I can’t believe we failed. Our plan had been solid. Why hadn’t we been able to exorcise him? Had we underestimated his power? Or was there something more to it? I wasn’t sure, and I was too tired to figure it out.
Spectre lay beside me on the bed, so I absentmindedly stroked his grey fur. He licked my hand in approval. I smiled. He wasn’t a very affectionate cat, but then, I was the only one who could touch him. That little lick felt like I’d earned his trust. I really hoped I could take him with me when I moved out one day.
I closed my eyes, hoping I could get some desperately needed sleep. It was too tempting to heal myself and my family using my powers. I really, really wanted to, but it was a bad idea. We needed rest and good food instead.
As I was almost asleep, I heard it. Whistling.
I sat upright, startling Spectre. If the way he’d tensed was anything to go by, he could hear it, too. It was different to the one he’d used on us when we’d been at Mrs Brightman’s earlier in the day.
Was the crazy doctor coming for me? Or just trying to drive me mad so that I couldn’t sleep?
He couldn’t get through our wards. I didn’t think. Dad could only bypass the wards because he was on our side. There was no way a ghost who wasn’t even technically magical could. Could he?
I got out of bed and looked out of the window. I’d only wake Mum up if there was a reason to. Which I really hoped there wouldn’t be.
Right outside my window, lit up by a streetlamp, was Goodfellow. So much for him not finding out where we lived.
He looked up at me, his lips curled into a sneer. He cackled, tilting his head back, he was laughing so hard. Lifting his arm out, he began to walk away. Branwen flew over and landed on his arm as he walked off down the street before the two of them disappeared.
The whistling stopped.
My heart thudded in my chest. I couldn’t breathe. I grabbed Spectre and barged into Mum’s room. She was already awake, on her phone. Tilly was at the foot of her bed, growling. When Mum saw me, her eyes went wide. ‘You heard it?’
‘He was outside my window.’
‘What?’ She clutched her phone tighter.
‘He laughed then walked off with Branwen on his arm. He’s gone now.’
I lay beside Mum in bed. Tilly and Spectre curled up with us. ‘It’s like he’s saying he can watch us whenever he wants. For some reason, I can’t always sense when Branwen is there. I don’t get it.’
‘They’re only small animals. They won’t have a particularly strong life essence. If there are a lot of stronger forces around, it may get drowned out.’
‘Could this get any worse?’
‘Maybe let’s not tempt fate right now…’
*
Knowing Goodfellow or his creepy raven could be watching any of us at any point put me on edge. Even just the sound of Tilly barking, someone knocking at the front door, or a cyclist going past when I was walking Tilly caused me to jump a mile.
Mum, Ben, and Fadil were just as bad. We did what we could to support each other, spending every moment we could to come up with another plan, but we weren’t really getting anywhere. Since he was a ghost, we couldn’t recreate what Millicent and Percival had done. But was there a way to adapt it?
I tried to continue with college like everything was fine, but my anxiety got worse by the hour as I waited for Goodfellow to do something to one of us. I doubted he’d strike when there were lots of people around, since he’d never been caught, so I doubted he’d want to risk being caught now, either, but I couldn’t say for definite. He was a ghost, after all. It wasn’t like most people could see him anyway.
Then, on top of that, I still couldn’t stop thinking about how Tessa had cheated on Josh. I might’ve decided not to tell him, but that didn’t mean not doing so wasn’t eating me up inside. Nor did it stop Tessa from doing her best to keep me away from him. She got in my face while I was walking down the corridor, then sat in between us, right in the middle of the classroom floor, during English. As if he’d sit anywhere near me anyway.
I couldn’t work out if she was more afraid of me or angry at me, but I honestly didn’t care. Really I just wanted her to leave me alone. I had more important things to worry about.
I was packing my things up at the end of English, thinking of ways to defeat Goodfellow, when something made Tessa jump. She squealed, falling into me. Frazzle.
I stumbled, doing my best to regain my balance and make it look like I’d just lost my footing.
‘Oh my god. You feel…corporeal.’ Tessa poked my arm. I flinched. She giggled. ‘This is amazing! But why can I touch you and not anyone else?’
I rolled my eyes and walked off. That was just great, wasn’t it? Now Tessa knew that she could touch me, she could use that against me. As if her being in my face and a constant presence that only I could see when I was trying to study wasn’t bad enough.
Tessa used the fact that she could touch me to further try to keep me from Josh for the rest of the day. It wasn’t like I ran into him all the time, but she seemed to think I might. Any chance she got, she was pushing me and getting in my face. It was really hard to keep pretending I was just being clumsy when she did it around others.
I got so tired of it that at the end of the day, when it was quiet, I grabbed her and dragged her behind some bushes while Josh packed up his things from art class on the other side of the wall.
‘Would you leave me alone? I’m not going to tell him! It’s none of my bloody business! I have enough going on already and I’m really tired of you trying to make my life even harder.’
Tessa crossed her arms, resting her weight on one foot. Well, sort of. She was a ghost. So she didn’t have any actual weight. I assumed it was a pose she’d learned when she was alive and she was doing it out of habit to show attitude. ‘I don’t believe you.’
‘I honestly don’t care what you do or don’t believe. Just stop harassing me!’
It was frustrating, having to practically whisper so that nobody saw me talking to air. But I had to say something to her because I couldn’t go another minute with her in my face. Even dead, she was still torturing me. I’d had enough.
Tessa pouted, looking away from me.
‘You don’t like me, I don’t like you. Why don’t we just agree to leave each other alone? You can haunt Josh in peace, and I can get on with my life, ghost-free.’ Well, not ghost-free, but Tessa-free.
‘Fine,’ spat Tessa. She flew through the wall behind me and back to Josh.
Peace. Finally.
I really hoped getting rid of Goodfellow would get rid of Tessa, too. The sooner she crossed over, the happier I’d be.