Phantoms Page 13

  Dr. Gill moved closer. A wisp of gray hair passed through Cordelia’s chin. It was like being struck by sleet.

  Kyle stopped singing.

  “It’s done!” he shouted.

  Cordelia was suddenly surrounded by dozens of videos, each wall—and the ceiling—revealing itself to be a life window. She recognized most of them from Dr. Gill’s house: a tropical island being filmed from the deck of a boat; someone making a vroom, vroom sound as he rolled a toy train past a clapping baby; Dr. Gill feeding her new husband from their tooth-shaped wedding cake. The images were disorienting, the sound deafening. The ghost’s eyes filled with bliss as she went from one wall to the next, drinking in these digitalized fragments of her life.

  What is this? Cordelia wondered. She was glad that Dr. Gill had completely forgotten about her, but that didn’t make the barrage of images any less disturbing.

  Someone banged on the door.

  “Cordelia,” Benji said. He had to shout to be heard over the videos. “They left. You can come out now.”

  Cordelia turned the doorknob. It didn’t budge. Benji tried it from his end as well with no luck.

  “It’s locked!” he exclaimed. “That’s weird. Mine stayed open. Let me flick some of these switches and see what they do!”

  The life windows started to go dark, one by one. Dr. Gill gave a silent scream of rage and took a threatening step in Cordelia’s direction.

  “Switch them back!” Cordelia screamed. “Switch them back!”

  The videos returned. Dr. Gill’s attention was immediately redirected.

  “Kyle must have the key,” Cordelia said. “You have to get it somehow.”

  “But why would he lock your door and not—”

  “I don’t know! Just get me out of here!”

  “Okay, hang tight. I’ll grab Agnes and see what we can do.”

  “Hurry!”

  Cordelia waited. Watching the videos began to make her stomach churn, so she pressed her back against a wall and focused on the floor. Waited. But still she could hear them, a dozen moments existing simultaneously: bat cracks, band plays, crowd roars, dog barks, group laughs. Cordelia clapped her hands over her ears. Waited. Hurry up hurry up HURRY UP. At least Dr. Gill seemed content for now. Cordelia could only see the ghost from behind, but her body was perfectly still as she watched a little girl ride a carousel.

  Is her neck longer?

  At first Cordelia thought it was just a trick of the constantly shifting light, but no—Dr. Gill’s neck was definitely a good six inches longer than before. That wasn’t the only difference. Instead of her bathrobe, she was now wearing a white lab coat.

  Cordelia pulled out her phone and texted Benji.

  Something weird happening get me out NOW.

  The video of the little girl changed to some kind of dental procedure. Cordelia saw a flash of gums and blood and looked away. A few moments later, she took a quick glance and saw that Dr. Gill’s neck had grown again. It was almost a foot long now. She barely looked human anymore.

  Phantom, Cordelia thought. She’s changing into a phantom.

  She slid along the wall, staying as far away as possible, until she could see part of the dentist’s face. Her head tottered from side to side on its newly elongated neck like a balloon in the wind. There was a perfect set of tiny teeth around the inside of her left eye socket.

  Cordelia returned to her previous spot on the other side of the cell and texted Benji again. This time there were many more exclamation marks.

  She waited.

  Dr. Gill didn’t move, but the pink light that surrounded her was beginning to grow dim. Cordelia suspected that when it vanished completely, the ghost’s transformation into a phantom would be complete.

  Come on, Benji. Where are you?

  She twisted the doorknob with two hands, in case she had developed superpowers since her last try, but her palms were so sweaty that she couldn’t get a good grasp. For a long time, no one moved—until Dr. Gill tilted her head, like someone hearing a distant sound. Slowly, she began to turn around.

  Cordelia’s vision blurred. She couldn’t see a thing.

  “No,” she said, smacking the spectercles like a broken vending machine. “Not now. No!”

  The blurriness was making her dizzy. Cordelia had no choice.

  She removed the spectercles.

