Speak No Evil Trilogy Page 9

  “I did!” I snapped back, shoving him aside as I went past him to where the bus had been parked.

  The red backpack sat there, alone on the curb - dejected and making me feel way too guilty for only being a cheap piece of fabric with just the right touch of stitching. I snatched it up and swung it onto my back. The bus might have been gone but I still had two working legs.

  “I didn’t hear you,” Tristan spoke more gently from my side.

  “That’s ok,” I brushed him off.

  “Are you sure you’re ok?” He tried to get in front of me, but I wasn’t having any of that. No eye contact; I wasn’t taking any chances.

  “I’m fine,” I assured him shortly. “But I have to go now.”

  “Yeah,” he nodded quickly. “We should get going. It’s late and I’m sure you’re tired. It won’t take long to get to the cabin.”

  “I’m not going to the cabin with you.” I didn’t even glance towards him on my way to the edge of the road.

  This was going to be impossible. How would I know which way to go? A look to the left - dark and unending. A look to the right - dark and unending. I sighed heavily. Find Toby. Easy for her to say.

  “What are you talking about, Ren?” Tristan came to a stop beside me. “Let’s go.”

  He made a grab for the arm I had closest to him, moving too fast for me to pull away. I didn’t need to worry about it though. Tristan’s hand went right through my arm. Just like air.

  “What?” I looked down at my arm, just to make sure it was still there. It was.

  “Did you see Nona?” he snarled, anger changing him.

  “Yeah,” I nodded.

  “Did she tell you to run?”

  “No,” I denied, still shocked that he couldn’t touch me. He could before, what changed?

  I did. I didn’t want to follow Tristan anymore. Nona said he would make me hurt myself; it all had to be my choice or he lost all power over me. At least - that’s what I hoped she meant.

  “Well then,” he prompted angrily. “Where are you going now, if not with me?”

  “I have to find Toby.”

  “Toby?” His lip snarled up in disbelief.

  “You made it so he can’t find me!”

  “I did nothing,” he held his hands out wide. “You did it all yourself.”

  “Maybe,” I shrugged. “But now I’m going to undo it.” If I could.

  “You won’t be able to find him,” Tristan taunted.

  I wasn’t listening to him anymore though. I had more important things waiting for me. The road ahead of me was long, but this one led somewhere. To Toby. And no matter what Tristan said, I would find him.

  Walking out onto the unfamiliar pavement, I turned my body to the left and took that first step. Soon I was in a full out run, leaving everything I knew behind me.

  Softspoken

  Chapter One

  I laced my fingers together, wishing I was anywhere but where I was. Even my bed back at Nine Crosses was starting to sound good. Better than an empty parking lot in the middle of the night.

  Coming out here wasn’t the best idea I ever had; then again, I shrugged inwardly, it also wasn’t the worst. That title went to the night I followed a ghost I barely knew out of a hotel room and got on a bus with him. That was the night I left Toby.

  Six days.

  Almost an entire week now had passed since I’d last seen him. I never expected to miss Toby, but here I was.

  I pulled the thin borrowed jacket tighter to my chest as the wind picked up. Hopping on one leg and then the other for warmth, I searched the parking lot in both directions. No one was here yet.

  Maybe I had gotten the signs wrong. Was it smart to be standing out here in the cold, just waiting? Probably not, I silently answered my own stupid question. Of course not; then again, Toby always said the only thing I was good at was doing the stupidest thing possible. This fit.

  I shivered hard. The jacket didn’t do much against this wind. It was just a light thing, blue and shiny but worthless otherwise. I began bouncing harder on the balls of my feet.

  “Where are you,” I whispered through barely opened lips. Although I didn’t expect an answer, getting one would have been nice. No such luck.

  In the six days since I’d left Toby, the ghosts had gotten worse than ever. In the same amount of time, I had gotten better - better at knowing which ghosts could talk to me and which ones were solely meant to terrify me. The scary ones were more abundant; they were there all the time - popping up to make sure my heart still worked ok.

