Page 2 of Chasing Ghosts
I nod my head and hold my hand out for him to take, but he doesn’t shake it.
“Cori Moore wasn’t supposed to be…”
“A woman?” I finish for him. Maybe he has a problem with that.
“So young.”
Oh. I never realized my age would be an issue.
“I’m twenty.” Maybe he thinks I lied about my degree or that I’ve not had enough experience. “I interned with…”
“I read your resume.”
“Clearly not well enough since I’m sure Cori wrote her age down.” Roxie arches her brow and puts her hand on her hip like she might be about to go to bat for me.
“Roxie…!” The last thing I want is to get us both fired.
“Hmm,” is all he says as he moves on. Leaving me with a lot of uncertainty.
Roxie stares after him. “I wonder what crawled up his ass and laid eggs.”
“Roxie!”
“He’s not usually so…bitchy. Maybe he’s had enough because Riley pissed him off.”
“Maybe.”
Or maybe he just doesn’t like me, and this whole sweet gig is going to be over before it even begins. Maybe, just maybe, that might be a blessing in disguise, given where we are going.
Chapter Two
Cori
Isit and think about the reaction I got from Mac Temple this evening and brood a little bit. I shouldn’t let it get to me. Either I have the job or I don’t. If I don’t, I’ll go back to the museum and find another show to work on eventually. So, why does it seem like this one is where I’m supposed to be? I was so sure I would find what I was searching for with these people.
I drag the brush through my hair and try to think of something other than dark blue eyes sparkling with mischief…except when he looks at me. And I’m back to wondering what the fuck I did to him again. I drop the brush and go to pull the covers back on the dinky little twin bed I’ve had since I was twelve. We’re supposed to be at the dock ready to go tomorrow at eleven. I guess if he wants to fire me, he’ll do it before I'm on the boat.
As nervous as I am about tomorrow, I somehow fall asleep easily but not peacefully. I keep having dreams of the island. Isle of Death. That’s what people call it. I end up running through sand and water, trying to outrun something that makes my heart pound uncontrollably, the sense of flight clogging my throat. I jerk awake, feeling like I can’t get enough air in my lungs and sweating through my nightgown. But even with my eyes wide open, the terror doesn’t end.
Standing at the end of my bed is the image of a woman wearing a white gown with long brown hair that looks a little like me, only with paler skin and a look of…death hanging around her. I scrunch up at the head of my bed to give myself some space from the thing at my bed. I realize this isn’t someone who just decided to break into my apartment because there’s a light coming from her that fills the dark room with an eerie glow like none other.
She opens her mouth, but nothing comes out.
“What…what do you want?”
“Don’t go! Don’t go! Don’t go!”
She repeats it over and over until she starts rushing towards me, causing me to squeeze my eyes shut tight and pray that it will be gone when I open them again. I can feel the blast of cold air hit me when she would have finally closed the distance, but when I open my eyes, the room is empty and the unearthly light gone. It's just me and my thudding heart.
I slide across my bed and, with shaky fingers, turn on the light on my bedside table. I take my first full breath since before I woke up and try to calm myself. It will be no easy task to go back to bed anytime soon because I recognized the person who showed up at the bottom of my bed tonight.
It was my dead aunt. And she was warning me not to go to the island I was just having a nightmare about.
Well, shit!
Chapter Three
Mac
