Chapter Seven
Just as I had feared, the ghost people followed us into the night, calling out to me- making me trip. “Come on, Crazy, quit falling over your own feet.”
I didn’t waste any energy yelling back at Toby. It wouldn’t have done me any good anyways. The ground grew more uneven as I ran, sticks and rocks littering the path where my feet hit.
The backs of my legs and my lungs started to burn after a while, proving just how out of shape I really was. The lack of proper nutrition didn’t help either. I quickly fell behind Toby’s lead. “Wait,” I gasped.
Whether he heard me or not didn’t affect his speed. Most of the time as I ran, I couldn’t see Toby. He was too far ahead. I could only hope I was heading in the right direction. Trusting Toby didn’t come naturally, but I didn’t have much choice; I didn’t even know which state we were in.
A large root sprang out of the earth, invisible to me until I was sprawled out beside it. “Oph!”
“What are you doing?” Toby almost screamed at me.
“I fell,” I panted.
“Get up.”
“Just give me a minute to breathe.”
“Come on,” Toby ordered loudly. “We can’t stop here.”
“I know,” I snapped back. “I just need to breath for a minute. I don’t have the luxury of ghost lungs like you do. Mine need oxygen.”
“I guess I should feel sorry for you, right?” he snarled. “Being locked away in a mental hospital hasn’t exactly kept you in shape.”
I rolled my eyes, pursing my lips angrily. “You’re such a jerk,” I muttered.
“I can’t tell you how much you’re hurting my feelings,” he clutched his chest sarcastically. “Now let’s move it, Chubs!”
I really hated Toby. Couldn’t he see how hard I was trying? “My mental health is fragile,” I reminded him. “Don’t push me.”
“Ha,” he snorted unattractively. “If I don’t push you, we’ll just be sitting still all night. You’re terrible at escaping.”
“Ugh,” A rumbling noise came from my throat at his words. “So sorry to disappoint you. This is my first time.”
“Do you have to make it so damn obvious?”
“I’ll try,” I snapped, raising back up to my feet.
“Not worth the trouble,” he muttered under his breath. “Not worth it.”
I pushed myself forward with a low grunt. I never really gave much thought to the running aspect of escaping; not that I’d been able to think about any of it for very long. My body was becoming more alert with each step we took, but I wasn’t sure that was a good thing.
“You’ll never make it,” a man called from the dark shadows.
I couldn’t see him, but I felt his coldness. “Yes we will,” I murmured without much conviction.
“You might as well just give up.”
“Who do you think you’re fooling anyways?” Another voice chimed in.
I twisted my body to match the female voice with a face, but Toby blocked my view. “Ignore them.”
“Easy for you to say.”
“There is nothing we can do about the Cursed. They will always know where you are and be able to follow.”
I peeked over my shoulder as I followed Toby deeper into the darkness. I was putting an awful lot of trust in Toby. He was one of the Cursed, too; even if that was an easy thing to forget.
“Come on, Crazy,” he called out impatiently. “We’re not just on a midnight stroll here, we’re running for your life.”
“How do I know you’re not with them?” I called back. I had fallen behind him a few feet.
“If I wanted you dead, I would have just left you at the hospital.”
“What’s in this for you? It’s not like you actually care if I live or die.”
“It really hurts my feelings that you doubt my affection for you.” He jumped over a rocky patch of ground. “Watch your step here.”
I didn’t attempt the same jump. The fact that he was a ghost probably aided in his balance. I wasn’t exactly clumsy, but I was only human. Despite my careful picking, I fell forward and was forced to catch myself with my hands before my face smashed into the rocks.
“Can’t you do anything right?” Toby growled at the same time another ghost called:
“You can’t do anything right! Look at you trying to walk!”
He shook his head, his expression hardening angrily. “Don’t even say it,” he warned, holding his hand out to help me up. He pulled it back before I could fully process the kindness behind the gesture, even if he couldn’t follow through.
“Do you have any idea where we’re going?”
“Of course I do,” he replied without hesitation. “Right there.” He pointed out to a small town that seemed to pop up out of nowhere.
“What is this place?”
“It’s called a town,” he grumbled, “You haven’t been locked away that long that you would forget what a town looks like.” He picked up his stride as the terrain started to smooth out.
