Library

Chapter 22

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

HIRO

I can’t sleep. All I can do is continually check the forum for anything I can find. We also sent it to Nakamura to see if he could forward it to someone dealing with Charlotte’s case who could inquire whether she had frequented the site. It would make sense if she had. With her case revolving around domestic abuse, she easily could have sought out help, either about her relationship with her husband or how distraught she was over the distance between her and her daughter. As for Hikaru’s attacker, someone in his mindset could have fully believed he was the victim. I try to track down either of their posts, but there are so many that I start reading the comments of each one to see if there are any clues there. Everyone seems so helpful and kind that I can’t fathom them allowing anyone toxic to take over, but there is a messaging system they could use to contact someone.

“Hiro, try to sleep,” Maddox says as he reaches over to me.

“I am,” I reply.

“You are not.” He grabs the phone from me as I try not to fixate on the way he’s absolutely wrapped up in ghosts.

“Maddox, let me have that back,” I say.

“No. You need to sleep. You’re obsessing.”

“I’m not obsessing.”

“You’re obsessing.”

“Someone sent that to you wanting you to click on it, so why has nothing happened yet?”

“Because things rarely happen in an instant with cases like this. When it’s normal hours we’ll go talk to some people, but for right now, we’re going to sleep.” He grabs me and tries to pin me down, like that’ll keep me from fretting. All it does is make me annoyed that I can’t get the phone from him.

He tucks me against him but the moment I close my eyes, I’m violently shoved away from him. I can’t focus on making them incorporeal while also trying to calm my mind enough to sleep, so my eyes snap back open as I glower at them.

“Are you okay?” Maddox asks.

“See? I might as well stay awake.”

“I’ll fend them off,” Reggie says.

I glance over at him. “How? They’re ignoring you. They don’t even notice your existence.”

“Keaton, use your sexy bod to fend them off,” Reggie instructs as Keaton makes a sad attempt to push them away.

He can’t even get them to react to him.

“You may have failed, Keaton, but your attempt at least made me happy,” Reggie says.

“What if we play porn for them? Maybe it’ll make it so awkward they leave,” Natalie suggests.

Reggie finger-guns her for some reason. “I love that idea.”

“I’m not watching porn with my grandson,” Grandpa protests.

Natalie pouts. “You’re such a killjoy.”

“Hiro, your eyes are as open as they could possibly get,” Maddox says.

“I can’t keep their touch off if I don’t focus.”

“Do you want to sleep in separate rooms?”

Did he seriously suggest something so ridiculous? “Absolutely not,” I say as I try to push in closer. “Can I have my phone?”

“Are you just going to obsessively look at the forum?”

“Yes.”

“Then no.”

“I mean no.”

“Hiro, please get some sleep.”

I grab on to him, squeezing him tightly to me as I try to close my eyes, but how the fuck does he really think I’m just going to sleep? Clearly, he’s not as stressed about his own life as much as I am because within fifteen minutes, he’s back asleep. I reach over him, grab the phone, and return to reading.

I end up finding a few posts that sound like Charlotte’s case, but absolutely nothing seems off in the comments. I also check up on both of our posts, but there are only kind people offering support, suggesting support groups, pointing out the red flags, and trying to help in other general ways.

By five, I’m up and hurrying off to message Nakamura. I don’t even know what time it is over in Japan, but I’m positive he should be up and doing something on his end. Instead, he ignores my message.

“Hiro,” Maddox mumbles as he comes staggering out.

“What?”

“You need to sleep.”

“I will sleep when all of that is gone,” I say as I wave toward the horde following him.

“Did you sleep at all?”

“Uh-huh,” I lie.

Maddox sighs before he sinks down into a chair and watches me as I pore over the forum some more. “Have your endless hours of searching solved anything?”

“Not a fucking thing. The community center doesn’t have an email on their site, only a contact form, so we can’t double-check that it’s the right email. But after endlessly searching the forum, I think one of these might be Charlotte, so maybe we could contact every person who messaged these people.”

“And do what? Go ‘Hey, are YOU the person fucking with people’s lives?’ The community center opens at eight. Deputy Chief Parker is aware we’ll be headed there first thing.”