  Dr. Gill was invisible. Maybe she was still standing in the same spot. Maybe not. There was no way to tell. Cordelia listened carefully, hoping her ears might give her a clue, and heard a strange new sound rise over the din of the life windows. It took her a moment to identify it, but when she did, Cordelia’s terror grew to new heights.

  It was a whir of a dental drill.

  There was a plink, like a pebble striking glass. The life window directly across from her shattered.

  Cordelia pounded on the door with two fists. “Help!” she screamed at the top of her lungs. “Anyone! Help! Help!”

  Two more plinks. Two more life windows. Closer this time. With fewer videos, the room grew darker. Quieter too—though the drill eagerly filled this vacated pocket of sound. Cordelia could hear it clearly now, conjuring unwelcome images of sitting in the dentist’s chair. She felt something cold pass across her lips, ghostly fingers searching for purchase, eager to expose teeth and get to work.

  Plink.

  The life window next to her went dark.

  “Help! Help!”

  The door swung open. Cordelia fell forward into the glorious light. Someone caught her. The sound of the dental drill—close, far too close—was suddenly cut off as the door slammed shut.

  “Just in time,” she said, turning around and expecting to see Benji’s face.

  It was Laurel.

  17

  Betrayal

  Without a word, Laurel led Cordelia upstairs. Kyle was leaning against the front door with his arms crossed. Cordelia had escaped the cell, but she was still trapped.

  Benji and Agnes were sitting on the floor with their heads down, like loved ones in a hospital waiting room expecting the worst. The moment Cordelia came up the stairs, their looks of concern transformed to relief. Agnes hugged her tight.

  “You’re okay!” she exclaimed. “We were so worried!”

  “Sorry, Cord,” Benji said. “It was taking us forever to get the keys, and your messages were freaking us out, so we didn’t think we could risk waiting. We told them what happened.”

  “You did the right thing,” Cordelia said. “Another few seconds in there and . . . I honestly don’t know what would have happened. But I don’t think I’m ever going to the dentist again.”

  There was a loud crashing noise as Laurel tossed a mannequin from the dining room into the living room.

  Cordelia let out a scream that would have won her the role in any horror movie. “Sorry,” she said, embarrassed. “Rough day.”

  Laurel chucked another mannequin. Its arm split off and spun across the floor. Cordelia hoped this was a sign that she would be taking out her anger on inanimate objects and not them.

  “Freaking Kenny,” Laurel said, making short work of the last mannequin. “The whole idea behind these things was to scare anyone away who wasn’t supposed to be here. Because . . . mannequins. But Kenny likes to come here on his lunch break and dress them up and move them around. He thinks he’s a riot. Every office has their Kenny, you know?”

  Cordelia didn’t know, but she nodded anyway. Laurel was scaring her right now, and she was ready to agree with anything she said.

  “Sit,” Laurel said, pointing at the upside-down milk crates set around the table. “All of you.”

  They took the mannequins’ former spots. Cordelia peeked at the cards left facedown on the table and saw that her mannequin had been sitting on a royal flush. Kenny was apparently a stickler for detail.

  “This is an unneeded complication,” Laurel said with an annoyed huff. “Why couldn’t you have just done your jobs and minded your own business? Now everything is ruined
.”

  “What did you see?” Benji asked Cordelia.

  “She’s turning ghosts into phantoms.”

  Agnes, ever the scientist, asked, “How?”

  “It was an accident,” Laurel said. “Shady Rest was my grandfather’s baby, as you know, and I wanted to bring something new to the business, my own twist. So I came up with the life windows.” Laurel’s eyes lit up. “The first day we turned them on, and Victor told us how much the ghosts loved them, Grandpa said he had never been so proud of me. I thought that was the end of it. Just a little something extra to keep our residents happy. But then they started to change. And I knew I’d happened upon something even more special than I’d suspected.”

  Benji shook his head, trying to make sense of what he had just heard. “Watching the videos changes ghosts into phantoms?”

