"No. A message from Sara."
Kylie stared at her pizza and got the strangest feeling. "Mom, would you mind if I went to see Sara after lunch?"
"Hi, Kylie," Mrs. Jetton said an hour later. "Sara will be thrilled to see you."
Kylie studied Sara's mom's expression. Her eyes looked red and her face pale. The somber mood filling the air ratcheted up Kylie's concern for her former best friend.
"She's in her room," Mrs. Jetton said.
Kylie almost asked what was wrong, but the chill running down her spine prevented her from talking. That short walk from the living room to Sara's door filled Kylie's head with dozens of memories. And for some odd reason, those memories brought tears to her eyes.
"You have to save her. You have to save her." The ghost's words vibrated in Kylie's head. She swallowed and told herself she was overreacting, that everything was fine.
Sara's door stood ajar and when Kylie saw Sara, Kylie gasped. Sara looked ... awful. So pale that Kylie watched her chest to make sure she was breathing.
Sara opened her eyes. "She told you, didn't she?"
Kylie used both hands to wipe the tears from her cheeks. "Told me what?"
"What the doctor ... If she didn't ... why are you crying?"
"Happy to see you." She tried to smile.
"You always were a lousy liar." Sara pulled the covers up. "Mom, can you please turn down the air? I'm freezing in here."
"Honey, I already did," her mom called from the living room. "I phoned the electrician. Something's wrong with the AC again."
A photo album on Sara's bedside table plopped to the floor.
Kylie picked it up. She wasn't surprised when she saw the face staring up from the album. Then she looked at the foot of Sara's bed at the same spirit of the woman. She'd lost the spaghetti and the bloodstained gown, but her expression was just as dire as before.
"Who is this?" Kylie passed her finger over the face. Sara leaned over to see. It appeared to hurt her to move. "My grandma. She died when I was four. Of the same kind of cancer. Isn't that freaky?"
Cancer. The word brought another gasp to Kylie's lungs and she had to work to keep her lips from trembling. She looked at the spirit. "I can't fix this."
"Yes, you can!"
"Can't fix what?" Sara looked at the album as if Kylie had broken something.
"Nothing." Kylie sat down beside Sara. The memories of them on this bed, sharing secrets, laughing at the stupidest things, filled Kylie's head.
She swallowed emotions that threatened to overpower her. "Do you remember when we laid here and practiced kissing mirrors before the sixth-grade dance?"
Sara smiled. "Yeah." She leaned on the pillow and closed her eyes. Her long brown hair looked thinner and it lacked its normal luster. The silence grew longer. Sadder.
Kylie stroked Sara's arm. "What did the doctor say?"
Chapter Thirty-two
Sara opened her eyes. "The oncologist said he'd try to get me into experimental trials, but ... he thinks it's too late." A sheen of tears filled Sara's eyes. "Mom says I'm doing it, but..." Sara swallowed. "I don't want to die." Her lips trembled. "But I can still hear my mom saying dozens of times that if she ever got cancer, she'd rather die than go through what they put her mama through. She said they butchered her mom. I don't want to deal with that. The one surgery was bad enough."
Kylie recalled the dreams of knives coming at her. She looked at Sara's abdomen. "When did you have surgery?"
"Last week," Sara answered. "I'd missed so many periods. The clinic doctor felt a mass when she was checking me. Two days later, I was in the hospital."
"Why didn't you call me?"
Sara bit down on her lip. "I did. I didn't tell you that I thought I had cancer, but..."
Guilt filled Kylie's chest. The ghost, Sara's grandmother, had been trying to get her to listen to the message. The same message she had played earlier.
"Couldn't they take it out?"
Sara shook her head. "There's too much. It's everywhere."
The ache in Kylie's heart doubled. She recalled Trey's message that had been sent to everyone at the B&B. Why had the ghost sent Trey's message? "Trey?"
Sara looked down at her hands. "I'm sorry. I swear I didn't mean it to happen. I'd drunk too much. He'd drunk too much."
"What?" Kylie asked.
Sara looked up. "Shit. He hasn't told you, has he?"
It took only a second to digest what Sara said-it took less time for Kylie to know it wasn't important.
"I asked him to tell you because I couldn't stand it. He promised he would."
"He tried. I didn't take his calls. But I don't care, Sara." She took Sara's hand in hers and squeezed. "Trey and I are ... so over. You're what's important."
Another tear crawled down Sara's pale cheek. "You're not just saying that because I'm dying, are you?" Sara tried to make it a joke. Kylie didn't laugh. "No."
Sara pulled her hand out of Kylie's. "You're hot."
"You can do it." The ghost's voice came right behind Kylie's ear. "It's your touch."
Kylie looked back at the spirit. "Do you mean ... like Helen?"
"What?" Sara asked.
Kylie continued to stare at the ghost.
"Do it," the ghost said. "Please. Heal her. Before it's too late."
"I don't know how," Kylie muttered.
"Am I hallucinating or are you talking to yourself?" Sara asked. "I mean, I am on some pretty good drugs right now."
Kylie looked back at Sara. "No." She felt the cold of the ghost inch closer.
"No, I'm not hallucinating or no, you're not talking to yourself?"
"No to both." Kylie tried to think. Could she really do this? She looked down at Sara's grandmother's picture. "What's her name?"
"Fanny Mildred Bogart." Sara laughed. "I'm glad Mama didn't name me after her." It obviously hurt Sara to laugh because she moaned and dropped back on the pillow. When she opened her eyes, she stared at the photograph. "Do you want to hear something crazy?"
"What?" Kylie asked, but she thought she already knew what Sara was going to say.
"Sometimes I think she's here."
"She is here." Kylie took Sara's hand again and struggled to know how much to tell Sara.
Sara chuckled. "Now you believe in ghosts, huh?"
"Yup." Kylie inhaled. "You'd be surprised what I believe in now."