CHAPTER 76

KATHERINE. ‘Oh my God!’ Fear washed over me while I immediately reached out to grab the ghost and throw her off me, but my hands just went through her. Terror clenched my insides. It felt like a vice squeezing my chest until my heart felt ready to burst and every inhale threatened to crack my ribs. Every muscle in my body shook as freezing air radiated over me. I grabbed the baptisia water in my pocket as gasps that sounded hungry and desperate escaped her and I began to feel pressure on my neck. As I lifted the bottle to spray the water at her, her head jerked in its direction and she angrily knocked it out of my hand like she knew what the bottle contained and I desperately reached for it as it sailed into the room next to us. ‘No!’ Desperation to breathe overtook me as my lungs burned with pain when her hands tightened around my neck. Her grip was too strong to wiggle out of and there was nothing I could do; I couldn’t scream for help, I couldn’t push her away, I couldn’t get up…