Ashes to Ashes (Experiment in Terror #8) (22 page)

The handsome devil didn’t
answer me, he only grinned to himself. “And by the way, I’m always
listening to you.”

Once we got back to the school
and nosed the Highlander into a parking space, Rebecca came
trotting over from across the field, Jody running behind her.

“
Perry!” she
exclaimed, her smile cracking her face in two. “Oh, let me
see!”

“
See
what?”

She frowned, looking over my
shoulder at Dex, and then quickly put her hand on my arm. “Let me
see your tattoo!”

“
Uh,” I said,
holding it out for her awkwardly.

She took my wrist and showed it
to Jody. “See Jody, this is a tattoo. I told you that, erm, girls
can have them.”

Jody looked at Rebecca as if
she had two heads. “You’re going to hell now.”

“
Okay, okay,”
Dex said, coming around the car with his hands in the air. “Enough
with the hell talk, young lady.” He dropped down into a crouch so
he was at her level, looking her in the eye. “I don’t care what
this Shawna girl said, but it’s not exactly polite to keep saying
hell.”

“
What word
should I say?” she asked, bright eyes sparkling with curiosity. I
could tell she was enthralled with Dex. I couldn’t blame
her.

“
Well, you can
always do what I do and make up a word. Like,
twatwaffle.”

“
Dex,” I
cautioned.

“
Or
douchecanoe.”

I sighed.

He straightened up and smiled
down at her. “How about duckspunk? Ducks are cute.”

I slapped him on the arm, while
Rebecca asked us, “You weren’t gone very long. What happened?”

“
We ran into
Gary Oldman,” I said.

“
Gary Oldman
the actor?”

“
Sorry. I mean
the historian, Patrick Rothburn.”

“
I guess he
does look like Gary Oldman.”

“
Duckspunk.”
We all looked down at Jody who was staring at Dex proudly. “I
didn’t say a bad word.” Then she giggled and ran off to her friends
who had started a game of dodgeball.

“
Great, Dex.”I
glared at him. “I’m sure her parents will be thrilled when
duckspunk comes up at dinner.”

He shrugged. “Duckspunk comes
up everywhere. You should watch where you step next time you’re by
a pond.”

Rebecca wrinkled her nose.
“Anyway, what did Patrick want?”

I quickly explained to which
she crossed her arms and looked up at the massive façade of the
school. “So he thinks something could happen tomorrow.”

“
Maybe,” I
said. I looked over at Dex, trying to signal that it was time for
the talk.

“
Hey, Becs,”
Dex said, taking a step toward her. “You know we love you,
right?”

Her eyes widened. “Are you guys
breaking up with me?”

“
Noooo,” Dex
assured her in a soothing voice. Then he cocked his head. “Well.
Yes.”

We went inside and explained to
her as best we could our thoughts on the end of the show, my desire
to do something more with our life. It wasn’t until Dex started
talking about plans for the future and keeping my safety and
happiness as his top priority that I started to melt all over
again. And Rebecca began to understand where we were coming
from.

She wasn’t mad, but Dex was
right, she was disappointed. And worried.

“
What am I
going to do?” she asked as we sat around the breakroom table with a
giant pot of tea. “Not to make you feel badly about it all, but I
was kind of depending on this job for money.”

“
Don’t sweat
it,”Dex said earnestly. “Jimmy loves you. You know he’ll have a
million opportunities for you to jump on board.”

“
But he only
wants me in front of the camera,” she whined.

“
It
could be worse,” I said. “He could only want you
behind
the
camera.”

“
Look,” Dex
said, folding his hands in front of him. “You’re a hot, striking
woman who made men eat Taco Bell until they were shitting fire. You
can do anything.”

I tilted my head at him. “You
ever think you could get into motivational speaking?”

“
Next career
choice, baby,” he shot me a wicked smile.

“
So this is
really it. You just decided and…,” Rebecca trailed off.

