a friendship over the past six months. Maybe he wasn’t as objective as he’d been back then.
“You want to tell me what happened?” he asked. “From the beginning.”
He listened quietly as I talked, a furrow etched between his brows. He digested my story in relative silence, head cocked thoughtfully. I knew that expression. It was his my wheels are turning, so don’t interrupt face. But all this silent thinking shit was cutting into my ten minutes, so I eventually cracked.
“So?” I prodded.
“So, I think you were the lion.”
I thought about the scratches on my back, the ones Danny was going to have an actual fucking fit over. No, I was certainly not the lion. Because if I was the fucking lion, then I wouldn’t have tried to maul myself.
“No, I was me. The lion was the lion.”
He waved a hand impatiently. “Yes, you were you, but the lion was also you.”
I squinted at him. “Is this some sort of fight club shit?”
He smacked my shoulder. “No. Everything that happened in your… let’s say spookisode, was you. The elephant, the lion, the horses, the lights, the noises. All of it was harnessed from your energy.”
“That’s not a comforting thought. The ghost seemed a little… unhinged.”
“Like a demon?”
I frowned as I thought about that. The carousel situation certainly didn’t endear him to me. Still, I didn’t feel any sort of demonic energy coming from Joey. It wasn’t as if I had any baseline for that sort of thing, but he seemed more stubborn than evil, refusing to acknowledge things he didn’t want to hear.
“I don’t know if I’d go that far,” I finally said.
“A lost soul, then. They tend to resist crossing over,” he muttered, more to himself than anything else. “They’re usually determined to rewrite history because they can’t accept something that happened while they were alive.”
“Like a relationship that didn’t work out?” I thought about the thing that disturbed me the most about the whole scenario. “He seemed fixated on being with me.”
“Well, your back may be scratched, but there’s nothing wrong with your ego,” Dakota said dryly.
“This from the man who was ready to fuck me in a parking lot?”
Dakota flushed. “Shut up.”
“It wasn’t me he wanted anyway. I think I look like someone he used to love.” I shivered a little, remembering how insistent he was that I was the mysterious Alex. “He seems determined for us to be together.”
“Tell him no,” he said promptly.
“That’s not going to work.”
“Why not?”
“Because he’s not four, I’m not his mom, and he’s not asking me for a peanut butter sandwich.”
He snorted. “I know it’s not that easy. I’m just saying, you need to make it clear that a relationship can never happen. And it couldn’t hurt to find this Alex person, if for no other reason but to warn him.”
“That should be a fun conversation.” I rubbed my temples. “Hi, I’m Rain. I know you’re going to think I’m crazy, but I see and speak with ghosts. Do you remember your ex-boyfriend who you might’ve killed? Well, he’s back and would love to take you to the Olive Garden on Friday night.”
Despite the seriousness of the situation, Dakota’s lips twitched. “I wouldn’t quite put it that way, but yeah, something like that.”
It was even harder to get the next part out. “He mentioned Danny being… an obstacle.”
Dakota widened his eyes. “You don’t think he would try to….”
Neither one of us wanted to contemplate the end of that sentence. “I don’t know,” I said shortly.
“Ideally, the goal would be to learn to control the flow of energy,” he murmured, “but we’re still working on that. So maybe we should look into some sort of protection amulet.”
“An amulet,” I repeated, just to be sure I heard what the hell I just thought I heard.
“Yes,” he confirmed, his eyes earnest.
Well, that was it. I checked my watch. Time of death, 6:06 p.m. I had to off myself. My life had turned into a hobbit movie and that was unacceptable.
“I’m not sure a giant amulet goes with the whole corporate casual thing I’ve got going on,” I said mildly.
“Christiansen, I’m serious.”
“So am I. I’m not wearing some sort of magical necklace—”
“For the last time, I told you that you’re not magical,” he said with a heavy sigh. “We’re not magical. Mediums, psychics, anything other, we just have a special connection—”
“To the Earth,” I finished, hopefully cutting off his favorite lecture at the knees. In our many, many sessions, he’d certainly said it enough. “I know,