Read Online I Hope You Find Me by Trish Marie Dawson - Free Book Online Page A

said, with a touch of
sarcasm.
    “What happened next?” I asked him.
    “Well,” he sighed heavily, “I came back here.
By then, this place was pretty much cleared out. Only a handful of
people had stayed. The staff had mostly left too. I holed up here,
in my room. The streets were full of wandering people, and the
sick. I called my parents and they told me half of Dublin had it.
My friends in London were either sick or unreachable. Everyone
around here died within a week. I’ve knocked on each and every
door. No one has answered. I moved the bodies I found into the
conference room. I didn’t know what else to do with them.” He
paused again, leaned forward and pinched the bridge of his nose. He
sat down on the sofa, leaned his head back and stared up at the
ceiling. With my hand, I reached out and gently squeezed his
shoulder. He smiled down at me faintly.
    “The next day I was down in the kitchen and
it felt like someone was in there with me, following me around, you
know? Every time I’ve been in there since, it feels like I’m being
watched. I hear things too, like whispers or talking. And one
morning I woke up after something brushed across my cheek. Before,
I dismissed it, you know, as stress or something. But after last
night with you, well, I can’t stop thinking about it.” He brought
his gaze down and fixed it on my face.
    “So, you think that what we’ve heard and
felt…that there are ghosts, or apparitions here?” I asked him.
    “It makes sense if you think about it. I
mean, all these people died, probably billions if it’s still
spreading across the world, and it happened so fast. There was no
closure. For anyone.” He turned around so that his whole body was
facing me. “If you believe in stuff like this I guess.”
    “Well, I’m a Stephen King fan, I believe in
almost anything.” I couldn’t think of anything else to say and I
grinned shyly. Connor laughed.
    It did make sense, with so many people dying,
of the same thing, the same illness, and dying so quickly. There
would be millions of people who didn’t get a chance to say goodbye
to their loved ones. If a spirit was ever to have a reason for
unfinished business, this would surely qualify.
    “What do we do now?” I sat there, with the
question hanging in the air, knowing neither of us knew how to
answer it.
    “I have no idea. Keep living, I guess,” he
replied.
     
    ***
     
    I sat on the floor with my legs crossed, as I
gazed out the window. Being twenty stories up in the air was
dizzying at first, but the longer I stared down at the streets and
the smaller buildings around us, the less my vertigo threatened to
take control of my body. The view would have been magnificent on a
clear day if the layer of smoke drifting on top of the air like
smog didn’t filter out a good portion of the sunlight. We could
smell it inside too. The faint wisp of smoky air was
everywhere.
    Connor came up behind me and tapped something
gently on the back of my arm. I looked over my shoulder to see him
leaning forward, holding out a green apple. I took it from him and
nodded a thank you. I had packed the fresh fruit I picked off the
neighborhood trees before heading into the city. A small bag of
apples was one of the things I dumped out of my pack the night
before to share. It seemed fair, considering Connor was sharing
everything of his, with not only me but my dog as well.
    He perplexed me most of the time. He had been
through a disaster, lost his friends and probably everyone he knew
overseas, dealt with a handful of dead people from the hotel and
seen the swarm of sick overrun the airport. Yet, he smiled, all the
time. He laughed just as much as he blinked. His attitude was
contagious but I was beginning to think it was a show. No one could
possibly be as balanced as he portrayed himself and still be
human.
    Be careful , that nagging inner voice
said to me, and rather than push it aside, I listened to it. It
wasn’t that I didn’t trust him, I