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

chill right down to my bones. Once it wrapped itself around my body, it refused to release its grasp.

The real light at the end of the tunnel wasn’t the sun, however, it was seeing Oliver waiting for me. He was alone, obviously deemed unlikely to be a threat by the mole people. Either that or Jet’s ownership extended to him, too.

Perhaps he owned everyone in the city. He had implied enough down below.

I wanted to run into Oliver’s embrace and let his strong arms wrap about me. I wanted him to whisper into my hair that everything would be alright and warm me with his body.

But I didn’t.

I stood there wanting to cry instead.

“Everly? Everything okay?” Oliver prompted. He was reading my face, taking me in and working everything out before I needed to say anything.

“I didn’t find out anything,” I said.

He offered me a kind smile, it was only the start of what I really needed. “We’ll work it out.”

I didn’t want to believe him. My logical brain said the odds were so far stacked against us that it was impossible to work it all out. But that was the thing about Oliver. He made you believe in him. If he said we’d work it out, he wouldn’t stop until his promise was fulfilled.

We’d work it out.

We didn’t have any other option.

One minute with Oliver and my world was spinning on its axis again. I gave him a small nod and we turned to leave. If we didn’t hurry, it would be dark again. Being out after sundown was not wise in the city.

Oliver kept a brisk pace but it was one I could easily match. We passed the debris from fallen buildings, past the pile of rocks covered in brown snow, and past the white building with no windows.

At the very least, the walk warmed me. After being underground in the tunnels that were much hotter than above, the cool wind was almost a nice change. I enjoyed it while it lasted because it wouldn’t take too long before it chilled me to the core again.

As we reached the grey building with only half its side still standing, I thought we were home safe. There might even be time to get some food from the shelter before we hid away for the night.

I was wrong.

So very, very wrong.

Five boys jumped out from inside the building. They had to have seen us coming and waited for our approach. Their attack was instant. Fists and legs flying everywhere, all aimed at us.

They formed a barrier around me, blocking off my view of Oliver. All I could do was hear him repeatedly screaming my name. Over and over again, the desperation growing with each one.

“Everly. Everly. Everly.”

A fist connected with the back of my head, sending stars swimming in front of my eyes. I had nothing to trade with the boys for my life. If they wanted anything of value they had chosen the wrong people.

“Please, stop,” I begged as a leg collided with the back of my knee. I fell forward, straight into the arms of one of the boys. He threw me backwards, knocking me to the ground.

My head hit the steps of the building. Pain radiated out as my vision blackened from the edges inwards. I couldn’t get up again. I wanted to. My brain screamed at me to. But I couldn’t.

“What have you got? Give us your shirt,” one of them ordered me.

My hands started working the buttons but they were shaking too hard to get a good grip. They wouldn’t wait for too much longer but there was nothing I could do to make my fingers work properly.

“Hurry up! We don’t got all day.”

“Just tear it off,” another replied. Their eyes were wild as they moved from foot to foot with impatience. I would bet their hearts were beating just as quickly in their chests as mine was.

For completely different reasons.

Mine, fear. Theirs, anticipation.

I got one button undone and moved on to the others. There were a dozen of them in total, we were going to be here for a while unless they decided to tear it off me like the one boy wanted.

“I’m sorry,” I groaned.

One of the boys crouched down and I flinched, thinking he was preparing to hit me again.

Instead, he started helping me with the buttons. He wasn’t one of the ones telling me to hurry. Perhaps not everyone in the city was so bad after all.

Although, he was still robbing me so he couldn’t be that great, either.

“Hurry up.”

“Just get it off already.”

“Do you have anything else on you? Food? Water? Where’s your home?”

“I don’t have anything else,” I insisted.

“Where are you staying? What are you keeping there? Huh? Tell me or I’ll kill you.”

I didn’t doubt his words were true.

I still couldn’t see Oliver through the boys’ bodies. They were keeping us separated with a human barricade. “I don’t have anything except what I’m wearing. I eat at the shelter, they don’t let you take food away.”

“That’s true, they don’t, boss,” the boy helping me said without looking up at his friend. He was halfway done with my buttons. I probably could have shrugged my way out of the shirt by that point but I couldn’t stand to do it. Taking on the last few buttons would buy me a few more minutes to get my balance.

All of a sudden, the boys’ heads shot around to the side. They stared for only a moment before running down the street and darting into an alley. Even the one helping me left his task to run. I didn’t know what had spooked them, but I wanted to thank whatever it was anyway.

Oliver loomed in front of me. “Everly,