Whispers at Moonrise Page 10

"Perfect sense," Holiday assured her. "You'll figure it out."

"Will I?" Angst rose inside Kylie again. "Everything in my life is a huge effing question mark. I'm tired of not being sure of anything. And then the ghost..." Kylie let the words fade.

"You have a problem with a ghost?" Holiday asked. "Is it your grandmother? Have you asked her about what your dad said?"

"No, it's not her." How much should Kylie tell Holiday? "At first, the spirit showed up looking like a zombie, hardly even had a face. I insisted she fix that. But ... then the face she got was ... someone who wasn't dead."

Holiday bit down on her lip. "Are you sure she isn't dead?"

"I'm sure." Extra sure.

"Well," Holiday continued, "it could be one of two things. The most likely answer is that you have a ghost with an identity crisis."

"Seriously? Ghosts can have an identity crisis?" Kylie asked.

"Afraid so. They may not even know what they looked like. Or they may not have liked how they looked, so they plaster the face of someone else on their ghost bodies. Most of the time, they use the face of the ghost whisperer. And seeing your face on a ghost..." Holiday shivered. "Not good."

"I can imagine," Kylie said, but she didn't want to imagine it. She already had too much on her plate. "What's the other thing it could be?"

"It's rare," Holiday said. "But did you see A Christmas Carol?"

"Yes." Kylie recalled the plot. "The Scrooge thing, right?"

"And the ghost from the future," Holiday said.

Kylie's breath hitched. "This person could be about to die?" Sure, the thought had crossed her mind, as it had Derek's, but not until Holiday said it did it feel real. No, Kylie refused to accept it. She'd seen too much death already.

"Is this one of the things I can change?" Kylie asked, panic building in her chest.

"Probably not." Holiday frowned. "Is it someone you know well?"

Kylie didn't answer. She couldn't. She just kept reminding herself that Holiday had said it was rare.

"Is it someone from Shadow Falls?" Miranda's voice piped up from behind them.

Kylie turned to see Miranda standing in the doorway behind them.

"Sorry," Miranda said. "I didn't mean to eavesdrop ... but is it someone from here?"

"No," Kylie lied.

"Oh, good." Miranda did a dramatic swipe of her brow. "Your phone's chirping." She held out the phone. "It's your mom. This is like the third time she's called in the last five minutes."

"You should call her," Holiday said. Then the camp leader's phone rang. She glanced down at the number. "It's Burnett."

Holiday and Kylie stood at the same time. Kylie reached for her phone from Miranda as Holiday answered hers.

"Hello." Holiday paused. The worry wrinkle between her eyes appeared. "About what?" Her tone had Kylie hesitating to make her own call. "Let's talk before you go. I'm on my way." Holiday hung up.

"What's wrong?" Kylie asked.

"I-I'll talk with you when I know something." Holiday took off, but her answer had Kylie suspicious that the call had something to do with her.

"That didn't sound good," Miranda said.

Just great, Kylie thought. How much more could she take?

Chapter Five

"Are you okay?" Holiday's voice stirred Kylie awake about an hour later. After trying to call her mom numerous times and leaving several messages, her mind and heart gave up and she went to bed and took a nap.

She looked at Holiday perched on the end of her bed. Sitting up, Kylie yawned and brushed her hair from her eyes. "I've been better."

"Life can be so hard sometimes."

"Tell me about it." Kylie remembered the call from Burnett. "Is everything okay? What happened?"

Holiday stared at her with a vacant expression. "Who's Burnett?"

The cold in the room sent chills spidering across Kylie's back. She blinked and focused again on the woman's features. There was no doubt about it. She was Holiday.

Anger, fear, and frustration swarmed through Kylie's chest. "Okay, let me make something clear. When I told you to fix your face, I meant for you to get your own face, not borrow one from someone else."

The spirit pressed her palms against her cheeks, and her eyes widened. "Is this not my face?"

"No, it's not! It's the face of someone I care a lot about, and, nothing personal, but I don't like seeing you wearing it."

"I'm so confused."

"You have an identity crisis," Kylie offered, wanting more than anything to believe it.

"An identity crisis," the spirit repeated.

"Yeah, and you need to figure out who you are and what it is you need from me, because I can't help you if you don't."

"It's mostly a blur." She pursed her lips in the same manner Holiday did when she was thinking really hard, and damn if the resemblance wasn't uncanny. Even the green color of her eyes matched perfectly.

"Maybe you're right," the spirit said. "I remember always feeling as if I lived in someone else's shadow."

"That's good," Kylie said, relief allowing her to breathe deeper.

"Good that I lived in someone else's shadow?" The ghost frowned. "I don't see it as a good thing."

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