“I just… didn’t know there was a town here,” I panted.
“It’s pretty small,” he admitted, “but it has what we need.”
“What do we need?” I practically had to run to keep up with him.
“Somewhere safe.”
I shrugged at the logic of his words, letting myself fall behind slightly. Toby was right, we needed somewhere safe to hide until Nona came again. I just didn’t expect it to be so close to Nine Crosses; maybe Toby knew something about this sleepy town that I didn’t.
No one woke up when we crossed the official green “town limit” sign shoved into the ground on the side of the highway. I had half expected a sheriff toting a large shotgun to stop us. Of course, he would have only seen a young girl in pink scrub pants and a plain white tee shirt walking all alone on the side of the road. Still, chances were high that he would have carted me back to Nine Crosses.
The town stayed asleep though.
Toby led me straight through the silent town to a small park with creepy black swings that swayed when we walked past. I shivered, aware suddenly of the slight chill in the air. It wouldn’t have been that big of a deal, but it was getting colder.
As Toby and I had made our way across rough roads and uneven meadows to get to the town, the ghost people had faded away until I couldn’t hear them anymore. He usually did have that affect on them. Of course, they wouldn’t stay away long.
“Here,” he stopped abruptly in front of a very large tire that jutted out of the ground on its side to form a club of sorts. I could almost see kids climbing on it and hiding inside.
“We’re… sleeping here?”
“There’s a bag inside. Get it.”
I ducked my head inside the tire and sure enough- there was a light blue backpack. “What is this?”
“Money and clothes,” he grunted. “Let’s go.”
“Wait,” I struggled to grab the pack and catch back up with Toby. “Where did you get this? How did you get this?”
If I expected an answer, I was disappointed. “You need to get off the streets.” His forehead was crinkled darkly when he looked down at me. “Stay close.”
“We’re staying here?” My forehead crinkled with my confusion. A cheap motel wasn’t exactly what I had in mind for somewhere safe. If something bad was going to happen to me, this seemed like a logical backdrop.
“Would you rather sleep on the park bench?” His eyes narrowed when he looked down at me.
“Maybe.”
Through the large dirt-speckled front window, I saw a young looking man with long greasy hair pulled back into a ponytail. The cigarette hanging from his mouth had been forgotten in favor of the magazine he was flipping through.
“I don’t want to talk to him,” I glanced up at Toby’s dark scowl.
“They’re going to know over at the hospital that you’re gone. If not tonight, then in the morning. Do you want to make it that easy for them to find you?” I shook
my head. “This is your best chance.”
So we weren’t hiding from the ghosts; we were hiding from the police. “I just don…”
“In the bag,” he cut me off, “is a red change purse. Take out eighty dollars and put it in your front pocket.”
I obediently opened the bag, not bothering with anything except for that small task. There was a lot more money than just the four twenties I would need to pay for the room and even though I was curious how Toby could get it, I had to focus.
“What if he won’t give me a room?”
“He will. Just go in there confident and tell him you want a room.” I nodded once and pulled the heavy door open.
I tucked my hair nervously behind one ear, too aware of how badly my hands shook. He would take one look at my outfit and refuse to give me a room. And then he’d call the police so they could take me back to Nine Crosses.
“Be confident,” Toby reminded me.
Carefully ignoring Toby’s presence, I approached the desk where the man was casually reading a magazine with a scantily clad woman smiling from one of the pages. My heart was pounding painfully against my rib cage.
“I…” I ran my tongue swiftly across my dry lips. “I need a room.”
His eyes roved the entire length of my body before coming back to rest on my face. “You alone?”
I nodded, swallowing past my urge to turn around and run.
“It’s eighty bucks a night.”
I nodded again and pulled the four twenties from my front pocket. I was grateful once again for Toby’s foresight. If he hadn’t known to put the exact amount in my front pocket, we could have been in trouble.
The man slid a plastic card across the counter. “Room 16. Out those doors and to the left. Bottom floor.”
“Bus schedule,” Toby hissed.
“Do you have a bus schedule?” I blurted quickly.
The man took a sheet of paper from behind the desk and placed it over the card. “Anything else you’ll be needing?” he smiled suggestively.
I shook my head quickly, scooping up the room key and bus schedule before bolting back outside.