  The other kind, the ones who could talk to me, weren’t so popular. They were the ones whose deaths were more recent; the ones I was looking for tonight.

  The ones that were being elusive.

  I cupped my hands around my mouth and blew hot air onto my exposed skin. This is where the ghost would appear, Nona had told me and I believed her. This was where he had died; this was where he would come back to. This state of consciousness, when they decided for themselves where to go, didn’t last long. I didn’t have a choice but to wait for him here. This was my only chance of finding Toby.

  Hopefully it wasn’t too late already. How long did Nona say they had before Tristan controlled their actions completely? One week? Two?

  I rolled my head to one side, stretching the kinks out. I had definitely been sleeping on too many buses. A cold window wasn’t exactly the same as a soft pillow. Or even a hard pillow, for that matter.

  I had never before sought the ghost -people out. They always came to me, silent and terrifying. It was worse when they talked.

  Shuddering, I turned my face away from the abandoned school and back out across the parking lot. The boy would come soon and I would be ready. I swallowed over the lump in my throat and set my jaw in a hard, angular line.

  “What are you still doing here?” An angry voice called out to me from the shadows. I didn’t bother turning towards him; I had already heard everything he had to say - and I was still not listening.

  “Go away!” I called back over my shoulder.

  “This is utterly ridiculous,” Tristan snarled angrily, “you realize that, right?”

  I sucked in a deep breath. “So?”

  “So?” he mocked, coming to stand in front of me.

  “Yeah,” I scowled back. “So?” I had been called way worse than ridiculous in my almost nineteen years on the earth. Did he expect that to hurt my feelings? To make me scuttle away into hiding?

  “Give it up,” his lips popped on the last word, blowing his breath into my face. At least it wasn’t cold air. For reasons I didn’t know about, Tristan was warm - hot even.

  “Why?” My nose crinkled up with the question. “Because you said so?”

  “Because it’s a waste of time.”

  Yeah, because I had so many other things to do with my time. Incredibly important things, like catching buses to no where in particular and eating food out of styrofoam bowls. I rolled my eyes and shoved my hands back in my pockets.

  “So,” I mumbled, pouty but not wanting him to argue anymore. I had heard enough, more than enough, over the past few days.

  “I can see now why Toby liked you so much,” he grinned. It was a fake grin though, one of ridicule rather than amusement.

  “Toby doesn’t like me,” I corrected automatically, not realizing until it was too late that his words were laced with sarcasm.

  “Really?” Tristan let his eyes go wide.

  Taking care not to roll my eyes again, I shifted them back to the school. How could someone kill themselves at a school? What had happened to the boy to make him do something so drastic?

  “No one is coming,” Tristan whispered loudly. “And even if they were, he’s not going to talk to you.”

  So Tristan knew who I was waiting for. My lips curled up into a small smile. Nona had been right, there was a boy here who could talk to me. “We'll see,” I shrugged.

  �
�I hope you get frostbite,” he snapped unkindly. In the next instant his voice smoothed over. “Ren,” he called with fake sweetness, “let’s just go somewhere and get you warmed up. Hmm?”

  “No way.”

  “Come on,” he reached uselessly for my hand, “we can get warmed up and then come back out in the morning. Or we can find someone else.”

  “No,” I repeated, a little less firmly. Warming up sounded like a better idea than standing out here but who knew how far I would have to go to meet someone else. Tristan knew, but I couldn’t believe him.

  “I know,” he held his hand up in front of my face, “there was this girl in Florida. You'll like it there.”

  “Just go away, Tristan,” I finally stormed. Was he kidding? Florida? Did he really think I was going to hop on another bus and go to a different state?

  “Come on,” he coaxed, “I'll go with you. You won’t be alone.”

  “I’d rather be alone!”

  It wasn’t a total lie. If it was a choice between being alone and being with Tristan, I would pick being alone. Not that I really liked the idea of being by myself when the ghost- people came, but Tristan was too much of a distraction.

