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

was no hesitation as I opened the gate and went inside. I was home again. I had yearned for this moment and it was exactly what I needed. I should never have stepped outside of the property in the first place. Oliver was proof of that.

The front door wasn’t locked, it didn’t need to be. If anyone dared to cross the threshold, they would have felt the full force of the forty-three spirits that called it their permanent resting place.

I closed the door and leaned against the cool wood for support. For a moment, there was nothing but silence and the sharp intake of my breath. It was like the world stopped for just that moment so I could catch up.

It didn’t last long.

“She’s back.”

“She’s injured. What’s happened to her leg?”

“It looks like she’s been in a fire.”

“Did she burn something down?”

“Why would she do that? It had to be someone else.”

“Maybe she’s changed. She’s been gone for a long time. We don’t know her anymore.”

“Nobody changes that much.”

“It’s only been a few days.”

“More than a week.”

I closed my eyes, trying to drown them out. It was comforting hearing those same voices, the ones I had heard chatter about nothing for almost a year. On the other hand, they were also a stark reminder about why I had left in the first place.

But I hadn’t left because they annoyed me. Even though they did.

I had left for Oliver.

I thought he was hurt, I worried about him being in the city alone, without a friend. A laugh escaped my lips, despite the horrible feeling growing in my gut.

My fears had been right. He wasn’t safe in the city. Oliver had died. Without me. Without anyone. He was all alone when he perished without his best friend. I didn’t know how I was going to live with that guilt.

“Ah, it’s the boy.”

“What boy?”

“The one who used to visit all the time.”

“Oh, the one she wouldn’t let in?”

“That’s him.”

“Everly…” Oliver said. He was here. I would recognize that voice anywhere.

My eyes flew open and I saw him straight away. He was standing in front of me, the other spirits giving him some space. He looked just as sad as he did when I left him outside the factory.

I took a breath as I tried to steady my voice. I needed to say some things to him and I couldn’t do it if I was in a puddle on the floor. Now was the time to be brave or I would regret it for the rest of my life.

“Oliver,” I started, finding my voice not too terrible after all. “You lied to me.”

“I didn’t know how to tell you.”

“It was going to hurt no matter what you said. I deserved to know. You let me fall-” I cut myself off, unable to finish. He let me fall in love with him, knowing full well I could never have him.

The image of our almost-kiss flashed in my head. Now I understood why he had pulled away so suddenly. He knew my lips would go straight through him. All I would have felt was coldness as I passed through his spirit. He didn’t want to give his lie away.

I should have been able to work it out sooner. A part of me knew I was also to blame for being kept in the dark. I never considered he was no longer with the living. I had fooled myself despite what my eyes had seen.

He never touched anything. I never saw Oliver eat. He hadn’t been beaten up by the guys in the alley. He disappeared and reappeared on a daily basis. He had gone unseen by Jet’s gang when they tied me up the first time and he helped me escape.

There were no spirits in the underground and Oliver knew that. He hadn’t insisted on coming down to see Jet with me. I thought he was helping me. But he was really concealing his secret. I had let him get away with it.

All the clues were there.

I was just too blind to see it.

“I didn’t want to hurt you. The thought of having to tell you… it was making me ache,” Oliver said.

I wanted to stay angry with him. I desperately wanted to hold onto the rage that had helped me run all the way to my house on the hill. If I could just hold onto that, the pain and hurt couldn’t take over.

But I couldn’t.

Oliver was dead. I could never bring him back. He would never get to live the life he deserved. That opportunity was taken away from him. Too soon. Far, far too soon.

“How did it happen?” I asked quietly. I was still holding onto the door behind me, using it for support. I swear, it was the only thing stopping me sinking to the floor and curling up into the fetal position.

“I was walking back from the shelter one night, I’d just helped them close up, and I was attacked. Two guys jumped me, I didn’t even see it coming.”

“They killed you?”

He nodded and it was so like the Oliver I had known my entire life that I almost lost my composure. “One guy held me down and the other… he hit me. Hard. My head hit the concrete and I was gone.”

“Did you see who they were? Have you seen them again?” I hated them. Whoever they were, I wanted to hunt them down and hurt them just as badly as they hurt Oliver.

I wanted them dead.

“I haven’t seen them since.” He took a cautious step closer to me, like I was an illusion that might vanish at any moment. It was hard to believe this was my best friend, the one I had shared