“I heard every word you said to that little freak friend of yours, darling, don’t think I didn’t. I’m always listening. It’s your deepest darkest fear isn’t it? That Molly’s death was your fault? And you’re right, it was. You didn’t care about her little feelings anymore and now she’s gone gone gone.”

Katrina’s shrill laughter pierced the room. I stopped looking at my own reflection in the mirror and glared at her, standing behind me, laughing and giving me a sick smile. Watching her in the mirror made her ghostly figure look even more grotesque than usual. The dark pools of her eyes were made even more menacing by her stark white skin which had an eerie glow to it. Her image was shockingly solid looking today which seemed to have something to do with confidence. Today Katrina was bolder than ever before. She had me and she knew it.

“Shut the hell up, Katrina. It’s no wonder someone killed you.”

That comment certainly did stop the laughing and for a brief moment Katrina even looked hurt but that look was quickly replaced with malice.

“How do you know I was killed?”

“Lucky guess,” I answered flatly. “Now get the hell out of my head, I’m trying to get ready here.”

I had stopped back home after my sleep over at Julia’s for a shower and to change into my own clean clothes again.

“Ooh, do you have a date with that gawky kid with the glasses? The shy one? Do you want my help . . . again?” She gave me a trite little wink that made me want to clobber her.

I turned and chucked my hairbrush at her, knowing it wouldn’t do any good but it still felt right. She just stood there, smirking at me as it passed right through her and hit my bedroom wall with a thud.

“Touchy, touchy,” she sighed as she crossed her arms over her chest. “I was just offering to help you sweetie.”

“I don’t need any of your kind of help Katrina. Seriously! Stay out of my body and stay out of my head. Just stay out!” I was shouting now and I didn’t care if I sounded like a crazy person to my parents or not.

I barely saw them since we moved. When we did cross paths they treated me like something breakable, or dangerous. Then again, who knows what I did or said around them when I wasn’t myself? God, Katrina was really starting to piss me off. Now she was seriously getting in the way of my date preparations. Well, OK, it wasn’t a date-date. I was meeting Luke and Julia for a trip to the Zoo. They claimed it was beautiful and the childlike aspect of it made me want to go all the more.

“Are you going to get mad and stop talking to me Vivian? We’re not all just little figments of your imagination you know. We won’t just go away when you want us to.”

“What the hell are you talking about? Just go already!” She was trying to confuse me, or upset me, maybe both.

Completely out of patience with her I stormed out of the room and slammed the door as hard as I could, just daring her to follow me.

Quickly I headed for the stairs. I stopped right before the top step and looked straight ahead just in time to come face to face with Molly. My breath caught like a lead ball in my chest. I didn’t move, couldn’t move. Her eyes were wide and wild. She looked terrified. She shook her head violently from side to side and her mouth was soundlessly forming the word “no” over and over.

I couldn’t see Katrina coming up behind me but I sure felt her. A rush of solid cold air shoved up against my back and everything went dark. For a moment I knew nothing at all and then I was falling fast and hard down the stairs, slamming into the tiled ground below and then nothingness again.

Katrina had taken over just long enough to force me to fling myself down the steps. It wasn’t enough to kill me, just a warning. Just to show me that she could.

Coming to, I sat up and rubbed the back of my head which I had wacked pretty hard on the last step. My dad came bounding out of the living room towards me. His face was as white as a ghost and I should know; I’m kind of an expert on ghosts.

“I’m fine dad, just fell down the steps.”

He stood over me still looking ashen and scared. “Fell? You fell down the steps?” he asked me disbelievingly.

“Yea Dad, it happens to people everyday. I’ll live.” I picked myself up off the floor slowly, luckily nothing was damaged.

My dad took a step back and put one hand to his chest as if he were checking for a heart beat. “She fell down the steps,” he muttered as he turned around and left me. Odd. He was really acting strange these days. I took out my cell phone and texted Luke to let him know I was on my way.