Beyond - Volume 1 (YA Paranormal Romance) (26 page)

“Hello?” I call out, but nobody answers. I don’t see Mister Cheng anywhere either.

With soft steps I tread through the hallway and try to make as little noise as possible. I have to work my way around the many boxes scattered across the floor and almost hit a porcelain plate that’s lying on the floor.

Then I hear clattering sounds.
No. please, tell me he isn’t here yet.

I run after the sound. When I turn around the corner, Simon’s right in front of my
nose, and I bump up against him. We fall to the floor.

“Sorry!”

“Raven?” He pushes me off him. I stand up and want to help him get up, but he doesn’t take my hand. Instead, I see the stinging look in his eyes as he glares at me.

“Where did you come
from? You’re late.” Simon crawls up and picks up the broken pieces of glass. The box they were in is ripped open and lies on the floor just behind him. So that’s what I heard.

“Simon, I can’t explain it, but you need
to get out of here, right now.”

He turns around to face me and lifts an
eyebrow. “Why?”

“There’s something … coming. It’s dangerous here.” The keys
are squashed into my hand.

“Are you trying to pull a prank
on me?”

“What? No, you don’t
understand. You’re in danger!”

“Why are you doing this, Rave
n? Do you like to see me hurt?”

I pull his arm, but he stays put. I can’t possibly get him to come with me.

Then I see a cloaked figure disappearing behind the shelves, a gray dress flowing over the floor. My heart skips a beat. My jaw drops, and I release Simon from my grip. She’s here too. The metal construction on her head shines in the light of the lamp. She stares at me with a piercing look in her eyes and then walks through the aisle.

I push Simon aside and run to her. Before I realize it, I
step on something round and small and lose my balance. I fall backward and land with my head first on the floor.

***

I’m trapped in an unknown world. It’s filled with shadows, just like when I fainted at Lillian’s party. Around me is a gray, empty space. Ghosts move past me with immeasurable speed. I hear voices in the distance. When I try to move, it doesn’t work, just like last time, as Jianyu predicted.

I’m not dead, so I can’t move in the spirit realm. I
’ve fainted again.

Then I see a face. And that’s all I can see about him. His body is one big stain of smoke swirling around in the air. His presence is increased, because his smoke thickens. It becomes clear what he is. The ghost looks at me with small, squint
ing eyes, and he has a contemptuous smile on his face. He’s only an outlining of a human being. His body is made up from pure, black smoke that glistens like a thousand stars.

“Look what I found here … You look familiar,” he says with a shrill voice. It’s him, the ghost in front of me. Sam.

A ghost that can talk?

I shut my eyes and pray as much as I can that I
get back in reality again. Get out of here, away from here, gone from this place. I have to get out.

I force my
spirit to get back to the real world.

***

I lie on the cold hard floor in Cheng’s shop. My head thumps, and I can taste the salty tears on my lips and tongue. Above me is a face with red, curly hair falling down both sides.

“Are you okay?” He pushes one hand beneath my back and helps me sit up straight. When I’m up, I see the woman in the gray dress drift through the wall and fall apart like water.

“No!” I scream and stand up. Wobbly, I land right back in Simon’s arms. “Simon, we have to get out of here. Right now.” My voice is hoarse, and I can barely talk without coughing.

Then I see
a face in the reflection of a mirror close to the door. A black cloud moves fluently from Cheng’s office to the middle of the shop and then turns around to face us.

Sam.

Like a set of drums my heart beats as I look at his glistening body.

Sam floats forward, moving closer to us. My whole body trembles
, and I crawl back to the wall, breaking out in sweat.

“What’s wrong?” Simon asks.

I point at Sam. When Simon turns his head, he shrugs and gazes at me with a sheepish look in his eyes. My courage dwindles.

“Please just
come with me, I’m begging you!”

For a few seconds I think about my options, but I know I don’t stand a chance. I can’t hit a ghost
; I go right through them. But they can hurt us.

Sam comes increasing
ly closer. I push myself up and sprint through the farthest aisle, away from him. Whoever or whatever these ghosts are, they’ve found me again, and something tells me Sam is more dangerous than the gray woman. But one thing is for sure. They’re both after me.

I run toward the door and wait for Simon to come after me, but all he does is stare. “Raven, where are you going?” he asks.

I’m terrified and gasp for air while I run out to the street. The door that slams shut behind me breaks my heart. Simon is in danger, and I can’t do anything about it. I’ve failed to convince him.

I want to scream as loud as I can, but I know I need my lungs right now to run away as fast as possible.

My heart is racing in my chest, and adrenaline shoots through my body. I look around, searching for my mountain bike, but then I realize I left it at school.

I run as fast as I can, but my legs can barely support my body. I’m still weak from fainting
, and I’m only walking on adrenaline now.

From the corner of my eye I look at Cheng’s and see Sam’s not even coming after me. He’s staying there, at Cheng’s shop, near Simon.

No!
Why is he after him now? What does he want with Simon? He didn’t do anything! Sam’s supposed to go after me.

Drops of sweat trickle down my back
, and my face is red hot. In the distance I hear the grumbling sounds of a motorcycle engine coming closer. I recognize the red shine of the frame. It’s Damian Hayes.

I wave at him, but he’s already spotted me. He stops right in front of me.

“I told you, you shouldn’t have gone back there.” He hands me my helmet while I sit down behind him. “What happened?”

“That woman and Sam
are in there! And Simon …” I stammer. I don’t have time to finish my sentence, because the engine rumbles and then we drive off. We have to get away from those ghosts. The store gets farther out of my sight. I just left Simon there, alone, with two ghosts.

