I think I got to frown. I’m not quite sure. If I did, it lasted less than a heartbeat, because his lips brushing mine melted it —and me— away. My eyelids fell, erasing whatever surrounded us, and I stood on my tiptoes to reach his lips better.He broke our kiss a lot sooner than I would’ve wanted, and met my eyes with that warm smile that was my doom.“Tell me again who’s in the Manor right now?” he whispered, his thumb tracing my parted lips.A stray brain cell, sole survivor of his kiss, helped me answer. “The Blotters.”“Three, four of them?”“Six.”“Six, wow. And your two friends, and Isaac, right?”“Yes.”“And a demon in the garden.”“He’s not a demon.”“Well, your hellhound pet in the garden.”“Yes.”He tilted his head and I knew whatever he

Brandon woke me up before one in the morning. I’d fallen asleep after our last stop at a gas station, at about ten. I sat up, rubbing my eyes. It was hot in the car.“Where are we?” I muttered.“Close,” said Kujo from the backseat.“Almost there,” Brandon replied, handing me his phone ready to make a call. “Dial Brett to let him know we’re five minutes away from Spring City.”I did. It was the first time I talked to this guy, and when I introduced myself, he seemed to have a whole lot of questions. Brandon heard him and signaled me to hold the phone between us on speaker.“Hey, Brett, we’re almost there. You’ll see yourself in a few minutes. Did you get any psychic or medium to be there with you?”“I’m a sensitive, Brandon, don’t you remember?”“Sorry, man. It’s been a while and a thousand places. See you in

Trisha and Amy looked at me, at each other, and spared me any question or comment. I climbed into the backseat and fell asleep as soon as we exited the hotel parking lot, letting them drive the whole way back to Blotter Manor.We got there just before sunset. The three of us were wasted, and could only think of going to bed. And so we did. The next morning, we woke up really early, even Trisha, and decided to have a breakfast to cover for the dinner we’d skipped the night before. Looked like those two had been talking about me while I snored from the backseat. Trisha wore her regal smile of queen of discretion and asked if I would be okay with having her over a few times a week, on weekdays.“You’re gonna need help with the burns for at least a couple of weeks,” she said.“And I would like to drop by on weekends, if you don’t mind,” said Amy.I frowned, smelling rat. “I’m fine, guys, really.”

A week. That was the longest I was able to fight myself back. My conversation with Amy about Brandon worked like battery acid in my mind, corroding any intention and determination to find a Haunter-free life.It was Sunday afternoon, and the world outside every window was carpeted in the purest white I’d ever seen. It’d been snowing at least for a while almost every day since I’d come back from Pennhurst, and the one and only snowplow in charge of keeping Greenwich Road open was working overtime.After the fire at the guesthouse, Mike had called the best sweepers in all Massachusetts to make sure the Manor chimneys wouldn’t act out too, and now I was able to have heaters with little flames in the kitchen, the east parlor, my room and the study.So Sunday afternoon, white as far as I could see from the couch under the window in the east parlor. I praised the last work of art Charlotte had made on her magnetic board and bid the Blo

Of course I was in the bathroom when the bell rang at Amy’s. Not any bathroom, but the one at the other end of the apartment. That’s my sixth sense for you. I scampered toward the front door, my heart racing. I stormed into the living room and hardly stopped to make sure it was him. A heartbeat later, I was jumping into his open arms.We didn’t laugh, we didn’t talk, we didn’t kiss. We just stood there, hugging each other as tightly as we could. And it was so weird. Because at that moment in his arms, my cheek against his chest, hearing his heart pound, feeling the light weight of his face against my hair, I felt that ever since I’d tiptoed out of that hotel room, I’d been lacking something vital I hadn’t noticed was missing. But not anymore. Now I was whole again.I don’t know how long we remained like that, a minute or a year. But he eventually kissed my hair and loosened his arms around me, just enough for me to