Picturing Ruth’s sharp eyes and cold voice, I wondered, Was she right? I wasn’t what she “expected” from a ghost. So . . . was I worse? Was I really some dark “thing” from High Bridge, like Eli? Some evil force in Joshua’s life, saving him just so I could wreck him?

I certainly didn’t feel evil.

But I had to ask myself whether my current feelings even mattered. I knew nothing about myself, nothing about my own nature. The flashes were starting to give me some information, but only slowly and in a piecemeal way. So I’d been home-schooled by a mother I obviously argued with, known how to do differential equations, and had enough nerve to pick out dresses such as the one I would probably wear for eternity. These scant details, however, didn’t really tell me anything about myself, whether or not I was a good person.

For all I knew, I spent my life kicking puppies or shoplifting underwear.

Or worse, obviously. Far, far worse.

Maybe something I’d done during life, or even at my death, made me deserve the afterlife Eli insisted was waiting for me. Had I been a cruel person? Was my life so terrible, I’d killed myself?

I had no idea.

A sudden wave of frustration washed over me. The flashes were so unrelated, so lacking in meaningful detail, I might never know who I’d been or what I could become. I let out an angry puff of air and began to trudge more forcefully down the road.

I guess I wasn’t paying attention to where I walked, because I nearly stumbled over my own feet. Only after I’d steadied myself did I take in my current surroundings, the sight of which angered me further.

In my distraction I’d wandered back to the place I hated most: High Bridge.

I was standing right at its entrance. Its metal girders loomed above me, glinting in the yellow moonlight in a way that reminded me of spiteful winking.

“Oh, isn’t this perfect!” I shouted.

My voice sounded childish, echoing back at me from the girders. So, in keeping with my petulant mood, I swung my leg back to kick uselessly at a rock on the shoulder of the road.

Before I could complete the kick, a sudden blast of cold air hit my back, running a chill from my neck to my heels. Immediately following, a smooth, familiar voice oozed out from behind me.

“You know, Amelia, you can kick it all you want. But that rock isn’t going anywhere.”

I closed my eyes, told myself not to shudder—no matter how appropriate it might feel—and then turned on one heel. I fixed a small, derisive smile on my face.

“Eli.”

My only word of greeting. Eli’s lips curled at one corner in amusement.

“To what do I owe the pleasure, Amelia?”

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Clearly,” he said, leaning forward and arching his eyebrows, “you wanted something. Otherwise you wouldn’t be here.”

“And why would you think that?”

“You sought me out. So far I’ve kept my promise to leave you alone.” He gestured with one arm to the metal and pavement around us. “But you’re the one who returned to the bridge, like I said you would.”

I scowled at him. “Trust me, it wasn’t intentional.”

“Whatever you say, Amelia.” He began to turn toward the embankment. Then he looked back at me and, after a moment’s consideration, twitched his head toward the river. “Why don’t you come with me? We can talk more comfortably down there.”

I tried not to laugh. “Uh, no thanks, Eli. I thought I made my feelings pretty clear on the subject of hanging out with you in dark places.”

Eli shook his head. “But you do want to talk, don’t you?”

“To you? Why would I want to do that?”

“I saw the look on your face before I spoke. You’ve had a bad night.” He stated it like a fact.

“So?”

I sounded defensive, and for good reason. I had no intention of letting Eli know why I’d had a bad night. Eli couldn’t know where I’d just been—he couldn’t even know about Joshua’s existence, as far as I was concerned.

“So,” Eli said, “maybe you’d like to know why you’re frustrated since you woke up from the fog? Why you can’t quite figure out where you belong?”

I blinked.

“How did you . . . ?” I began, and then I shook my head. Eli couldn’t possibly have known what I’d been thinking about before he arrived. He’d just taken a guess. A very good one.

I shrugged again. “You’re right; it would be nice to know some things. But you’re delusional if you think I’m going to do whatever you want me to just to get some information.”

To my surprise, Eli laughed. “Fair enough, Amelia. How about I give you a . . . what should I call it—a freebie?”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning, I’ll give you some details about the afterlife in exchange for nothing but your company for a little while.”

I raised one skeptical eyebrow. “What’s the catch?”

“No catch . . . for now.”

“For now?”

“Well.” He sighed. “I’ll expect you to think about what I tell you tonight and consider it reason enough to come back to me—for good—later.”

“And if I don’t?”

“Then we’ll deal with that problem when we come to it.”

I bit my lip, confused by how suddenly appealing Eli’s proposition sounded. I didn’t think I could trust him, nor did I really want to. But I also couldn’t resist his offer of information, not at this point. I wanted to know who I was, and what happened next. No, I had to know. I nodded as decisively as I could, given my lingering reservations.

“Okay, Eli. Lead the way.”

Eli looked startled by my sudden agreement. Quickly, though, a pleased smile spread across his face. He rubbed his hands together.

“Excellent.”

Without pausing for my response, he spun around and marched down the hill. I took a breath for courage and followed him.

Slowly, carefully, I made my way down the grassy slope. Eli waited for me at the bottom of the embankment, feet planted apart and arms folded over his chest. I stopped several yards from him and mirrored his stance.

“Well?” I asked.

Eli grinned, and ignored my question. “How’s the temperature, Amelia?”

“Huh?”

I frowned, hard. Even if I was interested in what Eli had to say, I didn’t want to fall for any of his tricks. So I felt extremely foolish—not to mention unnerved—when our surroundings suddenly changed. Without further warning, everything melted into a deep, charcoal gray; and cold air blasted my skin.

Looking around me, I gasped. Again the trees and river had transformed into charcoal and tar. Eli had plunged us back into the place he’d revealed yesterday: the dark afterworld in which I was supposedly doomed to spend eternity, trapped. The passage of a full day had done nothing to improve this place’s appearance.

My voice came out timid and wavering when I protested, “I thought you said we were just going to talk?”

“Relax, Amelia,” Eli said. “I’m keeping my promise. I just want to keep it where I’m most comfortable.”

I peeked above and past him. Neither the black chasm under the bridge nor the weird, moving shapes had appeared yet. I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to block out the chill. “Okay, fine. But do it fast, and let me go. This place gives me the creeps.”

“Well,” he said, “why don’t we start with this place then? Would you like to know where we actually are?”

I nodded hesitantly.

“This is part of the afterlife, like I told you.”

“That’s not really reassuring,” I murmured, taking in all the bleak grayness with a roll of my eyes.

Eli shook his head. “It’s not as bad as you think, Amelia. Honestly.”

Locking his eyes on mine, Eli raised one hand and snapped his fingers. Immediately, the netherworld lightened as if Eli’s snap had flipped some kind of supernatural switch.

My mouth gaped.

With the introduction of just a fraction of light, an entire landscape appeared around me. Granted, it was still in various shades of gray. But the scene itself, and not its color, captured my attention.