The Ravaging in Between (The Reanimation Files Book 3) (31 page)

“So what are you saying?” I asked, looking from him to Tielle.

“That if you wanted us to…we would remove the ghosts from those runes and send them back to help save you. It’s not a decision we thought we should make on our own. You have the final word on it.”

My eyes widened. “But you just said that if you did that Ethan’s ghost might…”

“We know,” Tielle said, coming to stand next to Micah. “And it isn’t something we want to do. It certainly would not be easy to live with after all we went through to give him a new life again…”

“But if it meant saving your life, making sure that you didn’t die, we would do it,” Micah finished. Looking into his eyes, I knew he was a hundred percent serious. Our relationship might be fractured and almost beyond saving, but the love we had for each other was still there and I knew that like before with Renton, Micah would do anything to save me no matter the cost to anyone else. It was something that I loved about him, but the strength of his devotion also terrified me.

Micah and Tielle were silent, waiting for me to say something. Micah dropped his hands and I wrapped my arms around myself as I thought it over. It was a horrible decision to have to weigh.

The circle would still be open even if the ghosts from Ethan’s runes were sent back because of Kyo, but if I really could help him find his body and any other stragglers were found, then I’d have nothing to worry about. Or even if I couldn’t help Kyo, I could ultimately just send him back too, even if I would hate to do it. But it would close the circle.

At this point it didn’t even matter what happened with Kyo because he was just one ghost. The real issue was the ghosts stored in Ethan’s runes. I was sure they were keeping the circle open far more than Kyo was.

My anxiety was mounting again. I hated this. Hated Micah and Tielle for offering to pretty much destroy Ethan—body and soul—to save me. Hated that my brief time in the In Between had resulted in a ghost keeping a piece of me. Hated the state of every aspect of my life right now. It was too overwhelming and I wanted to run away from all of it.

But I didn’t run. Nor did I immediately say anything to Micah and Tielle. I walked over to the door and looked out at Ethan and his family. His mother could not stop hugging him. She was a middle-aged woman with graying, white-blonde hair swept up into a messy bun, and kind blue eyes brimming with tears. Ethan had gotten his hair and eyes from her. Looking at her sent a pang through me and made my throat grow tight. She looked so…motherly. Just exactly what one would picture a loving mother to look like.

I had no memories like that with my own mother. Grams had been amazing, but a true maternal bond…that was something I’d never have. Ethan’s mother looked at her son with so much love that it almost hurt looking at their reunion. His father and sister were also excited and overjoyed, and Ethan was practically glowing, only it wasn’t a ghost’s glow. It wasn’t a glow you could see, but staring at him, I could see how happy he was to be interacting with his family in a physical body again.

Micah had been right, Ethan had been more unhappy than I’d had time to pay attention to. Being a ghost had brought him nothing but problems, sadness, and murderous misery. His life had been stolen. That was the worst part; that he hadn’t even died, it hadn’t even been his time. He’d just been in the wrong place at the wrong time, and fallen victim to Michael and Larry’s violent agenda. It would never be easy for me to accept the fact that his body was being maintained by trapped ghosts, but I also knew without a doubt that no matter the cost to myself, I could not take away this second chance from him or his family. It might guarantee that I survived, but I would never be able to live with myself. Especially if his ghost ended up like Andrew’s. If that happened, I would hate myself until I went to my grave.

So that meant that I’d have to fix things another way. Figure out some way to get the rest of my soul back without repercussions. I’d faced many an impossible task these past few months and found a way through them, so this would just be another one that I’d have to overcome.

I looked over my shoulder at Micah and Tielle.

“My answer is no,” I said.

Tielle’s expression remained the same, but Micah looked a bit surprised.

“Long story short, I can’t take this new life away from Ethan and his family just to save myself. I will figure out some other way to make sure I don’t drop dead.”

“Selene…are you sure?” The uncertainty was there in Micah’s voice. I locked eyes with him and let him see that yes, I was scared, but I was also sure. He gave me a small nod.

