Hereafter by Tara Hudson

Author:Tara Hudson
Language: eng
Format: MOBI, epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2013-06-06T06:33:18.776000+00:00

It didn’t take long to walk to the largest church in town, nor did it take long for someone to push open one of the doors and unknowingly let me inside. As Joshua had said, the church swarmed with people preparing for tonight’s midweek service.

Finding Ruth within the church also proved easy enough: she was the one at the front of the chapel commanding a small troop of women in an imperious tone. Each time she shook her head—probably to reject some lower-ranking person’s suggestion—she reminded me of Jillian, and I had to stifle a smile.

Any hint of the smile disappeared the moment Ruth turned around and caught sight of me. Upon meeting my gaze, she froze in mid order and let out a strangled noise of protest. Then, without breaking our eye contact or finishing her sentence, Ruth pushed past her minions and marched down the center aisle of the church.

She only released me from her icy glare when she stormed past and hissed, “Outside. Now.”

I followed Ruth outside the double doors of the chapel to the bottom of the church steps, where she waited with her back to me.

“Ruth . . . I mean, Ms. Mayhew,” I started, keeping my voice steady. Self-assured. “I know you don’t want to talk to me, but—”

“You shouldn’t be near such a sacred place,” Ruth interrupted, spinning around to face me. She didn’t meet my eyes but instead glared up at the church as if it, and not some teenage ghost, had addressed her. “You aren’t worthy to be here, much less to exist.”

Suddenly, I wasn’t cowed, or even respectful. I was angry. So angry, in fact, I forgot what I’d undoubtedly been taught about respecting my elders.

“Well, it’s not like I turned into a pillar of salt when I walked through the doors,” I snapped. “So obviously, someone divine is okay with my existence.”

Ruth shook her head stubbornly. “If you’re dead and still walking this earth, you’re an abomination.”

I tried, unsuccessfully, not to shout. “Abomination? How dare you! You don’t know anything about me.”

“I know enough,” she said. “I know if you’re still wandering around, chances are good you came from that bridge.”

She had me there. I could only sputter, “Yeah . . . but . . .”

“But nothing. Even if you aren’t evil at this point, you’re—at best—an empty vessel that evil will eventually fill, and use. You’re unclaimed, but you won’t be for long. I’m sure he wants you . . . the boy who haunts that place. The one we’ve been hunting for years. So now that you’re here too, our work just got more complicated.”

The memory of Eli’s warnings about my nature—and my future—flashed unbidden into my mind. Then something else struck me. As I’d suspected when Joshua first described the Seers, Ruth and her friends knew about Eli, at least vaguely. They’d been hunting him for years, apparently without success.

“How do you know all these things about ghosts, and about High Bridge?” I asked.

“Because I’ve been studying the supernatural most of my life and watching that bridge for decades.

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