Page 73 of Cadaver Lab: Mind Over Murder

Heart pounding, chest tight, Natalie only managed to keep herself upright by hanging on to the knob of the open door.

She didn’t need to step inside any farther. Its invisible power filled the room, reaching her where she stood in the doorway.

There was no way she was going to let Liam be in a moving vehicle for eight hours with this thing. At least, not in its current state.

Time to see if she could do something about that…

“I know what you are. I know because you showed me. You showed me to hurt me, but it really hurt you. I know now that you’re a killer. And that’s why we’re going to send you someplace where you can never hurt anyone ever again. Eternity, all alone. That should be fun for you…” she taunted.

She felt the entity’s ire increase, pressing harder upon her from all sides like a vise.

But it was the roar from the ghost, deafening, powerful, a mix of battle cry and rage, that brought her to her knees. She pressed her palms to both ears, convinced the sound would leave her deaf as well as ghost blind. There was no electricity, but somehow the overhead lights buzzed and flickered on just for a second. The ghost entering the lights, trying and failing to find a power source perhaps.

Then she was flung onto her back.

As black dots appeared on the edge of her vision and a crushing weight squeezed her chest until the pain was unbearable, it all stopped. There was silence. Peace. Calm.

That was it. She must be dead. But she could still see the lab doorframe above her.

So dead and a ghost then.

That might not be too bad. At least she would be able to see the ghosts again. And if she couldn’t communicate with Liam herself, she’d have Gabe and Millie do it for her… until Liam moved on and eventually got a new girlfriend.

Yeah, she hadn’t thought that part through. That would really suck.

“Natalie!” Liam’s face appeared above her. Close enough she felt his breath on her face.

He pressed a finger to her neck.

Checking for a pulse, she thought to herself, narrating the scene she seemed to be more an observer of than a participant in.

He’d find out now that she was dead. Maybe he could start her heart again and bring her back. He’d done it before. That would be good. She really didn’t want to have to watch him move on without her.

He let out a breath. “You’re alive.”

“I am?” she asked.

He frowned down at her. “What happened? What did you do?”

She thought he could be a little nicer to her since for a brief devastating time she’d assumed she was dead. But now wasn’t the time to scold him for his tone of voice.

“I think I drained it,” she managed to get out.

“You what?” he bit out while, in doctor mode, running his hands over the rest of her.

“It was too powerful still. I could feel it. So I got it mad so it would attack me.”

“Natalie, it could have killed you.”

“But it didn’t. But I do think it used up all its energy trying to kill me. So now it can’t kill you.”

“Jeezus, Natalie.” He ran a hand over his face, looking half mad, half miserable. “What if it had killed you?”

“It wouldn’t have been so horrible. I planned to haunt you.”

He shook his head. “I can’t believe I have to leave now. How am I supposed to leave you after this?”

“Don’t worry about me. You’re the one taking the killer ghost with you.”