“Were you aware of what Dr. Ward was at the time?”
“No.”
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"Tienes fiebre." Mom clicks her tongue, staring at the thermometer. Every time she speaks Spanish, it feels like she's disappointed that I'm not as fluent as I should be. She sits at the edge of my bed, dressed for work. My pajama shirt hides the bandages Dr. Ward wrapped around my arm. Nevertheless, I can't help but cocoon my body in bedsheets. Mom will explode and open up a state-wide investigation if she sees my injuries.
I don't know how long I slept last night, but this is the seventh time I've woken up. My arm still burns with pain, my eyes feel swollen from crying, and my bed is damp with sweat. I must look like some kind of—actually, I don't want to think about dead bodies right now.
"Where were you last night?" She stands up and places her hand on her hip. "I come home, and your muddy footsteps are all over the house."
"Nowhere, I—"
"Cómo que Nowhere?" She scoffs at my poor excuse of a lie. "Were you out drinking?"
"No, Mamá," I groan. "I took a trail through the woods," I force my brain to work up a half-truth. "And I got lost."
"You know how I feel about those woods, mija!" I avoid looking at her disappointed scowl. I can feel the heat radiate from her face. "There is no reason for you to be out there. No wonder you're sick." She looks at her watch and huffs, then walks to my door and pauses. "I'll let the school know you're sick, but this house will be spotless when I get home. Yes?" It isn't a request.
"Yes," I sigh, staring at the ceiling.
The door closes. The soft pitter-patter of rain against my window quiets my mind. Before I know it, my eyes are closed.
"Autumn?!"
"She's bleeding."
"It's a deep cut, but she'll heal."
"Why... Ward... here?"
"Hold her. This is going to hurt."
"Autumn!"
"We'll get her home."
"Be careful."
"HEY!"
Air rushes into my lungs. I sit up straight. My eyes struggle to focus. I desperately try to place myself. My heart rattles against my chest at an unsteady pace.
But I'm in my room. I'm still in bed.
"Autumn?" An anxious whisper creeps into my mind. Maggie's empty black eyes stare at me from the closet.
I close my eyes for a moment and take a deep breath. Slowly, I place my feet—blistered and sore—on the carpet, and stand. My oversized shirt drops just below my hips, exposing the cuts and bruises that cover my legs.
"Are you okay?" Maggie asks.
I need to clean my room. I pick up the socks and shirts that litter the floor. I peer into my bathroom. My bloody clothes are piled in the corner of the shower. I must have undressed while showering. I should just throw them away.
"Come on, Autumn, don't shut me out,"
"Go away, Maggie," I mutter.
"Autumn, what happened?"
"Why do you care?!" I snap.
"Uh, hello. I'm your friend, remember?"
"Yeah," I flutter air between my lips. "I have friends."
"Autumn, stop it."
"What friends do I have, Maggie?!" I drop the pile of clothes. "I'm just a science experiment for Hannah and JJ. I'm a nuisance to Mom. And I don't even know why you're still here." I march to the window and point at the portal floating beside the swing set. "Your portal is right fucking there." Heat flushes my face.
"I just want to hel—"
"My life is fucked up enough already. The last thing I need right now is to talk to a suicidal dead girl!" The sound of my voice reverberates off the walls. Then, the silence is overwhelming. My vision blurs as tears pool at the edges of my eyes.
And she vanishes.
My breath shudders, and my fists shake. I slide down the edge of my bed and hide my face between my knees. The taste of a tear hits my lips.
Suddenly, something falls from my bookshelf and lands beside me. It's a photo of Mom and Dad holding me up in front of the house. We took the picture when we first moved in. I must have been six or seven. Dad's blue eyes glisten with his wide, goofy smile.
"I'm in that picture too, you know," Maggie says from beside the bookshelf. My heart skips when I see her. "See?" She points to a smudge of white at the corner of the house. "Right there."
A little laugh snorts through my wet nose. At first glance, it looks like some kind of film anomaly. But the closer I look, I can make out the shape of her face.
"Your dad was cool," she says softly. "I wished he was my dad. I used to wonder if he could see me."
"What?" I smile.
"Yeah," She smiles back. "I swear sometimes he'd look right at me. You remember when your boyfriend broke up with you?"
"The one who told everyone I was a crazy witch girl?" My eyes narrow just thinking about him.
