I laughed. “It may not have, but I can handle myself. I promise.”

“We saw that entity throw you around like a rag doll. What you are messing with is dangerous.”

“Is it? Can I ask you a question?”

They all nodded in unison.

“Have you been experiencing any unusual activity?”

“All our lives,” Iago said. “But mostly Tristan.”

“Oh yeah? Since when?”

“Since I was about two. I can sense when the dead are near.”

I fought another grin. “Can you?”

The departed that had attached itself to him was practically sitting in his lap. Big guy with crazy hair and a straitjacket. It glared at him. Unblinking. Unmoving. Unwavering. Just nonstop glaring.

I saw the departed all the time, and even I was a little creeped out.

“Anything more recent? Maybe something since you visited an insane asylum? Or an old prison?”

His face lit up as recognition hit him. “Yes. We had an assignment at an abandoned sanatorium in Kentucky.”

“And ever since then,” another chimed in, “we’ve been having some really weird stuff happen.”

“Weird like how?”

“Mostly with Tristan. He feels cold spots and something brush up against him.”

I leveled a hard gaze on him. “What did you take?”

“We never take anything,” Isaac said.

Iago chimed in. “We’re urban explorers. We leave everything the way we found it.”

I raised a brow at the man closest to me. “Tristan, is there anything you’d like to share with the class?”

“Me? No. Not that I can think of.”

“You took something from a site?” Iago said, believing him no more than I did. “Dude, that is not cool.”

“It was a toy soldier,” he said, defending his choice. “That was it.”

“Let me see it.” I snapped my fingers when he didn’t get it immediately.

Reluctantly, he pulled it out of a pocket in his jumper. A jumper. They were wearing jumpers. I totally wanted to adopt them. True, they had seen Ghostbusters one too many times, but seriously, one just doesn’t find that kind of dedication anymore.

Iago studied his friend like he was seeing him with new eyes. “You keep a toy soldier in your pocket?”

“That’s what she said,” Isaac said, then doubled over with laughter.

As I thought, the departed tracked the soldier as he handed it to me, his eyes glistening. I placed it in my palm and let him see it.

“Okay,” I said, “you have two choices. You can go to the asylum where you found this and put it back, or I can lure the departed that has been following you for God knows how long to cross. Your choice, but you have to put this back either way.”

“You can what?” Isaac asked.

Tristan shook his head. “The departed that has been doing what?”

“You have a shadow. My term. A departed has attached himself to you because you took his tiny soldier.”

“Please tell me that’s a metaphor for his virginity,” Isaac said.

“You can see it?” Tristan’s eyes glistened with wonder. “And, for the record, I am not a virgin.”

“He is a large childlike man with crazy blond hair and a lazy eye.”

“And you can make him cross to the other side?”

“Yes, I can. In fact, I probably should either way. He’s so lost.”

Tristan put both hands on the steering wheel. “You should. If it’s better for him, then definitely. And can you tell him I’m sorry?”

“You just did.”

I leaned into the van and put my hand under the departed’s chin. I raised his face to mine, but his eyes were locked on the soldier. As carefully as I could, I pulled him forward and reached out with my energy. Right before he crossed, he looked into my eyes, his own eyes wide as though seeing for the first time in a long time.

I let my lids drift shut and braced myself. His life couldn’t have been easy. But what I saw went beyond all expectations.

He was as happy as any child, before he ate the paint. He got sick, and they said he wouldn’t live. He did, but he was never the same. The lead affected his brain and, like any disabled child, made him a target for abuse his whole life. An angry, domineering father. A timid, apprehensive mother who gave in to her husband’s every demand.

From there all I saw was misunderstanding, frustration, and abuse. So much. So often. They didn’t understand. They didn’t understand. He would try to tell them that he was hungry or thirsty or in pain, but they didn’t have the patience or the desire to deal with him.