Page 1 of A Step You Shouldn't Take

CHAPTER 1 - KIMBERLY

MY DATE WAS going well until the dead girl in the back seat started talking to me.

At least, I thought it was going well. And I thought it was a date. The guy sitting beside me at the wheel had taken on an ethereal quality, hazy, floating in and out of my field of vision like smoke on the breeze.

How much time had passed since dinner? Wehadeaten dinner, hadn’t we? I recalled a bowl of pretzels, wine, candles… But I’d gone beyond feeling full and straight to sick. Do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars, do not puke in the nice man’s car.

He smiled at me, white teeth shining eerily in the darkness, and I tried to smile back but my face had stopped working. None of my limbs felt as if they were attached to my body either. What was wrong with me?

“Are you okay, Kimberly?”

His voice echoed around the car, words coming at me in stereo. How did he know my name? Had I told him my name? What washisname? Was he a cab driver?

“Who are you?”

“We’re friends, remember?”

No, I didn’t remember, not really.

“Where…” The words stuck in my throat. “Where are we going?”

“Home, Kimberly. I’m taking you home.”

Ah, home. Home would be good. I could put on my new pyjamas, the ones with the cats on them that Annie gave me for my birthday. My birthday… Candles, lots of candles… Cake… How old was I?

“You need to get out.”

Boy, the man’s voice had gotten really high pitched. Feminine.

“You need to get outnow.”

Wait a second. Or a minute. Who knew how time worked anymore? The voice was coming from behind, not beside me, and I tried to twist around. A glimpse of pale white skin, a flash of shiny brown hair, that weird, translucent shimmer people got after they died.

Shoot. There was a ghost in the back seat. A ghost! The bane of my freaking existence.

“Just get out of the damn car!”

Was she crazy as well as dead?

“The car’s moving,” I mumbled.

The man rested a hand on my thigh. “Of course it’s moving. I’m taking you home, remember?”

Don’t talk to ghosts in front of people, Kimmy.My mom’s words echoed in my head, and I cursed myself silently.Don’t swear out loud—that had been another of her rules.

“Hey, hey!” the girl shouted. “Don’t fall asleep on me. My name’s Georgette, and I died in this car—don’t let it happen to you too.”

Georgette. My mom used to have a friend called Georgette, but that was before Mom got taken away. Locked up for being crazy, although nobody ever said those exact words.Don’t let it happen to you too.

Was I crazy? I sure felt as if I’d lost my mind. Fuzziness clouded my thoughts, and darkness nibbled at the edges.

“He killed me,” Georgette said. “The man you’re with killed me. He drugged me just like he’s drugged you.”

Drugs? I didn’t take drugs. Except for that funny cigarette I smoked in high school with… What was her name? Blonde… Always carried a Twinkie in her purse… No, it was gone. But hold on, Georgette said the man drugged me. Could he have done that?

“What…should…I…do?” I slurred, every word an effort.

His hand squeezed my leg. “Just sit back and relax. I’ll put you to bed.”

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