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."
"No, I ... I mean it's good you can remember stuff." And right then, Kylie remembered something, too. One quick and easy way to assure herself that this spirit wasn't Holiday Brandon. Kylie tightened her eyes and focused on the ghost's forehead.
The whimsical pattern, like the face, matched Holiday's to a T. Kylie's chest swelled with concern. "You're a fae?"
The spirit propped one bent knee up across her leg, put her elbow on her knee, and then dropped her chin in the palm of her hand. The gesture was so Holiday that Kylie's heart skipped a beat.
"Yup, that's what I am." She tightened her brows and gazed at Kylie. "Oh, my, what are you?"
Kylie hesitated. "I'm a ... chameleon."
The spirit made a face. "You're a lizard?"
Kylie frowned, but her concern wasn't about herself. "Do you remember your name?" Kylie held her breath.
The spirit met Kylie's eyes and her brow tightened in puzzlement. Then she stood up and walked to Kylie's window. Staring out in silence, she finally turned around. "Someone is looking for you."
"Do you remember your name?" Kylie repeated her question.
Pulling her red hair over her shoulder, the spirit twirled it into a rope. The exact same way Kylie had watched Holiday do just a little bit ago. The ghost looked back. "They want you to come to them."
Kylie's chest tightened a bit. "Let's talk about you right now," Kylie said, making a mental decision to focus on one problem at a time.
"But you are so much more interesting. There's all this mystery around you. A lot of questions to be answered. I can feel your emotions, you know. That's what faes do. We feel what other people feel."
"I know," Kylie said, frustrated and scared about the spirit's real identity, but she fought the angst back so she could learn more. Because if she was Holiday, then maybe Kylie could do something, change something to prevent ...
"I used to be able to touch people and make them feel better, but that went away."
"Why did it go away?" Kylie asked.
She frowned. "I'm not completely sure. I think I did something bad." The ghost's bright green eyes filled with tears. "I hurt people."
Kylie sensed the spirit's pain, her remorse, but she couldn't deny feeling a bit of reprieve from the confession. Holiday wouldn't do anything wrong. She was too good-hearted. Cared too much.
"Maybe you didn't mean to hurt them," Kylie said, wanting to help. She wrapped her arms around herself as protection against the chill that accompanied a spiritual being.
"I don't know. I think I was angry." The spirit stared at the wall as if lost in thought and then she reached up and touched her throat.
Kylie noticed the painful-looking bruises around the ghost's neck.
"What happened to you?" Kylie asked, a knot forming in her throat at the thought of being choked to death.
The woman looked back at Kylie, her eyes still wet with emotion. "I'm dead."
Kylie nodded. "I know." She waited a second. "What happened?"
The spirit shook her head. "It's like bits and pieces of a bad nightmare. But I think it has something to do with why I'm here. I mean, I should have left by now ... We ... supernaturals don't hang around." She looked down and her image started to fade. "I need to go figure this out. I think it's important."
"I'll help you any way I can," Kylie said, remembering Holiday saying the same thing about very few non-humans hanging around after they died. "If you can tell me your name, I might be able to find something on the computer that will help us."
The spirit moved to the window and touched the pane of glass. A layer of ice appeared on the window, the frost blurring the view outside. "You'd better start figuring out your own problems, too."
"I'm trying," Kylie said, again seeing Holiday's personality in the spirit and not liking it. "What's your name?" Kylie insisted.
The spirit's figure faded at the same rate as the ice on the window. Then she spoke. "I think it's Hannah or Holly. Something like that."
"No," Kylie said, her own voice little more than a whisper.
She then grabbed a clip and put her hair up, determined to go see Holiday, not even sure what she would or wouldn't tell the camp leader. Kylie just needed to see Holiday alive.
Kylie moved out of her room and found the main room in the cabin empty. She started for the door and stopped. Who was supposed to be shadowing her? Not that Kylie really cared. She was just going to the office, but she'd already gotten in trouble once with Burnett about the shadowing business, and she didn't want to go for two.
"Della?" she called out.
No answer came back. Was something wrong?
"Hey." Miranda popped out of her bedroom a second later. "Della had a meeting with Burnett. I'm on shadowing duty." She said it with pride.
Kylie nodded. "Good. Let's go to the office."
"Why?"
"Because I want to talk to Holiday."
"About what?"
"About something."
"Got a 'tude, do ya?" Miranda made a face as if she'd just had to swallow something really disgusting.
Kylie started to smart back, but caught herself. It was understandable that she was in a bad mood, but it didn't give her the right to take it out on her friends. "I'm sorry. I know I've been cranky today. But I've just got a lot of crap on my plate."
"I know," Miranda said in an apologetic tone. "The funeral put us all in a bad mood. But then with your whole lizard crisis, I mean, I'd be in an extra-bad mood if somebody told me that I was a reptile. Which is why I haven't raised my pinky at you one time."