Speak No Evil Trilogy Read online

  “I can’t tell you how much you’re hurting my feelings,” he clutched his chest sarcastically. “Now let’s move it, Chubs!”

  I really hated Toby. Couldn’t he see how hard I was trying? “My mental health is fragile,” I reminded him. “Don’t push me.”

  “Ha,” he snorted unattractively. “If I don’t push you, we’ll just be sitting still all night. You’re terrible at escaping.”

  “Ugh,” A rumbling noise came from my throat at his words. “So sorry to disappoint you. This is my first time.”

  “Do you have to make it so damn obvious?”

  “I’ll try,” I snapped, raising back up to my feet.

  “Not worth the trouble,” he muttered under his breath. “Not worth it.”

  I pushed myself forward with a low grunt. I never really gave much thought to the running aspect of escaping; not that I’d been able to think about any of it for very long. My body was becoming more alert with each step we took, but I wasn’t sure that was a good thing.

  “You’ll never make it,” a man called from the dark shadows.

  I couldn’t see him, but I felt his coldness. “Yes we will,” I murmured without much conviction.

  “You might as well just give up.”

  “Who do you think you’re fooling anyways?” Another voice chimed in.

  I twisted my body to match the female voice with a face, but Toby blocked my view. “Ignore them.”

  “Easy for you to say.”

  “There is nothing we can do about the Cursed. They will always know where you are and be able to follow.”

  I peeked over my shoulder as I followed Toby deeper into the darkness. I was putting an awful lot of trust in Toby. He was one of the Cursed, too; even if that was an easy thing to forget.

  “Come on, Crazy,” he called out impatiently. “We’re not just on a midnight stroll here, we’re running for your life.”

  “How do I know you’re not with them?” I called back. I had fallen behind him a few feet.

  “If I wanted you dead, I would have just left you at the hospital.”

  “What’s in this for you? It’s not like you actually care if I live or die.”

  “It really hurts my feelings that you doubt my affection for you.” He jumped over a rocky patch of ground. “Watch your step here.”

  I didn’t attempt the same jump. The fact that he was a ghost probably aided in his balance. I wasn’t exactly clumsy, but I was only human. Despite my careful picking, I fell forward and was forced to catch myself with my hands before my face smashed into the rocks.

  “Can’t you do anything right?” Toby growled at the same time another ghost called:

  “You can’t do anything right! Look at you trying to walk!”

  He shook his head, his expression hardening angrily. “Don’t even say it,” he warned, holding his hand out to help me up. He pulled it back before I could fully process the kindness behind the gesture, even if he couldn’t follow through.

  “Do you have any idea where we’re going?”

  “Of course I do,” he replied without hesitation. “Right there.” He pointed out to a small town that seemed to pop up out of nowhere.

  “What is this place?”

  “It’s called a town,” he grumbled, “You haven’t been locked away that long that you would forget what a town looks like.” He picked up his stride as the terrain started to smooth out.

  “I just… didn’t know there was a town here,” I panted.

  “It’s pretty small,” he admitted, “but it has what we need.”

  “What do we need?” I practically had to run to keep up with him.

  “Somewhere safe.”

  I shrugged at the logic of his words, letting myself fall behind slightly. Toby was right, we needed somewhere safe to hide until Nona came again. I just didn’t expect it to be so close to Nine Crosses; maybe Toby knew something about this sleepy town that I didn’t.

  No one woke up when we crossed the official green “town limit” sign shoved into the ground on the side of the highway. I had half expected a sheriff toting a large shotgun to stop us. Of course, he would have only seen a young girl in pink scrub pants and a plain white tee shirt walking all alone on the side of the road. Still, chances were high that he would have carted me back to Nine Crosses.

  The town stayed asleep though.

  Toby led me straight through the silent town to a small park with creepy black swings that swayed when we walked past. I shivered, aware suddenly of the slight chill in the air. It wouldn’t have been that big of a deal, but it was getting colder.

