“I know it’s hard to wrap your head around,” Zach murmured. “I tried my damndest to discount her, but it’ll do you good just to accept it. Ghosts are real. Kipp was here. End of story.” Then, his gaze came to mine. “It was why when you told us about Kipp being a ghost our disbelief wasn’t just about believing in spirits, but more so, why would a person not dead be a ghost?”
I nibbled my lip, and wondered the same thing. “Good question.”
Brandon stood from the chair I shoved him in and approached. He stop
ped in front of me, a little shorter than Kipp, then he gazed over my face as if to see the truth in it.
Finally after a long moment, his posture relaxed. “I’d be tempted not to believe any of this, because it’s just so far out there.” He turned to Zach. “But you’re Kipp’s partner and he trusted you, so if you believe this, then...”He paused and looked toward the hospital bed. “Is…” Raw pain showed in the depths of his gaze. “Is he all right?”
I sighed, happy to see his resolve. Maybe even surprised that he didn’t question it more. I suspected that was because Zach and Eddie had agreed with me. “He was until he up and vanished into the….” I chose my words carefully not to make this any more complicated than it had to be, “…where ghosts go.”
Brandon’s face drained of any color that remained. He rubbed his hand over the stubble on his jaw. “I know this is going to sound crazy—”
“Crazier than my saying I can see ghosts?”
The corner of his mouth arched. “No, not crazier than that.” His expression became lax. “The other night I had the sense Kipp was with me. And I thought…”
At his hesitation, I waved him on. “Spit it out. Honestly, you can’t say anything that’s more shocking than what I deal with on a daily basis.”
“I imagine that’s probably true.” After a quick exhale he continued, “I thought he’d come to tell me that I needed to let him go.”
I doubted that. Maybe he’d gone to Brandon because it’d been the only place he could think of to go. But I listened as Brandon went on, “I said aloud that I’d return to the hospital and instruct the doctors to take him off life support.”
My heart skipped and I whispered, “You told him he was still alive?” But that didn’t make any sense. If Kipp realized this, why would he go into the Netherworld? Why wouldn’t he have come and found me, told me to tell Brandon the truth just as Eddie and Zach had done.
Something wasn’t adding up. “What happened when you got here?”
“I talked to the doctors, told them my plan, and then called Zach…” His eyes went huge now. “And that’s when Zach told me I couldn’t do anything until he showed up at the hospital. That he had something to tell me first.”
“Did you say any of that aloud?” I asked.
Zach nodded. “Yeah, you did, remember. You were repeating some of my lines to me.” He gave a small smile. “Something like, what the fuck do you have to tell me at a time like this? Just get here and say your goodbyes.”
“So, Kipp heard you, which means he knew that Zach was coming and never would’ve let you take him off.” I tried to understand, piece it all together. “He knew you’d bring me here to stop you.”
And that thought made my heart hurt so much I nearly dropped to my knees. If Kipp had known, why wasn’t he here waiting for me? This was a huge discovery. And a hopeful one, too.
“What do you think that means, then?” Zach asked.
I approached the bed, and Kipp looked so peaceful. “I don’t know.”
“All right,” he continued, going into detective mode to get the facts straight. “So, he knows he’s alive, but something’s happened that made him not care enough to come and find us.”
What? Was the unasked question, but only one thing mattered. “I need to find a way to get to him. Talk to him. Something isn’t right about all this.” Even if Kipp was angry about Dane, this would’ve been a shock to him. He would’ve wanted answers. And Kipp didn’t want to die, that much I believed. So, why wasn’t his focus right now on finding a way back?
What in the hell was he doing in the Netherworld?
Silenced settled around us, but then Eddie finally broke it. “I hate to say it, but how do you plan on doing that? You going to become a ghost and go and hunt him down.”
If that’s what it takes. Gretchen’s advice hung like a heavy cloud around me—Remember, you choose your life. Do not let others tell you what is right. Follow your heart.
She’d been right. And so had Dane. Falling in love with a ghost was in every way a bad idea. One I shouldn’t have done and should have left alone. But my heart told me that I needed Kipp.
And I had to wonder if it was all connected. Was Kipp still in a coma because his soul—ghost—couldn’t find a way back into his body? That theory made sense. How could he come out of his coma, if his soul wasn’t attached to it?
But the same worry drifted up, why was Kipp not thinking about that either? Even if he was pissed at me, he’d want to live again, that I didn’t doubt for a moment.
Which meant maybe Zach was onto something. The reasons for Kipp’s disappearance seemed less likely about me and more so because of something. But what that something was, I had no idea.