Off the Beaten Path: Eight Tales of the Paranormal Read Online Free Page A

leaned in to read the cover, watching our connection out of the corner of my eye. It was there, but only barely. Like all the threads surrounding him, our little yarn was uneven and even invisible in places.
    Seeing a boy enveloped in dying connections convinced me. He was dead, and his relationships were just shadows, exactly the cosmic flaw Phyllis said it was. I still felt like a murderer, but at the same time, part of me felt that I really might be doing the right thing.
    My throat was dry, but I managed to ask more questions about the book he was reading, getting a relaxed conversation started. We talked about squirrels and getting mustaches from foamy cappuccinos, and I tried to ignore the growing ache from my leg. Finally, I turned and looked at him.  He was the kind of guy that is cute and nerdy at the same time, and I was willing to bet that a lot of girls had crushes on him.  However, if I thought of the hearts I was breaking, I would fail, and the consequences of my failure could range from my personal torture to a crack in the world where things went wrong.
    “ What’s your name?”  My voice cracked instead of the world.
    “ Mark.  Yours?”
    “ Isa. Short for Isabelle.”
    Mark leaned back, tiltin g his head to the afternoon sun.
    “ So why’d you talk to me?” He grinned. “It’s not every day a pretty girl tries to hit on me.”
    I let a shrug be my answer. “I have something I have to say.”
    He nodded, mischievousness in his eyes and the set of his mouth. “You’re madly in love with me, and had to see if I was truly the man of your dreams. I am, of course.”
    Now , I liked him – genuinely liked him. If he were alive, we would have made great friends, but… no!  Do the job, Isa. Just do it.
    “ It’s – it’s something else.”
    I sighed slowly, trying to undo the knots in my jaw and throat. “Um, Mark, do you remember when you collapsed? It was last night, I think. You were making chili.”
    He stiffened, his eyes going wide , and his jaw clenching. I put my hand up as he drew breath to shout, but instead, his shoulders and jaw relaxed, and he was ready to listen to me. I realized that he was feeling the trust only the dead give me.
    “ I know more things than most,” I said, “and I can do some really weird things, like talk to the dead. And sometimes it’s part of my job to do other things, and this is one of those times. Right. Okay.” I filled my lungs with the taste of dying leaves, trying to calm my frantic mind. My words felt as dry and crunchy as those leaves. “When things are messed up between the dead and the living, I have to fix it. In this case, I have to fix you. You’re both dead and alive right now, Mark.”
    The look in Mark ’s eyes was strange. He was evidently confused by my words, but he was far more confused by his immediate acceptance. The part of him that was dead believed my words as facts from a trusted medium, but his heart yet beat, and there was enough living in him to be suspicious.
    “ When you collapsed, you died. Or you should have. Now, your body and soul… it’s like a flower wilting. Slowly, every petal shrivels up and loses its color.” I rushed on, the words unstoppable now. “You’ll be wilted soon, Mark. Your body is still breathing because there was a mistake, but you’re not truly alive, not the way you were before you collapsed.”
    Mark ’s shoulders had slowly relaxed and he became more thoughtful, like a child listening to a fairy tale and only half sure it was fiction. I rested my hand on his, trying hard not to squeeze too tightly. “You’ll be happier if you go where you’re supposed to. You have to pass on. I know it’s an awful thing to ask, and I wish I didn’t have to, but I do. It’s my… well, it’s my job.” I whipped my hand over my eyes so fast that a nail scratched my cheek. “It’s not fair. I’m sorry, this just isn’t fair. To either of us.”
    I couldn ’t look at him anymore. He hadn’t