Page 82 of The Eleventh Hour
Rafael gets her arm over his shoulder and leads her to the car. I can’t take my eyes off this monstrosity. It shouldn’t exist. It isn’t possible, and yet, I’m seeing it with my own eyes.
I back away slowly and get in the car quickly. As soon as I start the car, I turn on the headlights and watch as he disappears. I don’t feel better not being able to see him. If anything, my unease settles into me and just grows stronger.
***
She lifts her head, and her stormy grey eyes stop me in my tracks.
“Explain.”
I sigh and rub a hand through my hair.
“Have you died before?” I ask instead of answering her. “Like, for a moment, and been brought back?”
Her face turns into marble. I didn’t think it was possible.
“I’m going to take that as a yes,” I mutter and look at Rafael, but he’s sitting back and observing her from the other couch. “When I was an infant, I died. I grew up fairly normally after that, but I would talk to people about my friends, and it eventually drove my parents apart. My parents and the doctors told me they weren’t real, that it was in my mind. I ended up in the foster system, being bounced from one home to another. I learned quickly to keep my mouth shut. I started doing some research and came across Terrance through one of the forums.”
I stand up from the couch and pace the small space. “I’d spent my whole life around them, my whole life being told I’m crazy, but I’m not. They are real, Jax. Spirits. Ghosts. The departed. We can see them because we straddle the two worlds.”
“Gideon is real?” Jax asks in a voice that sounds unlike her own.
“Yes, he was a real person, and he’s dead now. He shouldn’t be able to do any of that. He’s the strongest spirit I’ve ever seen.”
“Wait, go back, Dane.” Rafael holds up a hand. “From the research we have been able to do, there are some people born with the ability to see the two worlds or people who die and step into the worlds. Clairvoyants, fortune tellers, mediums. Some of those people are the real deal. The world is much bigger than we ever believed. Spirits come in three tiers-”
“The rainbows, the dreams, and the tangible,” Jax murmurs.
Rafael’s jaw drops open. “How did you know that?”
“Because I see them all the time. It wasn’t hard to work out who is who.” She lifts her chin, and even with a pale complexion and looking like she’s done ten rounds in a ring, I still have to admire the fire in her eyes.
“All right, so you get it. The tactile would be the cases of poltergeists, all those hauntings. That is what that thing,” her eyes flash, and I catch myself, “Gideon is. He’s a very strong ghost. How, I don’t know. Then, on the other hand, you have the thing you see out of the corner of your eyes, the dark shape, there and gone, harmless but freaky when you’re tired. Those are the spirits that aren’t strong. And it takes energy to be here. The rainbows floating around are almost not touching this world anymore. The nightmares and dreams and the ones who are closer but not strong. Think of those people who suffer from night terrors. I have a theory they feed off that connection of the people they haunt. Like a parasitic leech feeding off energy.”
“Who is he, then?”
“A ghost-”
“No, who is he?” Jax shouts and jumps to her feet. “Who is he? How do I find that out?”
The room pulses with her temper, and I can almost feel parts of her splintering.
“Jax, I don’t know how to get that information.” I step towards her and take her wrist in mine. She moves to swing away from me, trying to pull her arm free; I grip harder. She glares up at me mutinously.
“I’ll help you find out.” I find myself promising.
She pauses and nods her head. “This happened to you, didn’t it? You ended up…”
“In a psych ward, yes. I was in and out from when I was young. Medicated most of my life. I spent forever being told I was crazy.”
All the tension in her body slowly drains away. She makes a sound that I can’t identify, and then gently pulls her arm free and turns to face me full on. She studies my face for a long time.
“You understand.”
I nod my head.
“I’m not crazy?”
“No, you’re not. They are real.”