I sigh, but I nod. What a fucking mess.

The community center has a huge “Welcome All” banner out front with some artwork of people holding hands.

“Stupid happy banner,” I mutter.

Maddox eyes me. “Are you just angry at life in general? Isn’t that my job?”

“I also hate happy people,” Reggie says, mocking me.

“Reggie agrees with me. Happy people suck.”

“You’re generally the happiest person in my life,” Maddox says.

“Then I clearly suck too because I can’t even keep you safe.”

He sighs. “Hiro, you very much know that’s not true.”

Natalie claps her hands, apparently feeling like she’s not a big enough part of this conversation. “You know what makes happy people happier? Weed. Or naked booty. Either or both. I once dated a guy who had a big marijuana leaf tattooed across both ass cheeks. I was just… it was so weird because every time we were fucking, it was all I could see. I felt like I was fucking some marijuana.”

I think we all take a moment to let that sink in. “Why were you… his ass…” Then it clicks. “Oh.”

“What position is that?” Reggie asks. “I know very little about the female hoo-ha. Like…” He takes a finger and sticks it through a circle he makes with his other hand. “Where does the ass come in? Ooh, was he like upside down and you were like… this way and then like, you smashed your bits together, but you bent your head between his legs and that’s how you were facing his ass?”

“And you question why I avoided ghosts in life,” Grandpa says.

“Yeah…” I agree as I decide that we really don’t need to get into Natalie’s sex life. Or really anyone’s sex life.

“I’m so confused,” Reggie says. “Is anyone else confused?”

“She was… you know.” Keaton throws in some hand movements, like he thinks some part of that might help. I honestly think it makes Reggie more confused. “You know?”

“No, Keaton, I don’t know! If I knew, I wouldn’t be so damn confused! Does the nether region like… where does it go?”

“She was pegging, Reggie!” Keaton finally blurts out.

“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Oh . Ohhhh. Huh. That makes way more sense than the jigsaw puzzle thing I was trying to figure out in my head.”

“Do I even ask what’s happening over there?” Maddox wonders.

“Only if you want to hear about Natalie fucking some guy with a weed tattoo across his ass,” I say.

“A huge part of me says no… no, I don’t want to hear about that, but there’s this tiny part of me that’s curious.”

“You gotta stomp that part down,” I warn him, which makes him laugh.

Maddox holds the door open, which would have been nice if his ghosts weren’t pissy and pushing me all around. My head already hurts from spending most of the night trying to keep them from touching me. I’m honestly not sure how I’m going to survive the whole day doing this without throwing up on someone’s shoes.

“Sorry,” Maddox says. “Should I stay away from you?”

“No, of course not. You should actually have more people trailing you. I want an entire army to follow you.”

“An army? Wow. How fancy.”

“With machetes and machine guns.”

“Oh. How legal.”

“Thanks,” I say as a woman sees us and comes toward us, all smiles.

“Hi, can I help you?” she greets us before giving me a funny look. “You two were on that plane that went dark, weren’t you? What a mess.”

“You’re the flight attendant, right?” I ask, confused why she’s here.

“I am! I volunteer here. As a flight attendant on international flights my hours are a bit different, so on my days off, I do some volunteer work.”

“Did they ever say anything about why the lights went off?” Maddox asks.

“Nope. Everything checked out. No issues there,” she says. “Did you guys have a great time? You were going to… Japan, right?”

“Yeah. Fantastic time,” I reply.

“So what can I do for you?”

“I’m Detective Booker with the Clinton Police Department. I was hoping to talk to you about an email received under your company name.”

She looks a bit surprised. “Oh… of course. Sandra deals with the emails.” She leads us to the back where an office door is open. She peeks in and smiles at the woman. “Sandra, there’s a detective here wanting to ask about the emails?”

The woman looks startled but nods. “Yeah, of course. What can I help you with?”

Maddox passes over a printed copy of the email he’d received. “Was this sent from your company? Your email isn’t public knowledge, so we couldn’t compare addresses.”

Sandra looks it over and immediately shakes her head. “No… at first, I thought the email address was the same, but there’s an extra T in the address. This isn’t coming from us. I mean, it’s our logo and everything else looks the same, but it’s definitely not us.”