What have I done?

“They’re after Simon, Damian! You have to help him!” I yell.

He nods and then turns his head back to the road. The engine roars as Damian turns the handle, leaving a black stripe on the surface. The drive to the Shack seems to last an eternity. We race
down the road going faster than we’re allowed, but it’s not fast enough for me. The longer we take to get to the Shack, the longer Simon’s in danger.

The guys have to become ghosts again. I don’t care if it makes them bleed
. I just have to save Simon.

“Why did you go there? I told you to stay at the Shack,” Damian says, frowning, as we reach the Shack. “You could’ve died.” I hear the pain in his voice.

“Sorry, but I just couldn’t leave him there all alone. It was my fault they went after him.” I wipe away a tear. “But Sam talked, Damian. He could talk. How’s that possible?” I ask as we get off the motorcycle.

“
Nimbles; they can talk in spirit form,” Damian answers.

“He looked just like you. I thought you said ghosts who could come back to life were
always blue or yellow.”

“We are, yes, but I never said living people couldn’t become black gh
osts. Sam is driven by hatred.”

“By hate? He’s going to hurt Simon! You have to save him, Damian!” My mind can’t help but create images of his bloody body. I don’t want to see it.

“I’m definitely going after Sam, don’t worry.” Damian takes off his helmet, and we hurry to the Shack. We wriggle our way through the hole in the door, and I see Jianyu Cheng’s still sitting there, behind his laptop.

“Where’s Joey?” I ask. I don’t see him anywhere
, and I expected he’d have returned by now. “He always goes with you guys, right?”

“At home. I don’t think he’ll come back after
the way Damian scolded him,” Jianyu says.

“We don’t need him,” Damian says.

I start to pace up and down in the room. We don’t have the luxury to talk about a quarrel. “Can’t we just go help Simon, please? The longer we wait, the bigger the chance he’ll …” I can’t finish my sentence. I’m still denying every part of reality. My breath is stuck in my throat.

“What happened then?” Jianyu asks.

“Sam and that woman, they’re at Cheng’s … your father’s shop, with Simon,” I say.

Jianyu opens his mouth, but closes it right away and gets to work behind his laptop. “I’ll war
n Joey, but I doubt he’ll respond.” He starts ticking on his laptop. “At least he’ll be on his guard. There’s no telling where they’ll go next.”

“I’m coming,” I say and start walking toward the chairs, but Damian stops me.

“No, no way,” he says bluntly and then walks to one of the chairs himself.

“I’ll go,” Jianyu says. He sets the timer on the computer and then sits down on the other chair next to Damian. “You have to stay here and watch the machines. Make sure we
survive.”

“I can’t do that. I have no idea how that thing works. I don’t want this responsibility
. I don’t want to be the cause of your deaths. That’s too dangerous. You can’t leave me here with your … bodies.” I can barely get the word ‘bodies’ out of my vocal cords.

“You don’t have to do anything. I already made sure everything will run accordingly. You can just sit in that chair and wait it out,” Jianyu says and points to a seat behind me. “Oh, and please don’t touch anything.”

Of course I won’t touch anything. I don’t want to risk their lives with my clumsiness. The only thing I would like to do is shove one of them off their chairs and lie down myself. I should be dying to save Simon right now, not them. It’s my fault he’s in this mess, and I should be the one who fixes it.

The guys
prepare themselves and secure the electrodes to their chests. The bleeps have begun. The countdown begins. I hate this moment. The moment I realize life can end in a second. That your life hangs on a silk threat that can slip through your fingers at any time.

The beeps that come from their watches are closing in on each other and then there’s a small buzz. Their bodies bob up and down
, and from the machine behind them a loud beep ensues that doesn’t stop. Death has made its entry.

***

The two minutes go by like they’re hours. I don’t know what to do, so I just stare at the clock on the laptop screen. I heave a sigh. Nervously, I tap my fingers on the table while the numbers on the clock slowly pass by. From the corner of my eye I spot a blue shadow appearing out of nowhere.

It’s Damian’s silhouette. I can clearly see his face now. Luckily he doesn’t mask it for me anymore. He flies right past me and then floats next to his own body. I’ve never seen him this quick before, he came in unnoticed.

Hovering next to his corpse, he points at the watch and then looks at me, alternating between the two. Then he points at his own wrists and taps on it. Does he mean to tell me that it’s time? His lips move, but no sound comes out. He probably wants me to touch the watch. I have to make the clock go off sooner.

I jolt out of my seat and start picking
at the watch. On the edge is a tiny button that I turn around to move the time. Damian’s finger points down, which I think means that he wants it to happen as quickly as possible. Then he leaves again, but I’m not done moving the clock yet. He just disappeared, back to wherever they were, I guess.

In a hurry I rotate the knob on the side and put it to ten seconds until reanimation. I count down the seconds and then hear the familiar buzzing sound coming from the device attached to his waistband on his chest. Damian’s
torso moves up and down, and he gasps for air as he shoots up from his chair. His hands are clenched around the arm rests, his pupils dilated.

“Raven!” he screams, almost out of it. In the mean time I turn the button on Jianyu’s watch to make him come back to life sooner as well.

“What happened?” I ask.

“We have to go!” Damian jumps up from his seat and then falls to the floor right after. Blood drips from his mouth. I bolt back to him and try to support him. With my shirt I wipe his mouth clean. The bleeps that come from Jianyu’s watch don’t drown out what Damian’s about to say.

“We were hunting after Sam, but he wasn’t alone, and I’m not talking about that woman. They’re after us, Raven. They know where we are. The shack. They’re coming here with a group of men, and they’re going to kill us!”