“I will figure it out,” I said. “Just promise me you will not ever tell him that my life could once again be in jeopardy because of him. Promise.”

“I won’t say a word,” Tielle said.

“Neither will I,” Micah said. “Promise.”

“Good.” I left the room, walking over to Ethan and his family. When he saw me, his smile grew wider. I smiled back, a genuine smile because it warmed me to see him so happy. When I reached him, I threw my arms around him and gave him a tight hug. He hugged me back just as fiercely. His family, who I’d already greeted and been smothered by their hugs, were chattering around us excitedly.

“It’s really good to see you again,” I said.

“So I guess you missed me?”

“Maybe a little. There was no one around to feed me, you see.”

“Oh, is that the only reason?” Ethan said, making a face at me.

I tapped my lip and pretended to think. “Yeah, I mean, I can’t think of anything else.”

“Meanie!” We both laughed.

“Luna misses you. And the house hasn’t been the same without you burning something in the kitchen or yelling at one of your video games.”

“I know this won’t be easy to accept. It’s hard even for me and I wish there was another way, but I can’t remember the last time I’ve felt this happy.”

“I can see it on your face,” I said, cupping his cheek. “Your pasty-skinned face.”

“Hey!”

I grinned at him. “It’s OK, I can get you a spray tan.”

He laughed.

Ethan was happy, there was no question about it. And seeing his happiness as well as his family’s made me even surer that I could not take this away from them.

“So, here’s what I think,” I said, clapping him on the shoulder. “This is all amazing and exciting for your family, so you should spend as much time with them as you want.”

“They’ve already got my bags packed!” Ethan said, smiling.

“I’ll bet,” I replied. “But I really did miss you, so when you’re ready, come home.”

EPILOGUE

I was kneeling on my bedroom floor with some of the contents of the disastrous bottom of my closet spilled out in front of me.

Ethan had been home for about a week after spending a month with his family. I could hear him in his room shouting at his video game. He was currently in between a raid and monitoring his pots on the stove to make sure he didn’t burn dinner. Christmas was in a few days and he claimed he wanted to do a practice run before he attempted the real deal. That was fine by me. The ham in the oven made the entire house smell delicious, and he was even making a fruit cake from scratch. It was so, so good to have him home.

Kyo was with him, watching or attempting to play. He was fascinated by Ethan’s games, but because he had no skill with playing them whatsoever, Ethan had little desire to allow him to play when he was in serious gaming mode. Which involved playing online with a bunch of other nerds and shouting obscenities at each other over a headset. Supposedly it all made for a good time. Kyo didn’t seem to mind just being a spectator though.

When Ethan had come home, I told him who Kyo was, where he was from, and why he was still around. Ethan knew that there were continuing efforts to send the crossover ghosts back, but he’d been kept in the dark about the specific reasons why, and had understood why I decided to help Kyo. I trusted him with Kyo’s story, and trusted him not to mention him to Micah. Whenever Micah came over, Kyo went into a rune. I wasn’t happy keeping secrets from Micah, but I knew if he found out about Kyo he would insist that he get sent back to the In Between.

Micah and I have been in therapy for a couple weeks now. It’s been brutal, messy, and there were always tears, but we’re both starting to feel a positive spark about our relationship. We were talking it out, trying to get through things one huge issue at a time. Part of me was looking forward to the New Year in a symbolic way because I was ready to put this crappy year behind me. Next year would be a fresh start. I was going to go into it with as much positivity as I could.

I found the box that contained old photos I had inherited from my grandmother and pulled it out. Luna, who’d been enjoying her exploration of my closet and all the junk that lived there, trotted out to sniff at the box, and then sneezed. It was a dusty box. She decided it wasn’t worth her attention and went back to exploring the closet. I opened the box and started rifling through the pictures.

Ethan’s warm and fuzzy family reunion had awakened a nostalgia in me that I hadn’t even known was there. I never harbored any overwhelming feelings of loss or sadness due to my parents’ absence in my life, but seeing Ethan with his family made me want to reach out to whatever dregs I had of my own. It had just taken me this long to make myself look for those dregs.

