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“Now you’re speaking as if Caspian really is a ghost,” I said.

“Okay, let me rephrase that.” Willow shifted against the headboard. “Hypothetically, if Caspian is no longer with us... which, okay, technically he’s not, but we don’t know where the hell he is, so let me not speak death over that man. But if, and I mean if, he happened to be on some supernatural shit, every damn scary movie starts the same way. Somebody sees something, hears something, or swears they felt somebody touching them. Then everybody else starts talking about, ‘You’re stressed. You need sleep. You’re imagining things.’” She shook her head. “Next thing you know, the whole damn family is floating across the ceiling while the person everybody called crazy is standing there like, ‘Now who needs rest?’”

I laughed, not only because the shit was funny, but because she was right.

I loved horror movies just as much as she did, and if there was one thing every scary movie had taught us, it was that the quickest way to end up dead was to ignore weird shit happening in your own house. Somebody always heard footsteps, saw a shadow, watched a door open by itself, and still decided to go investigate the basement alone with a flashlight that barely worked.

“No,” Willow continued, determined to make her point. “Because I’m not about to be the stupid bitch in the movie who ignores every warning sign and gets dragged through a wall! If Caspian is alive and living in the walls, we need to know that. If he’s missing and somehow sneaking in here at night, we need to know that too. And if this house is doing some shit that requires a priest, a medium, or somebody’s grandma with blessed oil, I would personally like advance notice. So if you’re telling me you had a whole romantic reunion with Caspian, and you’re still feeling the aftereffects, then, sis...” She slowly nodded. “I believe you.”

I stared at her. “You do?”

“I do.” Then she glanced around the room and raised her voice. “But listen, brother-in-law! If you’re alive, dead, missing, hiding in the damn walls, or on some Sixth Sense shit nobody bothered to explain to us, I need you to go ahead and reveal your true status to your woman. Come out in your regular, tax-paying physical form, send a smoke signal, flicker a light, something, because I cannot keep getting my beauty sleep interrupted every time you come visit Lakelyn in her dreams!”

I covered my face, laughing.

Willow pointed toward the ceiling. “And if you can hear me, thank you in advance! Preferably handle this shit during business hours!”

I laughed until my stomach hurt.

Then she reached over and squeezed my hand. “For real, though. I’m here. You don’t have to figure it all out this morning.”

I nodded. “Thank you for listening.”

“Always, sis.”

“And for pretending to believe me.”

She shrugged. “Girl, I ain’t pretending; I’m just trying not to get haunted for talking shit.”

I laughed again. Then glanced at the time. “Shit. I gotta go get Kaidence up for school.”

Willow pulled the covers over herself. “Please do.”

I stood and headed toward the door.

“And close that mothafucka behind you,” she called after me.

I turned back around. “Wait. Don’t you have to get up to for work?”

“There is such a thing as off days.”

I chuckled. “I love you.”

“Love you too. Now go away.”

I had one hand on the doorknob when she suddenly pushed the covers down again. “Oh, and tomorrow, or today if curiosity starts eating my ass up, we checking the basement and the walls.”

I stared at her. “The walls?”

“Yes, the walls. I told you, rich people houses be having secret shit. I’m tapping on drywall, checking vents, opening panels, all of it. If Caspian got a hidden bachelor apartment somewhere in here with snacks and a TV, I’m finding that nigga.”

I laughed. “You are ridiculous.”

“And prepared… big difference.”

“Go back to sleep.”

“I plan to. But later, we investigate. And if one of them walls tap back, I’m moving out… temporarily. I love this house too damn much to let a little paranormal activity run me off permanently. I’ll go stay somewhere for two or three nights, pray over myself, regroup, then come right back.”