روح همسایه فصل 17

The Ghost Next Door - Chapter 17

Hannah gasped and started to back away.

But as the hall light fell into the bedroom, she realized she wasn’t staring at the frightening figure after all.

She was staring at a longsleeved, dark sweater she had tossed over the bedpost at the foot of her bed.

Hannah gripped the sides of the doorway. She couldn’t decide whether to laugh or cry.

“What a night!” she exclaimed out loud.

She clicked on the bedroom ceiling light, then closed the door behind her. As she made her way over to the bed to pull the sweater off the bedpost, she was shaking all over.

She pulled off her clothes quickly, tossing them onto the floor, and put on a nightshirt. Then she climbed under the covers, eager to get to sleep.

But she couldn’t stop her mind from whirring over all that had happened. She couldn’t stop the frightening pictures from playing in her head, over and over.

The shadows of tree limbs from the front yard shifted and bobbed across the ceiling. Normally, she found their silent dance soothing. But tonight the moving shadows frightened her, reminded her of the menacing dark figure that had called her name.

She tried to think about Danny instead. But those thoughts were just as troubling.

Danny is a ghost. Danny is a ghost.

The phrase repeated again and again in her mind.

He had to be lying about his mother, Hannah decided. He made up the story about her being deaf because he doesn’t want me to figure out that she’s a ghost, too.

Questions, questions.

Questions she couldn’t answer.

If Danny is a ghost, what is he doing here? Why did he move in next door to me?

Why does he hang out with Alan and Fred? Are they ghosts, too?

Is that why I’ve never seen them at school or in town before? Is that why I’ve never seen any of them? They’re all ghosts?

Hannah shut her eyes, trying to force all the questions from her mind. But she couldn’t stop thinking about Danny—and the dark shadow figure.

Why did the dark figure tell me to stay away from Danny? Is it trying to keep me from proving that Danny is a ghost?

Finally, Hannah fell asleep. But even in sleep, her troubled thoughts pursued her.

The sinewy black shadow followed her into her dreams. In the dream, she was standing in a gray cave. A fire burned brightly, far in the distance at the mouth of the cave.

The black figure, its red eyes glowing brighter than the fire, moved toward Hannah. Closer. And closer.

And when the black figure came so close, close enough for Hannah to reach out and touch it, the shadow figure reached up with its sticklike arms and pulled itself apart.

It reached up with its ebony hands and with bonelike fingers, pulled away the darkness where its face should be—revealing Danny underneath.

Danny, leering at her with glowing red eyes that burned into hers—until she woke up gasping for breath.

No, she thought, staring out the window at the gray dawn. No. Danny isn’t the black shadow.

No way.

It isn’t Danny.

It can’t be Danny. The dream makes no sense.

Hannah sat up. Her bedclothes were damp from perspiration. The air in the room hung heavy and sour.

She kicked off the covers and lowered her feet to the floor.

She knew only one thing for certain after her long night of frightening thoughts.

She had to talk to Danny.

She couldn’t spend another night like this.

She had to find out the truth.

The next morning, after breakfast, she saw him kicking a soccer ball around in his back yard. She pulled open the kitchen door and ran outside. The screen door slammed loudly behind her as she began to run to him.

“Hey, Danny—” she called. “Are you a ghost?”