All The Pretty Ghosts (The Never Series Book 1) by Jamie Campbell (my miracle luna book free read .TXT) 📕

me go. I made a beeline straight for the road out of the city, it couldn’t come fast enough.

After getting past the hall, the amount of people milling about grew less and less the further I walked. I looked forward to the time when they disappeared all together, I could feel their eyes drilling into me.

I purposely didn’t look because I knew I would see the dead as well as the living. I didn’t want to see the haunted faces, I had enough of them back home to deal with when I returned. They could find their own person to torment, I was full up.

A flurry on the sidewalk caught my attention before I could stop myself looking. I saw the face of a young girl, just a child. It wasn’t Lilia but she did look familiar.

Faith.

I only caught a glimpse of her before she slipped between two buildings. It had to be her, it just had to be. I changed direction to follow the shadow, hurrying as fast as my legs and the box would let me.

The alleyway she had entered was empty, I went right through it. At the end I could go left or right. The small figure was in the distance to the right so I went that way.

“Faith,” I called out, trying to get her attention. She didn’t stop or show any signs of hearing me. I kept trying anyway, desperate to have her acknowledge me.

I willed my legs to go faster. There was no way I could let Faith go, not after I had lost her so long ago. Not a day had gone by when I didn’t think of her, miss her, grieve for her. If there was the slightest chance I could find the girl, I had to take it. I would walk to the ends of the earth for that little thing.

She ducked around another corner and I followed. The gap between us was narrowing, it wouldn’t be too long before she would be able to hear me. I would yell as loudly as I possibly could to get her to listen.

I would scream if I had to.

Another corner.

She was in my grasp, if I could just go that bit faster, I would be able to catch up with her. But no matter how many times I called her name, she kept moving.

“Faith, please stop,” I begged, but I didn’t slow down. I couldn’t. If I found my sister, nothing in the world would matter anymore. We could leave the city for good, go deep into the woods where nobody could find us. It would just be the two of us, with no ghosts or people to hurt us. They wouldn’t be able to touch us anymore.

Maybe Oliver would come with us.

I turned another corner, certain this would be the one where I would catch her. We would embrace and cry and laugh, all because we found each other.

It would happen.

It would really happen.

I took the corner eagerly, my lungs burning from exhaustion. A lack of food, sleep, and sanity had worn my body out until I was barely more than skin and bones. I wasn’t equipped to run like this, not anymore.

One more corner and I found myself staring at a brick wall. It was a dead end, completely void of a door. I was surrounded by nothing but three red walls, covered in colorful graffiti.

I spun around, searching for my sister. She had vanished into thin air like a ghost.

Like a ghost.

I shivered with the thought. I didn’t want my sister to be a ghost. For the past year I had been holding onto the hope she was okay and safe, just lost from me. Sometimes that thought was the only thing that got me through an entire day of otherwise hopelessness.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement again. Every cell in my body screamed at me not to look but I did anyway, for the tiny chance it still could be Faith.

The ghost and I made eye contact.

It was only for a split second, but it was enough for her to know that I saw her. She was a woman, probably close to fifty years old. She rushed at me with the speed of a train, stopping with just an inch between us.

“You’re a seer,” she said, both hopeful and sad at the same time.

“Go away,” I urged her. I would have crawled down on my hands and knees and begged her if I thought that would have worked.

It wouldn’t have.

It never did.

“She can see us. Come quickly!” the woman shrieked. I braced myself because I knew what was coming. It wouldn’t just be an empty dead end at the back of an alleyway anymore. It would be hell.

In less time than it took to click her finger, I was surrounded. All of them were adults and all of them were dead. Men and women alike swarmed on me.

“She can really see us?”

“Marybeth, are you sure?”

“But nobody can see us.”

“That’s because we’re dead, stupid.”

“If we were dead, she wouldn’t be able to see us now.”

“We’re dead, when are you going to get that into your thick skull? Huh?”

“Tell her about the pain.”

“And how much it hurts.”

“I don’t need to interpret, she can hear all of us.”

I clasped my hands over my ears, desperate to drown them out. It was bad enough listening to the voices I had become accustomed to. These strangers didn’t understand how much they hurt me. I was just a vessel for them, a link to a world they could no longer be a part of.

I stepped backwards, trying to get away from them. My eyes were squeezed tight as I wished they would go away. Perhaps if I tried