Above the Vaulted Sky - Page 72

                ‘Intrigued as to why boob isn’t his style, but go on,’ she says.

                ‘Just Graham was always interested in ghosts. More to annoy his parents than anything.’

                I walk over to a cabinet over to the left of the TV screen. The sounds of gunfire from Graham’s game drown out all sound in the room. It’s strange to be in the room with my friend and not making contact. It almost feels as though he’s ignoring me.

                I reach up to the top of the cabinet, to a pile of old board games with dust caked over them.

                ‘So you came down here a lot then?’ Penny asks. ‘Before you died?’

                ‘We had a bit of a falling out,’ I say, ‘after I got together with Penny. I was down here all the time before that.’

                ‘I see,’ she says with a knowing smile. ‘Same old story, spend enough time together to be married, then he gets jealous when you stop paying him attention.’

                ‘Well – I –‘ I stutter.

                ‘Say no more, Easton,’ she says, like a policeman who has me dead to rights.

                ‘We made up,’ I say. ‘It was never the same though.’

                I turn back to the board games. ‘We used to read all these stories about ghosts,’ I continue, eager to change the subject. ‘There’s – um – this graphic novel…’

                Elle raises her eyebrows in an accusing manner.

                ‘Alright, comic,’ I confess. ‘Anyway, it’s about ghosts and we used to read it all the time. In the end, we decided to try contacting some spirits for ourselves.’ I point out one particularly dusty box right on the top. ‘This was a couple of years ago now, but it’s still there.’

                Elle’s eyes widen. ‘Oh I don’t know Easton,’ she says. ‘Those things are bad. I don’t really consider myself superstitious, but there’s so many bad stories.’

                ‘But we are the stories,’ I say. ‘We can see all the dead people around and there’s nothing that resembles a bad spirit, unless you have something to tell me.’

                ‘But there’s other ways, we could write something on a piece of paper…’

                ‘He won’t be off that thing for hours yet,’ I say, nodding at the games console. ‘Come on, Elle.’ I used my best persuasive voice. ‘You can’t solve a mystery without taking a few risks. This will get his attention.’

                She relents. ‘Alright,’ she says. ‘But if we get haunted, I swear to God, I’m coming for you.’

                I smile. ‘We’ll be fine,’ I say.