Page 46 of Ghosts of Halloween

I stay down at his feet. My eyes blur with tears, and I can’t see him anymore.

For a beautiful, glittery moment, I thought I’d see my brother. And now, it’s like I lost him all over again.

Through the painful, broken howl rising in my throat, I hear Jack cursing Silas. “Can’t you fucking let this go, you asshole?”

“Not until it’s over.” Silas’s voice is cold when he answers.

And then, I don’t hear anything more, because my grief takes me under. I wail and shake, and Jack holds me, stroking my hair, his hands gentle. He shushes me, and then I’m in his lap, and we rock together, and I still can’t stop.

No matter how much time passes, the loss of Noah will never stop hurting. He was my only person in the world. The only one who truly gave a shit about me. Not Harlow, the armless girl, not Harlow, the slut… But me.

And he’s gone, and for some reason, these three came back, but he didn’t.

I hate myself for it, but I would trade them all, even Jack, for a few minutes with my brother.

The door creaks open, and another body presses close, another pair of arms filling the gaps left in Jack’s embrace. Caden is here, smelling of soap and smoke, his rough cheek at my temple.

When I try to stop, gulping deep breaths to quiet my sobbing, Silas speaks again over Jack’s and Caden’s murmuring voices.

“Do you want to know what happened that night, angel? I can give it to you first hand. You only have to ask.”

I freeze, the grief stopping in its tracks, a new focused energy filling me. Because I don’t know. Nobody knows. The shooter was never arrested, and the case was buried, dismissed as a gang shooting, the scum of the earth killing each other.

Not worth pursuing. A waste of resources.

The lack of closure, the sheer pain ofnot knowing, is sometimes worse than my grief. I know my brother’s killer walked free. Sometimes I torture myself with thoughts that I might even see him, maybe even greet him, completely unaware.

As I walk through town, I look at people’s faces, trying to reach deep into their souls to see the hidden truth.

Are you the one who killed my brother? Are you? Are you?

I never find out.

When Jack snarls at Silas, telling him to shut up, I shake off his and Caden’s hands and reach for my dress, lying crumpled on the floor. But when it’s in my hand, Silas yanks it away with a cold laugh.

“No. If you want me to tell you, no clothes.”

I turn to him, staring without understanding, because why would Silas say that? He doesn’t want me that way. But as my vulnerable eyes meet his mocking ones, I know. He doesn’t want my naked body. He wants the power that comes from being clothed while I’m naked.

I straighten, keeping my head high, and something approving flickers in his eyes before he throws my dress on the floor and rubs his hands together, as if to flick off dirt. I track his movements, my entire being vibrating with the need toknow.

“What exactly are you planning?” Jack asks, his voice colder and more menacing than I ever heard. I flinch, glancing at him, and he looks furious. Anger comes off him in dark, chilling waves, the air crackling with something unnatural and vicious. I have an urge to move away but his hand lands on my shoulder blade, steady and reassuring. “What will you tell her?”

“How her brother died,” Silas says, unruffled by Jack’s threatening posture. “Only this.”

In a fleeting moment of curiosity, I wonder what else is there to tell, but ultimately, it doesn’t matter. I want to hear who killed Noah. Whose fault it is that my brother is dead.

“Tell me!” I demand, hands balled into fists, my prosthetic pounding with phantom pain.

Silas grins at Jack, nods at me, and starts speaking.

27

Silas

Two years ago

We sit in the haunted house, a low fire burning in a cast-iron bowl on the ground, the smoke trailing out through an open window. Caden’s next to me, looking grumpy, and Jack paces the room. He waits for Harlow. He didn’t tell us, but I suspect he finally got the balls to say something to her. And, like the idiot he is, he just let her go, leaving the decision to her.

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