All The Pretty Ghosts (The Never Series Book 1), Jamie Campbell [english reading book TXT] 📗

A smile slowly crooked his lips. “Okay, tell me everything. I want to know every last detail.”

As we walked, I told him everything about David, Michael, and Kelly. I didn’t leave anything out, because I didn’t know what was important in the story and what wasn’t. I needed Oliver to know it all. Perhaps then it would help him understand me better.

By the end of the tale, we had found a place to sleep for the night. It was nothing more than an alleyway that appeared to have been forgotten or ignored by the rest of the citizens. But it was dry and gave the illusion of safety.

“Oliver?” I asked in the darkness. A part of me only said it so I could be sure he was still here.

“Yeah?” Even just one word was comforting.

“I don’t know what to do,” I admitted. “Helping David today, it did nothing to help the city. I could help the spirits every day but nothing is going to change.”

The silence stretched out. I wondered if Oliver had fallen asleep or simply stopped listening to me. Perhaps he had given up on an answer because there merely wasn’t one.

“Oliver?”

“I think you did help the city, Ev.”

“I didn’t.”

He shifted, the sound loud in the quietness of the alley. “Michael and Kelly are reunited now. Perhaps together they will do something positive for the city. If nothing else, two people are less lonely tonight because of you. That’s helping the city.”

But it wasn’t.

The city still bled like an open wound. It pulsed with hurt and pain because it was nothing but an empty shell of humanity. Nothing had changed just because two people were together tonight.

Nothing.

I wasn’t going to argue with Oliver again. Neither of us had the energy to fight and there would be no winner. All I could do was voice what I thought was more important. “I’m really glad you’re here, Olly.”

“I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else, Ev.”

The tears stung my eyes but I refused to let them fall. I was still alive, I could fight another day, I would not feel sorry for myself. I had a lot more than most people. I had Oliver.

My next words were cut off by an explosion. The loudest noise I had ever heard.

Chapter Nine

The building to my right erupted in a ball of flames. We were thrown back from the impact, the shockwaves radiated out in an abundance of chaos.

Oliver and I ran for the alleyway, crouching on the ground as debris fell from all angles. My hands instantly went to cover my ears from the shattering noise. It seemed to go on forever, awakening the night like it was day.

Even the tight walls on either side of the alley couldn’t really shelter us from the fallout. Pieces of rocks and concrete showered down on us like rain from hell. When I moved my hands from my ears to cover my head, I still couldn’t hear anything. It was like the world had gone silent.

Deathly silent.

“Are you okay?” Oliver yelled through the cotton wool in my ears. He had to repeat himself three times before I could fully understand his words.

“Yeah. You?” He nodded back, his own hands shielding his head.

I started to pull myself from the ground. With an explosion like that, there had to be casualties. Which meant children were hurting, if not dead.

Peeking around the corner, I had to blink the soot out of my eyes before they would focus. Where there had been a full five story building only minutes before, there was nothing but a hole and plumes of smoke.

The tendrils of thick smoke found my lungs, choking in my throat and burning. I pulled my shirt up to cover my mouth and tried to remember to breathe normally. It hurt like hell as every breath was sucked in with force.

A few others had come to see the mess too. We stood around, useless to actually do anything. There was no chance anyone could survive that.

No chance at all.

A few spirits joined us. Most of them were adults, which meant they hadn’t been killed in the explosion. The ghosts of children were a little harder to tell. They could have been brand new. I ignored them all.

All of a sudden, a figure emerged from the remains of the building. I hurried over to help the little boy. But as I reached him, all I could do was gasp.

He was burned.

Badly.

His charcoaled body was ready to give up and he was ready to let it. Escaping those kinds of wounds would be a relief, ending his pain. He collapsed onto the sidewalk, his eyes staring blankly at the sky.

His soul stood and walked away without looking back.

He was even younger than my sister.

The urge to fall to my knees and sob was overwhelming. Because I knew that little boy couldn’t have been the only one inside the building. Collapsing myself seemed like a good option. I wouldn’t do it though, not with so many people around. Weakness was a death sentence these days.

Instead, I turned to Oliver who had followed me. “How can that happen? How does a building just blow up like that?” I was nearly hysterical. I was used to seeing spirits, but I wasn’t used to seeing them torn from their bloodied bodies.

Oliver remained calm, showing none of the panic I was feeling. “It was probably a gas explosion.”

“Gas? Gas killed them?” Surely nothing so ordinary that we had taken for granted for so long could cause so much damage to the boy’s body. He was barely recognizable as a person.

“Most likely,” Oliver replied. How did he always manage to stay so levelheaded in a world full of madness? “There