Of Breakable Things Read Online Free

could add another ghost story to those that gave Parrish its fame.
    You look just like her , the boy had said.
    “You know my mom?” Alex hadn’t even considered that her mother might be here. She had only thought of Chase.
    The boy’s voice was low. “She isn’t here. Not anymore.”
    Alex blinked her eyes several times until her vision cleared. She stood face to face with a child, a boy whose smile faltered.
    “Anymore?”
    “Sometimes we don’t last very long,” the boy replied, taking a step forward. “Come on out.”
    Alex’s shoulders slumped. Once again she was too late to know her mother. She abandoned the cover of the doorway, and was surprised when her foot touched the ground. She had shoes. And real clothes. She ran her manicured nails through the waves of her honey-colored hair. “How did that happen?” she asked, hugging herself. “Not that I’m complaining.”
    “Dead or alive, we all create a small version of our own reality in our minds. Here you can just project it more effectively. I take it you recognize your clothes.”
    Of course she recognized her favorite jeans, her favorite shirt, and even the bracelet she’d worn every day since Chase had given it to her.
    “How did you know my mom?”
    “She was my friend.”
    Alex ignored the pang of jealousy. “What happened to her?”
    The boy tilted his head up at the sky and blinked through the raindrops. “Let’s save that for another time. Please. We have to get going now.”
    She held her palms upward. The rain sent tiny electric pings through her skin, but didn’t leave it moist. She rubbed her fingers together. “Why can’t I feel the rain?”
    He grinned. “You’re thinking of how the rain felt before.”
    “Oh.”
    “You’ll get used to it. Your senses are just different now, that’s all.”
    He jabbed his thumb in the direction of a path and began to walk. She stole a look back at the doorway, surprised to find a moss-covered bunker with only darkness behind its open door. Miss Petra was gone, and the safety and familiarity of her classroom had vanished with her. Maybe Alex shouldn’t have been in such a hurry to leave. She had no choice now but to follow the boy.
    Despite the overcast sky, their glittery green surroundings sparkled as though the trees were comprised of emeralds. Everything around her was adorned in shades of color so much more brilliant than she’d ever seen before.
    “Beautiful, isn’t it?” the boy called over his shoulder.
    “Yes,” Alex said, watching the rain around her jumping like colorful flashes of heaven. “Where are we?”
    He chuckled. “California.”
    “Yeah, right.”
    “No, I’m serious. It’s the same old Earth. You can just see it better now.”
    Crayola would have a field day with this place. The colors embellished everything, even the dreary canopy of clouds twinkling like a gray diamond. “It doesn’t seem fair that everyone can’t see this way.”
    “Hmm. You wouldn’t appreciate it so much if your eyes had always been so open. Sometimes things only become clear when they don’t exist anymore.”
    Alex listened to the trees whispering a song that sounded like her name. The trunks were so large it was like weaving through the legs of giants. Branches of the smaller, twig-like trees curled their fingertips in hello.
    “They like you. I can tell.”
    Alex caught up and fell into step next to her tiny companion, who carried an aura of comfort. She stole glances at him while they sloshed through the kaleidoscope of colors. His baby-fine hair fell over his chocolate-brown eyes and pale skin.
    “Who are you?” she finally asked.
    He kicked his feet up slightly while treading down the muddy pathway shining radiantly like a river of dark gold. “My name is Ellington Reynes.”
    An inappropriate name. It was much too grown up for a boy who was doomed to look like a cub scout for the rest of his life.
    “I’m the one who saw your arrival,” he informed her