Her face didn’t change. Not entirely. Just a tiny twitch in the corners of her lips.
“Ian made choices,” she said. “We all live with them.”
Across the table, Lenore’s head moved up. Her blue eyes locked onto mine.
“She talks to him,” she whispered.
Vivian froze.
Lenore didn’t break her stare.
“In the mirror,” she said. “She said his name.”
I stood slowly. My fingers curled around the edge of the table.
“Who said his name?” I asked.
“The girl who doesn’t leave,” Lenore said. Her voice was too calm. “The one in white. With the cut throat.”
Vivian’s voice sliced in. “That’s enough.”
But Lenore kept going. “She lives in the walls. She watches you sleep. And she said your brother is still here.”
Vivian slammed her hand down on the table. The plates rattled. The room went still.
She rose, smoothed the front of her dress, and offered me that same fake smile she always did when she wanted control.
“Dorian, take Lenore outside. The garden needs tending.”
I looked at the girl. She didn’t move.
“She needs the sun,” Vivian added. “And you need a shovel.”
So we did. She gently got up, and I followed. We walked in silence through the back door and down the stone path until we reached the gazebo. I sat on the stone edge, and Lenore stopped a few feet away, turned slowly, and then sat beside me without a word.
Red roses were all around us. Too red. Like they had fed on more than just soil. All of them faced the house.
Lenore looked toward the barn in the distance, then spoke so quietly I almost missed it.
“Sometimes I hear their screams.”
She shook her head, eyes fixed. “But no one believes me.”
I looked at her, at those ocean-blue eyes, and said, “I believe you.”
She swallowed hard.
“Do you know,” she whispered, “do you know why they don’t leave?”
I shook my head. “Maybe it’s the house. Maybe it’s just our minds messing with us.”
“Does that mean I’m crazy?” she asked, blinking twice, like she already believed the answer.
I looked back at the house.
“Aren’t we all?”
She folded her arms. “I think ghosts are just afraid to leave. And the living are afraid to stay.”
