Death Sleep ~ Book Three

eleven.

On the first Monday after Baxter's death Liza went to school again, in hopes of salvaging some part of the year. All the drama had been difficult on her grades. She didn't know if she would see Quinn there or not, but she decided she had to face him if he was. She opted to have her father drop her off at the door, rather than ride the bus. Nervously, she stood outside the door to school.

"Hey! What are you waiting on? We have school."

Liza swung around.

"Andrew? What are you doing here? Wasn't your cover, like, busted or something?"

"Grumpy, aren't we? No, not completely. And you still need protection."

"From what, spooks? I'm not exactly dealing with your type of people."

Andrew took her by the arm and led her to a more secluded part of the yard.

"My cover isn't completely blown, at least not yet, so if you don't mind, I'd appreciate it if it stayed that way. And we are dealing with the dead now, thanks to you."

Liza glared at him, but his barb hit very close to home. She turned her head to hide tears that threatened to spill.

"Aw, c'mon Liza. It was a mistake, okay? Look, I'm here to offer any kind of protection I can."

"What exactly do you do? Are you a ghost whisperer?"

Andrew looked at Liza, slightly annoyed.

"No, I do not. I am not some skinny chick that runs around in miniskirts, talking to the dead."

"You wouldn't look good in a miniskirt."

Andrew gave her a withering look.

"So what do you do?"

"I call the dead when they're needed."

"Do you whisper when you do it?"

"No. I call them."

"So you talk to them."

"Yes."

"Like a whisperer."

"How about we go in?"

Liza shrugged and followed Andrew into the school. At the point, it made no difference to her. She'd unleashed the worst killer in the world, lost her boyfriend, and had no way of making it better. All she could do was mentally check out for a while.

The day breezed by for Liza. She wasn't at all surprised when Quinn's chair stayed empty in every class she shared with him. What did surprise her was that she wished he was there. She missed him so much. Then she reminded herself of what he'd done and went back to hating him, even if it was a weak hatred.

Liza withdrew over the next week. She tried to be more interested in the lessons her father was teaching her about dreamwalking, but she just couldn't bring herself to care.

Andrew came over frequently, trying to work with Liza and Lance for solutions, but Liza just felt like the walking dead and tuned it all out. She felt like a void until the day she saw Quinn again.

Liza woke up on Saturday, a zombie as ever. Sitting in the bay window in the living room she stared out at the world that she didn't understand anymore. Suddenly, she saw a sandy haired boy walking a little unsteadily up the sidewalk. He stopped in front of her house and just stood there. Liza sat up. What was he doing? Quinn sank to his knees and bowed his head. When he looked up again, the pain was so great on his face that it felt like a knife in Liza's chest.