"You hid in your room and cried all day. My God, he was not worth the drama, Autumn." We both laugh a little. "Do you remember what your dad said?"
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"No."
"He hugged you tight and said, 'Be strong, Spooks. And when you can't be strong anymore, find someone you can be weak with.'" Maggie pauses. "He looked at me... right in my eyes when he said that."
She kneels beside me. A lump swells in my throat, making it difficult to swallow.
"I've been with you the whole time. I'm not going anywhere, Autumn."
My lips stick together. I struggle to squeeze a single word through the lump in my throat.
"I—I don't want to be strong anymore," I whimper through tears. She wraps her arms around me. Her cold embrace feels like a pile of snow is hugging me, and it's everything.
"I'm so sorry, Maggie." I press my face into her neck.
"I told you. You'd miss me too much if I ever left." She releases me with a smile. "Now, who are Hannah and JJ?"
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"You made a force field?!" Maggie's excitement makes the bathroom lights flicker, and my blow-dryer shorts out.
I click my tongue. "Really, Maggie?" I liked that blow dryer. My hair is still a mess, but whatever. I'm now painfully aware of how long I slept after Mom left. It's already three o'clock. I have three hours to clean the house. Every inch of my body still aches, but I think the fever is gone. So, house cleaning it is.
"Sorry. How am I supposed to react? We just learned a new superpower!" Maggie stands behind me in the mirror, combing her fingers through her long red hair. Sometimes, it doesn't feel like she's dead. Ordinarily, seeing a dead girl in the mirror would creep me out. But with Maggie, it's like having a sister.
"I just told you monsters are real, and that's what you got out of it?" I smirk. I pull my dad's hoodie from the closet and throw it over me, then grab some jeans. "I told you, I'm not one of your comic book superheroes. I'm a—" Reaper echoes in my head. "...something else."
"Well, how did you do it?" Maggie asks.
"I don't know, as usual." The moment flashes in my mind. Swirling light flowing from my hands. The rotten bony jaw snapping at me. I could feel the energy like an extension of my body—like an arm that's fallen asleep.
"You need a teacher. What about Hannah and JJ?" Maggie sits on top of my desk, swinging her legs back and forth.
"Huh? What could they teach me?"
"Maybe their little ghost hunts could be good practice for you."
"No way." I scoff. Like hell. I'm not going on any more adventures with those two. "Look where their last escapade got me. I don't want anything to do with them."
I grab my hamper and carefully walk down the stairs. Maggie slides down the railing behind me.
"Well," she snickers. "They may have something to say about that."
"Wha—"
The doorbell rings.
I open the door to find Hannah and JJ standing outside. Hannah holds out a paper grocery bag. "We brought you snacks."
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It isn't hard to convince Hannah and JJ to help me pick up the house. They're eager to make up for last night. They're quiet as they help. Even Hannah looks tense. But the extra help pays off, and the house is clean in less than an hour.
"Did you draw these?" Hannah points to the sketches on my bedroom wall.
"Uh, yeah, I doodle a little," I say, eyeing Maggie as she inspects Hannah. She investigates Hannah and JJ like she's never seen another human before. Her face is painted with judgment and suspicion. I know they can't see her, but I can't help but feel anxious about her walking around so close to them.
"You draw the ghosts you see?" Hannah asks. Maggie accidentally touches her shoulder, and Hannah shivers.
"Some of them, yeah." I give Maggie a scornful look as subtly as I can. She grimaces back at me in apology.
JJ picks up the book on my nightstand, A Cryptid History. "You study cryptids?" he asks.
"My dad gave it to me." I sit at my desk and open a bag of cheese puffs. Mom never brings home snacks this unhealthy, and I'm not passing up the opportunity.
"How are you feeling?" He asks.
"Like shit," I say, burying my hand in the cheese puffs. "But I could be worse. I guess Dr. Ward really is a good doctor." I pause a moment and furrow my brows. "What was Dr. Ward doing in the woods anyway? My memory is still fuzzy."
JJ glances at Hannah. Hannah anxiously exhales through her nose. "You'll have to ask him," she says. "We ran into him not long after we bolted."
"Something's off," Maggie says.
"Is this Mallory?" Hannah pulls down the most recent drawing from my wall. Mallory's fear-stricken face flashes in my mind.
