Page 22 of Haunting Phantom
Phantom sits up a little straighter. “And where would that be? Because as far as I know, wherever I go, Eve follows.”
Autumn blushes. “Well, my apartment’s been thoroughly saged. She can’t enter my apartment unless I invite her. So, how about I make you dinner tomorrow night? I make a yummy vegetarian lasagna.”
“Vegetarian?” Blake asks, looking suddenly sick.
She laughs. “Yeah, I try not to eat meat as much as possible.
“You would be a leaf eater.”My eyes roll before I can stop them.
“I can make something else if you’re not up for the challenge. I promise I’ll make it worth the visit.”
Phantom pauses for a few seconds, then grins. “Okay, it’s been a while since a woman has cooked me a nice home-cooked meal. I’d like that.”
“Well, I don’t. I refuse to let you go over to her house, Blakey. Nuh uh. Not happening!”
But Autumn knows something about me that Blake doesn’t. The further away he takes me from the clubhouse, the weaker I get. She knows the second we leave on his bike; there’s nothing I can do to stop it.
And I don’t know what infuriates me more...
The fact that she knows how to weaken me, or the knowledge that she’s already starting to weaken him?
Chapter Nine
Ugh, there’s too many plants in her house.
What is this shit?
The Mushroom Kingdom?
Everywhere you look in Autumn’s apartment, something flora or fauna hangs. Sprigs of sage hang over each window and doorway. There’s a huge mushroom rug on the ground and a mushroom shaped coffee table sitting on top of it. If I could smell, I’d probably be hit with an overabundance of essence, sage, and pot smoke. She looks like the type. Earthy. Laid back. In touch with her feelings. Then there’s the white furniture. White upon white upon white. I guess it looks good with the plants hanging everywhere, but still, it’s too much white for my liking. It looks like an angel threw up in here.
“Nice place,” Phantom comments, hovering just outside the doorway.
“It’s okay, Phantom, you can come in.”
He cautiously strolls in, and I obediently follow, only to be stopped by some invisible force that won’t let me go past the doorway.
“What the fuck?”
“Sorry, Eve, you’re not invited,” she shouts, her words turning into arrows of war.
“Oh yeah, bitch? Watch me! I’m tethered to him, where he goes, I go!”
But the barrier keeps me out, and my ghostly hands bang on it like I’m shut out in the rain.
A weird-looking dude appears from the shadows, standing there just outside her door, looking at her apartment with longing.“You can’t get in, sweetheart. I’ve tried.”
“Yeah? And who the heck are you?”
He smiles, his age showing by how many teeth are missing from his mouth.“They call me Angus. I used to be the maintenance man here.”
“And what happened? Death by a ladder? Hammering gone wrong?”I roll my eyes, my annoyance rising the longer I stand outside her doorway.
“Heart attack, actually. It was Autumn who found me in the courtyard and called for help. It was too late though, I’d been sitting out there for far too long.”
Part of me feels bad for the guy, the other part of me couldn't care less.“Sucks to be you, I guess.”
He frowns.“You aren’t very friendly, are you?”
