Whispered Darkness by Jessica Sorensen Page 0,29

happened.

Kingsley is breathing raggedly as he spins toward me, cupping my cheeks, his eyes searching mine. “Are you okay?”

I nod unsteadily. “I think so.”

A tremulous exhale slips from my lips as he tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. “That was … I don’t even have words for what just happened. Does that normally happen when she shows up?” he asks, and I shake my head. “So, it just coincidentally happened at the same time I started seeing her? That’s really weird.”

“Everything that just happened was weird.” I force down the lump wedged in my throat. “I think … I’m wondering if maybe she was trying to give us a clue as to where her body is and got in trouble with … well, whatever has been preventing her from telling me stuff.”

He doesn’t promptly answer, his face pale. “But what would be controlling a dead girl from giving clues about where her body is?” he finally asks.

“I have no idea. And it’s really hard to get an idea when I don’t even know why I’m seeing Beth and other dead girls to begin with. Obviously, it has something to do with me dying, but you died a long time ago, and you just started seeing them, so …” I frown. “Hopefully, this Death person will give us some answers, and then I can figure out where her body is and who put it there. Because, as of right now, my best guess is that her body is in the lake, but that guess is only based on the fact that I know people have died there and Beth is always wet whenever she appears. But even if that’s where she is, how in the heck am I supposed to move her body? Or even locate it?”

“I know … I’m still worried about this Death person, though … if they even are a person,” he mutters. “Because I’m starting to wonder what sort of other stuff exists that we don’t know about.”

“I know,” I agree. “I … I sometimes wish I could remember what I saw when I died … Like maybe if I could, I’d know more about what was going on with me.”

“Maybe.” Skepticism weighs in his tone. “After what I just saw, maybe it’s a good thing neither of us can remember.”

“You think … You think what we just saw was like a portal to the land of the dead or the in-between?”

“I have no idea. But if it is …” He trails off.

But he doesn’t have to finish. I have a good idea of what he’s going to say: If that’s the in-between, then count me out for going there again.

Silences stretches between us as we both daze off, my thoughts drifting to what happened with Beth. She said we needed to find her body or else the mystery would never be solved. But she never said where it was. I think she might have, but then the vortex thing stopped her. She did manage to spit one word out.

“She said Star,” I say, causing Kingsley to blink startlingly.

“I know.” His Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows audibly. “You don’t think she was talking about the Star we know, do you?”

“I don’t know … You know her better than I do,” I say. “Do you know if she knew Beth at all?”

His brows rise. “Actually, now that I think about it, the two of them started hanging out a few weeks ago. I remember I thought it was kind of weird because Beth and Star are complete opposites.”

“Yeah, but Star and I are, too, and she hung out with me for a while.”

“You and Star hanging out isn’t as strange as Beth and Star hanging out. You’re …” His gaze flitters over me, from my head to my toes to my lip piercing then my eyes. “You and Star aren’t that different. Or, well, you’re not that different from the Star I used to know.”

“She seemed different the other night at the party,” I note. “Up until then, I hadn’t seen her in a while.”

“Something happened a few weeks ago, and she dropped out of school,” he explains. “After that, she started spending a lot of time at parties. So did I, but for completely different reasons.”

“You mean, she was there to get high?”

“More or less.”

“Is she addicted?”

“I’m not sure. I’m honestly not even sure what drugs she’s doing. I could try to make assumptions based on how she acts, but the thing is that