"Yeah," I reply.
"She looks sad," Hannah says.
"The dead often do," I sigh into the bag of cheese puffs.
"Someone's a bit dramatic." Maggie pokes her head through the bag. Her creepy face, surrounded by cheese puffs, immediately ruins my appetite. I jerk my head up.
"You okay?" Hannah asks.
"Yeah," I narrow my eyes at Maggie. "It's just cold in here."
It's awkwardly quiet for a moment. I've never been great at small talk. JJ pulls some comic books off my bookshelf. I used to collect Maggie's favorites when we were younger. But lately, she seems more focused on turning me into a superhero than reading about them.
"This is an old series," JJ says.
"It's not that old," Maggie scoffs.
"I got them from a friend," I reply with a smirk.
"Last night," Hannah interjects. She's sitting on my bed with Mallory's picture in her hand. "You said you had to help Mallory cross over. What did you mean by that?" JJ turns to me, immediately interested in my answer.
"Oh, that was nothing." I try to dismiss it. What is wrong with me? It's sad that I automatically assume everyone just thinks I'm crazy. This is the first time anyone has seemed genuinely interested. But for some reason, I can't wait for them to leave.
JJ pulls a small recorder from his backpack, but before he can start recording, Maggie wraps her hand around it. Her mischievous grin tells me she drained the battery.
"Are you recording me?" I ask.
"It's just for notes," JJ smacks the recorder against his palm. "But it's dead anyway."
"Heh," Maggie chuckles with pride.
"Autumn, please," Hannah begs. "Greenfield library doesn't exactly stock guides for ghost hunting, let alone monster hunting." Her face tenses with a bit of panic. "So, you're our only source for figuring out what's going on."
"You're right," I drop my shoulders. "I'm just not used to anyone caring." I take a deep breath. "I led Mallory to her portal."
"Portal?" Hannah asks. "Like a big glowing door?"
"It's more like a thread," I say.
"To you, maybe," Maggie heckles.
"When you die, a portal appears near the site of your death."
"Why doesn't every ghost just walk through it?" Hannah asks, both of them now a captive audience.
"Because it's brighter than the freaking sun," Maggie says. "Walk toward the light, Maggie. Walk toward the big, bright, creepy light."
"Why does anyone do anything?" I reply, restraining myself from laughing at Maggie's antics. "They get scared or lost, or another spirit blocks them."
"Evil spirits?" JJ asks, his hand furiously scribbling in a small notebook.
"Sort of," I reply. "After about a year, their portal fades if they don't enter it. Then, they're just stuck here forever. A lot of them fall into madness or become something else."
"Is that what attacked us last night?" Hannah asks. Both of them seem desperate for my answer.
That horrifying creature appears in my mind. The rotten smell. The snapping jaws. The decayed flesh. The voices. Those damned voices. Suddenly, I remember Dad's voice. Why did I hear his voice?
"Autumn?" JJ breaks me from my spiral.
"No," I say. "I don't know what that was."
Hannah and JJ's faces sink with disappointment as if more was riding on my answer than just self-comfort.
"They're hiding something," Maggie says. She stands behind JJ and peeks at his notebook.
"What is going on?" I narrow my eyes and tilt my head. "What aren't you telling me?"
"Hannah, she deserves to know. She'll find out eventually," JJ says.
"Find out what?"
Hannah takes a long breath. "A witness saw Dr. Ward leaving the woods last night covered in blood." Instantly, my heart dives into my stomach. "The police have declared him a person of interest for Mallory and Trevor."
"What?" My voice echoes off the walls. "That's ridiculous. That was my blood. He was helping me." This is all my fault.
"Well, the police thought it was pretty suspicious," Hannah says, picking up my stuffed sasquatch.
"My dad says it's their strongest lead," JJ adds.
"Ah," Maggie says, pinching her chin. "That explains the preppy getup. Your dad's a cop."
"We have to tell them," I say. I can feel my hot blood pumping through my arm.
"Tell them what?" Hannah argues. "That it was actually a giant scary monster? I'm sure that will go over well. We don't even know what that thing is."
I sink into my seat. She's right. "We know where Mallory's body is—"
"Was," She interrupts. "That thing gobbled her up, remember?"
It was definitely something I wanted to forget.
"Well, what do we do?" I ask.
"We go monster hunting," she says.