too. Exactly. I wanted to hate you so much, wanted nothing to do with you ever again. You blamed me for the death."

"But I didn't. That's not what I meant."

She put a finger to his lips to quiet him. "Yeah, I know now, but I didn't then. I wanted to hate you, but instead more pain came from the fact that I wasn't with you. And that made me more angry." She chuckled. "It was an unhealthy cycle."

"Yeah, sounds like it. So what about the future?"

"Well? What do you see of it?"

He shrugged. "College, I guess. Then who knows." He grinned at her. "I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. Other than be with you for eternity."

She leaned forward and they kissed, their tongues darting together in a gentle wrestling match. Josh never wanted the moment to end, but he was hyper-aware that her parents weren't that far away and could open her bedroom door at anytime. Whisper must've been, too, because when they broke apart, she gave a quick glance towards the door.

She leaned her head back onto his shoulder and put her hand back under his shirt, bringing out another gasp. She giggled and said, "I like your vision of the future."

In a breathless voice, he asked, "How about your future?"

She shot him a mischievous grin. "You mean other than Mrs. Joshua Hart?" His eyes went wide, and she laughed. "After high school, of course."

He wondered if she could hear his heart beating. Heck, he wondered if people across town could hear his heart beating. "I like the sound of Whisper Hart," he said, glancing down to gauge her reaction. It didn't disappoint. She leapt up, pinned him to the bed, and attacked him with a deep kiss. This time he gave no thought to the closed bedroom door that could open at any time. He focused everything in him on her body pressing into him, her lips on his, her sweet breath overtaking him. This was what heaven had to be like.

Her computer dinged, signaling an incoming email. Mr. Baxter's reply. They'd received a quick note after they sent their initial email saying that he was in the middle of research, but would get back to them in an hour or so. That hour was now obviously up. Whisper grudgingly ended her assault on Josh, and he grudgingly let her.

They stood up, and she frowned as she looked at the computer. "What is it?" he asked.

She shook her head. "I don't know. It's just, these feelings we have for each other, they're not natural. It's because we're Ghost Betweens."

He cupped his hand under her chin and brought her attention directly onto him. "Does it mean it's not real?"

She smiled her sexy, lip-biting smile and shook her head again. "No, not at all. It's as real as anything, everything."

"Our love isn't natural; it's supernatural."

She threw her arms around him and laughed. "How corny are you?"

They disengaged and headed for the computer. She clicked on Mr. Baxter's reply and they found a long note, nothing less than expected. "Success! I'm thrilled. I have more good news. I believe it is possible to use those cameras against the demon. If you get her in every single shot of film, and then destroy it like you did today, it should banish her. If she's missing from just one, though, it won't affect her. I'd suggest both of you taking pictures and doing your best to get her in every frame. That way if something happens to one camera, you'll have the other as backup. I'll be using a sick day at school tomorrow to hit the books even harder. If I discover anything else, I'll send you both an email. I'm confident this plan's a winner, though.

"As for the struggle you had with the ghosts, Ms. Douglas, I'm glad you're fine. The ghosts can't simply reach in and stop your heart like they did to the poor man this weekend. Your powers see to that." Josh had wondered about this and had Whisper ask him why the ghosts didn't kill them in those pile-ups. "It means you have physical protections against them. Think of it as another perk. I believe that's why she let you two go on Friday. Neither she nor her ghosts yet have the power to do much more than superficial harm to you at this point. It might have been a desperate plea on her part to keep you from coming back. Don't get cocky, though; tomorrow night during the ceremony, that might change. And, or course, if she succeeds, she'll go after you two with a vengeance. Especially since you banished her second in command.

"As for what you saw in the farmhouse, know it was not your two friends participating in that, but the demon's possessed minions. Except in rare and extreme cases, when demons are in human form on our realm, they are hedonistic beings. They crave pleasurable activities such as sex. But there's more to this, I believe. The demon wanted to make sure they were no longer pure of body. A pure body wouldn't hold the evil life essence. It would end the demon's plan quicker than if you two banished everything on the farm in one fell swoop--which, of course, is what we're hoping you'll do.

"Other than good luck, there's not much more for me to say. I would suggest getting there at or before dusk tomorrow. We all saw that it was dark in the dream, so if you're there before night falls fully, you should have plenty of time to get the demon on all 24 shots of film. Just make sure to destroy that film before she murders Mr. Riley and Ms. Phelps. Even if you manage to banish the demon, they won't come back if their bodies have been killed. Good luck. Text me the moment you know you've succeeded or failed."

They read it through twice. "Okay," Josh said. "We just have to take that bitch's picture 24 times. Let's hope she doesn't break the lens."

"I think we're safe there. This should work." She looked over at Josh and ran her fingers across his cheek. He had no idea what it was about, but happy anytime she chose to touch him. When she put her hand down, she pulled out the keyboard and composed an email.

"What now? Did we forget to ask him something?"

"Just curious."

He didn't say anything more, just watched what she wrote.

"Hi Mr. Baxter. Sorry to bother you again, but I have another question. It's about Josh and me. I know you figured out there was something wrong between us this weekend, but we've made up. Even though we've only known each other a short time, we were both sick that we were fighting and not together. Here's my question: is the bond between Ghost Betweens always so strong? And, assuming we succeed tomorrow night, will our feelings always be like this?

"Also, we can sometimes hear each other's thoughts. I don't think we've told you that yet. It's happened a couple times now. One was in the barn talking to the farmer ghost, and then again on Saturday when we set three ghosts free at a park. We could not only talk to the ghosts like this, but to each other. Is this something that's normal? Is there any way we can expand upon this? I'm guessing it'd be helpful against the demon tomorrow night. Anyway, I hope you know the answers to these questions and have time to get back to me. Thanks! Whisper."