  As Toby and I had made our way across rough roads and uneven meadows to get to the town, the ghost people had faded away until I couldn’t hear them anymore. He usually did have that affect on them. Of course, they wouldn’t stay away long.

  “Here,” he stopped abruptly in front of a very large tire that jutted out of the ground on its side to form a club of sorts. I could almost see kids climbing on it and hiding inside.

  “We’re… sleeping here?”

  “There’s a bag inside. Get it.”

  I ducked my head inside the tire and sure enough- there was a light blue backpack. “What is this?”

  “Money and clothes,” he grunted. “Let’s go.”

  “Wait,” I struggled to grab the pack and catch back up with Toby. “Where did you get this? How did you get this?”

  If I expected an answer, I was disappointed. “You need to get off the streets.” His forehead was crinkled darkly when he looked down at me. “Stay close.”

  “We’re staying here?” My forehead crinkled with my confusion. A cheap motel wasn’t exactly what I had in mind for somewhere safe. If something bad was going to happen to me, this seemed like a logical backdrop.

  “Would you rather sleep on the park bench?” His eyes narrowed when he looked down at me.

  “Maybe.”

  Through the large dirt-speckled front window, I saw a young looking man with long greasy hair pulled back into a ponytail. The cigarette hanging from his mouth had been forgotten in favor of the magazine he was flipping through.

  “I don’t want to talk to him,” I glanced up at Toby’s dark scowl.

  “They’re going to know over at the hospital that you’re gone. If not tonight, then in the morning. Do you want to make it that easy for them to find you?” I shook my head. “This is your best chance.”

  So we weren’t hiding from the ghosts; we were hiding from the police. “I just don…”

  “In the bag,” he cut me off, “is a red change purse. Take out eighty dollars and put it in your front pocket.”

  I obediently opened the bag, not bothering with anything except for that small task. There was a lot more money than just the four twenties I would need to pay for the room and even though I was curious how Toby could get it, I had to focus.

  “What if he won’t give me a room?”

  “He will. Just go in there confident and tell him you want a room.” I nodded once and pulled the heavy door open.

  I tucked my hair nervously behind one ear, too aware of how badly my hands shook. He would take one look at my outfit and refuse to give me a room. And then he’d call the police so they could take me back to Nine Crosses.

  “Be confident,” Toby reminded me.

  Carefully ignoring Toby’s presence, I approached the desk where the man was casually reading a magazine with a scantily clad woman smiling from one of the pages. My heart was pounding painfully against my rib cage.

  “I…” I ran my tongue swiftly across my dry lips. “I need a room.”

  His eyes roved the entire length of my body before coming back to rest on my face. “You alone?”

  I nodded, swallowing past my urge to turn around and run.

  “It’s eighty bucks a night.”

  I nodded again and pulled the four twenties from my front pocket. I was grateful once again for Toby’s f
oresight. If he hadn’t known to put the exact amount in my front pocket, we could have been in trouble.

  The man slid a plastic card across the counter. “Room 16. Out those doors and to the left. Bottom floor.”

  “Bus schedule,” Toby hissed.

  “Do you have a bus schedule?” I blurted quickly.

  The man took a sheet of paper from behind the desk and placed it over the card. “Anything else you’ll be needing?” he smiled suggestively.

  I shook my head quickly, scooping up the room key and bus schedule before bolting back outside.

  Chapter Eight

  “Do you think he knows?” I whispered to Toby once we reached the door that was marked with a black one and a six.

  “That you talk to yourself?”

  My breath came out in a huff but I slid the card into the lock and refrained from talking anymore until the door was locked behind me again. “Do you think he knows I’m from Nine Crosses?”

  “I doubt he cares.”

  I looked down, trying to see myself through the man’s eyes. Young girl, a little bony and a little short and a little tired, but healthy enough. The hem on my light pink pants were caked with mud and grass stains. There was a large smear of mud across my arm and I didn’t even want to know what my hair looked like. I had fallen asleep with it braided; as far as I knew, it was still braided. I ran my fingers lightly over the frizzy mess.

