Keeping Secrets (Book 1)

Chapter 17: Defeated

"Dylan?" Travis asked, making me tear my eyes away from my phone.

"I'm sorry," I said. "Something happened with Nina. I need to go."

I stood up from the couch, planning on heading straight for the door, but Travis stopped me with his hand on my arm.

"Dyl... What's going on with you?" He shook his head with a sigh. "This isn't like you. I'm worried."

I gently ran my fingers through his short tangled hair. "You don't have to worry about me," I told him. "I promise. There's a ghost issue right now. I'll talk to you later, okay?"

Thankfully, he let me go. As much as I would have rather stayed with him, I needed to know what Nina meant.

They found me. That's what she said. Who found her? I was assuming it had to do with the ghosts, but then, why would they all go to her? Why wouldn't Jenny or Grandma come to me if they managed to get out? But what if it wasn't ghosts she was talking about? Then who?

I couldn't focus on that now. I needed to get back to Nina, then maybe I'll get some answers.

I seemed to only get more questions when I pulled onto the street Nina's shop was located on. The whole road was full of ghosts, all just standing there. Other cars were unknowingly driving right through them, but I hesitated. It wasn't so much that I didn't want to drive through them, it was that I had never seen so many ghosts in one spot (other than Death's captured ghosts), not even that one time I went to visit Jenny's grave a couple months ago. Especially after believing Death had won, I never expected to see another ghost again, and yet, there were hundreds standing in front of me.

I kept driving past the stop sign I had been sitting at, trying not to think about the spirits passing through my car as I continued down the road. The crowds of ghosts seemed to be getting denser the closer I got to Nina's. What did they want with her?

As soon as I parked and climbed out of my car, I got a better look at the closest ghosts. They looked old. Not all old age, but like they had lived hundreds of years ago, judging by their clothing. Any ghosts I had encountered over the last few months had all died relatively recently. The thought hadn't occurred to me until now, seeing these old ghosts.

I hurried up to the shop and banged on the door. Nina immediately opened it and practically pulled me in and quickly shut the door before any of the ghosts could get inside. For some reason, her shop was completely void of ghosts.

"What the hell is going on?" I demanded, gesturing towards the door I had just been pulled through. "Where did they come from? And what are they doing here?"

"I have no idea, but I need you to tell me what happened with Death. This could be your fault."

I scoffed, slightly insulted, although she did have a point. What if I did cause this?

So I explained everything to her, hoping she's be able to make sense of this. From the conversation I had with Death in the woods to his plan of keeping all the ghosts because of a few bad ones to Jenny's plan to try to escape to the unfinished conversation at the end. I told her everything. Even retelling it, I couldn't think of anything that would lead to this.

"He's doing this to spite you," Nina said once I finished talking. "You ditched, so he decided to release the expired ghosts. That way, technically, you both win. He keeps the ones he just rounded up and you have ghosts back in this world, just not the ones you asked for."

I sighed. Of course he would. I didn't even know there was such a thing as expired ghosts. Maybe that's part of the reason why he did that, knowing I wouldn't know about the loophole. There was still one main question on my mind though.

"But then, why are they all here?"

She shook her head. "I wish I knew. I'm just glad I was able to keep them outside, otherwise we might get completely overrun in here."

"How did you manage that anyway?"

"Salt. Lots and lots of salt." She pointed towards the door there was a line of salt on the floor. Similar lines were placed in front of the windows too. "I keep all but that door salted at all times. For emergencies, like today. The first two came in and I immediately grabbed the salt. Then I got rid of those two ghosts."

"Huh." I didn't know what to say to that. Was that normal behavior of ghosts? I guess it had to be, if Nina was already prepared. I also didn't want to know how she managed to get rid of them.

"We need to talk to one," I said. "Figure out exactly what they want from you. They barely seemed to notice me when I got here. It has to be you, but why?"

"Maybe they just don't know you," she countered. "I literally have a sign outside that says I can talk to the dead. They'll come here if they want something. And Death knows we were working together - you brought him here, remember? If Death did this because of you, he'll have sent them to me, knowing they'd eventually find you too."

"Whether or not that's true, we still need to talk to one." It was the only way we were going to get actual answers right now. The only problem was trying to let only one inside without them all forcing their way in. They were obviously waiting for a chance to come in, and breaking that salt line would give them that chance.

She sighed. "Then go out there and talk, Dylan. I... I can't. I didn't ask for this, okay? I have nothing anymore. I'm not blaming you, but because of what happened, I don't have a job anymore - people aren't going to want to pay to talk to expired ghosts, they want their recently deceased relatives. My family walked away from me when I opened up this place so I don't have them either. I literally have nothing except these needy expired ghosts. That's not going to pay the bills. So it doesn't matter what they want with me. Whatever it is won't help me."

I didn't know what to say. She looked so defeated. I never expected to see someone as strong as her look like that. It made me want to fix everything, not only to save my sister and grandmother, but to save Nina as well. Because I needed to remember to care about the living too.

So I walked over to the door, threw it open, and stepped outside.