Keeping Secrets (Book 1)

Chapter 5: Truth

"Babe? You're kinda scaring me right now."

I didn't mean to tell him that Jenny was in trouble. How was I even supposed to explain that? She was dead! She's been dead! How could she possibly be in trouble?

Except she was, and I was the only one who knew about it.

"Travis," I said, very seriously. "I need you to trust me."

"Of course, babe. What's going on?"

Instead of answering him - like I should have - I pulled my laptop off my desk and turned it on. As soon as it loaded, I looked up 'psychics near me'. Surprisingly, a few popped up.

I quickly read through some of the reviews. If I was going to go talk to one of these people, I needed to make sure they were the real deal. Travis, who was still sitting next to me, reading over my shoulder, was obviously skeptical.

"I hate to break it to you, babe," he said, "but ghosts don't exist. These people just pry on your weaknesses, on how much you miss whoever just died. None of these people will help you talk to your sister. Sorry, Dyl."

I shook my head, skimming over the reviews of the third psychic. "I'm sure most of these people are fakes. But I know for sure ghosts exists, and there's something going on with them right now."

The reviews I was reading all seemed very positive, claiming she was the real deal. Until I found one negative review that was posted yesterday: I had only been in her shop for five minutes before her eyes went wide and she ushered me out of there. She didn't even give me a reading, which I had already paid for! Such a scam! I even went back the next day - this morning - but she had closed her whole shop. Good riddance, too. I hope she never reopens so that she can't rip off any more unsuspecting people.

This had to be the one. If a ghost had come to her with a warning the way Jenny came to me, I'm sure she was trying her best to solve whatever problem it could be. I checked the address, then looked at Travis.

"Do you mind driving me here?"

I wasn't sure what my plan was. I didn't even know how I was going to convince this psychic - Nina - to even open the door for me. But I needed to try. There was nothing else I could do.

"Now?" Travis asked.

"Yes. I'm sure Mom won't mind if we take off right now. I'll even buy you food, since we'll be out."

He kissed my cheek. "Sure. But you're explaining everything to me on the way over there."

Just like I expected, Mom didn't have a problem with us leaving. Recently, she's been getting so happy for me when I actually decide to leave the house to do something fun - always with Travis, since I had no other people in my life anymore. Her knowing about our relationship didn't change that at all, which I was so happy about. All that worrying and stressing seemed to be for nothing.

Although now I had a bigger problem going on. And another secret that was going to come to light tonight. I knew Travis wasn't just going to up and leave me as soon as I tell him about all of this, especially not after my mom finally finding out about us, but I still worried that he was going to think I was crazy. Maybe I was.

But, as promised, I told Travis about my newfound ability to see and talk to the dead. I started with waking up in the hospital after my surgery to find my grandmother sitting in the chair, watching over me; how I had no idea who she was, since she had died when I was still a baby. I told him about Jenny appearing for the first time the other day and her warning.

Travis took the news better than I thought he would. Of course, he had his initial reservations about it: Are you sure they're actually ghosts? But after I confirmed some things that they - mostly Grandma, since she was the one I talked to most often - had said, usually little facts that I would never have known anyway, he started to believe me. He did, however, ask the one question I was hoping he wouldn't: Have you ever seen my mom?

"No," I said softly, grabbing hold of his hand. I watched his face for any kind of emotion, but he kept it straight as he watched the road in front of us. "Sorry, Trav. I don't know how to make it work, just that sometimes ghosts appear. Sometimes they don't."

His mom had died when Travis was only about a year old, so he didn't remember her, but  he does have a great step-mom to look after him and his dad. Although that didn't mean she hadn't stuck around to watch him grow up. Maybe she did and I just couldn't see her. I honestly had no idea how the whole ghost thing worked.

It wasn't too much longer after that conversation ended that we were pulling into the small dirt parking lot behind the psychic's shop. It was a small place, maybe just one room, and very undecorated. It didn't look like a typical psychic's shop at all.

"What if she's not here?" Travis asked as we climbed out of his car.

I shook my head. "She better be. I don't know what else to do if she's not."

There was a sign on the door when we walked up, saying the shop was closed. I could see a lamp on through the window though, so I was really hoping she was there.

I banged on the door, loudly. "Hello?" I called out. "Miss Nina? Please open the door. It's important."

"We're closed," a woman shouted back, her voice muffled through the door.

"Please! I know about the ghosts!" I paused for a second, wondering if I had said the right thing. What if she was just a fake after all? I couldn't give up though. "They're in trouble and I don't know what to do!"

The door was yanked open. For some reason, I was expecting some old woman decked out in hippie-like clothing. Instead, the woman who stood in front of us was probably only a couple years older than us, wearing jeans and a t-shirt.

"You've seen it too?" she asked, a hint of terror in her voice.

I nodded. "What's going on?"

She looked at Travis then back at me. "You guys better come in."