  Yeah, he knew.

  “Why doesn’t he call the cops?”

  “Because he doesn’t care,” he repeated, louder.

  At least Toby hadn’t lost any of his charm. “Ok,” I rolled my eyes. “So we’ll be safe here.”

  “For a little while.” He was bent low over the bedside table, reading the bus schedule that I had just put down.

  The room wasn’t much to look at, but I didn’t have a lot to compare it to. We’d never been much of a vacation going family. If I had ever stayed at a hotel, it was before I could remember.

  I let my fingers brush lightly over the bright floral blanket covering the bed; ran my eyes across the room to take in the windows, the bedside table, and the stiff looking white chair. It wasn’t much, but at least it was clean.

  The door to the bathroom was ajar and a thin slice of light splashed out across the floor. I didn’t bother investigating though; it would be just like any other bathroom - only there would be mirrors. I wasn’t sure if I was ready for that confrontation yet.

  Toby’s eyes followed my gaze. “You need to use the bathroom, Crazy?”

  “No,” I sank onto the edge of the bed, clasping my hands tightly in my lap.

  I could hardly believe we were here. Against all my doubts, I had managed to get out of the hospital and checked into a hotel room with less difficulty than I expected.

  Toby said the police would find me if I slept outside on the park bench and drag me back to Nine Crosses, but they would find me here, too. We hadn't walked that far.

  I glanced at the clock placed next to the lamp on the dark colored bedside table. 3:17. We had run longer than I thought. My nerves were still coiled- waiting for the ghosts to come.

  “Why do you think they aren't here?” I whispered.

  “The police?” Toby bent to peek out of a broken blind on one of the two windows that took up most of one wall. “They'll find you soon enough, but hopefully we'll be long gone by then.”

  I bit lightly on the tip of my tongue. I had meant the ghost people, but maybe I didn't want to know where they were. They would find me soon enough, too.

  “I wouldn't let it bother you too much,” he called over his shoulder. “Might be kind of cool to be known as the girl who escaped a mental hospital.” He laughed all by himself.

  “Yeah, really cool,” I murmured.

  “Why don't you try sleeping?”

  My gaze snapped up to see if he was kidding. How could he expect me to sleep now? I could barely even sit still. “I'm fine.”

  “Yeah,” his eyes widened, “me too.” He bent again over the bus schedule.

  “Are we taking a bus?”

  “There's no airport here, in case you missed that.”

  “We're flying somewhere?”

  “Did you not hear me, Crazy? There's no airport here.” He let his finger slide down the length of the paper.

  “But you want to take a plane?” That must mean we were going far.

  “I want a lot of things.”

  He stood up abruptly and pressed his ear against the door. I had never seen Toby nervous. Angry- all the time; but never so jumpy. “Is someone coming? Is it the ghosts?” I halfway rose to my feet again.

  “Just when I think you're as stupid as I've ever seen, you say something to surprise me- proving you're even more stupid than I thought.”

  “I was just...” I let myself fall back to the bed.

  “If it were the Cursed, would I be listening for them at the door? You expect them to knock?”

  “No.” I bit down on my bottom lip.

  “I really think you need to sleep. It's the only way I'm going to be able to stay in here with you.”

  “You are such a jerk.” Not even trying to hide my irritation, I stomped the short distance to the bathroom and slammed the door. It felt good to be able to slam a door.

  I didn't look as beat up as I'd feared. The braid had held up well considering the circumstances; and although my face wasn't clean, there were no huge splotches of mud or dirt. My white shirt had seen better days, but it was white- I couldn't expect much there.

  Toby said there were clean clothes in the backpack. I sighed at my reflection. The bag was with Toby and no way was I going out there to get it. I eyed the bathtub; contemplating the comfort of the porcelain.

  “Hey, Crazy?”

