As Dead As It Gets

“My therapist,” I repeated.

“Yeah,” he said. “Dr. Hasan.”

I closed my eyes.

“She called Dad a few weeks ago. She said your parents had asked her to call. She left her number and said she’d like to know if you ever behaved strangely.”

Another piece of the puzzle clicked into place: the reason Jared didn’t ask why I was at Harmony Valley was that he knew why. He was why.

“What did you tell her?” I whispered.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “Nothing about Laina. I just said you were talking about ghosts and acting a little off. She was very nice. She seems really committed to your care. And I think that’s great.”

“No. It’s not great.” I stood up, looking down at him in horror. “You need to leave.”

“Now you’re getting mad?” he said. “That’s not fair. I’m just trying to help you.”

“But—” I was so angry, there were stars in my vision. “If you believe that Laina’s ghost is involved in the killings—then you know I’m not crazy. If you think Laina exists—”

“Maybe if that were your only issue, Alexis,” he said. “But let’s be honest. You’ve had a little trouble letting go of your past. Besides, I like the thought of you being here. Being…protected.”

Being trapped.

I was speechless.

“I think it would be best if I came back another day.” He abruptly got up and walked to the nurse’s station. A few seconds later, Nurse Jean came over and stood above me.

“You’re getting a little worked up, I hear,” she said to me. “How about a nap before di

“Walk me to the door?” Jared said.

I did, but only because I had something to say. Before he could ring the bell to be buzzed out, I took a deep breath and said, with as much conviction as I could muster, “Jared. I’m not your soul mate. We’re not meant to be together.”

Jared was watching me with a faint smile on his face, as if I were a precocious child reciting lines from a play I didn’t understand. “That’s exactly what your sister said when she came to talk to me,” he said, touching me on the nose. “But you’re both wrong.”

Then he walked out.

Haley actually spoke to me that night. “Your boyfriend’s cute.”

“Um, yeah, you probably need to leave that subject alone,” I said.

She gave me an indignant sniff. “And he puts up with you, so he must be a saint.”

“Haley,” I said. “Trust me. You don’t want to have anything to do with him.”

“That’s what I’d say, too,” she said. “Never mind. I can get my own boyfriends.”

Ten thirty was lights-out. I lay in my buzzing twilight daze and listened to the slow, even sound of Haley’s breath in the dark. Maybe that was why I was such a zombie during the day—the sleeping pills didn’t actually seem to make me sleep. They just turned me to jelly.

Details slid out of my grasp, but the blunter points of the matter were lined up like building blocks in my head.

The last time I checked the clock before I finally managed to doze off, it said 12:38 a.m.

I dreamed about leaving Harmony Valley and going home to find my entire house—floors, walls, ceilings, every possible surface—covered in a thick layer of grit and grime, like wet coffee grounds. My parents didn’t seem to notice, but Kasey wouldn’t stop sobbing about it. I tried to console her by showing her that she could wipe it off, but when I touched it, my skin began to bubble and ooze.

Then Kasey walked away from me, bumping into things as she went—clank, thump, thud—and I looked down and saw that the skin on my legs was bubbling, too. It felt different, though—there was pressure—scraping—

I bolted upright.

Haley’s bed was empty.

Then an arm reached up over the side of my bed, the hand bent like a claw, and dragged across my pajamas like it was trying to grab hold.

For a moment I just stared, trying to figure out what exactly was happening. Then I jumped out of bed and turned on my reading light.

Haley was on the floor between the beds, flailing like a beached mermaid, her arms reaching hungrily for me. Her eyes were open and staring, her mouth slack. Her feet were completely tangled in her sheets, leaving her unable to walk or even stand up.

The floor around her was littered with things that had been on the nightstand between us, swept off by her groping arms.

My first instinct was to open the door (triggering an alert at the nurses’ station) and run away down the hall. Then I realized that this might be my only chance to gather actual information about what was going on.

I pressed my hands together, so tightly I could hardly feel my fingers, and made myself speak.

“Laina…?” I asked. “Is that you?”

Haley opened her mouth.

Hisssssssssss

I slammed back against the wall, watching her claw hungrily at the air like a horror-movie monster.

“Why are you doing this?”

She twitched in frustration. “Come closer,” she whispered.

“No,” I said.

She bared her teeth and snarled at me.

“What do you want?” I asked. “Is this about Jared? You can have him. I don’t want him. You need to leave me alone and stop hurting people.”

She turned her attention to her legs, but she was too clumsy to unwrap the sheet.

I looked around for something that could be used to defend myself if she did manage to get up off the floor. Of course, I didn’t find anything—the whole point of this place was that they didn’t keep weapons lying around.

Haley’s arms gave one last convulsive effort, and she fell back limply to the linoleum, her eyes closed.

I watched for at least a full minute, then took a step closer. “Haley?”

Nothing. Only the slow, even breathing of a sleeping girl.

One step closer.

I knelt down to touch her shoulder.

Her eyes popped open and her mouth widened like the maw of a shark going after a seal. She grabbed my hand with one of her own and yanked on me so hard I lost my balance and fell on top of her.

Her other hand grabbed for my neck, but I put out both of my arms and pushed off of her body as hard as I could, slipping out of her reach.

It took me a second to catch my breath.

She let out a hopeless sigh. “You must love him,” she hissed.

“No!” I said, my back to the wall. “No! I don’t! I never will! Go away!”

It was the wrong thing to say.

Her eyes narrowed with resentment. Then, before I knew what was happening, Haley’s hands squeezed around her own neck, the fingers and knuckles turning white. I ran over and tried to pry them away from her throat before she suffocated herself.

She was choking, gasping for air, but her hands never let up their iron grip.

And the whole time, her lips were curled into Laina’s bitter, vicious smile.

I fought to get my fingers underneath hers. I’d much rather have her try to strangle me, because then at least I could get leverage. But this was like trying to pull apart two boards that have been bolted together.

The gasping and choking grew more desperate, until Haley was deathly silent.

Time for drastic measures. I flipped her over so she was facedown. Then I hooked my elbows through hers and pushed my arms apart, dragging hers with them. Finally I managed to pull her hands off of her throat.

I waited until I heard her take a ragged breath before I relaxed.

Then I heard, in Haley’s normal voice, “What the…? What are you—”

She craned her neck to look at me, and gasped.

Oh, crap.

“Haley, wait!” I said. “It’s not what it looks like!”

I was going to tell her I could explain. But she didn’t give me a chance.

She let out a scream that could have peeled the paint from the walls.

AGENT HASAN SAT PERFECTLY STRAIGHT, her hands folded on the table in front of her. She had her usual air of detachment, but it was different, somehow—every few seconds I caught a flash of something behind her eyes.…Was it caution? Fear?