Keeping Secrets (Book 1)

Chapter 19: Childhood

I stared at Travis, not sure how to respond. What did he mean, why did I bring her here? She's his mom! I thought he'd want to know that I found her!

But there was a deep fear in his voice that terrified me too. Obviously I messed up, but how was I supposed to know? He never told me that he didn't want to know she was still around.

I needed to get her away from Travis, but the only way I could think of was salt. Except there definitely wasn't enough in this house - they were a very low-sodium kind of family. So I needed to get Travis to Nina's, wanting to keep him safe.

But she had promised me answers if I brought her to Travis. I was going to get those answers.

I stood up and stood in front of the ghost. She looked up at me with a sly smile.

"You promised me answers," I demanded. "I brought you to Travis, now talk."

"Dylan..." Travis tried to warn from behind me. I ignored him.

The ghost chuckled lightly. "I can't give you the answers you want, boy," she said. "I'm not like the others."

With that, she vanished. I let out the breath I didn't realize I was holding. She was gone. Not for good, unfortunately, but gone for now at least.

"Dyl?"

I turned to him, shaking my head slightly. "She left. I'm sorry, I thought you'd want her here."

He grabbed my hand and tugged gently, wanting me to come back over to the couch. I did, sitting back down a little closer to him than I had been before.

"It's not your fault, babe," he said, rubbing the back of my hand with his thumb. "I don't blame you - I never told you the truth."

I accidentally let out a little scoff. "Who's the one keeping secrets now, huh?" I wasn't upset - I kept my fair share of them, even from him - but I had always thought he was so open with me. Turns out I was wrong.

"Babe, it's not like that. I never thought she'd be a problem, so I never brought it up. That's it."

"But I told you I could see ghosts!" I countered, rather confused.

He sighed. "You told me you had never seen her, so I figured we'd be safe."

"Safe? What can she do?"

He squeezed my hand. I could feel an increasingly amount of sweat on his palms. I think the last time I saw him this scared was that first day he saw me in the hospital after the accident.

"After she died," Travis started, "she was still around. I - obviously - don't remember it starting, but I know I never really missed my mom, I guess 'cause she was still there. I remember seeing her around the house when I was maybe four or five - it's how I knew for sure it was her. When I started getting older, after my dad started dating Stacy, things got worse. She would throw things and break things all over the house. Half the time my dad blamed me, thought I was acting up because of Stacy. She, honestly, made my life miserable.

"I remember - so clearly - the last time I ever saw her. I was ten, I think. She told me that I was going to die, that I wasn't going to live much longer. When I asked her how she knew, she gave me this evil smile and I just knew that she was going to kill me. I ran all the way to the closest church, had a priest do whatever he did to get her to go away. Never saw her again."

"Trav... that's terrible. Why haven't you ever told me?"

"Well, first off, I wanted to forget that ghosts existed. She's the only one I've ever seen, and I'd like to keep it that way. Second, you told me you've never seen her around. To me, that meant you never needed to know."

I smirked, nudging his arm to try to get him to smile. "You just had to fall in love with someone who sees the dead, didn't you?"

It worked. "I seem to remember falling in love with you before all that happened. I only told you afterwards because I almost thought I had lost the chance to say it for good."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, yeah." Then I sighed, knowing we couldn't just sit here. "We need to go," I said, standing up. "If she's coming for you, you can't be here."

"Babe, I'll be fine. I'm not ten anymore. What can she really do to me?"

I knew he was just pretending to be brave. I didn't blame him, who wants to show how scared they are of their dead mother? But just because he was acting brave, didn't mean he would actually be able to defend himself against her.

"You can't even see her anymore, Trav," I said. "She could show up at any moment, and if I'm not with you, you'd never know until it was too late."

He also stood up, placing his hands on my hips. "And where do you expect me to go where she can't find me? I also have work this afternoon, so unless you plan on hanging out in the bookstore for the rest of the day... I don't know what to tell you."

"We have to go back to Nina's," I said, more to myself than him.

She'd know if there was a way to protect Travis without being surrounded by salt. As long as she'd be willing to help us. I really hoped she would, but after seeing how defeated she looked earlier, I wasn't so sure.

"Are you sure that's the only thing we can do, babe? We don't need to bother her with this. I'll be okay."

I shook my head. "She'll know what to do and how to keep you safe without me. Maybe she'll know why your mom only showed up now, especially showing up after being exorcised all those years ago."

He thought about it for a moment before slowly nodding in agreement. I was relieved. Of course, I wasn't going to force him to come with me to Nina's - although I would have been worried to leave him alone to go talk to her. But having him come with me would make me feel better and keep him safer at the same time.

I just hoped Nina would know what to do. I hated depending on her so much, but she was the expert here. Hopefully she hasn't given up so much that she wouldn't be willing to help us with this.