  Laurel broke into a proud grin and nodded. Now that the kids knew the truth, she seemed eager to share the details of her discovery.

  “You know how a ghost normally turns into a phantom, right?” Laurel asked.

  “Jealousy,” said Cordelia, who was done trying to conceal her knowledge. “The more time they spend haunting this world, the more they dream of being a part of it again. Eventually, it transforms them, like a disease.”

  “Very good,” Laurel said. “There’s one problem with the old-fashioned way of doing things, though. It takes forever. Fifty, sixty, seventy years. Maybe even centuries.”

  Elijah was right after all, Cordelia thought.

  “My way works the same, more or less. All I did was accelerate the process. Our residents are hit twenty-four/seven with all the things they loved in life and can never do again. Favorite places. Favorite foods. Favorite people. Through the social-media channels, they’re forced to watch their families and loved ones move on without them. How could they not be consumed by jealousy? I don’t give them a choice in the matter.”

  Cordelia felt sick to her stomach. The ghosts weren’t being comforted by the life windows. They were being tormented by them. And she had done nothing to stop it.

  “You’re a monster,” she said.

  “I’m just giving nature a little kick in the butt to move things along,” Laurel said. “It’s the same as sprinkling fertilizer on your grass to make it grow better.”

  “Why do you put them in those horrible cells?” Cordelia asked. She turned to Benji and Agnes to explain. “Dr. Gill was in there with me. Her videos were playing everywhere. But if the life windows in her house were already turning her into a phantom, why bother with all that?”

  “We could leave the ghosts in their homes,” Laurel said. “But that would require us to capture them after they’ve turned into phantoms. As you know, that can be difficult. The phantom cell itself is a type of ghost tent, so all we have to do is turn a switch and they get sucked back into their boo-tube. Easy. Besides, that final step is always the most difficult one. It often takes months for them to turn into a phantom after they start glowing—and sometimes it never happens at all. Hitting them with all those videos at once is the little push they need to get over that final hump.”

  “If that’s the case, why not just put them in the cell from the start?” Agnes asked.

  “They need to be acclimated first, otherwise all those memories and experiences overload their fragile little systems. When they start glowing, we know they’re ready. If we put them in the phantom cell too early . . . poof! Bye, bye, ghostie. Then, when they’re good and ripe, Kyle leaves the boo-tubes in our preselected houses. Are you wondering how?” She mimed holding a phone to her ear. “It’s usually Trish who takes care of this part. She might not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but she’s quite the phone actress. It goes something like this: ‘Good afternoon, this is Lisa from PDO Contractors. Your house has been randomly selected for five hundred dollars’ worth of free home repair! Just pick a project you’d like us to take care of, and I’ll send my best handyman over there as soon as next week.’”

  “PDO,” Agnes said. She laughed bitterly. “Phantom Drop-Off.”

  “It’s the second call that seals the deal, though,” Laurel continued. “‘Hi, this is Lisa again. I’m just calling to make sure you were happy with our repairs’—they always are; we aim to please—‘Oh dear! Is everything okay? What? You have a ghost in your house? Goodness gracious! Well, I actually do know someone who can help you—but I have to warn you, they’re not cheap. What? Money is no object? Let me see if I can find that number. . . .’”

  “It’s almost four,” Kyle said, checking his phone. “These kids are going to be picked up soon. We need a decision.”

  Cordelia didn’t like the sound of that. “Decision about what?” she asked.

  Laurel put her hands on her hips. “I don’t appreciate the way you three are looking at me right now, like I’m the bad guy or something. That’s not fair. Do you think I want things to be like this? I would have been so much happier continuing Grandpa’s business the way he always ran it. But he didn’t leave me any money! At the end, he was writing checks to twenty charities a day, just trying to get rid of it all. He donated fifteen thousand dollars to help save the saola!”

  “What’s a saola?” Benji asked.

  “Exactly! I adored my grandfather, and I want nothing more than to preserve his vision by helping as many ghosts as possible. But nothing comes without a cost.”

