Awake at Dawn (Shadow Falls #2)(100)

"I thought maybe I could take you girls to lunch," he said.

Her mom took a step back. "I ... I should have known you'd want to see her." She waved a hand toward the door. "You two go."

"Why don't you come, too?" her dad insisted.

"I think not," her mom countered.

"Kylie wants you to come." His father's gaze shot to her. "Don't you, Pumpkin? Like ol' times, the three of us."

Her mother frowned. Kylie frowned. Her dad grew more nervous. The tension in the room grew terse.

Her mom notched up her chin. "Why not make it four? Your whore can come, too."

"Oh! This is a bad time, isn't it?" Trey's voice came right behind her dad.

Kylie's mom shot up the stairs. Her dad looked stunned. Trey looked embarrassed.

Then her dad frowned at Kylie. "Didn't you tell her it was over?"

Had she heard him right? "Huh?"

"You didn't tell her that it was over with Amy?"

"Should I leave?" Trey asked.

"Yes," her dad answered.

Kylie's head reeled. She watched Trey go. She heard her mom crying. Kylie stared at her dad-stepdad. The idea that he'd actually attempted to use her to get her mom gnawed on some very raw nerves. The fact that he'd expected her to update her mom about his relationship status pretty much nuked those nerves.

She pointed at her dad. "Don't you ever try to use me to get to my mom!"

"I thought-"

"Then stop thinking!" She slammed the door. The house shook. The small glass window in the doorframe shattered. She saw her dad's startled expression through the broken window before he took off. She breathed in.

She breathed out.

Then she took the stairs two at a time to check on her mom.

It took Kylie an hour to convince her mom to go out for pizza again.

She'd tried calling Trey hoping to see what was so important that the ghost had sent his message to everyone in the room, but she got no answer. They were in the middle of lunch at the pizza parlor, still not back to their prior jovial mood, when her phone started croaking.

"Oh, honey," her mom said. "Change that ringtone." She hugged herself and called out to the waiter, "Can you turn down the air?"

Kylie grabbed her cell. There was no call, but an old voice message played.

"Hi, Kylie. It's Sara. I'm sorry I had to hang up like that. I ... had something I had to take care of. Listen, I really want to see you when you're home. Please make sure to call me?"

"Who was it?" her mom asked, then lowered her voice. "Your dad?"

"No. A message from Sara."

Kylie stared at her pizza and got the strangest feeling. "Mom, would you mind if I went to see Sara after lunch?"

"Hi, Kylie," Mrs. Jetton said an hour later. "Sara will be thrilled to see you."

Kylie studied Sara's mom's expression. Her eyes looked red and her face pale. The somber mood filling the air ratcheted up Kylie's concern for her former best friend.

"She's in her room," Mrs. Jetton said.

Kylie almost asked what was wrong, but the chill running down her spine prevented her from talking. That short walk from the living room to Sara's door filled Kylie's head with dozens of memories. And for some odd reason, those memories brought tears to her eyes.

"You have to save her. You have to save her." The ghost's words vibrated in Kylie's head. She swallowed and told herself she was overreacting, that everything was fine.

Sara's door stood ajar and when Kylie saw Sara, Kylie gasped. Sara looked ... awful. So pale that Kylie watched her chest to make sure she was breathing.

Sara opened her eyes. "She told you, didn't she?"

Kylie used both hands to wipe the tears from her cheeks. "Told me what?"

"What the doctor ... If she didn't ... why are you crying?"

"Happy to see you." She tried to smile.

"You always were a lousy liar." Sara pulled the covers up. "Mom, can you please turn down the air? I'm freezing in here."

"Honey, I already did," her mom called from the living room. "I phoned the electrician. Something's wrong with the AC again."

A photo album on Sara's bedside table plopped to the floor.

Kylie picked it up. She wasn't surprised when she saw the face staring up from the album. Then she looked at the foot of Sara's bed at the same spirit of the woman. She'd lost the spaghetti and the bloodstained gown, but her expression was just as dire as before.

"Who is this?" Kylie passed her finger over the face. Sara leaned over to see. It appeared to hurt her to move. "My grandma. She died when I was four. Of the same kind of cancer. Isn't that freaky?"

Cancer. The word brought another gasp to Kylie's lungs and she had to work to keep her lips from trembling. She looked at the spirit. "I can't fix this."

"Yes, you can!"

"Can't fix what?" Sara looked at the album as if Kylie had broken something.

"Nothing." Kylie sat down beside Sara. The memories of them on this bed, sharing secrets, laughing at the stupidest things, filled Kylie's head.

She swallowed emotions that threatened to overpower her. "Do you remember when we laid here and practiced kissing mirrors before the sixth-grade dance?"