The Ghost Files V2

Chapter Four

I waste no time in running. I have no clue what the thing is, nor does Eric know. With Dan in tow, I dash back inside and sneak a peek out the restaurant windows. It's still standing in the street, but it's not coming any closer. Doesn't mean I'm safe, just means I have a minute until it figures out what it wants to do.

"Mattie?" Dan is frowning at me.

"The thing from before in my bedroom," I whisper, still staring out the window. "Do you see it?"

Dan glances out the window and stares. At first, I don't think he sees anything, but the longer he looks, the more perplexed his face becomes. Then it goes to downright horror.

"We're calling Olivet as soon as we can," he whispers. "Why can I see it?"

"How should I know?" I whisper.

"You're the ghost girl. You're supposed to know these things."

I stare at him as if he's lost his mind. "Since when do I know everything because I can see the freaking things?"

"Mattie, Dan, what's going on?" Eric asks and we both whirl to see him standing there with a question on his face.

"Do you see that thing?" I point out the window at the black form in the street.

Eric walks closer and looks out the window. After a minute, he turns and shakes his head. "I don't see anything, Mattie."

"It's standing right there!" Dan almost shouts, but catches himself.

Eric shrugs. "Maybe I can't see it because Mason can't?"

"That makes no sense," I tell him. "I can see you just fine, so you should be able to see that thing."

"Mattie, you can see me because you can see ghosts and I'm a ghost who borrowed a body. While I'm in here, I'm stuck with Mason's abilities and he can't see ghosts."

Dan's phone starts blaring and he pulls it out and frowns. He walks a few feet away and starts talking.

Eric leans closer. "So how's it going with you and Officer Dan?"

"What do you mean?"

"Mattie, I saw him almost kiss you." Eric laughs at my horrified face. "I'm not mad. In fact, I'm kinda glad. He's good for you and you for him."

"He's too old." That and the fact that I don't get butterflies when I think of him that way. I love Dan, I really, really do, but I don't know if it's the kind of love Eric is talking about.

"You're seventeen, Mattie. He's only three years older than you."

"But what if the only person I want is you?" I whisper, staring up into his blue eyes.

His smile is sad. "That's never going to happen, Mattie. I can't...I'm...it can't be no matter what either of us want."

I know he's right, but that doesn't stop me from wanting it. Sad that the only person who gives me butterflies is a ghost. It's those big blue eyes of his.

"Mattie."

The serious note in Dan's voice causes me to tense up. He only uses that tone when it's something bad.

"What?" I ask, afraid of the solemn look in his eyes.

"We're skipping your birthday dinner," he says quietly. "Mas...Eric, can you let them know that Mattie and I are going to celebrate somewhere else?"

"Dan, Meg is going to pitch a fit..."

"It's about your mom, Mattie."

My mom. The woman who'd raised me and then tried to kill me when I was five. Her ghost had finally come to see me in the hospital after I'd survived Mrs. Olson's terrorfest. What she'd told me had floored me. She wasn't my mother. That's all she said before disappearing into the light. Dan had been looking into it since I told him the next day.