“Have you recommended this forum to anyone in the community?”

“No. We have our own in-house support groups. I’ve heard of this site, but they have no connection to us at all. Is this something I need to be concerned about? It can’t be legal for them to be using our logo to send out emails.”

“We’ll be looking into it and will contact you soon. You can talk to a lawyer about it, but we have no proof of who is sending the information.”

“Okay,” she says, sounding concerned. “Is there a way I can check up on this?”

“Of course,” Maddox responds as he gives her the information.

That’s when I get a message and glance at my phone before opening it to make sure I read the message right.

Nakamura: I need you to pick me up from the airport at six tonight. I’m on the plane now. Paid for the fancy Wi-Fi.

Me: What?

Nakamura: I need to talk in person.

Me: So you decided to fly here?

Nakamura: Sure did. I felt rather confident my head was about to roll if I stayed. If you can’t pick me up, I’ll get a taxi or something. You guys have trains where I’m going?

Me: No, I’ll get you. I’ll be there.

Maddox is finishing up, so once we’re out of the room, I inform him of Nakamura coming. “Good. Having another head in this would be best. Is Barry working with you today?”

“I wasn’t going to open today.”

“You’re just going to follow me around?”

“Sure am.”

“I’m going to be working with Avery all day, so I promise I’ll be fine.”

“I’m not leaving you.”

“Nakamura has had these ghosts follow him for weeks at this point. Same with Hikaru.”

“So? They’re not you,” I say defensively.

“I have to go into work. What if I promise not to leave? You should be safe considering they’re not following you around. I doubt you’re being targeted, but I still want someone with you.”

“I’ll go with you. The bookstore is fine staying closed.”

Maddox seems to realize that he’s not going to be winning this battle anytime soon. “Alright. If that’s what you want.”

“It is,” I say.

So I follow him to work, which ends up horribly boring. Because I’m not allowed to be involved in cases that aren’t related to me, I end up just hanging around his desk, which gives me some reprieve from the ghosts. Honestly, if I had to follow him all day while keeping the ghosts incorporeal, I probably would have passed out. When six starts to grow near, Maddox gets caught up in something, so with the threat that he can’t leave the office no matter what until I return, I ask Nicolás to go to the airport with me. For some reason, he willingly agrees. I honestly think he’d have learned better by now.

He pulls up in his car and I hop in.

“So… do I even question what’s going on now?” Nicolás asks.

“An officer from Japan is coming to speak to us.”

“He flew halfway across the world… to speak with you? Has he never heard of a cell phone? Oh my god… do they not have cell phones in Japan?”

“Shut it.”

“I’ll shut it as soon as you tell me the truth.”

“Tell him that I’ll sit on his lap if it’ll make him feel better,” Reggie says. “I’ll sit on one leg, Keaton will sit on the other.”

“I can sit on his face,” Natalie tosses out. “G-Man, where would you like to sit?”

My grandpa stares at them. “Maybe on a regular seat if that happens to be an option.”

“Reggie wants to know if he can sit on one leg, Keaton on the other, and Natalie on your face. My grandfather picked none of the above.”

Nicolás spares a glance at me. “Like… I love the way that you’re so at ease with all of this that you find it okay to tell me these things.”

“We’re just at that point in our relationship.”

“Ah. I don’t know whether to feel special or offended.”

“Good,” I say.

He drives up to the airport and it only takes a few minutes for Nakamura to come out. Nicolás hops out to open the trunk of his car for the suitcase, even though he can pop it from inside. I get out because at this point, I feel like it’d be weird for me to just be sitting in the car with my ghosts and my bird who is positive he can ride on the steering wheel.

“I’ll grab your suitcase,” Nicolás announces without even introducing himself because that’s just Nicolás.

“Well, hello there,” Nakamura says, and there’s definitely a bit of a purr to that. “I even have someone to do the heavy lifting for me.”

Nicolás’s eyebrow hitches.

“This is my brother Nicolás,” I tell him. “Nicolás, this is Nakamura… who I realize I don’t know the first name of.”

“You can call me Shion,” he says to Nicolás. “Not you, Moore. We’re not to that point yet.”

