Page 76 of Chasing Your Ghost

She didn’t think anyone could see them and not be permanently scarred.

“Are you sure you’re not just dreaming?” Noah asked, and though his question was indelicate, his tone was surprisingly concerned.

Ella let out a humorless chuckle. “I’m sure. I called the police and gave them an anonymous tip after a bad dream a few years ago, and according to the front page of the next week’s newspaper, I’d helped them catch a murderer.”

“Holy shit,” Riley murmured.

Ella nodded. “Yeah. After that, I made sure to call them from a payphone or a burner phone any time I saw something.”

“Okay, Jason Bourne,” Noah said under his breath. He sounded impressed, and Riley had to agree.

She’d also left a few anonymous tips when ghosts had given her information about their killers, but she couldn’t imagine actually seeing the crimes being committed. Hearing the stories was awful enough. Seeing them firsthand was something else.

“Wait. Is this what Asher was always coming here to help you with?” she asked. It would make sense that the thing always dragging him away from Noah and Chris at odd times was Ella’s ability.

The corners of Ella’s lips tightened. “Sort of. He didn’t know what I could do. Nobody does, not even my parents. He just thought I had bad night terrors.”

“So he came here the night he went missing because you saw something bad?” Noah asked, again with a surprising lack of anger.

“I don’t need you to remind me it’s my fault,” Ella bit out, and Riley didn’t blame her for thinking Noah had been attacking her yet again. “We get it. He was out late that night because of me.”

“That’s not…” Noah let his words trail off. “What did you mean earlier when you said you could sense Asher?” he asked instead.

“Like I said, I can’t control my dreamwalking, but it seems I do have some power over where I go. I’ve been able to draw myself to certain people or places before if there’s something in my subconscious wanting me to go there. Obviously, finding Asher has been on my mind since he went missing, but the problem is that I either end up in places he isn’t, or it’s like there’s something blocking my way of getting to him.”

“What does that mean?” Riley asked.

Ella sighed. “It means that half the time I end up here or at Asher’s house or one of his friend’s houses, and other times it’s like I hit a wall and can’t go anywhere.” She gestured to the pile of pages she’d gathered into a stack. “I’ve been writing notes, recording all the places I’ve appeared in and anything else I think might be useful, but so far, I haven’t found anything helpful.”

“Wait,” Riley said, the wheels in her mind turning furiously. “Asher has been visiting his parents and you guys, which means he’s been visiting the places you get taken to in your dreams.”

Ella sat up straighter, her tired eyes lighting up in understanding. “Of course! I just couldn’t see him because his physical body wasn’t there. His ghost or spirit is just on a plane that I can’t see.” Her head moved up and down excitedly as pieces began clicking into place. “And the times when I hit that wall must be when he’s in that place he gets dragged to.”

Riley nodded slowly. It made sense. “Wherever he gets taken to, it’s somewhere you can’t go.”

She’d gone to Ella’s house with low expectations, but nothing about this conversation had gone as she’d expected, except for Chris’s disbelief, of course. Riley had expected to leave with stooped shoulders and Chris and Ella’s disgusted rebukes ringing in her ears, but now she could be leaving with answers.

“Where was he last night?” she asked Ella, hope rising dangerously in her chest. “Could you still sense him?”

“I didn’t dreamwalk last night,” the woman replied, her voice laden with apology.

Riley’s shoulders dropped. If Ella had followed his trail to his parents’ house or elsewhere, she could have breathed easier knowing he hadn’t tried to leave.

“Dreamwalking isn’t like normal sleep. I wake up from it feeling like I’ve barely slept at all. Most of the time, if I have something playing on my mind, I can do it for days in a row.” She sighed. “In the beginning, I was doing it twice a day. But there’s a limit. Before last night, I’d been doing it every night for nine days straight, so my body needs some rest before I can do it again.”

If that were the case, it was no wonder Ella looked like she hadn’t slept in days—she’d been sleeping plenty, but it hadn’t been restorative sleep. It also explained why she hadn’t been helping with the search parties: she had been conducting her own search for Asher—one that Noah and Chris had no way of knowing about.

“You guys aren’t joking, are you?” Chris asked, his voice a quiet whisper that seemed to float across the living room and settle over the group like a somber mist.

“No,” Riley replied with a strained smile. “We’re not joking.”

He jerked his head from side to side. “It’s impossible. What you’re talking about is impossible.”

She nodded. “And yet it’s true. Trust me, most of the time, I wish I wasn’t able to see what I see, but it’s real, and Asher needs my help—our help.”

“How long does it usually take before you can do it again?” Noah asked Ella, getting the conversation back on track.

She tilted her head in thought. “Sometimes only one or two nights. Sometimes longer. There’s no way to know for sure.”

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