Page 51 of Ghostlighted
“Yes. Exactly.”
I held up my keys while patting my pocket that held Oren’s ring. “Then I guess we’ll try it the other way.”
I wrestled the driver’s door open and got in. Before I could wrench the door closed with its usual metallic protest, Avi was sitting in the seat next to me.
“That was quick.” I punched the garage door opener on my visor and started the engine, which only sputtered once or twice before it caught.
He just shrugged. “I guess I needed the ring’s presence to induct the car into thedomain.”
“That term really bothers you, doesn’t it?”
“It reeks of toxic privilege.”
After the door trundled up, I backed the car out, making sure the door rolled down behind us before I headed down the short drive and onto Iris Lane. “Really? To me, it reeks of medieval cosplay or internet branding and annual payments to a web host, but whatever.”
“Mmm.”
Even without his noncommittal reply, I could tell he wasn’t paying attention to me. Instead, he was leaning forward, gazing avidly through the windows as Main Street unrolled in front of us.
Now, don’t get me wrong, Ghost’s Main Street is totally charming, but Avi was looking at it as if… as if…
As if he hadn’t seen it in more than ten years.
I kept any snarky judgmental comments locked behind my teeth and let up on the gas, slowing down to fifteen miles an hour. Yes, it was ten MPH slower than the limit, and if my dad had been driving behind me, he’d be turning the air blue, but there was no traffic this morning, so I wasn’t inconveniencing anybody.
And even if I was? I didn’t really care. Avi’s experience was more important.
“You okay?” I asked.
Avi took a shaky breath, his hands clutching his knees. “It’s lighting up so many memories.” He gestured toward the window. “Now that I see it, I can tell that a couple of stores are missing. One restaurant. And the knitting shop and occult supply are merged. But it looks… cared for. Not derelict at all.”
“I’m pretty sure that the Ghost townies wouldn’t allow that to happen. They love this town and they’re all really proud of it.”
He glanced at me with a crooked smile. “Don’t you meanwelove this town andwe’rereally proud of it?”
I laughed softly. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess I do.”
An awkward silence descended as I turned onto Violet Road and drove along the Manor’s fence. To break it, I asked, “Did you visit the Manor much when you were a kid?”
He nodded. “It was a regular school field trip for third and sixth graders before they closed the elementary school and shipped everyone to Richdale. Ricky and Taryn and their age group got the third grade trip, but not the sixth.”
“Did you visit outside those trips?”
“I worked there as a junior docent for a little while when I was a high school sophomore, but even then, tourism had started to drop off, so my summer job ended up being only two days a week and ended in the middle of August.” He shrugged. “After that? I don’t think I ever went back.” He snorted. “I probably thought I knew everything there was to know about the place, so why bother? It’s not as though there were any actualghoststhere.”
“Teenage disdain. It’s a hard bar to clear.” I slowed as we neared the main entrance, where theClosedsign was still posted inside the open gates. “But that’ll change today. Because as of today, therewillbe an actual ghost there.” I pulled into the drive, easing over the speed bump between gateposts.
“I guess you’re right. I wonder if—” Avi gasped and leaned back until he was halfway inside the seat. “Maz. Stop. Stop the car. Stop!”
I slammed on the brakes, glad that there was nobody behind me. “What is it?”
“I… I can’t. I have to leave. Now.”
I threw the car into reverse and backed up. Once we were clear of the grounds, Avi let out a shaky breath and bent nearly double, his arms wrapped across his stomach.
“Avi? What’s wrong? Are you okay? Does something about the Manor frighten you?”
“It doesn’t frighten me.” He turned his head to peer up at me and I recoiled, bonking my head against the window. I’d never seen that look on Avi’s face before, not even when he’d found out what Carson had done to him.
