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

“Everly, I’m really sorry you have to go through all this.”

I laughed, the chuckle of a girl on the edge of insanity. “You’re the one who died and you’re sorry? This is nothing compared to what you’ve gone through.”

“I wish I could stop them,” Oliver said, never averting his gaze from mine. There was no doubt in my mind he was being sincere. He wasn’t lying about this.

He wouldn’t.

Neither would I.

“It’s not up to you to stop them,” I replied. “It’s not your problem.”

“Anything that hurts you is my problem.” He gave me a small smile.

I leaned against the bench, crossing my arms. “What are all the spirits going to do?”

“They need help.”

I knew that look in his eyes but he was wrong. I couldn’t help the spirits even if I wanted to. I didn’t know why they were trapped in some sort of sick purgatory. Let alone begin to know how to find a solution to the problem.

My head was shaking before I realized I was doing it. “I can’t do it, Oliver. I’m not the one to help them.”

“You’re not going to do it alone. I’ll be there every step of the way.”

“But I don’t know where to start.”

“So we’ll figure it out, just like we have always done.” Oliver sounded so sure but I just couldn’t believe him. No matter what pretty words he used.

“Figuring out how to juggle Chem. homework with Sarah Mason’s party is a bit different to this, Olly,” I pointed out. Our problems used to be so much simpler, we’d never tackled something this big before.

It seemed so stupid now to remember how big our problems used to seem.

We didn’t really know what a problem was until the Event.

“We’ve got to try, Ev,” Oliver said, his voice more like a sigh.

I knew what he was saying was true. I knew the spirits needed help to find some kind of eternal peace. They didn’t deserve to be ghosts forever. They hadn’t asked to die and they certainly didn’t ask to be restless spirits for all of eternity.

I also knew it was my duty to do something about it. I was given the ability to see them for a reason. If there was something I had learned, it was that nothing was random in this world. I had an obligation to help wherever I could, this wasn’t something I could merely ignore.

But if I did help them, if the spirits somehow found a way to crossover, what would that mean for Oliver?

He would go, too.

Along with a large chunk of my heart.

It was selfish and horrible. I was a selfish and horrible person for even thinking about it. But I was thinking about it. It played on my mind like fingers down a chalkboard. When I thought about being without Oliver, even in spirit form, my chest ached. The pain was so bad I knew it would consume me whole, turning me into something grotesque and shriveled.

Helping the spirits meant I would lose the one man whom I loved more than anything else in the world. I had already lost so much, I couldn’t lose him too.

But it was as inevitable as death itself.

“Everly…”

Tears streaked down my cheeks when I looked up into his beautiful face. He seemed so real, it was so difficult believing he wasn’t alive anymore. In many ways, he was more alive than I was. He still had hope.

I didn’t.

This time, my head was nodding. “Promise me you won’t leave until we say goodbye.”

“I told you, I’m not going to leave until you tell me to.”

A sad smile spread across my lips. “I might never be ready to let you go.”

“Then I’ll stay forever.”

“You promise?”

He held a hand across his heart. “I promise.”

With that same hand, he held it up between us. I took a few cautious steps closer, my own arm rising to be the same height as his.

Carefully and slowly, I moved my hand to rest against his. Perhaps, if we wanted it bad enough, we would be able to feel each other. He could materialize into a solid form so we could forget all about his death.

Surely, the world owed me that.

Our hands met in the air and I held my breath.

I couldn’t feel anything but coldness.

My heart contracted in my chest and I didn’t think the pain could get any worse before that moment. But it did. I wanted to rip out my traitorous heart so I didn’t have to feel anymore. It burned a lot worse than my leg wound.

My eyes flicked up to Oliver’s. His green eyes to my blue ones. He was looking at me with such love that it took some of that pain away.

Perhaps it didn’t matter that we couldn’t touch. I loved Oliver and he loved me. Maybe that was enough for now. He was here and that was the main thing.

“I love you, Ev.”

“I love you, too.” The words choked in my throat but I wasn’t going to cry anymore. It was time to be strong. I trusted Oliver not to leave me, he wouldn’t do that to me.

A promise was a promise.

The nosy spirits still watching us had plenty to say about our declarations of love. The general consensus was that they knew our hearts were going to be broken because a human could not be with a ghost.

But I didn’t care.

I continued to hold my hand against Oliver’s, feeling the cold sensation on my palm and relishing it. The feeling wasn’t the touch of death now, it was a part of Oliver.

A sharp knock on the door interrupted us. The spirits all hurried to the foyer, keen to see who was visiting our refuge. Oliver and I exchanged a