“But?” Gavin urged.
“But how can you explain to a child that the people they see all around them are not alive, and that if they talk to them, rumors will spread? By the time I turned ten, the neighbors had already begun to whisper about me. Ma was furious, and ordered me to stop, but how could I? The dead never leave me. They know I can help them.”
Annabelle again inhaled deeply through her nose in an attempt to calm herself. The waft of matches hung heavier on the air. Whoever's lighting flames needs to be careful. It's mighty dry out there.
“Dad tried a more… physical approach to getting me to stop,” she paused, the ghost of pain tightening her buttocks and thighs, “but it was no use. Since I was the only one who seemed to have this problem, they decided I had to go.”
Gavin's jaw dr