I gape at him. “I saved your life! What the hell else do I have to do to get on a first-name basis?” I ask. “It’s like one of those people who will rate a doctor’s office and it’ll be like ‘Dude saved my life and brought me back from the brink of death, three out of five stars.’”

Nakamura—or I guess Shion—laughs. “Fine, I’ll allow you to call me Shion.”

“How lovely of you,” I say sarcastically.

Shion grins as he slides into the back seat of the car, but before he can close the door, I grab it.

“Hold on.”

“Huh? Did you miss my face that much? Your fiancé’s not around to get jealous.”

“You don’t have any ghosts around you.”

He looks a bit surprised. “Oh? All I had to do was flee across the ocean without telling anyone but my boss who is being forced to babysit my hamster?”

“Is this the same boss that is a lowkey asshole?”

“Sure is, but the asshole has a soft spot for hamsters, I guess. He sure likes her a whole lot more than he likes me. So brothers, huh?”

“You’re back onto that? You’ve already moved on from the fact that your life is currently not in danger?” I ask.

“What can I say, I’m a simple man who can’t stay focused to save my life. I really don’t want to tell you that when I nearly got murdered by the car it was because I went down to the convenience store since I was in dire need of something.”

“What was that something?”

“Something very important.”

“Like?”

“Instant noodles.”

“Wasn’t it morning for you?”

“Sure was. Anyway, your brother?”

“Yes, this is my brother. He was gracious enough to come with me to pick you up. Maddox got tied up at work and didn’t want me to go alone.”

“Should I be offended that I’m like a bullet sponge for you?” Nicolás asks.

“Of course not,” I say.

“Can I smoke?” Shion asks.

“Not in my car,” Nicolás responds.

“Fine, fine. Where are we headed now?”

“Back to the police station where we’ll pick up Maddox,” I say.

“Find out anything new?”

“Nothing. Did you hear whether or not Charlotte was involved with the website?”

“I’ve heard nothing at this point. After it became rather clear that someone was out for my head, my boss pulled me off anything pertaining to it. Not that I was allowed to be involved in much when I’m just a police officer. He told me that it’d look really bad on the department if I were offed.”

“That’s a fun way to say that he cares about your well-being,” I say.

“Right? I thought so as well. So then I was like ‘I haven’t taken a vacation in like… ten years. I’m out of here.’ Then I dropped my hamster off and jumped on a plane because I’m rather intrigued. Does your brother know about your strangeness?”

“He sure does.”

“So, Nicolás, when this man here told you he could see ghosts, what did you do?” Shion asks.

“I laughed. I asked what he was smoking and went about my day. But you know what’s worse than a stranger telling you they can see dead people? The person who claims they can see dead people sharing a bedroom with you,” Nicolás says. “I couldn’t help but stare at him the entire night as he slept so soundly. I think he slept better knowing I was wary of him.”

“Oh my god, I wasn’t that bad. Why does everyone think I’m that bad? I’m not even creepy! I’m mostly normal,” I protest as Nicolás turns the wheel and Spite falls. I snatch him up and put him on my lap where he starts preening his feathers as I scratch his neck. His eyes close a bit out of bliss.

“Says the man who just mimed taking something from my side of the car and is now scratching the air,” Nicolás says, making me stop scratching the bird, much to Spite’s disgust. He reaches a foot up and grabs my hand, like he’s going to will me into continuing.

“Was it a head?” Shion asks.

“Wouldn’t be the strangest thing he’s acquired,” Nicolás responds because he’s found a new person to make fun of me with.

“It was Spite!” I say. “Naka— Shion , Spite is… a dead bird. Just… I’m not even looking at you and I can already tell you’re judging me. He’s really… he’s on my lap. And now he’s demanding scritches.”

Shion leans forward to stare at my very empty lap. “A part of me believes I might be on one of those prank shows. Like a cameraman is running after me, giggling the whole way while going ‘We got him! We finally found a sucker!’ I mean, that’s fine with me as long as I win something at the end.”

“They must be following me around too, then,” Nicolás says.

I blatantly gape at my brother. “Nicolás, you see things too! Don’t be over here telling lies and trying to make yourself seem more normal than you are!”

