Gull Harbor Read Online Free PDF Page B

house. The ghost emptied the contents of my fridge onto my kitchen floor.” She took a step forward. “I need to get home and clean it up.”
    “I’ll walk you back,” he said, moving aside.
    “That’s not necessary.”
    He matched her stride. “I know. But I’m going to anyway. I’ll finish my run up Mill Pond Road to the shore.”
    She had no idea what to say to him, so she concentrated on not tripping as they followed the path away from the lake.
    “Claire, do you think you’re in danger?”
    Her first instinct was to insist that she wasn’t. But she wasn’t so sure anymore. “Well, this is definitely an unusual situation. It’s possible I’m just dealing with a destructive poltergeist, but I don’t think that’s it. Something bad happened in that house—I feel it. And for whatever reason, the spirit involved perceives me as a threat. Either she doesn’t understand that I want to help her, or she doesn’t care.”
    “So you know it’s female.”
    “Yes, I was able to get the name Maria. There have been other words, but I can’t get them. She…cries a lot.”
    The trail emptied them into the wooded backyard of the house. She crossed to the kitchen door, Max at her side. He peered through the window and cursed under his breath.
    “I’ll help you clean up,” he said.
    “No, I don’t think I should let anyone else in. Maria is already suspicious enough of me. You should finish your run. But…thanks.”
    She gave him a wan smile as she cracked the door and slipped inside.
    ****
    The creak of her bedroom door pulled her out of a restless sleep. She always left the door slightly ajar, but now it opened slowly on its old hinges. Claire froze, holding her breath. An indistinct shadow darted through the room as her eyes adjusted to the darkness.
    Her iPod began blaring in its dock, and she jumped up, smacking her head on the top of the wrought iron headboard. “Ow!” she cried, fumbling for the lamp switch. Light flooded the room, along with Stevie Nicks’ “Edge of Seventeen.”
    She turned off the iPod and was rewarded with two seconds of silence before the ancient television downstairs crackled to life. Great. She padded down the staircase, carefully avoiding the leaves that decorated the steps.
    The television glowed in the dim living room, and she shut it off and pulled the plug. “I’m not trying to hurt you!” she called out in frustration. “I want to help!”
    A movement near the front door caught her eye, and she spun around. Leaves rustled on the stairs as the wood moaned and creaked, and then a crash from above made her scream.
    She dashed back up to her room to find the picture hanging over her bed shattered. Her iPod dock had been hurled at the framed print; now it lay broken on her sheets, surrounded by sparkling shards of glass. She slumped against the wall as she caught her breath.
    Biting back tears, she yanked a pillow off the rocking chair and trudged back to the living room. The couch would have to serve as her bed for the rest of the night. She huddled under a blanket and stared at the ceiling, a melancholy ache seeping into her bones.
    What on earth was going on here? This kind of animosity from a spirit was unprecedented—for her, anyway. When she had helped Max’s father, the warmth and gratitude she’d felt had been overwhelming. Pulling the blanket up to her chin, she squeezed her eyes shut and tried to recapture the memory of that amazing day.
    She had hurried across campus under a brilliant October sky, bursting with her good news. It was risky going to Max’s dorm—she knew that. There was a voice that sometimes came when she was near him, and it was harder to block when they were alone.
    But a ninety-seven on the first exam! She’d managed the highest grade in a class that had baffled her in the beginning of September. If that didn’t call for a celebration, she didn’t know what did.
    She snuck through the front entrance of the dorm as another student