Chapter Four

I grabbed hold of the book Erin was holding, and re-read the words in front of me to make sure I wasn’t imagining it.

“Jackpot.” Ryan whispered.

“They’re really real.” I still couldn’t believe it.

Erin grinned. “Now you can find out even more. We have their full names!”

I didn’t know if I was scared or excited to find out more. It was a little bit of both, to be honest.  It’s not every day you find out that you’re hearing the voices of people who have been dead for over 80 years.

The three of us headed back over to the computers, taking the book with us. I wasn’t about to let the only thing I had that proved my sanity �" well sort of �" out of my sight.

I could feel myself shaking as I waited for the internet’s homepage to load.

“Calm down.” Ryan whispered to me. I guess I was visibly shaking too. Or maybe he just knew me that well.

“I’m calm.” I said unsteadily.

“Uh-huh. Sure you are.” Erin examined her nails, seemingly bored for the moment.

I knew that putting the names into the search engine would prove useless, so I opted to search for a website that traces family trees. I wasn’t sure how reliable it would be, but it was worth a shot.

“Dorothy Winters.” I said aloud as I typed.

The search turned over 500 results. Not helpful. How could I narrow this down? All I really knew was her name, and that she died on October 21^st, there wasn’t even a year.  I knew even less about the other two, the paper only said they died later. I wasn’t stupid enough to believe that meant the same day, it could be any time after that.

I put my head in my hands and sighed.

“We know she was 20 when she died, and that’s sometime in the 1920’s. So she must have been born in the really early 1900’s, right?” Ryan looked over at me, and then nudged Erin who was yawning.

“So search between 1900 and 1910.” Erin blinked her eyes slowly.

I readjusted the timescale of the search and hit enter. The results lessened, but it turns out there were still a fair few Dorothy Winters born in those years.

“Looks like it’s going to be a long night, girls.” Ryan leant his elbows on the desk, as we started searching through the list of names.

“Dorothy Jane Winters, born 1901,blah blah blah, died 1965. Not her then.” I read, almost 50 names later.

Erin, had long since fallen asleep with her head resting on one of the tables a few aisles across from us.

“Ams? Think this could be our girl? Dorothy Anne Winters. Born October 21^st 1906. Died October 21^st 1926.” Ryan cracked his knuckles, making me wince.

“October 21^st definitely fits. Can you see anything else about her?” I wondered.

“Not really. We can always look through those old newspapers again? Maybe there’s an obituary?” Ryan suggested. “Or have you had enough for tonight?”

“Maybe we should call it a night, or we’ll burn ourselves out before we really get anywhere.” I didn’t really want to quit right now, but I also knew it would be detrimental to my health to stay here any longer. I was barely able to keep my eyes open as it was. I really needed to befriend coffee.

Ryan nodded over at Erin. “You going to wake her or shall i?” A mischievous grin crossed his face, I knew exactly what he was going to suggest. Leave her here.

“Or there’s the third option, leave her here?” Ryan joked. Yep, I so called it.

“Cruel” I mumbled, and went over to shake Erin awake.

“Evie…wha?” Erin rubbed at her eyes sleepily.

I stifled a laugh.” Nice to know you’re helping me out with the voices in your dreams Erin.”

“Hmm…yeah.” Erin agreed, still not entirely awake.

“Come on Sleepy head, let’s go home.” I picked up Erin’s handbag and followed my two friends out of the library.

“Do you think they’ll do it?”

“Tried before.”

“It never works.”

“Maybe they changed.”

“But Amber and Ryan are…”

“Amber?” Ryan called to me, as he did the voices disappeared. I closed my eyes for a second to keep myself calm. When I opened them again, I noticed I was only halfway down the steps outside the library while Ryan and Erin were almost near the road.

“I’ll catch up.” I called back. At this point I didn’t even care that it was almost midnight, and that this area was known to be a bit rough.

“I’m not letting you walk home by yourself. You’ve heard how many people get attacked in the middle of the night around here.” Ryan was adamant, or maybe just overprotective.

I took the steps two at a time and jumped the last three. It was childish, but it’s what I’d always done.

“Alright? You look a little lost in thought.”

I pondered for a moment if I should tell him that the voices were back. I hadn’t heard these three particular voices in a couple of days now; they weren’t attached to the dreams as far as I could work out

“I’m fine. Just thinking about what we just found out.”

