Page 59 of Chasing Your Ghost

Riley managed a smile. “Cool. See you guys later then.”

She got out and closed the door behind her, waving them off before entering the house. There was no package waiting outside the front door, and she hadn’t received a notification to say the books had been delivered, but Riley still popped into the garage to ask Hugh if anything had arrived.

“Okay, thanks anyway,” she sighed after he’d told her nothing had come.

“Are Noah and Chris here?” Hugh asked, his attention divided between her and the table he was varnishing.

“No, but they said they’ll be back for dinner.”

“Good. I wasn’t sure if they’d remembered.”

“They did,” she said, stepping back into the kitchen. “I need to go eat something and shower, so I’ll leave you to it.”

“If you feel like helping, I wouldn’t mind a hand,” he said before she could close the door.

“Um.” Riley wrung her hands together nervously. “Actually, I have some stuff to sort out. I wanted to finish unpacking my room today.”

It was a lie, of course, not because she’d already finished unpacking—she still hadn’t even started, in fact—but because that wasn’t what she was going to be busy doing.

“Oh, okay,” Hugh replied, his smile wilting slightly with disappointment.

Riley shut the door, wishing more than anything that she could march back in there and pick up a paintbrush to help him. But she couldn’t, and she didn’t, because she had something more important to do.

???

“This is useless,” Asher snarled a few hours later when Riley closed her laptop after yet another failed day of research. He was pacing up and down her bedroom, the movement only seeming to make him less calm. “We’re never going to find anything.”

Riley hated that he was right. She’d been working non-stop to find even a mention of anything similar to what he’d been experiencing, but there was nothing. The internet was filled with articles and discussion groups about the supernatural, but almost all of it was utter nonsense.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured.

Asher shouted a swear and tried to punch the wall, only getting angrier when his fist went through it without resistance. “Goddammit,” he yelled, taking his rage out by pulling at his hair instead. “This is a waste of time.”

Even though he’d still been coming to grips with something terrible, he’d somehow managed to keep positive for the most part. Until now, apparently.

Riley understood his anger, she really did, but she hated being around people when they got like this. She remained silent as he continued to curse and yell. She knew from her experience with discontented ghosts that saying anything right then would likely only end with his anger being directed at her, and she didn’t think she could handle that. Not from Asher.

“I’ve been thinking,” he said as he paced. “What if you told my parents and friends that I’m dead? They could stop looking for me, and maybe once they accept I’m gone, it will be easier for me to accept it too.”

“Asher, I can’t,” she was quick to say. “What would I tell them? I know the police haven’t found a body, and yes, I only arrived in Virginia after he went missing, and no, I never met him when he was alive, but I’m telling you, he’s dead. What do I say when they ask me how I know that?”

“You could tell them the truth.”

Riley closed her eyes and let out a heavy breath. “They’ll never believe me. You know they wouldn’t.” Nobody ever did, and the last time she’d been dumb enough to try something like that, a grieving wife had slapped her across the face, thinking she was making some kind of sick joke.

“Maybe we could make them believe,” Asher argued. “I can tell you things only they’d know. They’d have to listen then.”

Riley shook her head and looked down at her hands. “I’ve tried that before, Asher. It doesn’t work,” she told him, inserting more steel into her voice. “Your parents and Ella will think I’m some psycho who enjoys tormenting people, and Noah and Chris would probably never speak to me again. They won’t believe me, and all we’ll accomplish is making them angry.”

“What if the police never find my body?” he snapped. “Are they supposed to live like this for the rest of their lives, always hoping I’m alive but suffering for it and never being able to move on properly? Never getting closure?”

“I don’t know,” Riley replied, unable to keep the frustration out of her voice either. “But I’m not going to put them through more pain when I know they’ll never believe me.”

Asher turned away from her suddenly and began walking away.

“Where are you going?” she asked, getting to her feet as well.

He kept walking to the door. “I just need some space.”

---