  “You’re not helping ghosts,” Cordelia said. “You’re turning them into monsters.”

  “For now,” Laurel said. “Once I have enough to keep the money-making division of Shady Rest running smoothly, I’ll focus on rescue operations again. But we have to keep the coffers full. I have a staff to pay and new houses to build.” She took the deck of cards off the table and idly began to shuffle them. “So, now you know where I stand. The next decision is entirely yours. Do you want to be a part of this or not?”

  “Is that what you asked Victor when he found out what you were really doing here?” Cordelia asked—and immediately wished she could take the words back. Was bringing up Victor—who had mysteriously vanished—really the best idea right now?

  Laurel threw her head back and laughed.

  “Do you honestly think Victor was shocked and offended by the idea of hurting the ghosts? Please. I couldn’t have created this system without his help. He was in it from the start. Don’t paint him as an innocent here.”

  “Then why did he leave?”

  “Because in the end, he didn’t care about Grandpa’s vision. All Victor wanted was money. And that’s not why I’m here. I truly want to help the ghosts. The phantoms are just an end to a beautiful means.”

  “I don’t believe you,” Cordelia said. “I’ve seen all your expensive jewelry. The nice car you drive.”

  “Believe what you want. You in or out?”

  “What happens if we say no?” Benji asked.

  “Then I replace you. It’s not like you two are the only people in the world who can see ghosts. I had a feeling things might end up this way, so I already have a few feelers out there.”

  “Three minutes,” Kyle said.

  “You seriously expect us to believe that you’re just going to let us go?” Cordelia asked.

  “Why not? You know as well as I do that telling anyone is pointless—they’ll never believe you, and there’s no way to prove it.” Laurel rolled her eyes. “Did you think I was going to murder you or something? Seriously, Cordelia. Could you be any more dramatic? I’m practical, not evil.”

  “Laurel . . .” Kyle said.

  “I know, I know! Their parents. So what’s it going to be, kids?”

  Agnes leaned forward. “First of all, a saola is a mammal that lives in Vietnam and is sometimes referred to as the Asian unicorn. Second, we all quit.”

  The kids got to their feet. Kyle, remarkably, opened the front door and stepped to the side. It seemed as though the decision really was theirs to make. Cordelia knew they would be back to help the ghosts, but after they talked to Dr. Roqueni. R
ight now, she just wanted to get out of there.

  Cordelia had just stepped outside when she noticed that Benji was no longer with them. She turned around and saw him standing in the middle of the living room with a pensive expression.

  “Benji?” she asked.

  “I think I’m going to keep working here.”

  Cordelia waited for the punch line, but his face was as serious as she’d ever seen it.

  “You’ve heard what she’s doing,” Cordelia said. “They’re changing ghosts into phantoms! You can’t be okay with that!”

  “I’m not. But I can learn to live with it.”

  “Benji!”

  “My family really needs the money, Cordelia. They’re counting on me!”

  “You said things were better.”

  “I lied, okay? I didn’t want you to feel bad. Things are worse than ever. The only thing that’s keeping us afloat is the money I make here. I can’t stop. I just can’t.”

  Laurel, who had been watching their exchange with clear amusement, said, “Why don’t you run along, Cordelia? Tell your mom or dad that I’ll give Benji a lift home later. We have to talk about some changes we’ll be making now that he’s working solo.” She wrapped an arm around his shoulder. “How does a raise sound, for starters?”

  Benji brightened. “That sounds good.”

  Agnes gave Benji a final glare of her own and led Cordelia down the front walk. “Come on,” Agnes said. “He’s made his choice. There’s nothing we can do about it.” Cordelia bit her lower lip, fighting to keep the tears from streaming down her face. She couldn’t believe this was actually happening.

  They started across the street. Laurel, Kyle, and Benji emerged from the house. Laurel was talking to Benji in a soft voice.

  Cordelia stopped in the middle of the street and faced them.