Unbreakable Read Online Free Page B

Jared.
    “I think I’ve seen it before—the ghost.”
    “When?” Jared sounded worried.
    “A month ago, in the cemetery a few blocks from here.” More whispering. “What did it want with me?”
    They were silent for a moment before Lukas answered, “She was using the cat to steal your breath. Vengeance spirits are angry or confused about their deaths, so they attack the living.”
    The image of Elvis crouched on my mom’s chest flashed through my mind, and a wave of nausea racked my body. She didn’t die of a heart attack.
    I barely made it to the toilet before my stomach lurched.
    Someone knocked softly. “You okay?”
    My mom was dead, and according to two strangers, an angry spirit had killed her—the same one that had just tried to kill me.
    “How did the spirit get inside my cat?” It sounded ridiculous. But I could still feel the unbearable pressure on my chest.
    “Most likely by grave jumping. An animal walks over a fresh grave and the spirit hitches a ride.” It was Jared, the one with the gun.
    I pictured Elvis walking over the girl’s grave and her ghostly hand shooting up from the ground and grabbing his furry leg. They couldn’t be serious. “Sounds like a crazy superstition.”
    “That superstition almost killed you,” Jared said.
    I pressed the heels of my hands against my eyes. “Well, I’m fine now. You can go.”
    “It’s not safe, Kennedy. You should come with us.”
    Regardless of what happened in my room, two guys had broken into my house and they were standing in the hallway, armed. I glanced at the window. The last streaks of darkness were fading from the sky, but the sidewalks remained empty.
    “I have my cell,” I bluffed. “Leave, or I’m calling the police.”
    “Will you—”
    “I’m dialing.”
    Eventually, I heard the stairs creak.
    I didn’t come out until the front door slammed. I leaned against the wall, staring at my bedroom door, as a question fought its way from the back of my mind.
    How did they know my name?

5. DEAD ENDS
    T he girl’s tortured expression and the handprints around her neck kept coming back to me, no matter how loud I blasted Velvet Revolver. Even worse, when it wasn’t her face, it was my mother’s empty stare.
    My mom was dead because of that girl—or something like her.
    The thought had sent me tearing out of the house as soon as the guys left. I had spent hours looking for Elvis, but there was no sign of him. I doubted he would come back to the house. At least he was alive.
    Now I was driving around aimlessly on a Saturday morning with nowhere to go.
    I almost called Elle, but what could I say? Two guys broke into my house and shot a ghost that tried to kill me?I’m too scared to go home and—oh, did I mention that I’ve lost all touch with reality?
    Elle checked our horoscopes every morning, and she’d stayed inside for two days after a palm reader told her that her “future was uncertain,” but a ghost possessing my cat was pushing it. Convincing her that I didn’t need therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder after my mom died had been hard enough.
    The light turned red, and I closed my eyes for a second. With the adrenaline rush over, my head pounded. I took a deep breath and tried to relax, when a horn blared behind me.
    My eyes flew open to a green light.
    I was too exhausted to keep driving around like this.
    I pulled into the nearest driveway. At nine thirty in the morning, the lot at the public library was practically empty. Maybe I could sleep for a little while. I locked the doors, unable to shake the feeling that someone, or something, was following me.
    I tried to piece together the scene in my bedroom, but the ghost and the gun and the voices were all tangled up in my mind like a pile of broken necklaces. I only remembered snippets of the conversation with Jared and Lukas.
    Something about angry spirits? No—vengeance spirits. That’s what they called them.
    Two girls walked past my window carrying armloads