The Haunted - Jessica Verday [46]
“How did you get here? To the cemetery?” I asked him. “Are you… ?”
“I’m not buried here. And for a while I just stayed in my old room. It wasn’t hard. I didn’t get hungry or thirsty, so I never needed food. I tried not to move anything in case my dad noticed, but he wouldn’t come into my room, so eventually I just stopped caring. That worked until—” He broke off.
“Until?” I prodded.
He got a funny look on his face, somewhere between horror and frustration. “Have you ever watched all of your stuff being hauled away? Seen your parents put the contents of your life into garbage bags and set them outside at the curb? Like yesterday’s trash? He put a tarp over the bags… ,” he said slowly.
I forgot then, or remembered, but I just didn’t care. I grabbed for his hand.
And hit solid bench as it went right through.
He looked down, startled.
“Sorry,” I said. “It’s just… Oh God, Caspian. That’s awful. And terrible. No parent should ever do that.”
Caspian shook his head. “I don’t blame my dad. He waited long enough. It was time to move on with his life.”
He traced the ornate scrollwork on the arm of the bench before speaking again. “I followed the trucks that took my stuff. I thought they were going to the dump, but they went to Good-will. So I waited until it got dark and jimmied the lock on the store. Filled one of the bags with my art stuff, some clothes, and a couple of books.”
“I went to the high school and stayed there for a while. Sometimes I’d wander the halls when the bell rang, just to feel like I was a part of something again. I thought that if I tried hard enough, brushed shoulders with them long enough, that someone would know. Someone had to see me or feel me.”
A mischievous look spread across his face, and I was struck again by his gorgeousness.
My heart was rapidly melting at the sight of him.
“I have to admit though, it wasn’t that bad there. Perhaps you’ve heard of the urban legend about my school?”
I cocked my head to one side. “Enlighten me.”
“The legend says that the White Plains High School boys’ bathroom is haunted. Oddly enough, strange things only happen when the jocks are beating up on the freshmen.”
“I take it that was you?”
“Maybe. Nothing makes a football player scream faster than the words ‘You are going to end up with bad hair plugs and tiny balls by the time you’re thirty’ suddenly appearing on the mirror.”
“Steroids?”
He flashed a smile. “Exactly. That’s why the biggest ones always screamed the loudest.
The plumbing is awful too. Sinks randomly turning on, toilets that won’t flush at the most inop-portune times.”
“Why didn’t you stay there? Practicing random acts of… non–toilet flushing?”
“Summer came. School let out. Everything was stale and tired. Then eventually I started growing more and more used to the quiet. The dust. I knew that when school let back in, I wouldn’t want to be around all those people anymore. This place came to mind, and I figured it would be perfect. It took me three days of searching to find a mausoleum that was open.”
“So then… you just keep your stuff here and in your spare time hang out with the crazy girl who can see you?”
“Crazy beautiful,” he said with a half smile. “Yeah, that’s pretty much it.” The Haunted
Chapter Eleven
SHADOW PUPPETS
The sequestered situation of this church seems always to have made it a favorite haunt of troubled spirits.
—“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”
While waiting for Ben at our next tutoring session, I was practically vibrating with energy.
Things were going so well with Caspian, and Mom and Dad were being cool too. And if sometimes, late at night in bed, I questioned whether or not I truly was insane, I told myself that it didn’t matter. I was too happy to care.
Ben came in and sat down, but I noticed right away that he was acting fidgety. “Ben?” I said. “What’s up? You look worried.”
He glanced at the table. “I just, uh, didn’t want things to be awkward… after the other night.”
“I am so sorry about that. My mom—”
“No, not that. Your mom was fine. I meant me. Us. Me leaving. I’m sorry.” I’d already forgotten