Indelible by Lani Woodland Page B

sure of that, but I know I didn’t unzip it while I was there, and later it was open. DJ has to be involved, right? That’s too much coincidence.”
    “He’s my number one suspect. I need to do something or I’m going to lose it.” Cherie threw the blanket off and paced around the room. “What are the odds that DJ shows up, your backpack gets inspected, and our room gets ransacked on the same day?”
    “Unless they’re somehow connected, not very high.” I watched Cherie burn off her nervous energy by doing jumping jacks. “Do you think they found what they were looking for?”
    Cherie stopped. “It’s hard to tell, but I doubt they only wanted your journal entries.”
    “You’re probably right. I wish I knew what they wanted. Then maybe we could figure out who they are.”
    “Don’t worry; I live for solving mysteries.”
    “Which is very lucky for me.” I twisted the blanket in my hand considering all the mysteries we needed to solve.
    “Don’t you forget it.” Cherie threw herself on the other bed. “There’s no way I’m going to be able to sleep tonight.”
    The adrenaline that had pushed aside my exhaustion was fading and my body was about to collapse, but my mind was far from sleepy. “Me either.”
    “How about a manicure?” Cherie flopped her arm over her eye. “It’ll give me something to do.”
    “Sure.” I stood up and unzipped my backpack that had been left on the desk by my bed. I rummaged through my lip gloss, compact, and eye shadows until I found my favorite nail polish shade: persimmon red.
    I stretched out my hand and handed it to Cherie. She skillfully applied the bright color and I watched her in silence.
    “Were you lying to the cops?” Cherie asked, as she guided the brush over my nails. Catching my confused look, she clarified, “You really don’t think a ghost did that to our room?”
    “No. A powerful one can move stuff, but it would have taken more energy than they have to destroy our room that thoroughly.”
    Cherie dipped the brush into the bottle to get more color. “I’m sort of used to ghosts attacking, but to think someone alive did this? It freaks me out.” She stuck out the tip of her tongue as she concentrated.
    “I know. You expect ghosts to be scary, but it turns out the people we pass on the street are the real monsters.”
    “Sad, but true.” Cherie screwed the lid back on the bottle of polish. “Finished.”
    I curled my nails and blew across them, waving my hand back and forth, then stretched them out to examine them. I expected the bright persimmon color to leap out at me, but they looked like they had no polish on them at all.
    “What in the world?” I brought my nails closer to my face, trying to figure out what had happened.
    “What?”
    I held out my hand to her and she did a double take. “What about the other hand?”
    The lush red lacquer glimmered from each of my nails on my right hand. We stared at each other in silence for a few seconds.
    “Let’s try that again,” Cherie suggested. She painted each nail very carefully, even adding an extra layer. I kept my eyes trained on my nails the entire time. The polish went on exactly as it should have, but after a few seconds the color drained away, like it was being absorbed into my skin.
    I gasped, my eyebrows rose so high they practically touched my hairline. A horrible sensation somewhere between dread and absolute terror cha-cha’d up my spine. In a horror movie, scary music would have played.
    Cherie tapped the closed polish bottle against her palm. “That is one of the freakiest things I’ve ever seen.”
    “Right?” It was one thing to be attacked by a ghost. It was another to have your body defy the laws of physics.
    “Do you think it’s because of a ghost?”
    My eyes darted around the room and my anxiety went on red alert. “I’m not sure how it could be, but it’s the only thing that makes sense.” I let out a frustrated sigh.
    Cherie attempted to smile.