“It’s intense.” Ryan agreed, buying my story.

What had these voices meant when they said “Do you think they’ll do it? They’ve tried before?” They even knew Ryan and me by name. Something told me that this wasn’t going to be as straight forward as I’d been hoping.

We began the short walk back to our flat.  Erin was now wide awake and bouncing on her heels as we walked.

“What do you think about Gangsters and Molls?” Erin fell into step with me.

“I don’t really have much of an opinion on them.” I looked at her confused.

I could see her rolling her eyes. “I meant as fancy dress. I was thinking about using that theme for my birthday.”

“Oh. Yeah, that’ll be fun.” It didn’t even occur to me till a few minutes later, that the whole theme felt a bit close to home right now, what with the hit men and shootings going on in my head.

“I’ll see what Ryan thinks.” Erin skipped ahead.

Birthday, I mulled the word around in my head. Why did that word suddenly seem important to me? I frowned. It wasn’t that I’d forgotten Erin’s birthday. No, that wasn’t for another 2 months. But there was something I was missing.

“Happy Birthday!”

“Rub it in that I’m old why don’t you…”

The words reverberated around my head, from the voices I’d heard killed just days ago. It was Dorothy’s birthday that day! That was her we’d found on the records. From that we could find out about Henry and Ruth too, somehow. I felt excitement build up in me a little.

As we turned down the street where we lived, I heard a car revving its engine from the other end of the road. I was a few steps behind Ryan and Erin who were now talking quietly amongst themselves.

I quickened my step to catch up with them, and caught the tail end of their conversation.

“…tell her.” Erin whispered so quietly I barely heard it.

“Tell me what?” I interrupted.

“Tell you that…that…”Ryan seemed lost for words, and I wondered if perhaps I didn’t really want to know at all.

“That he liked my idea for my birthday.” Erin finished.

“Oh.” She was lying. I doubted she’d even told him anything about the party. They were talking about me, that much was obvious. I wasn’t going to press the issue, if they weren’t going to mention it.

The car was getting louder, but I paid it no attention.

“Why are we even discussing your birthday anyway? Mine’s first.” Ryan raised an eyebrow at Erin.

“So? I need time to plan. I’m not the type of person who can decide just 2 weeks before.”

“Obviously.”

Erin stuck her tongue out. “You’re such a loser.”

“That’s why you love me.” Ryan joked.

I shook my head as I walked in between them. The two of them insulting and baiting each other, was a common occurrence. I’d once interpreted it as flirting, and when I’d mentioned it they both almost bit my head off. I thought they’d protested a bit much, but it turned out that they’d kissed once and there was nothing between them. ‘It was like kissing a washing machine’ Erin had described it. Ryan had gotten all defence, saying that it happened when they were 14; he couldn’t be expected to be a fantastic kisser already.

Ryan and Erin had known each other a lot longer than I had known them. They had lived on the same street as kids, and gone to school together. I hadn’t moved to London until I was 16 and ready to attend college. That’s when we’d met.

Erin and I had clicked instantly. She’d been assigned to show me around the building, and help me get to my classes. To be honest, I had been a bit of a nerd when I showed up. Erin helped me out of my shell, and once I got into the swing of things I helped her boost her grades.

Ryan, on the other hand was a different story. My first impression of him wasn’t great at all. I’d thought that he was an egotistical, arrogant jerk. The first time we officially met, he’d been with a group of his friends. They made some smart-arse comments to me, some just plain rude. Ryan hadn’t contributed but he didn’t stop them either. If he had, they might have stopped. Back then Ryan was Mr. Popular, everyone wanted to be with him, or be him.  I had only been at the school 2 months, when he did a complete 180. One day he came into school and was just different, he wasn’t interested in his so-called friends or his social status. He sat down at the lunch table with Erin and me, and never looked back.

It was a while before I trusted him. I was suspicious that it was just some game he was playing to make a fool of the new girl.

Times had definitely changed. I couldn’t imagine my life without Ryan in it now. We were closer than I was to Erin, or he and Erin. Would it be so bad if there was something more between us? I grinned to myself. I was starting to think it could be a good thing.

I looked up just in time to see a red fiesta mounting the pavement, heading straight towards us.