Ghostly (Darkly Devoted Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

the back of my mind, waiting to come out.
    Those thoughts always led to a runaway train that created a new trail of marks across my thighs from the razor I kept hidden, so I pushed them from my mind and tried to focus on something else. Just like my counselor had taught me.
    My hands shook as I reached down to pick my papers off the floor. I must have dozed off while I studied. I sighed and laid my head in my hands. The dream was harder to shake than I thought it would be.
    Music would be my only help, so I pushed the play button on my phone and waited for In This Moment to start singing, but it didn’t work. I pushed it again; sometimes the touch screen could be picky. Still, it didn’t play.
    “Stupid thing.” I slammed it back against the desk and started to shuffle through my papers.
    My door creaked open and my dad’s head popped in. “Everything okay?”
    “Yeah, why?”
    “I heard you scream.”
    “I had a nightmare.”
    “Oh.” He scrunched his face together in worry. “If you’re having nightmares again, maybe you should go back to seeing a therapist.”
    “No, Dad, I’m fine. It’s not about that stuff…” Well, it could have been, but I wasn’t sure. It was a weird dream, one I’d never had before.
    He raised an eyebrow, clearly not convinced. “Well, I’m glad you’re okay. There’s spaghetti in the fridge if you want to get some.”
    I nodded. “That sounds awesome.”
    “Okay,” he said awkwardly, still unsure of how to talk to me. Mom was always the main parent of the two, and he wasn’t sure how to handle both that new responsibility and my adulthood. After a few weird moments, he left the room.
    As I stood up to follow him down for food, my phone clicked and began to play music. It was something dark and scary, taking me back to a drearier time in my life when there was nothing left to live for. I turned around and looked at the device in shock. That definitely wasn’t the song that I was trying to get it to play. In fact, I thought I had deleted that particular song off my phone. Grabbing it from the table, I made a move to turn it off, but it stopped playing on its own. I pushed the button to turn it back on, but it flashed the dead battery sign at me.
    “Weird…” I whispered and sat it down on the table. Technology and I didn’t always get along but that hadn’t happened before. My phone had always worked like it was supposed to. It had never turned itself on without me pushing buttons or downloaded a song without me doing it. Maybe there was some weird kink in the storage system.
    I was still a little weirded out though, so I left to get my dinner before it decided to turn itself back on.

Chapter Five
     
     
     
    Over the next few weeks, Ryder continued to meet me after class to take me home. He was fun to spend time with, even though I kept boundaries up in our relationship. I didn’t want him to get the wrong idea. Seeing the look on my dad’s face every afternoon was also fun.
    Halloween was getting closer, and my excuses for not attending or having a party were running thin. 
    “Are you sure we can’t have this party at your house? It’d be so cool to have it there. You could take us on a tour and—”
    “Or I could not. It’s my house, Ryder, not a museum.”
    “Oh, okay then. Well, could you show me around then?”
    “I, uh, yeah sure. If my dad’s not home. He’s a little particular about…boys.” Before all the trouble with my ex, he was fine with me spending time with them. Now, he always had something negative to say.
    “Hey, I get it.” He walked toward the other part of the parking lot. “So, how do you like St. Augustine?”
    “It’s okay, I guess,” I mumbled. “It’s really hot.”
    “I love it. There’s not much of a winter.”
    “I don’t like too much summer. I prefer the snow.”
    He grew quiet.
    “I’ll miss the snow this year,” I whispered.
    “I haven’t seen much snow in my lifetime, but I know I don’t like it.