Ghost Perfume | ✔

Chapter 3: Call Me by My Name (Part 2)

I couldn't fall asleep. I threaded Ali and Diya, of course, and that comforted my trembling, bereft heart. The sharp sting from cutting my thread also cut through the sick headache that had begun to beat in my temples. I watched them pass through the death portal, stinging with their passing, and the inner eye blinked with detached satisfaction.

Only my odd stalker remained - but had he come a little closer now?

I lay my head on my pillow. An excited, restless energy thrummed in my veins like a leftover from the party.

That loose bolt, that improperly-closed door - they were still there, unfixed, and I didn't know what else might leak through.

I listened to the snow fall, the whisper of the world.

It accumulated softly on the roofs I could see through my window, a blurry white against the black night.

Bare, spider-webbing tree branches stretched and trembled, visible because the snow ever-so-gently traced their lengths.

The ghosts were forming out there, I thought sleepily. They were forming and those who needed me were turning in my direction and beginning their journey to find me.

But when I closed my eyes, I couldn't sleep.

I saw Gabriel's sloping eyes and Alexander's cruel mouth. And, too, I saw Lukas's friend, glancing back at me; Lukas slouching in his booth, telling me stories; and I remembered Lukas introducing himself, long ago, as Lukas Alistair. My memory showed me the silver ring on his friend's hand as he rubbed his jaw, the silver that glinted from Lukas's hand as he brought his beer to his lips, Gabriel's warm silver ring brushing my skin as he arranged my hands on the knife, and Alexander's silver ring, gleaming in the light of his dashboard as he held the steering wheel. The same, the same, the same; they all wore the same ring.

They were the four brothers, I realized calmly as I stared again into the snow-drenched night.

They were the source of the kindness that circled round me ...

I looked away from the window and pressed my cheek into my pillow.

That damaged ghost hovered out of sight, but I sensed him near.

The chilled window exhaled soft cold breaths. I slid down further under my blanket. My headache had made a comeback. It sloshed around my forehead. I wished I could sleep.

I thought about seeing Alexander after school, when he'd drive me to the pub, and maybe seeing Lukas there, and my heart skipped a beat.

A phrase from Gabriel's phone call drifted across my mind.

... I'm not going to follow the letter of the law if no one else is ...

I wondered what he'd meant.

I wanted to know more about them.

The light began to change outside, the sky paling, as the sun rose.

... Michael's a fucking liar ...

I wondered when they'd come to Mount Kyllene. Lukas had been coming to the pub for nearly eight months, though we hadn't talked much together back then. Alexander had moved across the street not two months ago. I had no idea how long Tommy had known Gabriel.

Well, they didn't have to have moved together ...

My eyes closed.

It felt like moments later that the alarm howled bloody murder.

I dragged myself up, feeling wrecked.

The first floor of the house was wrecked, like me. I packed bags of chips and pretzels from the kitchen to take to school.