Theresa grabbed hold of one of Price’s legs and began dragging him toward the lake. “Can’t leave things alone. Have to go shoving your nose where it don’t belong.”

Kylee didn’t move. She sat there in stunned shock. What was her mother doing? She grasped Price’s hands and pulled against her mother, but being dead hadn’t given her any super-human strength. Theresa gave an extra hard tug, and Price came free.

“You should have stopped,” she murmured, her voice sing-song. “I warned you.”

Price gave a low moan as his head thumped over an exposed tree root. Blood oozed from a deep gash across his temple.

He’s going to die, Kylee thought, wringing her hands together in desperation. She had to do something.

“I knew you were trouble,” Theresa huffed, pausing to scratch her arm. “Coming around the house. Talking about Kylee.” She glanced up, her blue eyes sweeping the area. “Kylee!” she sang. “Time to go home, Kylee!”

Kylee fought back a shudder. She got up and sat down on Price’s chest, hoping her weight would make him too heavy for her mother.

Theresa tugged on him and groaned. “Too hard. Must be an easier way.” She knelt down and patted Price’s face. “I’m sorry. Such a cruel world. Sleep, sweet boy. Sleep with Kylee.”

“Mom!” Kylee cried, hot tears stinging her eyes. “Why are you doing this?” Her hand reached out and snagged Theresa’s sleeve.

Theresa let out a cry and pulled back, shaking. She took several trembling breaths. “Kylee,” she whimpered. Her pupils, mere pinpricks, darted around the marshy area. “Kylee.”

“Theresa!”

She whipped around, and Kylee looked past her to see Bill’s hulking form bearing down on them.

“What you mean by this, sneaking out here? Leaving a note to meet you by the truck?”

Theresa resumed her normal cower. “It’s this boy, Bill. He’s been poking around. He—he found the truck.”

Bill grunted. He poked Price with his foot. “Long as he didn’t tell no one.”

“Is he dead?” Theresa said. She wiped her nose. “I didn’t mean to kill him.”

He grabbed her shoulders and stared into her face. “You stoned again, woman?” He shoved her, and she fell to the ground. Kylee could only watch, torn between protecting her mother and staying with Price.

Bill picked up the bat. “I’ll finish him.”

Kylee panicked. Her hand closed on a rock, and she chucked it at him. Her aim was way off, and the rock flew past him.

Bill went very still, holding the bat like a statue. “Theresa,” he whispered. “She’s here.”

“I know.” Her mother was crying, her face red and splotchy. “She’s getting her revenge.”

“She’s a ghost, woman. There is no revenge.”

Theresa didn’t answer. She wiped at her face with her dirty apron.

Kylee tossed another rock, and Bill batted it away.

“Pretty pathetic, aren’t you?” he said with a laugh. “Even in death. What are you fussin’ for? Soon you’ll have comp’ny.”

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She didn’t have time for this. Somehow, she had to catch Bill off guard and free Price. She jumped off Price’s body and took a step toward Bill.

“Are you going to kill him?” Theresa asked.

He swiveled his body toward her. “You want the honors again? You’re making a habit of this.”

“You forced my hand with Kylee.”

Wait, what? Kylee stopped moving and stared at them both. “What does that mean?” She willed her mother to explain.

“And you don’t have any choice with this one,” Bill said. “So unless you’re gonna kill this kid, shut up and let me finish it.”

The words spun around in Kylee’s head like a kaleidoscope. She needed time to sort this out, but that was one thing she didn’t have. She had to save Price first.

She took one more step before the cold chill started in her toes, climbing into her ankles at an alarming rate. “No,” she said. She looked down to see her feet disappearing. “No!” she cried. She couldn’t fade now. An oppressive darkness filled Kylee’s chest, tugging on her eyelids, persuading her to close her eyes.

Sleep. She needed a long rest. Kylee’s head dropped, exhaustion weighing her to the ground like an anvil. All sound vanished. She seemed to be getting smaller, shrinking in on herself. Soon she’d be nothing but a dot, and then less than that, and then nothing. Nothing but rest in peace.

And Price Hudson would be no more.

She wasn’t sure where the thought came from, but the name meant something to her. A spark of recognition lit. And then it exploded, so fast that Kylee screamed at the burning pain. Her eyes flew open. She reached out her hands to steady herself, but nothing happened. Red glowed around her. It was all she could see.

“Price!” she shouted. Or tried to shout. No sound left her mouth, no scream echoed in her ears. She wasn’t sure she still had a mouth.

But it must’ve been enough, because shapes began to appear in the red haze, tall mangrove and cypress trees. The sounds of swamp life chirped in her ears, and the color swirled around her, forming a vortex. The vortex whirled and then sucked into her hand. Kylee risked a glance downward and saw her ring. Glowing a bright red.

She lifted her head. There was Price, passed out and unconscious. Her mother sat on the ground, her arms around her legs. Wet tears and a smudge of dirt stained her cheeks.

“You’re nothing but trouble, Theresa. You have to stick with the plan.” Bill lifted the bat.

Theresa didn’t move. “We shouldn’t have done it.”

Kylee lowered herself close to Price. His chest still rose and fell; he wasn’t dead yet. “Wake up, Price,” she said. Or tried. The words never left her lips.

“You jumped the gun!” Bill shouted, sounding more lucid than Kylee ever recalled hearing him. He abandoned Price’s body and hunkered over her mom, his voice raised. “We were supposed to make it look like she ODed on accident! But no, you shot her up in the back of her shoulder!”

“Mom,” Kylee whispered, betrayal churning inside her.

“I panicked.”

Bill grunted and walked away from her. “You’re the reason I had to cut her! It didn’t look like a suicide anymore!” He picked up the bat, but instead of returning to Price, he turned around and swung it into her head. Theresa fell back, hitting the damp dirt without a sound. He swore again.

“Done,” he grunted. “Done with this. No more bringing me down.” He grabbed her by the ankles and began dragging her toward the lake.

If Kylee could have sobbed, she would have. But she couldn’t worry about her mom right now. She turned her attention back to Price. She had a precious few moments before Bill finished with her mom and came back for him.

His chest still lifted and fell with life. It wasn’t too late.

She grabbed his hand.

Her hand passed right through him.

No. No no no no no no.

She pulled her wrist to her chest. The ring had the faintest of red light. Right when Price needed her the most, she was useless to him. She pressed her mouth to his, willing his life energy to enter her.

Please, please, please, she thought. She tried again to grab Price’s hand.

Nothing happened.

Price’s body moved beneath her, and she focused her gaze outward. Bill dragged Price across the foliage and to the lake. He grunted and paused a moment, hands on his knees while he tried to catch his breath. Kylee floated after him, the urge to cry choking her up. But she couldn’t, she couldn’t do anything. She had never felt so dead. She saw her mom’s body, lifeless in the shallows.

She had no mental space for her. Everything was focused on Price.

Bill resumed dragging Price’s body. He walked thigh-deep into the water before turning Price face down and shoving him beneath the surface.

Kylee’s hand turned to ice. She gasped and glanced down as the ring slipped off her, disappearing into the grass. No light or color emanated from it. A cloud dropped over her vision. Price began to disappear in a field of haze, his body drifting farther and farther away. Would he join her after he died?

Somebody help him.

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