All The Pretty Ghosts (The Never Series Book 1) Jamie Campbell (best life changing books .TXT) 📖

That was exactly what I had wanted to explain to Oliver. I wanted to tell him how difficult it was, make him understand it wasn’t easy like he thought it was. But I hadn’t been able to find my voice then, I had been too stubborn to explain.

I cradled my ears in my hands and stood up. I had to get away from them. I had tried and failed, my own belief that I couldn’t do it had been confirmed. There were too many of them, the hurt too great. There was nothing I could do for the spirits.

Trying to get around them was impossible. I had to walk right through them, feeling the cold as it shivered down my spine. They didn’t feel pain when I walked through their transparent bodies. It was like walking through a waterfall when going through one. Yet hundreds were like drowning in a frozen lake.

I made it to the road and turned. I got only a few feet before stopping. She was there. Standing with the rest of them. Looking at me with her haunted eyes.

Lilia.

A shiver ran through my body that had nothing to do with the spirits. Images of her lifeless body, the way I had found her, washed her, buried her.

I hurried over and crouched down until we were at eye level. “Lilia, I’m so sorry.”

The spirits surrounding me hushed so the little girl could be heard. I expected anger at leaving her alone, her sorrow at dying at such a tender age, anything than what she actually gave me.

“It’s okay, Everly.”

“No, it’s not,” I argued. “I shouldn’t have left you. I’m so, so sorry for that. I should have helped you.”

“You did. You buried me, I saw it. I’m happy now, it’s better this way.” She smiled, that same beautiful innocent grin she had shown me when we first met. “I’m not hungry anymore.”

I wanted to hug her but she had no physical body that I would be able to touch. My arms would just go through her, feeling the shudder of the cold. “What can I do for you now? How can I help you?”

“You can help everyone. There is so much darkness, Everly, it frightens me. We need to return the light.” Lilia whispered the last few words.

“I don’t know how,” I admitted.

“Yes, you do. Inside, you know. The man said so.” She smiled once more before stepping back into the spirits and disappearing in front of my eyes. It was like losing her all over again.

Everyone seemed to have severely overestimated my abilities. I didn’t know what to do. First Oliver and now Lilia. I knew how to go to school, I knew how to get my homework done, I knew how to terrorize my sister and annoy her. I didn’t know how to bring light back to the dark.

But I needed to start figuring it out.

Chapter Eight

I stood in the street, my eyes glancing at each of the faces surrounding me but not resting on any one in particular. If I did, the voices would start again. They had been silent while I spoke with Lilia, as if in some way understanding she had something important to say.

It wouldn’t be long before they started again.

I picked one man, the one closest to me. Our eyes met amongst everyone else. “What is your name?” I asked.

“David. My name is David,” he replied. He was in his late forties, early fifties at the latest. He was dressed in a robe, probably what he died in. I wasn’t sure how the spirits dressed or why some still bore the marks of their injuries. It seemed completely random how they appeared – a code I hadn’t yet deciphered.

“What do you want to say, David?” The rest were all remaining silent while we spoke, just like they had with Lilia. The ghosts at my house hadn’t been like that. I could have yelled at any of them and they never shut up.

A moment of hesitation crossed the spirit’s face before he spoke again. “My children, they are on opposite sides of the city. They don’t know one another is still alive. Please, you have to bring them together. You have to.”

He was dead, and his final message was to get his kids back together? It was hardly earth shattering. But, to him, I guessed it was important. The Event had ripped so many families apart, bringing them together again was difficult.

I should know, considering I was missing my sister.

“Do you know exactly where they are?” I asked, ascertaining how much time and effort his errand would require. He nodded. “Can you take me to them?”

“I can.”

Lilia suddenly appeared at his side. “Go with him, Everly.”

Looking around at the faces, everyone was nodding with encouragement. It was two hundred against one. Apparently I was going to be schlepping around the city for David’s kids.

“Fine. Let’s go,” I sighed.

The spirits made a path while David led the way through them. They remained there, thankfully not following us. If they all had to come, I wasn’t sure if I’d make it.

David didn’t say much on the journey across the city. His only words were directions about corners to turn and his constant reassurance that it wouldn’t be too much further. I started to have my doubts after three hours of walking.

David was a liar.

It took four hours after his first ‘not much further’ to arrive at his son’s shelter. By that stage, every time he said it, I wanted to punch him in the face. If he had a physical body, I might have truly considered it.

“His name is Michael, he’s inside,” David said as we stood on the stoop of a tiny