Shion’s attention turns to Nicolás. “Hold on, you see ghosts too?”

“No, I most definitely do not.”

What the hell! “He sees like… blurs of things that get worse when he’s near me,” I say. “Kind of like how you could feel them because you were near me. Nicolás is just much more attuned to it. And I’m going to keep petting my bird and none of you are going to have a problem with it.”

Shion just shrugs. “We’ll just agree not to voice that problem out loud. We can whisper about it when you’re not looking later.”

“Funny,” I say as I eye him while petting Spite.

After agreeing that we’ll get together for dinner some night this weekend, Nicolás drops us off at the department before heading off on his way. Before we can walk inside, Shion scurries off for a smoke.

“I really need to quit this,” he says. “My hamster doesn’t like it.”

“That’s… definitely a good reason to quit,” I reply.

“She judges me. She’s a very judgmental hamster.”

Reggie appears and looks at Shion then looks at me… then back at Shion. “Are we back in Japan?”

Keaton appears beside him before looking between us. “Definitely looks like Japan to me,” he agrees, since we’re clearly standing outside the police station.

“Ooh! We should watch some sumo wrestling,” Natalie says as she appears as well.

Reggie nods with vigor. “I saw a porn like that once.”

“Why the fuck were you watching sumo porn?” I ask before catching myself. I swear my half-asleep mind is fucking with me and keeping me from making intelligent choices.

“What was that?” Shion asks.

I shake my head. “Pretend that never happened.”

“No, no. I’d prefer not to. You like sumo porn? Did I hear that correctly?”

“Can you wind back to when you were saying something about how I saved your life? I just feel like that’d be a superior thing to focus on.”

“Yeah, but my focus is atrocious, so the moment you started talking about sumo porn, I forgot all about my near-death experience and the expiration of that pigeon.”

“Wonderful. Would you believe me if I said that I had two very strange and perverted ghosts that follow me around? And every time one says something, the other goes ‘I saw a porno like that’?”

“No. I would not. Anyway, tell me about your brother.”

“His name is Nicolás.” I’m thrilled to move on to a new topic.

“Yeah? Anything else about him?”

“He’s really stubborn.”

“Yeah? He live alone?” he asks, clearly trying to get me to admit if he’s gay and if he might be interested in Shion, but I enjoy being contrary. If he’s going to make fun of me and scrutinize me, then I’m more than happy to do the same to him.

I shake my head at his forwardness. “He does.”

“Is he dating anyone?”

“Nope.”

“I see…”

“But I don’t know if he’s bi.”

“You two don’t talk?”

“Hey, I had the hots for him growing up. He definitely caught on after a while and was super cool about it, but I’ve never seen him date a guy. I honestly don’t see him date women much, either.”

“Okay… okay… I can work with that.”

“Work with what?”

“Shhhh. Just let a man work. Is there a cabin out on a snowy mountain we can get locked in together where we can cuddle for warmth? Oh, and hopefully with only one bed. I’ll be like ‘No, no, you can have the bed. I’ll sleep on the cold and hard floor.’”

“I like hard things,” Natalie inputs.

“And then he’ll be like… it’s too cold for you on the floor,” Shion ends with as I give him a raised eyebrow.

“Those are romance tropes that don’t happen in real life.”

“Hmm…” He doesn’t seem convinced.

“Speaking of a bed, did you book somewhere to stay, or do you want to stay with us?”

“I’m confused. Is this an only one bed type of situation?”

I raise an eyebrow at his ridiculous question. “No, there are definitely two beds.”

Shion shrugs as he laughs. “Don’t look at me like that, you’re the one who seemed to think talking about a one-bed romcom was a good transition to asking me to stay with you two. I can get a hotel. I don’t want to bother you guys.”

“Trust me, you won’t be bothering us. I’m going to admit that I’m really anxious with the ghosts trailing Maddox, so it’d make me feel better if there was another officer in the house.”

“Yeah, that’s fine. I definitely won’t complain about not having to stay in a hotel,” he says.

The door to the station opens and Maddox steps out, so I give him a look the moment I see him. “What did I say about leaving without me?” I ask.

He waves his hand at me in a rather dramatic way. “I saw you were here,” he says. “I wasn’t going to leave but you were literally standing right there.”

