Page 62 of Ghostly

“Maybe if you’d managed this better, we wouldn’t be in this trouble!”

Perry’s wild eyes shifted between Gabriel and the general vicinity of Ida.

“You’re crazy. You’re all nuts!”

“See,all!” Ida pointed at Perry. “He already believes there’s more than one person in the room!”

“My friends know where I am! If something happens to me—”

“Nothing is going to happen to you!” Gabriel insisted.

Perry’s glancezoomed around the hallway until it landed on the console table. He grabbed the deer statue and pointed it at Gabriel. “Don’t move. Let me out, right now.”

No. Not the statue!

“All right, all right, calm down. Put the statue back,” Gabriel said. “Ida, unlock the door.”

“But he—”

“We’ll show Perry we can be trusted. We’ll let him out, and he’ll see we mean him no harm.”

“Aw, man, I can’t deal with this.” Perry backed away, as far as he could from Gabriel—which meant going toward the stairs.

“Just put down the statue, we’ll unlock the door, and—”

Perry retreated further, ending at the first step—but he wasn’t looking where he was going.

“Perry, no—” Ida started, but before Gabriel could warn him, Perry made another step back, tripped over the beginning of the staircase, scrambled for—and missed—the railing, fell over, and hit his head on the edge of the step.

Ida covered her mouth.

“It’s fine, he’s fine!” Gabriel ran to him. “He’s breathing, no blood. He’ll come to in a minute.”

Ida head-banged the wall. “Why does this always happen when I get involved?”

Gabriel moved Perry to the couch and pressed a cold compression to the back of his head. Ida sat on the side of the coffee table, careful not to be too close—as if Perry could wake up, see her, and freak out again.

“There you go,” Gabriel said as the young man came back to consciousness.

Perry stared at him, confused, for a few seconds, then jerked up. “Ouch.” He grabbed his head.

“Does he have blurry vision? Any ringing in his ears? Nausea?” Ida looked expectantly at Gabriel, who, with a short delay, repeated the questions to Perry.

“Nah, but my head hurts.”

“Then he most likely doesn’t have a concussion. However, he should still be careful in the next few days, in case any of the symptoms crop up.”

Gabriel conveyed that, too.

“You a doctor now, or what?” Perry asked.

“No, but she reads a lot.” Gabriel nodded toward Ida, and, before Perry could object, added, “Please. Allow me to explain.”

Perry regarded him suspiciously.

“If I wanted to hurt you, wouldn’t I have done so already? I know it sounds crazy. I found it hard to believe, too.”

“You didn’t believe there was a ghost living in your house,” Perry repeated slowly. “Then how did you come to believe it?”