A Strange There After by Missy Fleming Read Free Book Online Page B

particularly nasty
on the other side and brought it with her.”
    “She’s evil enough on her own.”
    “Think about it, Abby. A normal ghost or
spirit does not have the power to take over a body completely. It
can inhabit it with the host but never replace it.”
    “So, you’ve never heard of this kind of
possession before?” she asked.
    “Nope. But I can do some research.”
    I shifted in the deep grass. “It can’t be
demonic. I saw it. This thing looked human.”
    “And you didn’t think to tell me earlier?”
Boone barked.
    “Tell you what?” Abby demanded.
    “She’s seen whatever this is.”
    “Catherine, yeah, of course she has.”
    “No,” I interrupted them. “This wasn’t
Catherine.” I paused. Was it? After spending an unknown amount of
time in the river, her body might have become that unrecognizable.
No. The longer I considered it, the less likely it became. This was
something new. “Catherine would have taunted me. She enjoys making
me suffer.”
    “Unless in her natural form as a spirit, she
doesn’t have full function, didn’t know it was you. Maybe she can
leave your body, like at night.”
    “Tell me what’s going on.” Poor Abby. It must
have sucked to be excluded from the conversation.
    As Boone relayed the information, my mind
wandered. The best way for me to get answers was to ask Catherine
directly, but I didn’t see that happening. I didn’t want her to
know how desperately I was trying to get my body back. She’d take
my hopes away from me, too.
    We went round and round for another hour,
each time realizing we knew very little about what was actually
happening. Abby laid back, staring at the stars and stretching her
casted arm to the side.
    “You’ve been through a lot,” Boone said,
breaking the sudden silence and dumping the last of the chips in
his mouth.
    “There were days I thought I wouldn’t make
it.” I snorted at the irony. “If I’m honest with myself, I haven’t
made it.”
    “You’re not dead. Not in the traditional
sense.”
    “Helpful, thanks.”
    “What do you want me to say? I could compare
it to an out of body experience, but you’re not in a hospital
dying. That’s the only other instance I can think of where a body
has lived and a soul’s been walking around without it. Or where the
physical form is above ground and healthy.”
    “Yay for me. I’m a freak of nature.”
    “That’s a good thing.”
    “Please, tell me how this is good?”
    “Chill. I don’t mean your situation. I mean
you in general. You’re not like other girls, and that is always a
positive.”
    His words reminded me of Jason, and I fell
quiet. Not long ago, Jason told me the exact same thing, how my
uniqueness attracted him. It’d made me feel special. Coming from
Boone, I wasn’t sure it was a compliment. The guy just pushed my
buttons. The wrong buttons.
    “I’m not like other girls because I am
missing a body.” I picked at the grass. “I don’t like you.”
    He didn’t even pretend to be hurt. “So?
You’re not the first, and you certainly won’t be the last. I like
controversy. If you rattle someone, human or spirit, you often get
an unabashedly honest reaction.” Boone leaned closer and actually
winked. “I don’t believe you, by the way. I’m very likable. Soon,
we’ll be BFF’s.”
    Abby laughed, pushing up onto her good elbow.
“Is she giving you a hard time?”
    “Nothing I can’t handle.”
    “I miss her sarcasm,” Abby said
wistfully.
    “I’d be glad to share some of it with you,”
Boone joked. “If it gets me out of the line of fire, take it.
Sooner or later, Quinn’s bound to give me a complex.”
    “You already have one,” I drawled. “I’m
surprised your big head can fit through the doors of most
buildings.”
    He ran a hand over his faux hawk. “I’ve been
told I have a very nice head.”
    Okay, that made me laugh, right along with
Abby.
    We sat there a while longer, me trying to
delay going home, Abby and Boone