Esther Hollow's Arc

Chapter 13 of 8

The shelter stood empty behind them. Jen Parker turned toward the road, the glowing plant still cupped in her hands. "That's done," she said. "I have to go." She had a sister taken thirty-one hours ago, held by men collecting a debt. She had given Esther and Joe her last hours instead of hunting for the money. Now she was out of time. Esther saw it in her face. If she walked away tonight, she would not come back. "Wait," Esther said. "You helped me. Let me help you." Jen stopped. "You're a ghost. You can't carry money." "No," Esther said. "But I've watched this town for eleven years. I know where things hide." She turned to Joe. "You were the law here. You kept records. Debts. Names. Where would they be?" Joe pushed his hat back. His bone smile did not change, but his voice did. "The library. The old ledgers float up there when a spirit's still owed." He led them fast through the dark. Esther kept close to Jen, matching her worn steps. In the library's upper room, a stack of books drifted above the floor. Their edges glowed soft green. Pages turned by themselves. Jen lifted the plant, and the light poured into them. "I can see writing," she said. "Read it," Esther said. Jen scanned the floating pages. Her hand stopped. "There. Lenders. The same name." She read an address off the glowing lines, then a second one below it. "A drop house. Two towns over." Her flat voice cracked. "This is them. This is who has her." Esther leaned close to the spectral pages. Names of the drowned filled most of them. But the newest page held living debts, the kind that never got paid clean. "They kept your sister to force the money," Esther said. "Now you know where." Jen was already copying the address onto her palm with a pen. Her hands shook. "I can bring police to a place," she said. "I couldn't bring them to nothing." She looked up. "I thought I'd wasted my hours on you." "You didn't," Esther said. Jen closed her hand around the address. "I have to run." She set the glowing plant on the reading table, then stopped. "No. You need it. To be seen." She pushed it back toward Esther. For a breath the two of them held the light between living hand and dead one. "Go," Esther said. "Find her." Jen went. Her footsteps faded down the stairs and out into the night. The debt was repaid, both ways. She would not walk away for good now. She had a door to knock on, and Esther had given it to her. Joe watched the empty stairs. "She'll come back?" "She'll come back," Esther said. The floating books settled and dimmed. Esther still had her own business unfinished. But the one living person who could see her was hers to keep now, bound by a debt paid in full.