Read Ashes to Ashes for Free Online Page A

hugs his shoulders. He has a rangy, athletic build.
    â€œHow old are you?” he asks abruptly.
    â€œSixteen,” I say. “You?”
    â€œEighteen forever.”
    His intense gaze slams into mine. A chill sweeps through me.
    When he sees me shiver, he crouches near me, and I realize that warmth radiates, pulses, from his body. “You’re warm. Or is that another phantom sensation?”
    â€œIt’s real. The energy within souls generates heat. Sometimes it can provide comfort.”
    â€œI thought ghosts were supposed to be cold.”
    In one smooth motion, Thatcher unfolds his body and stands up. “You can’t believe everything you hear on Earth.”
    I slowly push myself to my feet, my legs unsteady. “Earth,” I say, and it sounds so weird. Am I not on Earth ? “I want to go home. I have to see my dad, I have to—”
    â€œIt won’t be the same. You must understand that. You can’t interact with the Living.”
    â€œThe Living? Oh, God, this is such a nightmare.”
    â€œIt might prove helpful if we start your haunting,” he says quietly.
    â€œSo what—now I’m supposed to rattle chains and scare people, try to be featured on Ghost Hunters or something?”
    I can tell that he doesn’t want to, but he can’t help himself. He smiles. If he’d walked through the door with that grin on his face, I might not have taken an immediate dislike to him and this place. It’s comforting, familiar. “That’s not what haunting is.”
    â€œWhat is it then?”
    â€œIt’s easier to understand if I show you. Please, come with me.”
    â€œWhere are we going?”
    His smile withers and along with it our momentary connection. I sense that he regrets both, that they were a mistake that won’t happen again. “It’ll make everything easier on both of us if you’ll just trust me.” He starts walking away from me.
    Peering through the fog, I see nowhere, nothing. An endless sea of gray mist and emptiness. I follow him, moving one foot in front of the other in a hopeless march.
    He leads me toward the doorway through which he came earlier, and I see the kaleidoscope of color rippling again.
    â€œThis is a portal —it’s a gateway to another dimension,” he explains. His gaze lands on me again, but I don’t react. I have the sense that I’m trapped in a science fiction movie.
    â€œWe live in three dimensions on Earth, but the Prism isn’t restricted that way,” he continues, void of emotion, a teacher who has no passion for the lesson. So why did he volunteer to be the one to teach it?
    I can’t focus. I’m thinking about the last movie I saw—a 3D horror film with Nick. He tried to be the big strong boyfriend, but when the killer jumped out at a totally unexpected moment, he screamed and spilled our entire bag of popcorn. We both laughed in that silent-shake way that you do when you’re trying to be quiet, and then he reached for my hand. “Never tell anyone about that sound I just made,” he whispered. “I promise,” I said, leaning in to kiss him. I was so happy, so content that day.
    â€œ Callie, are you listening ? ” Thatcher must have kept talking while I was lost in a memory.
    I glare at him. “I don’t want to be here.”
    â€œThen pay attention to what I’m telling you.”
    â€œSo you’re going to teach me how to escape this place?”
    â€œNot escape , but move beyond it.”
    What does that mean?
    He disappears through the portal, and I realize that if I don’t go, I might be stuck in this misty no-man’s-land. Alone. Who knows if it’s safe? If it were, would I need someone to watch over me?
    The portal looks like a gathering of all the sunspots I saw around us earlier—it twinkles and shifts, and I wonder if the Prism is called that because it’s like one of those