FINAL GATE (#3 GHOST PORTAL series)

EIGHT

After several rounds of arguing and debating and arguing once more, Avery convinced Ada to fetch Amy, so they could talk. Ada grumbled and groaned, complained, and would have stomped a foot to the ground if she could, but she eventually relented, and zoomed off to locate Amy's ghost.

She returned fifteen minutes later, and a blurry, white orb followed her closely, hovering at her side as she stopped in front of Avery.

"This is her. Amy. She's here, but she can't fully manifest in our realm at this time." Ada cracked her knuckles. "What do you want from her?"

"That," Avery pointed at the white sphere as it bobbed up and down excitedly, "is her? This is Amy?" He squinted, as if expecting it to suddenly expand and shape into Amy's distinguishable figure. "I saw her, in a more human-like form, before. Why is she this blob of white?"

Ada's face grew stern. "It's her, I swear. Look, this is the best I could do, okay? Ghosts... they're complicated. Sometimes they're visible, sometimes they can't find enough energy in Limbo to show themselves. I don't regulate it, and neither do they. You wanted her here, so she's here, okay? She's not supposed to be, and this could mess up a lot of things, so make it quick." Her voice was annoyed, but almost in a childish way; like a kid bantering and bickering about not getting the toy they wanted at the toy store.

"Whatever." Avery pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Can she hear me? Understand me?"

As if in response, the sphere bobbed faster up and down.

"She can, but you can't hear or understand her, not in her current state. This," Ada sucked in a deep breath, "never happens, Avery, I want you to be aware of it. There's never a translator for ghosts. Ghosts aren't meant to be translated; those humans who happen to meet them, hear them, is coincidental. We Guides are not here for that, though we can indeed travel into Limbo. We can be in Limbo and here at the same time. No one is to ever know this, and if you survive this whole ordeal I expect you to leave that out of your detailed exposé to the world, understood?"

Avery snorted. "If I survive this? Wow, super enthusiastic, I see." Ada glared, and he waved her off. "Fine, fine, I won't tell anyone that Guides can be in two worlds at once, or that ghosts aren't supposed to be around here. How does this work?"

"You speak," Ada motioned at Amy's blurry blob of a body, "and she'll answer me, and I'll reiterate what she says for you."

"And you'll tell me everything she says?" Avery arched an eyebrow; he knew better than to put all his trust in Ada. "I know your tendency to keep things for yourself, and I don't believe that you'll relate everything to me properly."

The orb bounced side-to-side, its energy jamming against Ada—and not going through her.

Ada rolled her eyes. "She can nudge into me, as you can see," she huffed, "so if I'm not telling you the truth, she'll let you know." She steepled her fingers and closed her eyes. "I'm making this exception because the world is still, in my opinion, in peril. Amy might have knowledge from within Limbo, and though it'd go faster if I simply spoke to her alone, within her realm... I'll indulge you. Once."

Avery refrained from saying that Ada owed him for bringing him to Nevada and getting his best friend killed. But they'd wasted enough time with this back and forth, and he needed to assure himself that Amy was okay. Then he could resume scolding Ada until she told him what was actually going on.

He glanced at the ghost, trying to picture Amy standing there, in her leggings and tank top, the way he'd last seen her. With her luscious locks of brown hair flowing over her shoulders, her dark eyes narrowed at him as if to yell at him. She used to yell at him a lot—to control his urges, to be more polite, to stop bothering people with questions about ghosts. Or, as she had at their last get-together, to figure out what the fuck he wanted from her.