GHOST PORTAL (#1 GHOST PORTAL series)

FOURTEEN

Jessamine didn't want to go on this weird road trip with Avery and Jamie. She didn't want to leave Westgardens where she felt semi-safe, protected, far from the outside commotion, the busy California cities that stressed her out. And most of all, she didn't want to pursue the memories that she feared were worse than what the quick flashes had already revealed to her.

Yes, she'd wanted to fill in the blanks, at first; to find the puzzle pieces that'd fit into the cozy confines of her mind and rattle her, shake up her mundane life. But the nightmares, the nausea, the aggression—those would continue and worsen if she pushed too hard. Her mom was right, her doctor was right—memory business was dangerous business.

But she heard herself say yes to Avery, and it was too late to turn back; she'd set the wheels in motion, and there was no brake pedal, no reverse button. She had to see this through, and hopefully, this medium lady would have answers to satisfy Avery and reassure Jessamine.

Not wanting to waste any time, Avery picked Jessamine up the next morning, at Common Grounds. She hadn't showed him where she lived yet, and wasn't sure she was going to. But this was her day off, and it'd be better than spending it inside, avoiding the heat, binge-watching some TV show that wouldn't numb her thoughts well enough.

Jamie, clad in a short-sleeved, form-defining white t-shirt, nodded at her from the front seat of Avery's brand new Subaru—YouTube checks must have been working well for him—and Jessamine settled in the back, her leggings itchy on her legs, the waistband digging into her belly.

They only spoke a little during the ride; Jamie checked in on Jessamine, making sure Avery hadn't bugged her too badly. How much of what had really happened had Avery told his friend? Had he told him he'd barged into the shop, wielded fists, basically pinned her to the counter, and shoved a video in her face?

No, stop; it wasn't like that.

She couldn't help but make Avery out to be the bad guy, misinterpreting his actions, exaggerating the facts. Avery was a desperate man seeking the answers to why his friend—girlfriend, Jessamine still believed that—had disappeared and evidently left him in charge of figuring out where she was. He hadn't been violent, though he had been pushy, but in the end, he'd been right to be—Jessamine had lied to him and might have had some knowledge to provide... if her memory weren't so fickle.

As she rode on, the regular discomfort in her belly—the one that never left, not since she first saw Amy's video on the news—animated. As if a beast were in her gut, jiggling her insides, tugging on her intestines to get her attention. A few shots of pain sliced across her forehead, over her scalp; but she gritted her teeth, doing her hardest to ignore them. It was odd—she hadn't watched anything triggering, hadn't said anything that should have fed into her nausea or migraines. Why was her eerie behavior coming back now, of all times? What would this medium think of a sweaty, bent-over-in-agony woman with a messy chiffon of a bun atop her head and aggression pouring out of her pores?

Stop—it doesn't matter. Mediums are bullshit, anyway, you know that.

They passed through Santa Rosa, but didn't stop; instead, they took small, forest-road routes that took them north of the city. The deeper they ventured into the woods, the worse Jessamine's abdomen hurt, and the more that acidic pre-vomit taste filled her mouth, as if warning her she was about to break.

Though they were already on a fairly narrow road, Avery took a left onto an even narrower road, gravelly, with rocks crunching under the wheels. Where the fuck was he taking her? For the first time since they'd left Westgardens, she wondered if she'd been stupid to get into a car with him. She didn't know him, didn't know Jamie, and who was to say they were actually taking her to see this medium? What if it was a trap of some kind? A means to hurt her, or to force her into talking about Amy? Or were Avery's methods not supernatural, but instead scientific—was he driving her straight to some evil maniac's laboratory in the woods, where they'd stick needles in her and wires into her head and take her memories from her?