Read Online This is Your Afterlife by Vanessa Barneveld - Free Book Online Page A

tone. He can’t keep his eyes off the body, so I move between him and the water. Finally, his fiery blue gaze meets mine. Burns my skin. “How...the hell did you know where to find him?”
    I glance at Jimmy as if to ask his permission to speak. He’s preoccupied, kneeling by the water with his back to me. Would he want Dan to know he hasn’t left the earthly plane yet? Does Dan believe in life after death?
    â€œKeira. Answer me.”
    Studiously watching ants struggle over an obstacle course of moss and rocks on the ground, I say, “I...I just happened to...to be...here. For, um...research.”
    â€œWhat kind of research?” he demands.
    â€œA-algae.”
    Jimmy stands and gives his brother a sorrow-filled look. “You’re a really bad liar, Keira. Tell him the truth. He deserves that much.”
    I gulp back a boulder-sized lump in my throat. “The truth?”
    The boys answer in unison. “Yes.”
    My eyes dart from Dan to Jimmy, who nods before heading back to into the water. A normal person might attribute the movement of the body to the current. Only I can see Jimmy’s spirit wrenching uselessly at his dead arm.
    I take a deep, courage-summoning breath. “Jimmy guided me here.”
    Dan squints. “He
guided
you? What do you mean?”
    â€œJimmy’s spirit, his ghost, came to me last night. He’s been with me ever since for the most part.”
    Dan’s expression makes me want to run away to the other side of the world. It’s a picture of fury, of resentment, of complete disbelief.
    â€œHe needed my help so his body could be found, you see.” I nod at Jimmy. “And now he’ll be able to move on with his life...his afterlife.”
    Hands flexing with tension, Dan asks, “Are you telling me you’re psychic?”
    â€œI’m a medium. There’s a difference,” I say weakly. Searching for moral support, I glance at Jimmy, who’s clambering onto dry land. “It’s... a new development.”
    Dan looks far from impressed. “You’re insane.”
    I splutter and protest, but a jarring thought needles me. What if my brain is misfiring and it’s created the ghost of Jimmy as a coping mechanism?
    â€œI can’t believe you’re stooping this low.” Dan shakes his head and reaches for his phone. He shoots me an icy glare. “What are you really doing here? Did you have anything to do with my brother’s death?”
    â€œNo!” My shrill shout echoes across the clearing. “I told you. Jimmy led me here.”
    He snorts. “Hope you’ve got a better story than that lined up for the cops.”
    Jimmy steps toward Dan and tries to pry the phone away. He fails. “Hey, hey, bro. Keira’s trying to help.”
    â€œIt’s okay, Jimmy. Let me handle it.” With a steady gaze, I tell Dan, “Then I’ll tell the sheriff about the fight you had with Jimmy the morning he died. A fight about an article exposing Jimmy’s football injury. I bet he’ll find that
very
interesting.”
    Blood leaches away from Dan’s face, making
him
seem like a ghost.
    His voice is tight and edged with danger. “Jimmy and I had that
discussion
in private. There was no ‘fight.’ Who the hell told you about that? And the injury?”
    It looks like I’ve trampled on a raw nerve. This is a clear signal that Jimmy’s ghost is real, that I’m not delusional. My chin jerks upward in defiance. “Your brother. He’s standing right beside you.”

Chapter Nine
    Dan and I watch the cops set up a perimeter around the site. He’s rigid as granite. A look of total disbelief is carved into his features. His brother’s dead. And there’s a crazy girl insisting that Jimmy’s ghost led her here.
    Dan hasn’t said a word to me since placing a call to 911. The coroner and an assistant zip Jimmy’s body into a