Page 18 of Ghost Hunted

The only thing that’s left for me to do now is angle my gun toward the door of the house and wait.

I suddenly realize the plan I carefully laid was for me, not them. They didn’t need to wait for a message. They just needed to wait until I was out of sight in that shed. I’m the one who needed… time.

Yes. Time before that door opened to reveal the person who called Piper.

The person who can’t be Lia.

And yet…

Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, I’m not ready.

The door opens onto a flash of hair. Red hair, curly red hair, that makes me want to hurl out whatever contents remain in my stomach.

A ghost of a girl, identical to the one who died, down to the seventy-four freckles.

It’s her.

It can’t be her… but it is her.

She walks timidly out of the house, turning toward Piper, who lets out a gasp. I don’t know if she recognizes her from the old photos, or if the grey-out, as she calls it, is fading. Or because the woman looks like a carbon copy of her, just older.

The redheaded ghost is on the point of opening her arms hesitantly to Piper when I burst out of the shed, my gun pointed at her.

“Piper! Get away from her! Get the fuck away from her!”

Piper turns to stare at me, confusion written all over her face. Quill comes up from behind, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her back.

I put my finger on the trigger, walking toward the woman who destroyed me.

“You… you told him…” she stammers, staring at Piper. “But you promised…”

“Logan, please,” begs Piper, struggling against Quill’s hold. “Please don’t kill her! What are you doing, Logan? You can’t kill my mother!”

“Your mother died eighteen years ago,” I say, my voice harsh. “This isn’t your mother. This is a monster. Quill, take her back to the car.”

I didn’t need to tell him. He’s already dragging her to it despite her struggling. She’s fighting back so hard he has to use all his force. But he’s far stronger than her. I know he’ll keep her in that car.

I turn back to the stranger standing before me. She looks even whiter than a ghost, now, as she stares at the gun, and then at me.

“Logan…”

Just that word in her mouth has me itching to pull the trigger.

“Don’t say my name. For fuck’s sake, don’t say my name. Don’t speak. Just stop speaking.”

She shakes her head wordlessly, tears making her green eyes glitter. Green, just like a snake.

I take a few steps toward her, removing the safety, my finger on the trigger.

She stares at it, at me, and then suddenly… she starts to run.

Fuck. Why the hell is she running? She knows she deserves to die. She knows it’s the only possible outcome. Why the hell is she making it so goddamn hard?

Removing my finger from the trigger, I start walking slowly after her. There’s no place to hide, anyway. No trees in this fucking place. Just a lot of grass and rocks. I see her yards away, her pink dress swaying in the breeze, her feet bare…

It’s a fucking mirage, that’s what it is. An illusion. It’s not Lia; Lia died eighteen years ago. Whoever this abomination is, I need to end it. I can’t let it taint her memory.

She stops at the edge of the cliff, looking down at the rocks and water below, then back at me. I’m still walking slowly toward her, my gun pointed at her. She has nowhere to go. Nowhere to hide.