Page 137 of All Our Secrets

But King wasn’t going to let me possess him. Everything good inside me was unraveling. My ghostly figure rippled as an unhinged rage engulfed me.

“I won’t watch Peyton love you!” I yelled, inches from his face. From the corner of my eye, I saw the pot sitting on the stove. “It’s bad enough you got her pregnant.”

The cabinets rattled as they opened and shut. King glanced around at his paranormal kitchen. “Calm the fuck down. Are you going to let your anger get the best of you again?”

That was the last thing I wanted to hear my best friend say. Because, just like when I stormed off on that bike, the anger inside me shook every molecule. I glanced at the pot again, and the object whirled through the air. Thethumpechoed through the room as it smacked into King’s head. He slipped through me and hit the floor.

As soon as his body made that eerie thud, I froze. The rage dissipated quicker than it had come. “King?” I whispered, stepping toward him.

Was his chest moving? Why did he look so… still? I dropped to the floor and watched his chest until I saw the slight rise and fall of it. If I had a breath, it would have rushed out. I hadn’t killed him, but his dark hair was coated in blood. The gash on his forehead was a nasty one. More so than the one he’d gotten crashing his bike when we were eight. He’d gotten eight stitches that day. Mom had to take him because his grandma didn’t have a car and his mom was never around. My family had done a lot for King. Because he was my friend. When I’d connected the dots between him and Peyton when they met, I didn’t want to hand her over. Just once, I’d wanted to take something from him.

But why did it…

I grabbed my head and screamed.

He deserved this. He would have stolen my wife, even if I hadn’t died. But…Hospital.He needed medical attention rightnow.

I stared at him instead.

He was vulnerable. Completely defenseless. Maybe I…Hesitantly, I leaned over him, then slipped my form into him. I took control of his body immediately, but the throbbing in my temple had me wincing. Even though I was conscious inside him, I could feel his pain, and I couldn’t move. What did that mean? Everything was black. I couldn’t see or hear. Justpain.

The ache was so excruciating it pulled my spirit out of him. I gritted my teeth and kicked his leg. “King. King! Damn it, get up. I can’t help you.”

I stood and rushed toward his house phone. I called 9-1-1 and let it ring. I had no way of communicating with the woman on the other line, but I hoped she’d bring someone to the address.

Peyton.

I glanced toward an eerily still King, then at the exit. Maybe Peyton would hear me,see menow that King had finally told her about me.Yes,my wife had run from King to speak to me. That mattered. But… My hands shook even though I didn’t feel the jitter of them like I would if I had been alive. What would she say? What would she think of King bleeding out in his kitchen? What was I going to do?

_____

I made it to our home as Peyton was rushing up the front steps, carrying T.J. in his car seat. While she fumbled with her keys, I slipped through the wall to wait for her. The tears running down her cheeks kept me from speaking. I stood at the entrance so I could greet her when she entered. The door burst open, and Peyton slipped right through me, looking left, then right.

The action was sobering.

I lowered my head and sighed.She still can’t see me.

“Theodore?” Peyton called out. She rushed through the hallway, looking in every room.

So King really had told her.

“Theodore! Theodore!” She ran up the stairs and back down, still carrying our son every step of the way.

She placed the car seat down when she got back to the hallway, then dropped to her knees. Covering her eyes, she cried. “I feel so dumb. I wish I could see you. Wish I knew if you were really here, but even if you’re not… there’s something I need to tell you.”

I backed away from her. “No, Peyton.Don’t.”

“It’s something I should have said a long time ago.”

“No.” The past bubbled up my throat in the form of a hundred needles. Each one piercing me as it made its way to the surface.

Peyton shrieked when the pictures rattled on the walls. Her eyes widened and her fingers trembled as she clutched the car seat. “Oh my God. You are here, aren’t you?”

The frames stopped banging on the wall. “Yes.”

But Peyton didn’t hear me.

“I fell in love with you while waiting for King to speak up.” She lowered her head, but not before I saw more tears fall. “I married you while I wasstillwaiting for him.”

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