  “Yeah?” I closed my eyes on a groan; was I really going to start responding to that?

  “What are you doing in there?”

  “I'm busy!”

  “You don't look very busy.” He was suddenly right beside me in the narrow room.

  “Toby! Why are you in here?”

  “I go where you go, Princess.” He held his arm out in a mock apology.

  “I'm going to bed,” I stormed. “Let's see you follow me there.”

  One eyebrow cocked on his otherwise smooth forehead; heat flooded through my veins.

  “You know what I mean.”

  ***

  The bed wasn't much more comfortable than the one I slept in at Nine Crosses. This one was a little bigger though. Peeling the mud caked pants off, I crawled under the still chilly sheets.

  Between the sedatives they'd given me, the adrenalin of escaping, and then running behind Toby for three hours; I was suddenly more tired than I'd ever been. I stretched my bare toes out under the blanket and arched my back in a long needed stretch. A hot shower would have been nice, but I was too tired. Besides, I wasn't sure if I had time.

  Toby sat in the only chair in the room, pressed flush against the wall facing the windows. His thumb traced the lines of his jaw and up his chin, then back to the other side. His knee bobbed frantically.

  My eyelids fluttered closed, then back open again. If only Toby would calm down, maybe I could fall asleep. Seeing him awake and alert made me afraid to close my eyes for too long. What if he bolted while I was asleep?

  “What would happen to me if they caught me?”

  “They will kill you,” he replied without hesitation.

  “I meant the police,” I muttered, “or the nurses. Whatever.” I doubted if it would be legal for them to kill me for escaping.

  His eyebrows knitted darkly. “The nurses aren't going to come looking for you.”

  I widened my eyes in his direction, but resisted sticking my tongue out. “The police might.”

  “I liked you better when you didn't talk.”

  “You've always hated me, even when I didn't say anything.” It was a baby thing to say, a plea for his affection
; I realized how it would sound to him as soon as the words were out and his eyes narrowed. “I just meant...”

  “I know what you meant.” He leaned back as far as the seat would allow, crossing his arms lightly over his chest.

  For the first time in my life, I wondered what it would feel like to touch Toby. Would my hands go through him? Would I feel the same heat I felt back in the bathroom at Nine Crosses? My face flamed hot at the memory.

  “This isn't some cozy road trip, Crazy,” he suddenly sat up straighter. “I'm never going to like you.”

  “I don't expect you to.” I tried not to stutter and in my haste, my jaw snapped shut.

  “That's good,” he sneered. “Don't ever have expectations; that way you won't be disappointed.”

  To avoid looking at him, I snatched up the bus schedule on the table beside me. “Where are we heading anyways?” I peeked over the top of the page at an empty chair. “Toby?”

  No answer.

  I let out my raspy breath I had been trying to hold. He had left me alone. What was I supposed to do now?

  Sleep, a corner of my tired mind suggested. I was exhausted enough to fall asleep, but my thoughts wouldn't stop chasing each other behind my half closed lids.

  What was going to happen to me now? I had just run off into the night with a guy I didn't even like very much; and he liked me even less. And why? Because of a dream I'd had. What was wrong with me?

  I pulled my knees close to my chest under the blanket and turned to my side, letting the bus schedule fall to the floor. My eyelids drifted closed, my body finally taking over my thoughts. Well, I mentally shrugged, the faster morning would get here and we could be on our way. I sighed lightly into the strange pillow.

  Chapter Nine

  My head jerked violently off the pillow, startling me awake from a fretful sleep. My eyes couldn't have been closed for more than... I glanced over at the clock. A few hours?

  I rubbed the grit from the corners of my eyes, sure I was seeing the numbers wrong. It felt like I had just closed my eyes a few minutes ago. It would be morning soon.

  Morning.

  My eyes opened a little wider as the thought fully circulated in my foggy brain. They would miss me at Nine Crosses soon and then the police really would be looking for me. How did people run from the cops? I could already feel my chest tightening.