Keeping Secrets (Book 1)

Chapter 20: Answers

Unlocking my front door, I let out a tired sigh. So much had happened today and now I was completely exhausted. I don't think I've done this much in one day since before the accident.

"Dylan?" I heard my mom call as soon as I shut the door behind me. "Is that you?"

"Hi, Mom," I called back.

She appeared in the doorway of the kitchen, a little ways down the hallway. "Where were you?" she asked. "You were gone all day. Were you out with Travis?"

I sighed, heading down the hallway in the direction of both her and my bedroom. She never used to ask so many questions whenever I would spend all day out of the house. I guess things were different now that she's become a little more paranoid.

"Yeah. I hung out with him while he was at work. The store was dead anyway."

That wasn't technically I lie. I did sit in the bookstore for a few hours - even started reading a book, which was surprising, even for me. But we only went to his work after seeing Nina for about an hour, hoping to figure out what to do about Travis' psycho dead mother.

Nina ended up giving Travis a little pendant thing to wear to ward off ghosts. She also explained that some exorcised ghosts end up becoming expired, depending on how they were exorcised. When Death released these expired ghosts, Travis' mother was also released.

The problem with that explanation was the fact that she knew I was close to Travis. Expired ghosts shouldn't have any semblance of passing time in the real world, so how could she possibly know who I was, especially the fact that I knew her son? She also told me she wasn't like the other ones, so what was she if she wasn't an expired ghost?

We couldn't seem to find an answer though, at least, not before Travis needed to go to work. And of course, I went with him, needing to make sure that pendant worked. I pretty much figured out that it does, which is the only reason why I wasn't insisting on spending the night with him. A couple of the expired ghosts had followed us to the bookstore, but they didn't go anywhere near Travis, even though they sometimes wandered next to one of the very few unsuspecting customers that came in. They didn't talk to me either, no matter how often I tried.

"Good," Mom said, bringing me back to the present. "I'm glad you're getting out of the house more often again."

I nodded. "Yeah, but it's exhausting. I think I'm going to head to bed, honestly."

She smiled. "Of course, Dyl. Get some rest."

With another nod, I continued down the hallway towards my bedroom. I was hoping for a nice, peaceful night to relax after the crazy day I had, but that obviously wasn't meant to happen. Standing in the center of my room was an expired ghost and he looked ready to talk.

I closed my door, not needing my mom to overhear this conversation. Honestly, I didn't even want to have this conversation now, but this might be my only chance to get answers.

"Who are you?" I started.

He took a moment of just staring at me before answering. "Phillip Turner."

Okay. I got a name, not that that helped at all. "What are you doing here?"

Again, he hesitated before speaking. "I came for you. We all came for you."

"Why?" I hated that my voice shook a bit with that word. "Did Death send you?"

"He's mad, Dylan Fletcher. Very, very mad."

With that, the ghost disappeared from my bedroom, leaving me with chills running down my spine. I had a feeling Death was angry, but to hear that he actually was mad at me was a completely different story. I didn't know what to think.

I sat on my bed dejectedly. What was I going to do? Death, the ruler of the dead, was mad at me and he sent a horde of ghosts after me. Granted, it's not like they were attacking or anything, but I never know if they'll start to.

I didn't want to bother Nina with this again. And Travis would only worry even more and he didn't need that.

Looks like I'm dealing with this on my own.

Leaning over, I grabbed my laptop off the floor. While it was turning on, I pulled off my prosthetic. I wouldn't need it for this. I then settled back against my pillows with the laptop on my lap. I had a feeling this might be a long night of researching, considering I had no idea where to even start.

At some point, I heard my father slamming the front door. I didn't pay him any mind, though, too tired to really even see the words on my screen anymore. Until I saw something I had forgotten about.

D. H. R. The author of that random book I found in the bookstore the other day. It felt like weeks had gone by, not just a few days.

But seeing that name, I was suddenly wide awake, clicking on the guy's personal website. I don't know how I managed to miss it before, but I was glad I could find this now. This could lead to all the answers I've been looking for.

I spent the next couple of hours reading every article on the website. The more I read, the more I was convinced this guy had been to the ghost realm. He described Death exactly as I saw him, which isn't something I saw anywhere else - not with this much detail anyway.

Eventually, I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore. It was getting to be the early hours of the morning, which was way later than I had planned to go to bed, but I was hoping what I found would be worth it.

With a tired sigh, I closed my laptop and placed it on the floor next to my bed. I would deal with the rest of that in the morning. Right now, I really needed sleep. So that's exactly what I did.