Dex and I gazed at each other.
We were in it together. And as much as it felt spur of the moment,
as much as it would seem that way to Jimmy, it was also a long time
coming. To say goodbye, to move on and do something else – that
felt right. It felt good. We all knew that we weren’t going to be
ghosthunters forever. Seeing the supernatural, that was something
Dex and I had to deal with for the rests of our lives, but it
didn’t mean we had to seek them out – not in this way, not for
entertainment, at any rate.

He nodded gravely and I said,
my eyes still on him, “Yes. I think it’s the right thing to
do.”

She sipped her tea delicately
and appraised us over the cup. “All right. Then it is the right
thing to do. I’m going to miss working with you guys.”

“
Oh don’t get
mushy, Becs,” Dex chided her with disgust. “We still have an
episode to make and like dick I’m going to let it go to waste. Now
that we know everything that Rothburn told us, I say we spend
tonight and tomorrow making the best of it. Are you with me? Or
against me?”

Rebecca and I managed to roll
our eyes in unison.

“
We’re with
you, mate,” she said, raising her tea in the air. We cheersed her
with our own mugs and though she was smiling pleasantly, her
posture was rigid. She was probably more worried about losing her
job than she was letting on. Of course, I knew she’d be all right
in the long run but I guess she didn’t see it the same way. It was
Dex and I that I needed to worry about.

I knew someone, though, that
would be happy with this news.

As soon as the two of them
started going over the freaky shit that Oldman had told them, I
took my phone and excused myself into the hallway.

Though I’d texted Ada just
yesterday to tell her about Uncle Al, I hadn’t called her in a
while. It was no wonder then that she sounded shocked when she
answered her phone.

“
Perry?” she
cried out.

“
Hey,” I said,
leaning against the wall with the phone cradled to my ear and
smiling absently at a pair of teachers who were walking past. “How
are you? This a bad time?”

I heard something muffled, then
she said, “No. I’m fine. I was just exercising.”

“
Exercising?”
My sister did not exercise. She was thin as a rail and never needed
to.

“
Yeah,” she
said. “You know, you break a sweat, move your muscles and shit like
that?”

“
Smartass,” I
muttered. “I mean, why are you exercising? You’re fifteen and look
like a model.”

“
I’m sixteen
next month,” she said. “And it’s not about weight-loss, you
douchecanoe.” I nearly snorted at her choice of word. Her voice
dropped a register. “Exercise helps your brain. It makes you feel
better – happier.”

I frowned. “Happier? Are you
okay?”

“
Yeah,
fine.”

“
Ada. Come on,
you can tell me.”

She sighed. A moment
passed on. “I don’t know. I just…I really wish you were here,
Perry. I really need someone to talk to. Someone that understands.
Sometimes I think I’m going crazy and I get so fucking scared and
then I get angry because you’re with Dex. Don’t get me wrong and
stuff, I like, like the guy. But you guys both have each other. You
both
understand
each other.”

I had to read around the lines
there. “Are you seeing ghosts?”

Another weighty pause. “Just
one. Just sometimes. It’s an old man. He’s not scary and I only see
him on the walk home from school. Once I get my license I’ll be
zipping past that floaty fucker.” She let out a nervous laugh.

Suddenly, I felt for my sister.
I felt everything that I did at her age, all the shit that I went
through and the way I buried it all with food and drugs and
everything bad for you. I could only hold onto the hope that if I
could be there for Ada, that she wouldn’t turn to that and turn to
me instead. I mean, it’s not like either of us could ever go to our
mom or dad about our affliction.

“
Hang in
there,” I told her. “I’ll see you in a few days and then we can
really talk.”

“
You better
not be bailing on us.”

“
I’m not. I
promise. Anyway, I called because I have good news.”

“
Shut the
front door!” she squealed. “What, what is it?”

She sounded way too excited
already. “Why, what do you think it is?”

“
Either you’re
moving back to Portland or Dex proposed to you.”

I nearly choked on my own spit.
“What?” I hissed, my eyes flitting to the door to the breakroom as
if he’d hear her over the phone.