On my father’s side, there was nothing. I had never known him, but my mother had come around a few times when I was very young. I had distant memories of her. I knew Grams had a picture or two, and I guess that was better than nothing.

My search was slow though because I kept stopping to smile at pictures of me and my grandmother, of which there were plenty. She was as hands-on as you could get, and had done so much for me and with me. I missed her badly. If she hadn’t been there for me when my mother wasn’t, I don’t know how I would have turned out.

I finally found a picture of my mother and pulled it out with slightly shaking hands. I had been so young the last time I saw her that I barely remembered what she looked like. In the faded Polaroid I looked about three or four years old, and I was sitting on my mother’s lap. We were both smiling. It was a happy moment, but I could see some hidden pain in my mother’s expression. I never knew exactly what her demons were because Grams never saw fit to tell me. Now I wished I knew. But it was too late for answers because anyone who could tell me was no longer around. And what good would it do for me now anyway?

I frowned as I looked at my mother. She had similar coloring to me, dark brown eyes, and long, slim dreadlocks, just like my grandmother. Hers had streaks of blue in them. I knew now that it was just dye, but a memory surfaced of me playing with her hair and asking about the blue, and her telling me that part of the sky had drifted down and added the color. I had fully believed and been greatly amused by her lie.

But I frowned now as I stared at the picture, because an unsettling feeling was coming over me that I couldn’t pinpoint. Just then my phone, which was lying nearby, started ringing, and I jolted out of my thoughts, staring at it for a moment before picking it up to answer. Luna poked her head out of the closet, then came out to eavesdrop.

It was Dr. Lane. I’d been waiting to hear from him. When I’d reached out to him a few times he had told me he’d been too busy and hadn’t gotten to doing the blood analysis on my sweater yet.

I answered the phone with a hammering heart.

“Dr. Lane? Hey, how are you? What’s the news on the results?”

“Selene, hi…” Dr. Lane’s voice sounded very hesitant and that did not give me a good feeling. “The results of the blood stain on your shirt are, uh…are very interesting.”

“How so?” I swallowed hard because my throat was suddenly dry. “Who did it match?”

“That’s the thing,” Dr. Lane said. “It matched to you.”

“Oh,” I felt deflated. Why was he acting strange about that? Obviously it just meant that it was my blood and not my attacker’s. “Well, thanks for analyzing it for me…”

“No wait, let me explain,” Dr. Lane said. “It matched to you, but it wasn’t your blood exactly.”

“Uh, just spell it out, doc, what the hell does that mean?”

“It means that the DNA match on the blood has to be someone related to you. Specifically uh…specifically…your mother.”

I dropped the phone without hearing if he said anything more.

My mother. My mother.
I stared at the photo with a trembling hand and now it all made sense. My mother with the long dreadlocks with streaks of blue…now I knew why I’d been getting that unsettling feeling. It was because I had seen hair just like that spilling from the hood of that Rune Teller in the Underground.

It hadn’t clicked then, but that entire encounter had given me a strange feeling. Knowledge of her struggles with addiction plus the fact that I stopped seeing her made me think she had died a long time ago. Never in a million years did I think I would encounter her as a mysterious Underground worker.

A cold feeling spread through my body. Had she recognized me? Did she know I was her daughter? If so, why hadn’t she said anything? And the even bigger question, why had she attacked me? My brain could hardly process this.

I had come face to face with my mother for the first time in over twenty years.

And she had tried to kill me.

END

Look for Book 4 in The Reanimation Files,
A Torment of Savages
. Selene's story will be continued.

~ About the Author ~

A.J. Locke is originally from Trinidad & Tobago but has resided in New York City for over ten years. She knew early on that she wanted to be a writer, penned her first novel at fourteen, and hasn’t stopped since. Creating is her passion, and other than writing she enjoys drawing, painting, graphic design, and any other creative whim that may take her.

Discover more about A. J. Locke here

http://iqurae.blogspot.com/