  A distraction was exactly what I didn’t need right now. Toby was out in the world somewhere. Was he still looking for me or had he given up by now? He never made it a secret that he disliked me, but he had helped me escape Nine Crosses. He had taken care of me when my father turned his back on me.

  Taken care of was a bit of a stretch but he did keep the ghost- people at bay. Where was he now? Nona said he was in trouble, but what kind of trouble? He was already dead and that seemed about as bad as things could get for a person.

  I had been searching though, as much as I could. Nona visited me in two more dreams, mostly just bringing more questions than she cared to answer but at least I had a place to start.

  In order to find a ghost, I needed to figure out where a ghost could be. Thus, the waiting. So far they hadn’t been any help. They had been gone too long. Tristan was following me around everywhere and not adding any numbers to his army. My only hope was beginning to run dry.

  “Toby,” I whispered lightly, “where are you hiding?”

  “He can’t hear you,” Tristan taunted.

  “I know,” I sulked. And I did know. I had been calling him for days, most of the time a lot louder than that and he had never heard me. Not once.

  Tristan disappeared then, leaving me alone again. As much as I didn’t like him, he was sort of better than no one. I swallowed loudly and tucked my chin into the top of my jacket. The wind was starting to turn colder.

  I felt my teeth sink into the soft flesh on my bottom lip, excitement beginning to mingle with the fear that was coursing throughout my body. I knew what the cold meant. I had never welcomed it, ever - until now.

  I craned my neck every which way, searching for the dull grey light that would chase away the dark shadows. Dipping my hands into the jacket pocket, I clutched tight to the small baggie I had stashed inside. Another of Nona’s ideas. I wasn’t sure if it would work or not but tonight I would be finding out.

  Just as my excitement began to change to impatience a light burst to life just on the edge of my vision. He was here. I sucked in a quick breath and tried unsuccessfully to hold it in my burning lungs. So what if he heard me breathing, I berated myself, the ghost-people had never been afraid of me before.

  Then again, I had never actually sought them out before either.

  Chapter Two

  “M…my name is Ren,” I tried to call out with confidence.

  The boy turned to look at me, surprise chasing anger all over his shimmering face. “What are you doing here?” he growled.

  “I...just wanted…to…”

  “I know what you want,” he abruptly cut off my stammering explanation, “he warned me you would come.”

  He? My eyes narrowed and swung over to Tristan, who was now standing just behind the boy. He only shrugged in response, not trying to deny the accusation in my eyes.

  He warned the boy of me? That meant he was afraid. All the more reason to make sure the ghost told me all he knew. Maybe this was it; I’d finally be able to see Toby again.

  “I just need to ask you a few questions,” I tried again, this time without the stammering.

  “I have nothing to say to you,” he snarled, shocked by my insistence.

  Realizing he was getting ready to bolt, I pulled the plastic baggie from my pocket. Using my finger nail to rip a tiny hole in the corner, I made a quick circle around the boy, sprinkling the fine white salt on the ground as I went.

  “What are you doing?” Tristan asked loudly.

  “Just something Nona taught me,” I mumbled, returning to my place in front of the boy. “Now,” I puffed out my chest like some big wild dog, “we need to talk.”

  “I’m not talking to you,” he shouted loudly, then half turned away from me. But nothing happened. He didn’t disappear like I expected him to. “What did you do?” he fired, turning back to face me.

  “I want to talk,” I repeated. “Where is Toby?”

  “You’re a disgusting human being,” the boy’s top lip snarled up in a ferocious show of anger.

  “I won’t take much of your time,” I assured him. I knew he didn’t have much of his own time left, but this was important.

  “A waste of perfectly good skin,” he continued. “It’s a shame your mother couldn’t finish you off before she did herself.”

  “Yeah, like you’re the first ghost to tell me that,” I scoffed.

