magic bendable wrought iron that would allow him to escape undetected from this garden once he entered.”
The floodlight attached to the side of the house shone down on Wyn, and he glared up at her from his seated position. “None of which makes your idea of a ghost a plausible theory, Maddie. First off, why is the trigger for waking you up the creak of the gate? If it’s a ghost—” he threw his arms wide, pointing out all the fences, “—why doesn’t he just pass through the iron the same way he would through walls? Why does he have to open the gate to get in?”
Still moving in front of him, Maddie studied her surroundings, her mind moving fast, but absently corrected, “She.”
Wyn scrunched his face. “What?”
She stopped in front of him, legs braced, arms crossed, and looked down at him on one of the rare instances where she held the superior height. “I believe the ghost is female.”
Wyn threw up his hands again. “Fine, then, she . The question remains the same. Why does she have to open the gate to get into the garden?”
Bursting to share, to talk about her ideas with someone, Maddie exclaimed, “Why must we assume that what we are told about ghosts from movies and television are all the truth there is to know? Why can’t it be possible that a spirit could somehow manifest itself in corporeal form whenever it wanted to?”
“Because whoever she is,” Wyn said back, just as passionately, “her body is buried in the ground six feet under somewhere or her ashes are in an urn or sprinkled on a beach or in the mountains after being cremated. There is no physical body left to manifest into.”
Clasping her hands together, Maddie pointed at Wyn with glee. “Unless she borrows someone else’s body.”
Just as animated, Wyn wagged his finger at her. “In which case there would be a body trapped in here somewhere for me to find.”
“Which proves my point that it isn’t a person,” Maddie jumped in for the kill, “because you didn’t find anyone. It’s a spirit.”
“Which still doesn’t give me a solid answer for why the gate keeps being opened,” Wyn countered fast.
“But you can’t explain the complete lack of logic in why a real person would run into the garden to hide, when there’s only one way out.” Adrenaline flowed fast and furiously through Maddie’s body, awakening her more fully than she’d been in years. “The logic doesn’t hold water.”
“But I can rely on the fact that I found candy wrappers with male DNA on them in your house,” Wyn answered, and dumped a bucket of water over her fire. “And on the fact that you’ve admitted a few things have been taken from the home, as well as money.”
“Small, useless things,” Maddie corrected absently, “and extremely small amounts of money.” She went cold then, and her voice dropped to a whisper. “Did you say you got answers from your tests?”
“Partial.” Wyn’s already hard features turned grim. “The person was male, but not in the system. I don’t know who he is.”
Maddie clasped her steepled hands over her mouth, and a chill drained down her limbs. “Fuck.”
Wyn’s mouth pulled down even more. “My thought exactly.”
Her legs giving out, her mind swirling, Maddie plopped down next to Wyn on the bench. “This doesn’t make sense.” Her brow knitted tightly, pushing tension into her temples and neck. She stared straight forward but mentally tracked through night after night after night spent in this house. “Just like almost every other time I’ve been woken up since I moved into this place, tonight I saw the white figure in the garden. And yet I’ve never been able to find anyone out here or inside. Not once. And I’ve been fast. Even faster than I was tonight. The odds are that I would have caught a real person at least once.”
Shrugging, Wyn replied, “Unless he’s weirdly dexterous or has some incredible leaping skills or some other way out we’re not seeing.”
“And
The floodlight attached to the side of the house shone down on Wyn, and he glared up at her from his seated position. “None of which makes your idea of a ghost a plausible theory, Maddie. First off, why is the trigger for waking you up the creak of the gate? If it’s a ghost—” he threw his arms wide, pointing out all the fences, “—why doesn’t he just pass through the iron the same way he would through walls? Why does he have to open the gate to get in?”
Still moving in front of him, Maddie studied her surroundings, her mind moving fast, but absently corrected, “She.”
Wyn scrunched his face. “What?”
She stopped in front of him, legs braced, arms crossed, and looked down at him on one of the rare instances where she held the superior height. “I believe the ghost is female.”
Wyn threw up his hands again. “Fine, then, she . The question remains the same. Why does she have to open the gate to get into the garden?”
Bursting to share, to talk about her ideas with someone, Maddie exclaimed, “Why must we assume that what we are told about ghosts from movies and television are all the truth there is to know? Why can’t it be possible that a spirit could somehow manifest itself in corporeal form whenever it wanted to?”
“Because whoever she is,” Wyn said back, just as passionately, “her body is buried in the ground six feet under somewhere or her ashes are in an urn or sprinkled on a beach or in the mountains after being cremated. There is no physical body left to manifest into.”
Clasping her hands together, Maddie pointed at Wyn with glee. “Unless she borrows someone else’s body.”
Just as animated, Wyn wagged his finger at her. “In which case there would be a body trapped in here somewhere for me to find.”
“Which proves my point that it isn’t a person,” Maddie jumped in for the kill, “because you didn’t find anyone. It’s a spirit.”
“Which still doesn’t give me a solid answer for why the gate keeps being opened,” Wyn countered fast.
“But you can’t explain the complete lack of logic in why a real person would run into the garden to hide, when there’s only one way out.” Adrenaline flowed fast and furiously through Maddie’s body, awakening her more fully than she’d been in years. “The logic doesn’t hold water.”
“But I can rely on the fact that I found candy wrappers with male DNA on them in your house,” Wyn answered, and dumped a bucket of water over her fire. “And on the fact that you’ve admitted a few things have been taken from the home, as well as money.”
“Small, useless things,” Maddie corrected absently, “and extremely small amounts of money.” She went cold then, and her voice dropped to a whisper. “Did you say you got answers from your tests?”
“Partial.” Wyn’s already hard features turned grim. “The person was male, but not in the system. I don’t know who he is.”
Maddie clasped her steepled hands over her mouth, and a chill drained down her limbs. “Fuck.”
Wyn’s mouth pulled down even more. “My thought exactly.”
Her legs giving out, her mind swirling, Maddie plopped down next to Wyn on the bench. “This doesn’t make sense.” Her brow knitted tightly, pushing tension into her temples and neck. She stared straight forward but mentally tracked through night after night after night spent in this house. “Just like almost every other time I’ve been woken up since I moved into this place, tonight I saw the white figure in the garden. And yet I’ve never been able to find anyone out here or inside. Not once. And I’ve been fast. Even faster than I was tonight. The odds are that I would have caught a real person at least once.”
Shrugging, Wyn replied, “Unless he’s weirdly dexterous or has some incredible leaping skills or some other way out we’re not seeing.”
“And
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