I jumped at the sound of Johnny’s voice and managed to stop myself from making an embarrassing squeaking noise. How did he find me?

A few people turned and stared so I pretended to be shifting position as I opened my bag and looked inside. They soon went back to whatever they were doing.

“Maddie, you can’t go back home. They’ll just send someone to take you back.”

I gave a small shake of my head as I moved the stuff around.

“You know they will. The doctor has to sign off on you going home.”

I pursed my lips together. It was so hard not to answer him.

“They will make you stay at Waratah House even longer.”

Not if Mum and I could book it out of town tonight. Or in a day or two. I could hide till then.

Seeing my phone in my bag gave me an idea. I pulled out my headphones and put them on, plugged them in and pretended to make a call. “Hi, Johnny. How are you?”

“What are you doing?”

“Talking to you.”

“Oh, yeah.” He smiled. “Good idea. You’re a genius.”

I tried not to smile when he said that. I had to focus and get back to the subject at hand. “You can’t talk me out of this. I’m going and you can’t stop me.”

He sighed. “No, I can’t, but I was hoping to talk some sense into you.”

“The only sensible thing to do is go home. Justina is out for my blood right now.”

“Why?”

“She heard me talking to Kassandra and thinks I was doing it to taunt her.”

“She thought you were pretending to talk to her dead friend just to torment her?” I nodded. “I… We’ll figure something out. We’ll find a way to show her that you didn’t do it to hurt her.”

“I don’t know how I’m supposed to do that.”

Pretending to be on the phone worked perfectly. No one gave me a second glance. My stop was coming up, so I grabbed my bag and made my way to the front of the bus. Johnny followed me and I ignored all the things he said to get me to take the next bus back to Waratah Estate.

I couldn’t get off fast enough. I walked as quickly as I could, but I didn’t want to draw any attention to myself.

I didn’t have a key, but Mum was home. She opened the door and her jaw dropped. “Maddelyn! What are you doing here?”

“I took a bus and I’m not going back.”

“You can’t just run away from there. They’ll only come and take you back.” She looked around and waved me inside, closing the door behind us.

I followed her down the hall to the kitchen and was hit by the aroma of coffee and burgers and chips. The green doors on the cupboards that I’d never really liked were a welcome sight. “We can move and they won’t be able to drag me back.”

“We can’t just move. And I have no authority over them. You can’t be released until the doctors say you’re well enough.”

“But there’s nothing wrong with me!”

“Honey, you were talking to people who weren’t there—”

“No, I wasn’t!”

How could I explain when she’d never believed that I could see them? Ugh, this was hopeless.

She gave me one of her fake smiles. “We can’t move. I have my job—”

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“That’s never stopped you before—”

“And I’ve started seeing Martin again.”

“What?”

“I think it’s getting serious. We’re going on a date tonight.”

“Martin? The guy you said you’d never date again because he has no class?”

“Oh, I was just upset. He’s not so bad.”

“Mum!” The urge to stomp my foot like a child was strong. “What about me?”

“You’re an adult now. I can’t help you. You’ll have to go back before they realise what you’ve done and send someone here to collect you.”

I couldn’t believe it. She wasn’t going to help me. It wasn’t the reason she’d given me a phone and money. I felt stupid for even thinking it. But I couldn’t understand why she wouldn’t help me now that I was here.

My face flushed hot and my fingers tingled. My stomach roiled. Maybe I was coming down with something, but that was odd because I never really got sick. Johnny looked like he wanted to say something, but he kept quiet.

Was it something I ate, maybe? I’d have to just push through it. I had to convince Mum to get me out of this town.

For as long as I could remember, Mum would suddenly say we were moving and be packed up and gone before my head stopped spinning. She’d always have some lame excuse why we couldn’t stay in that town anymore and we’d be gone. Her job was getting boring. Her latest man was too possessive and refused accept that she wanted to end it. She got the travelling bug again.

And now she couldn’t move?

What was going on here?

“Don’t look at me like that, Maddelyn. You can’t just run away from your responsibilities like a child. You can’t up and leave.” Look who’s talking. “It won’t matter where you go. They keep records. The government departments are all linked by computer nowadays. They’ll know you ran away. You have to wait till the doctor says you’re well enough, then we can take it from there.”

“No!”

I wanted to run. I wanted to hit something. Her eyes told me she was serious. She really wouldn’t help me.

I ran to my bedroom and slammed the door. I threw myself onto my bed and punched the pillow. The heat had spread from my face to my neck and chest.

The sight of my room and the smells and the comfort of the bed brought it all crashing down on me. I missed this place. I missed my life. And I missed Mum.

I let the tears fall. I couldn’t hold them back any longer.

Once my sobs slowed, I was disappointed that Mum hadn’t come in to talk to me like she used to when I was younger. I was thankful that Johnny hadn’t followed me in here. I didn’t want to talk to him.

The house was silent. Did she even care?

I still felt too hot, but I picked myself up off the bed and went to search for her. Maybe she wasn’t even home. I tried to remember what she was wearing. Did it look like she was getting ready to go out?

I couldn’t remember. I’d been too upset. And I still couldn’t understand why she wasn’t willing to move to help me.

Surely she didn’t just go out and leave me here.

Maybe she was right. Maybe there was no escaping this. I padded down the hall, not sure why I felt the need to be quiet.

Where was she?

“Mum?”

Silence.

There was a buzzing feeling just under my skin. I’d never felt anything like it before. The kitchen was dimly lit by the light on the rangehood, but I could make out Mum’s silhouette in the semi-darkness.

“Mum?”

“You have to go back.”

“Don’t you understand?” I stepped closer, the buzzing intensifying, but she didn’t move. “I missed you.”

“I was there yesterday. You saw me then. I even gave you a phone and some money.” She shifted position, but it was clear she didn’t want me coming any closer. “If I’d known that this is what you were going to spend the money on, I wouldn’t have given you a cent.”

“I didn’t plan this. I just had enough. I…” I’d been about to tell her about all the craziness with the ghosts, but I couldn’t. She already thought I was crazy and she’d always insisted that I just had a lot of imaginary friends when I was a kid.

I could see Johnny standing in the doorway and thought that it either proved I could see spirits or proved I really was crazy.

Her frown deepened. “You are so ungrateful. After all I’ve done for you, you go and pull this stunt.”

I took a step back. My head spun a little. She only pulled out the adoptive mother card when she was really angry with me.

“I didn’t have to take you on as a baby, you know, but I did, even though you were such a difficult child and Henry left me. I deserve a medal for all I’ve been through.”

She would never elaborate on what I did that was ‘difficult,’ but she never let me forget it.

“This is how you repay me? By getting locked up and then escaping from the authorities?” She huffed. “They’ll be here soon, I expect.”

“What? How do you know? Did you call them?”

“I don’t have to. Where do you think they’ll look first? You’re not very smart, girl. This is the first place they’ll look, and they’ll probably send someone to Alina’s place at the same time.”

She shook her head.

I opened my mouth to speak and jumped at the sound of the doorbell ringing out its merry tune.

“That will be them now,” she said. “You want to answer the door, or will I?”