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

Would the forty-three ghosts that haunted me still follow me there? So many questions I didn’t have a hope of answering.

It was fanciful anyway. Oliver deserved to find some happiness in the city, if he could. He needed to forget about me and knocking on my door once a week was not going to achieve that. Hopefully my sullen attitude toward him earlier would be enough to convince him I was not worthy.

“I found her, she’s up here.” It only took one voice for them all to shuffle in and gather around me.

“Why’d you let him leave?”

“He’s such a good boy.”

“You should have been nicer, he would have stayed.”

“He said the city needs you, what was that supposed to mean?”

“Don’t you feel bad making him leave like that?”

“It’s because she’s spent so much time up here alone.”

They went on and on while everyone gave their comments. No matter what I did, no matter where I went, the ghosts followed me. There was never a moment in my life since the Event that I was truly alone.

And it drove me crazy.

I couldn’t take it anymore. All the walls in the small room were closing in on me. As my vision started fading to black, all I could see were the faces of the ghosts as they incessantly talked and stared at me.

I needed to get out of here. I made a dash for the stairs, not caring if I was about to run through any of the ghostly forms or not. I didn’t care about the shiver it would cause both of us, I just had to get out of here.

Taking the stairs two at a time, I ran through the house. I hurried as fast as my legs could take me to the back door and burst out into the fresh air.

The oxygen filtered back into my lungs, making the black spots in front of my eyes less black. They disbursed the longer I stood inhaling and exhaling like some deranged lunatic. At least I didn’t have any neighbors to watch and judge me.

When my chest wasn’t heaving anymore, I took the few steps to reach the fence. In the distance were the remains of the once vibrant city. The tall skyscrapers still jutted up over the horizon, creating a bricklike effect. Most of them were starting to fall apart from a lack of maintenance. Nobody knew how to look after them now, all that knowledge had died in the Event.

I wondered how many people still survived down there. I could have asked Oliver and he would have told me. But then he might think I cared.

And I didn’t.

Not really.

I had escaped. I had enclosed myself in the house and refused to let anyone in. I didn’t know who owned the house but I knew they wouldn’t be coming back for it. With running water – although only cold – and the electricity run by a solar-powered generator, it was sufficient to keep me alive. Food was my only problem. My dwindling supply reminded me every day.

“You know it’s not too late,” Agatha said, startling me from behind.

“Too late for what?” I asked, only because it was Agatha. I tried not to engage in conversation with the others. They could talk for hours about nothing.

“Too late to rejoin the world. There are people down there living their lives together, you could be a part of it.” She nodded toward the city and its crusty buildings.

“It’s a nice thought, but it’s not that simple.”

“You could make it that simple.”

“Things have changed too much, I’m not a part of their world anymore. Everyone I know is probably dead.” I truly believed that, too. What was the point of going into the city when it would only bring disappointment? I wouldn’t know anyone, they would all be wary of me because I was a stranger now.

“Oliver would appreciate it,” Agatha continued. “You heard what he said, they need you down there.”

“They just want to use me.”

“You don’t know that.”

Except, I did. People only stayed together long enough to use one another. That’s how the world worked now.

Agatha placed her hands on my shoulders, all I felt was the coldness emanating from her. “Just think about it, honey. You don’t have to be in any rush. But I think the sooner you go, the better.”

She left me, shooing away the audience that had started to gather. The ghosts could go anywhere, they weren’t restricted to any one place. I often encouraged – and by encouraged, I meant yelled at them – to go find someplace else to hang out. Some explored further than the yard, but they always came back. For some reason, they always came back.

It was kind of funny, the city needing my help when I couldn’t even solve my own problems. Maybe the day I finally managed to get rid of my forty-three ghosts would be the day I’d be able to turn my attention to helping others.

I went to bed early that night, exhausted from Oliver’s short visit. He always made my head hurt. I wished I could forget all about him so he wouldn’t haunt my thoughts when I least wanted him to.

Back before the Event, we used to hang out all the time. He lived across the street from me so we would walk to school together. He would drop me off at the gate to my private girls’ school before heading down the next block to his own private boys’ school. We repeated the process in reverse after school.

He was always waiting for me.

Without fail.

We spent so much time together, people always assumed we were a couple.

We weren’t.

Oliver and I were just… what we were. Friends. Buddies. Partners in crime. Whatever you wanted to call it, that’s what