DEAD GOOD by D A Cooper Read Free Book Online Page B

dismissively. ‘Okay then go – hey, I know – why don’t I come with you and then you can show me your new place and your room and then perhaps I’ll get to see your ghost? I think I have the gift actually– my Nan always said there were Psychics in our family. I think my Great Aunt even got paid to do readings and stuff for her neighbours…’ she stares weirdly round the room and for a minute I do actually start thinking maybe she does have some kind of ability. But then she flaps her hand again. ‘Ah… the spirits are sleeping right now,’ she says expertly. ‘They only come out under cover of darkness you know.’
     
    Yeah right.
     
    ‘They’re very susceptible to bright lights,’ she continues. ‘Very wary. You have to earn their trust before you can communicate on their level. They’re very sensitive beings.’
     
    Sensitive. Yeah - you think?
     
    ‘She’s got me all worked out, hasn’t she?’ Pale boy laughs. ‘And the light thing? More movie rubbish. Daylight just makes us more transparent, that’s all.’
     
    I’m standing right next to him now and he’s just a bit taller than me. And because I’ve been listening to what he just said, I am now embarrassingly aware that I’m standing in the middle of Amber’s bedroom with my head tilted up and my eyes focussed on… well, nothing that she can see anyway – and that I’m very probably displaying signs of abnormality. To Amber anyway.
     
    ‘Maddie?’ she tugs at my sleeve. I turn to look at her. ‘Are you okay? You’re acting really... weird if you ask me… is it the ghost thing? Only I didn’t mean to freak you out – I just know these things that’s all – it must be in the genes or something. I don’t have to come back with you if you’d rather be on your own. I do understand you know. Maddie?’
     
    ‘Y’know what, Amber?’ I sigh. ‘I think that would be a better idea. I do feel a little… weak…’ I pass a palm over my forehead for dramatic effect and peek out of the corner of one eye to see if it’s working on her.
     
    ‘It is. You’ve got the part!’ the boy sniggers.
     
    ‘Um… I’ll text you then, yeah?’ Amber suggests worriedly. ‘Later?’
     
    I nod, still in my role. ‘Don’t worry about coming downstairs with me, Amber, I’ll be okay…’
     
    ‘Jesus, Maddie, what do you think I am? Some kind of idiot or something?!’ Amber squeaks, leaping from her bed to my side. I am suddenly scared and flinch slightly. What? What now?
     
    ‘You have to let me help you down the stairs,’ she says. Phew. ‘What sort of a friend would I be if I didn’t make sure you at least got down the stairs without crashing to probable near certain death?’
     
    So while I’m being helped down the stairs like an invalid on one side, there’s a very annoying ghost on the other side of me who’s chortling over Amber’s near-certain death statement. Trust me to find a ghost who feels a need to explain why something “can only be either probable– or certain. Not both”. Sheesh. The sooner I show this guy The Light, the better.
     
     
     
    ‘Are you still here?’ I hiss as I round the corner of our road. I haven’t heard a peep from him since the English lesson on the stairs. Amber got her dad to drop us.. I mean me… of course I mean me; her dad didn’t exactly know he had a ghost in the back seat of his car, did he? Even I wasn’t sure. But I can’t bring myself to go in just yet. So after her dad’d gone, I hanged around outside for a bit.
     
    ‘Present.’ He says in my left ear. And strangely enough I think I felt a little warmth when he said it too. I start to walk on.
     
    ‘All in the mind,’ he says. ‘You’re used to being able to feel someone’s breath when they whisper in your ear, but it’s actually just a trick of the brain. Here…’ and he blows into my ear. Nothing happens. No warmth, no breeze. Nothing. Zero. Oh. Okay then. My mistake.
     
    ‘So…’ I start and