“Are you actually some ultra-awesome fighter or something? Is that why he can’t leave without you?” Shion asks.

“I… am…” Unable to use a gun, can’t fight, can only run around with ghosts who can only control things when they’re ultra pissed. “Yes. That is correct. I have a nickname around these parts… but only those who are never seen again know it.”

“That’s so sad he thinks he’s capable of doing something,” Natalie comments.

“I know,” Keaton says. Like what the hell? I thought Keaton was on my side!

“Oh?” Maddox asks with a grin. “Is it like one of those movies where you pretend to be bad at fighting so your family doesn’t find out you were once in special ops?”

I finger-gun Maddox and wink at him. Really, I’m not sure what more proof the man would need.

“Damn, your ass is safe with that man right there,” Shion says with so much sarcasm that it’s clear no one thinks I could save anything.

“Good to see you, Nakamura.”

“His name is Shion,” I say.

Maddox nods. “I know.”

“What the hell? You told Maddox but not me?” I ask.

“Sure did,” Shion says with a smug look.

“Sure did what?” Reggie asks. “Wanna make a man meat sandwich? Yum.”

Keaton is staring at Reggie, who hesitates.

“For Natalie . I definitely wouldn’t look even if they were all naked and smooshed together and it’d be like Maddox stacked on Nicolás stacked on Hiro stacked on Shion. But… if Keaton wanted to join in, I’d totally watch… you know, for support.”

Keaton’s still staring at him.

“Keaton, my one true love, I don’t know what more you want. Did you want to be in the middle? Point to the two you want to be between.”

“I’m a one-man kind of person,” Keaton says.

Reggie hesitates. “What’s that mean? WHO’S THE ONE MAN? Is it me? Keaton? We can try out the one bed thing? The cabin thing? Anything.”

Keaton ignores him, but Reggie looks extremely smug as he leans in to whisper to me. “I think it’s me… it’s definitely me.”

Keaton really needs to give the poor man some confirmation. I think the issue is that Keaton is still fixated on his fear of falling in love. It wasn’t that long ago that he’d talked to me about the pain he’d feel if he or Reggie moved on without the other. I tried to assure him that any moment with someone was better than no moments at all, but I understand his reservation.

“You still with us, Hiro?” Shion asks.

“Oh, get used to it,” Maddox says. “Sometimes I’ll just set a timer to see how long he stares off into space. It can go on for quite impressive lengths.”

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t ignoring you guys,” I tell them. “Are we good to head home? I’ll make something for dinner and then we can talk. I bet you’re tired, Shion, so we’ll finish up early so you can get to sleep.”

“A bit,” he says.

We head out to the car where my headache begins to worsen. My mind is clearly upset about keeping these ghosts from bumping into me. But if I let them touch me, I wouldn’t be able to get within ten feet or so of Maddox, which is quite the issue when we’re wanting to be in the same room or a vehicle together.

I pop open the storage compartment between the two seats and pull out some pills.

“Your headache back?” Maddox asks.

“It’s fine,” I say.

“If it was fine, you wouldn’t be taking pills.”

“Just trying to get on top of it before it gets worse,” I assure him.

“You had that same issue when we were at the park, didn’t you?” Shion asks.

“Talking to ghosts and seeing them doesn’t cause me any issues, but touching them or making it so they can’t do certain things gives me a headache and nausea. There’s something about this… ability of mine that’s changing. It’s making it so the ghosts can interact with me more, so right now, I have to keep them from being able to touch me, which gives me a headache.”

“That’s interesting. And that’s why I felt them touch me at the subway station?”

“Yeah.”

“Wait… so the video of the park… that weird shit happening like when Ren jerked back… and the way the tree moved… that was because of your ghosts?” Shion asks.

“Yeah.”

He scrutinizes me for a moment. “And yet, I’m still suspicious as fuck.”

Comments

0 Comments
Best Newest

Contents
Settings
  • T
  • T
  • T
  • T
Font

Welcome to FullEpub

Create or log into your account to access terrific novels and protect your data

Don’t Have an account?
Click above to create an account.

lf you continue, you are agreeing to the
Terms Of Use and Privacy Policy.