A Winter of Ghosts Read Online Free PDF

back to what youwere doing. I'll come back later."
    Before either of them couldargue or ask him to say, he darted off down the hall. Kara hugged Hachiroagain, but as she did she found herself looking around the room, realizing thatsomething was out of place. Or, rather, not at all out of place. Hachiro'ssuitcase had already been stowed away, whatever clothes he had brought homealready integrated back into his school wardrobe. Even his books for the newterm were organized on his desk.
    A little tremor ofdisappointment went through her as she stepped back from him.
    "You've been home forhours."
    Hachiro's happiness fell awaylike a mask and she saw again the sadness that weighed on him. He seemedexhausted by it.
    "Since last night,actually," he confessed.
    Her heart sank. Part of her mindimmediately started making excuses for him, mostly to make herself feel better,but the hurt was too much.
    "What? You didn't. . whydidn't you tell me? Or come see me?"
    "I meant to," he said."I came back on the train. I wanted to surprise you, but somethinghappened on the train and I've been trying to make sense of it, trying tofigure out if I really saw what I think I saw."
    Kara felt a chill dance alongher spine. "What do you think you saw?"
    Hachiro looked away from her,out at the darkness beyond his window. When he looked back, his face had gonepale.
    "Jiro's ghost."
    Her breath caught in her throat.
Jiro's ghost. Oh, my God.
    "Are you sure?"
    "I'm not sure of anything,"he said. "Once I would have said it was impossible, but — "
    "But 'impossible' doesn'tmean much anymore," Kara finished for him.
    "What do you think itmeans?" Hachiro asked. "Do you think it's just. . I don't know,symptoms of the curse? That we've brushed up against so much of thesupernatural that we're more aware of it now? Or do you think it's somethingelse, that something else has come to try to finish what Kyuketsuki and theHannya started?"
    Kara shook her head. "I don'tknow. But we've got to keep our eyes open. We have to be on guard."
    "I'm always on guard thesedays."
    He took her hand, then, and shestepped into his embrace, relishing his warmth and strength and how safe shefelt in his arms. But she knew it was an illusion.
    As long as the curse remained inplace, they were never really safe.

Chapter Three
    B y Saturday morning, Kara'sschoolwork was already suffering. She sat in the back of 2-C while her homeroomteacher, the gray-eyed Mr. Sato, droned on about the drop-off in attentiveness — and thus test scores — that many students showed during winter term. Sheknew she ought to be paying attention, since he might as well have been talkingspecifically about her, but his voice was such a monotone that it lulled herinto a stupor.
    For the past few days, she hadbeen able to think of nothing but Jiro's ghost, and what it might mean. Shefelt uneasy most of the time, an awful paranoia creeping up on her in quietmoments. Hachiro had been unnerved at first, but with every hour that passed heseemed less and less sure of what he had really seen, and now he acted almostembarrassed by his ghost sighting. Kara had not witnessed it herself, so therewas no way she could know for certain what he had seen, but she had a hard timethinking the apparition had been nothing but Hachiro's imagination, and hecouldn't claim that it had been some other boy who looked like Jiro, since thekid had been barefoot. . on a train. . in the middle of winter.
    So either Hachiro hadhallucinated, or he had seen a ghost. And after what they had all experiencedover the course of the school year, the supernatural explanation seemed morethan likely.
    Though Hachiro had beenreluctant to talk about it any further, Kara had insisted they tell Miho,Sakura, and Ren. If this were indeed a sign of new supernatural activity, theyhad a right to know. They had discussed whether to mention it to Kara's fatherand Miss Aritomo — and by extension, to Principal Yamato and the police — but decided against it for the