Ruby's Ghost by Shona Husk Page A

to wake up. How badly was he hurt? She remembered her injuries and her parents’ faces as they’d tried to explain to her how serious it was. Maybe not knowing was a blessing. At least when he woke up he’d be on the way to healing…if he woke up.
    Tate was actually handling the ghost thing quiet well. He was dealing with the death of Ruby very well too. From the looks of the comments no one else knew it was over. Had it been a sudden fight and they were going to get back together or was it really over? It probably didn’t matter now.
    She wrote down the details of the hospital he was at, even though the person had posted family only at the moment as he was in intensive care, then she closed Facebook. For a moment she sat staring at the screen. She wasn’t in the mood to study. Any other week she would have welcomed the distraction but this week she needed to focus and cram. One hour, then she would get up and have a stretch. She was the master of self-bribery.
    Fifty minutes later she was halfway through an old exam paper and was feeling pretty happy with her achievements. It was much easier to try and answer the questions than to study endless notes. Maybe she could pull this off after all. And tomorrow she’d be convinced she’d fail because she wasn’t doing enough studying. She had to pass; she couldn’t afford to lose the car, and most of all she didn’t want to let her parents down. They’d wanted her to go straight to college, but she’d convinced them a year off was beneficial; however they might have been right. In the year away, she’d gotten out of the study habit, and it had taken her months to get back into it.
    Sitting here for eight hours straight wasn’t going to help. It was coffee time. She rubbed her hands together—and maybe turn-on-the-heater time. The temperature was really starting to drop. Who knew a ghost could really cool the place down so fast? Not that she’d seen Tate since he’d dropped out of her room. Maybe he was hanging out in the lounge room or the kitchen. Anywhere was healthier than lingering at the accident scene and dwelling over Ruby. A shiver ran down her spine, but she brushed off the warning.
    The house was cold and echoed around her as she jogged down the stairs, determined to get some circulation happening. In the kitchen she put on the kettle. Her breath clouded in front of her. Was it really that cold in here? She zipped up her hoodie and held her hands out to the stainless steel kettle to warm them up a little. A shadow moved behind her.
    Eloise spun, expecting to see Tate, but there was no one there. The bubbling of the water in the kettle quickened to match her racing heart. Then the kettle clicked off and there was silence. Absolute quiet. The hair along her arms and up the back of her neck prickled.
    “Hello?” Her voice quavered. She swallowed and waited.
    Nothing.
    She shook her head. One ghost and she was weirding herself out. But as she picked up the kettle she saw the shadow move in its surface again. This time she didn’t turn, she tried to ignore whatever it was, whoever it was. It certainly wasn’t Tate. It was one thing to see his spirit but another to have ghosts around that couldn’t really be seen, only sensed. Maybe it was nothing, just a dirty smudge. Except dirty smudges shouldn’t move over the surface and they certainly didn’t give off an air of infuriation.
    She could swear there was someone standing behind her, arms crossed, eyebrows raised, ready to demand an explanation. An explanation for what? With careful determination, she stirred the sugar into her coffee. She would not get freaked out by a shadowy smudge.
    With her cup in hand, she went outside where it was warmer. As she closed the glass sliding door the shadow was watching her. Eloise blinked and tried to pretend nothing was amiss, even though her heart was pounding loudly enough for the neighbors to hear.
    Slowly she walked to the outdoor chairs, one eye on the windows.