“
No?”

“
No!” I
whispered harshly. “Are you crazy?”

“
Whoa, dude,
why so defensive?”

I rubbed at my forehead. “I
don’t know. Uncle Al said some stuff to me that kind of rubbed me
the wrong way.”

“
Like
what?”

I wanted to tell her but
unfortunately I didn’t have the time for it. “I’ll tell you later.
But no, no one is getting…
that
. And we aren’t moving to
Portland. But we did decide to end the show.”

Another pause. “EIT?”

“
Yes,
Ada.”

“
Is that what
you want?”

I pursed my lips, wondering why
she was trying to sound rational. “Yeah, it’s what I want. I’m
tired of this Ada. I need something more.”

“
And Sexy
Dexy?”

“
Please don’t
call him that,” I groaned.

“
Why
not?”

“
It’s weird.
Anyway, Dex agrees. He worries about me as much as you
do.”

“
Well, if
you’re happy Perry, I’m happy. It’s one less worry for all of us. I
know I never tell you this, but you’re pretty awesome and you can
do anything you want with your life. You should hang out with the
living more often.”

“
Thanks, sis,”
I said, my heart warming over.

“
It’s too bad
he hasn’t proposed,” she mused thoughtfully. “The two of you would
make beautiful babies and I could be the kick-ass fashion designer
aunt.”

“
We’ve only
known each other eight months,” I reminded her with a
sigh.

“
Is that what
Uncle Al told you?”

“
Well,
yeah.”

She scoffed. “Old people. They
don’t know shit. This generation is moving faster. Just last week
my friend Amber slept with Cole Phillips on the first date. I mean,
hello, way to welcome him into your hidey hole so soon.” And then
Ada went off into a rant about these people I didn’t know. When she
was finally done I told her again that we’d talk more as soon as I
got to Portland and we hung up.

I put my head back against the
wall and took in a deep breath. I thought about what Ada said, that
Dex and I would make beautiful babies together. Hopefully they’d
have all of his genes with my hair and eyes. Actually, they could
all just look like Dex and I would be happy with that.

And once again I was getting
ahead of myself. He hadn’t proposed and, aside from the fact that
we’d known each other less than a year, I wasn’t really sure if Dex
was the marrying type. After seeing the devastation of his parent’s
marriage, the way his father just up and left one day and never
contacted his sons again, the way his mother went crazy – I
couldn’t imagine that was something he wanted. Not to mention his
former man-whore ways and his fly by the seat of his pants
personality. I just didn’t see it. Not saying I didn’t want it
but…it takes two. And I couldn’t set myself up for
disappointment.

Just then, Dex appeared in the
doorway, his arm above his head, lazily leaning against the frame.
”You all right here, kiddo?”

I stuck my phone back in my
pocket and gave him a smile that felt stiff. “Just talking to
Ada.”

“
How is Little
Fifteen?”

“
She’s
fine.”

He pointed inside the room. “Do
you want to see the plan for the next couple of days? It kind of
involves you.”

I nodded and followed him back
into the room where Rebecca had her planner out. In the short time
I’d been on the phone, they’d managed to make progress.

I peered over the table and saw
the terms “room of blood”, “demon on the ceiling”, and “Shawna’s
ghost” scribbled on the pad of paper in Rebecca’s elegant
cursive.

A blanket of unease came over
me. Perhaps the best time to quit the show would have been before
we came to the hospital of death. Still, I pulled up a chair and
let them talk me through the game plan.

One last time.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

“
Okay, stay
right there, face the camera, and look more scared,” Dex said as he
adjusted the settings. Rebecca flashed the light on me.

I was standing in the middle of
the death chute. I was already fucking scared.

After the two of them came up
with a shot by shot plan for the rest of the stay at the
sanatorium, the three of us heated up some microwave meals, Dex and
I started sneaking shots of Jack Daniels, downing them in the break
room well after school was dismissed for the day.