Ten

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THE PARAMEDICS CAME FOR LIZ. I watched her go, asleep on the stretcher, just like I’d been taken from school. Deluxe transportation for crazy kids.

Miss Van Dop insisted I take half a sleeping pill. I gave in, but when she tried to follow it with an extra dose of my antihallucination medicine, I hid that pill under my tongue.

I hadn’t seen or heard anything since lunchtime. While that might have been the meds kicking in, I couldn’t help hoping Rae’s wild theory was right—that my “break with reality” was only a temporary mental vacation, brought on by stress and hormones. With any luck, I was already making the return trip to sanity.

I had to test that theory. So I’d save the pill and, if I saw anything, I’d take it.

I offered to help clean the room, but Mrs. Talbot took me downstairs for a glass of milk, then settled me on the sofa. I drifted off, waking when she came to trundle me back to bed, and was asleep again before I could pull up the covers.

***

I awoke to the fruity smell of Liz’s hair gel. I floated there, dreaming I was trapped in a vat of cotton candy, the sweet smell making my stomach churn as I fought through the sticky strands. Finally I broke free, eyes flying open, gulping air.

“Chloe?”

I blinked. It sounded like Liz’s voice, timid and wavering.

“Are you awake, Chloe?”

I rolled onto my side. Liz sat on the edge of her bed, wearing her Minnie Mouse nightshirt and gray socks covered with purple and orange giraffes.

She wiggled her toes. “Funky, huh? My little brother got them for me last Christmas.”

I pushed up, blinking harder. The cotton candy from the sleeping pill still encircled my brain, sticky and thick, and I couldn’t seem to focus. Sunlight streamed through the Venetian blind, making the giraffes on Liz’s socks dance as she waggled her toes.

“I had the weirdest dream last night,” she said, gaze fixed on her feet.

You and me both, I thought.

“I dreamed they took me away and I woke up in this hospital. Only I wasn’t in a bed but on a table. A cold, metal table. And there was this woman there, like a nurse, wearing one of those masks. She was bending over me. When I opened my eyes, she jumped.”

Her gaze shot my way, and she managed a tiny smile. “Kinda like you do sometimes. Like I startled her. She calls this guy over, and I ask where I am, but they just keep talking. They’re mad because I wasn’t supposed to wake up and now they don’t know what to do. I try to sit, but I’m tied down.”

Liz bunched her nightshirt in her hands, kneading it. “All of a sudden I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move, couldn’t yell, and then…” She shuddered, arms wrapping around herself. “I woke up here.”

I sat up. “I’m going to help you, Liz. Okay?”

She scuttled back on the bed, pulling her knees up. She opened her mouth, but she was shaking too badly to form words. I stood, the wood floor icy beneath my feet, and crossed over to sit beside her.

“Do you want me to try talking to your poltergeist?”

She nodded, chin drumming against her chest. “Tell it to stop. Tell it I don’t need its help. I can look after myself.”

I reached out to lay my hand on her arm. I saw my fingers make contact, but they kept moving. Kept going. Through her arm.

As I stared in horror, Liz looked down. She saw my hand pass through her. And she started to scream.