Page 15 of Haunted Heart (Things that Go Hump in the night #1)

FIFTEEN

Jonas and I both move out of the way as Dylan’s body floats toward us.

Julia flings him out of the cellar, tearing the splinters from his skin at the same time.

“I won’t share my resting place with him.”

“I understand.”

She looks at me, reaching out, and I take her hand. “Will you deal with him for me?”

I nod, and she wraps me in her arms. Held against her like this… I can hear the beat of her heart. I look back at it. In the living world, it’s a dark and shriveled lump.

“Will you be safe while I do?”

She nods. “I can close this off for the night.”

“And I’ll fix it tomorrow.”

Julia doesn’t want to let me go, but she knows she has to.

“I will be right back.” I kiss her cheek, avoiding the teeth that haven’t gone back to the way they were when she was living. “I promise.”

Jonas looks better. Maybe watching a guy you thought was a friend get murdered is restful compared to the recently departed from Hell.

He looks at me, smiling kind of sheepishly when he sees me studying him.

“I know this is probably going to make me sound like a sociopath, but… I’m okay with guys who pull this kind of shit not existing anymore.

I’m not going to kill them, but if a pissed off poltergeist decides to, I’m not going to try to stop her. ”

It’s probably a good thing. “Will you help me get him to his car?”

“Yeah.” He nods, taking a deep breath. “It’s not like tonight could get any more macabre.”

It might. “Fair warning, he’s probably going to feel really gross.”

He takes him by the shoulder and I take his feet. And as soon as we pick him up, Jonas makes a repulsive noise.

He dry heaves before composing himself. “Okay, yeah. I was not expecting it to feel like a sack of loose parts.”

“That’s kind of what he is now.” Inside his skin, there’s no structure anymore, just a jumble of bone pieces and organ soup.

“How are you going to explain it?” he puffs out as we struggle around the house.

“That’s what the car’s for.”

Together we walk Dylan through the orchard, past the corn maze, and back to his car.

We both glance warily at the two other cars still parked in the dark lot.

“Think those are Chad and the other guys’?”

“Yeah, but I can’t help Minnie clean up her mess until I’ve cleaned up mine.” And she’s not asked me to.

“So… trunk?” Jonas guesses.

“No.” I dig Dylan’s keys out of his pocket. “Front seat.”

“Yeah?” I’m surprised that that surprises him.

“He’s about to drive away and have an accident.”

“Okay.” He doesn’t ask any more questions, he just helps me put Dylan in the driver’s seat.

“You’re oddly chill about this,” I remark.

“I mean… we just came back from Hell. This doesn’t feel all that strange in comparison.”

“Fair.”

The spell is simple, the words even more so. The car starts down the drive on its own and we walk behind it until it reaches the end of the drive and joins the county road. Then we watch in silence as it swerves and careens, picking up speed…

It flies into the woods, and I hear it crash heavily into the trees. I see the flash of Dylan’s t-shirt.

“He flew through the windshield,” Jonas says.

I nod, wishing I’d brought my jacket. “Should have been wearing a seatbelt.”

“Probably broke all the bones in his body.”

“They’ll find his car if they look for it. But if they don’t, he could be there for days… months.”

“I hope he is.” Jonas glares at the flickering headlights. “Let the wild animals pick him apart.”

The full moon is still making its way across the sky, but the first hint of pre-dawn light has colored the horizon a different shade of blue.

I stand there for a few moments, waiting, just in case. He’s died twice tonight. And this time… he doesn’t get to come back.

Maybe The Book knew what it was doing.

I grimace. That would mean Jonas should have died too, and I don’t think they are the same.

Walking back down the gravel road, Jonas makes a strange noise.

“You okay?”

“I just had a really unsettling thought.”

“Do I want to hear it?”

“Probably not.” His mouth twists in a sort of disgust.

“Tell me anyway.”

“What if the woman in the barn wasn’t Minnie? What if it was you?” He winces like he’s just insulted me. “What if you were Dylan’s temptation to Wrath?”

Maybe I was, maybe I wasn’t. “I guess we’ll never know.”

“You said something about making me forget Hell.”

“I can wipe away the memories of tonight… it’ll be the same as if you had gotten blackout drunk, just… without the hangover.”

“Huh.” He considers it.

“It would mean you won’t have to lie if the cops come looking for a missing college kid.”

“That’s true, but… I don’t think I want to forget. I think… I think it’s better to know what’s waiting for me if I don’t make some changes.”

“We can talk about it, so you understand before you make any big decisions.”

“Like joining a cult?” He laughs, and I do too.

“Yeah. No cults, no churches. No big changes until we talk through things, okay?”

He nods. “So, um… you’re actually a witch. Like the spell stuff was real, and that’s how we got to Hell, right? That’s how you’d make me forget?”

“Yeah.”

“And Julia is your ghost girlfriend?”

“Yep.”

“Cool.” He nods, repeating the word a few times. “Hey, since I didn’t drive, could I stay here tonight? For what’s left of it, anyway?”

“We can figure something out.”

“In the not haunted house?” he quickly adds.

“Don’t worry. I’ll make up the couch at my grandmothers’. You’ll be safe and sound there.”

He glances up toward Julia’s house. “I am really sorry about everything I did in Hell. I like girls—which, apparently you do, too—and I may have a bit too active of an imagination.”

“We’re in college, we’re supposed to be horny, right?”

He snorts and claps a hand over his mouth to smother his laughs, shaking his head in a way that leaves me wondering if he’s ashamed of me for saying it, or himself for laughing at it.

“I’d still like to hang out, if you want. Just as friends. Zero expectations now or in the future. But after all of that,” he waves vaguely at the ground and then back toward Dylan’s car, “I’ll understand if you’d rather not.”

“I guess we’ll see what happens.”