Ghosts of July (Shamans of the Divide, Book 1)

Chapter Eighteen

I pulled the car into Trudy's parking lot and killed the engine. Staring at the forms of the dead on sidewalks and in storefronts, I didn't say anything as I got out and closed the door behind me. I didn't hear Renn get out and come stand beside me. His hand on my shoulder let me know he was there.

I took a deep breath and looked up and down Main Street as the sun began to set in the west.

"What are they doing?"

"Mostly standing still," I said. "I don't think they realize they're here. I can't tell if they see the people around them or not."

Renn scanned Main Street, shading his eyes from the bright sunset.

"Nobody seems to notice anything unusual and I don't see anything."

At the edge of the hardware store parking lot stood an old man in a dusty, outdated suit. He had a fedora in his hand and turned it over and over, studying it. Unlike the earlier apparitions I'd seen at the diner, he didn't seem overly tortured or, dare I say it, scary. He seemed more confused. Tired, even. He didn't seem to notice me, either.

"And the animals?"

He shrugged.

"Driving in, the birds were worked up," he said. "But there isn't much by way of wildlife in downtown Shades."

A car honked in the distance, a few blocks down. A van had run the four-way stop, but what caught my eye was a small girl standing in the middle of the intersection. A sedan pulled forward and I opened my mouth to yell out a warning, but realized immediately that it was pointless.

She was already dead. And she was staring right at me.

She was small, maybe seven or eight years old and dressed in some sort of fancy party dress that fell to her knees. She had dark blue knee socks pulled up and dark shoes with a buckle. In her stringy red hair sat a lopsided blue bow that had come undone on one side and hung limply like some deflated streamer, motionless despite the soft evening breeze around us.

In my three years with Taylor, I'd seen plenty of cheesy horror flicks and in all those gory, gaggy movies, I'd never seen anything as creepy as this little girl. I was pretty sure I'd take the screamer ghost over the unblinking, inanimate gaze of this pint-sized terror.

The other spirits hadn't bothered me yet, but she did. There was something not right about the way her head lolled to one side and the slightest hint of a grin played on her lip.

"Now what?" Renn's grip on my shoulder tightened. "What are you looking at?"

"A child ghost, Renn," I whispered. "And there's something off about her."

"What's she doing?"

"Nothing," I said. "She's not doing anything. She's standing over there at that intersection and I think she's smiling at me."

Renn sucked in a breath and looked at the intersection I was.

"It's not a good smile, is it?"

I shook my head.

"No," I said with a sigh. "It's a really awful smile, Renn."

Studying the streets a few moments longer, I stood with my back against the Subaru while Renn went to the passenger side to find his cell phone. He needed to call Coyote. While he was talking, I watched the spirits turn, almost in unison, and begin walking toward the back of town. Past the gas station, past the library, all the way out beyond the church and the graveyard to where I couldn't see them anymore.

His conversation finished, Renn was back at my side looking down the road.

"What are they doing now?"