  “Then why did you come looking for me?” His eyes narrowed meanly on his non-human face.

  “To find Toby,” I explained again, this time more slowly.

  “Toby doesn’t want you to find him.”

  “What?” I lurched forward, excitement making me lose my stiff composure for a second. “Did you see Toby? Did he talk to you?”

  “I said, he doesn’t want you.”

  “Of course not,” I almost cried with relief. Toby was ok, this boy had talked to him. He was still out there somewhere, which meant I could still find him.

  “Go away,” the boy growled. “Go away before I make you.”

  “You can’t make me.” I was still grinning from the excitement of being so close to finding Toby, so I almost missed being afraid of the grotesque snarl coming from the boy at my challenge.

  “I can,” he yelled. “You’re nothing! Just a weak human, the weakest.”

  I grinned wider. That was definitely from Toby. They talked; he could contact Toby! “Where is he? Can you get a message to Toby?”

  “No!”

  “I know you can,” I persisted. “Just tell him…”

  “Let me go, I don’t want to see your face anymore.”

  Was that really supposed to hurt my feelings? “Not until you tell me what I need to know.”

  “He said not to tell you anything.”

  “Who did?” My eyes widened slightly, finishing the “crazy” vibe perfectly. “Did Toby say that? It’s ok, he’s looking for me.”

  “Go away!”

  “You don’t have to actually tell me where he is,” I held my hand up between us in an effort to calm him down, “just give him a message.”

  “Do I look like I work for the post office,” he hissed.

  “Tristan,” I pleaded. “Tristan, how do I get him to talk?”

  “He’s talking,” Tristan shrugged.

  “You know what I mean.” I was seconds from a full out foot stomp.

  Tristan shrugged again. “I can’t make him say what I want,” he held both hands up, “not yet anyways. Give me a few days, three at the most and I can make him tell you anything.” His eyelid closed in a lazy wink.

  “You’re…” My insults died on my lips, nothing bad enough to describe Tristan coming to mind.

  “Handsome,” he supplied for me. “Smart? Perfect?”
r />   “No,” I sulked, crossing my arms heavily across my chest. “A jerk.”

  He clutched tight to his chest, a mock grimace marring his features. “Don’t hurt my feelings, Ren.”

  “I wouldn’t talk to you anyways,” the boy spat. “Let me go right now, worthless troll.”

  I rolled my eyes, pinching hard at the bridge of my nose. Was this what the boy was like when he was alive or was it Tristan that made him so angry? I could understand though. Tristan was worse than Toby; and that was saying a lot.

  “If you would just…” I sighed loudly when I was cut off again.

  “I won’t stay here!” He stomped one foot on the ground, the same maneuver I was contemplating earlier.

  “You don’t have a choice,” I used my toe to point at the white ring of salt still circling the ghost.

  “You think this can hold me,” he snarled.

  “Yeah,” I nodded. It had so far, why not?

  “They'll get you in the end.” His voice changed, giving me the chills up and down my spine. “You can’t run from the Cursed.”

  The Cursed. Those were what Nona called my ghost- people; they were the ones Tristan and his brothers drove to suicide. After death, the Cursed were forced to join the brother’s army - driving others to an early death just like they were. A horrible fate; but I didn’t have time to dwell on that now.

  “If you couldn’t tell,” one eyebrow cocked up high on my forehead, “I’m not trying to run from them.”

  “They’ll get you,” he promised again. “He has plans for you.”

  Plans? Did he mean Tristan? I already knew I was high on Tristan’s list; Nona had told me so a long time ago. I shifted my eyes to him, but he wasn’t offering any sort of explanation. Typical.

  “So,” I shrugged one shoulder in fake nonchalance.

  “Let’s just go,” Tristan called out lazily. “I’m getting bored here.”

  “Then you go.”

  “Without my favorite mental patient?” His face scrunched tightly. “Not a chance.” He made a weird kissing face at me, causing my ever present scowl to deepen.