Ghost Walk Read Online Free PDF Page A

the wind
in his amazing hair, and just loved being Jamie Riordan.
    Even
a normal girl like Grace had been taken in by the charisma of the man.  His
eyes in that picture had glinted with adventure and charm.  They promised that he
was Robin Hood.  Jack Sparrow.  Dean Moriarty.
    …And
those same eyes were staring at her right now.
    Oh
God.
    This
wasn’t happening again.  She wasn’t going to lose her mind again .  No
way.  If she just told herself that he wasn’t real and willed him away, he’d
disappear.
    Except
the guy didn’t disappear.
    Grace’s
vision waivered in panic and she began to hyperventilate.  Was she going
crazy?  She had to be.  For the past year, she’d been terrified of this and now
it was finally happening.  Insanity.  She took a staggering step backwards, her
mind racing.  The stress had finally fried her circuits and now she was
hallucinating infamous historical figures.
    “I
see ya are becoming vexed, but you must listen to me.”  The guy who looked waaay too much like Jamie Riordan stepped closer to her, quickly closing the distance
she’d created.  His gaze was frantic now, like he was afraid to even blink for
fear she’d disappear.  “You’re the one I’ve been waiting for.  You can’t be
leaving me, lass.  I need your help.”
    She
gave her head a frenzied shake.  “You aren’t real.”  She whispered, her eyes
locked on his way-too-real-seeming face.  “This isn’t happening.  I just need
to think about peaceful green cornfields and you’ll go away.”  Her parents’
farm was still the place she returned to in her mind when she was stressed. 
Her therapist had told her it was all about “centering” herself, but mostly it
was about Grace wanting to recapture an elusive feeling of safety.
    “ Cornfields?  
Are ya mad?”
    “Apparently, yes!   I am!  I’m seeing you and you’re not really here!”
    Blackbeard
waved that aside.  “Of course I’m here.  Donea be daft.  We must talk . 
Well, I must talk and you must listen.  I have been screaming for
someone to listen to me for centuries.”
    “Peaceful
green cornfields.  Peaceful green cornfields.  Peaceful green… Why aren’t
you going away! ”
    “I’m
not going anywhere! ”  He loomed over Grace, like he was instinctively
trying to get as close to her as he could.  “Two hundred years I’ve waited in
this dismal place.  I need help and you’re here to provide it.  I’m not
leaving your side, woman.”
    Grace
squeezed her eyes shut and tried harder to find her calm place.  The pressure
of not finding it just added to her growing anxiety and made it all the more
impossible find.  “Peacefulgreencornfields, peacefulgreencornfields, peacefulgreencornfields.”
    “Would
you bloody stop that?!”
    “Are
we sure this is part of the tour?”  The frat guy’s girlfriend asked no one in
particular.  “The guide lady is acting kinda wiggy.”
    The
rest of the group clearly agreed with that diagnoses, edging away from Grace
like she might be contagious.  Their wary looks weren’t helping her feel frigging
peaceful!
    “I’m
not insane.”  She snapped at them, mostly trying to convince herself.  “I just
can’t be around stress.  That’s what this is about.  I’m under too much
stress and it’s manifesting in some kind of Colonial-era delusion.”
    “ You’re feeling stressed?  Try being dead, woman!”
    “You’re
not even real!  I told you, you’re just a delusion .  And don’t call me
‘woman!’”
    The
tour group exchanged nervous looks, wondering if they should make a run for it.
    “Listen
to me.”  The delusion laid a hand against his chest, obviously trying to appear
sincere.  “This is really happening.  It i s .  I’ll explain it to you,
alright?”  He nodded like he had some magic words that would suddenly make
everything logical and clear.  If the real Jamie Riordan had been half so convincingly
earnest, the lynch-mob never would have