Teaser Tuesday: Phantom Touch by Jessica Hawke

 Teaser Tuesday:

Phantom Touch by Jessica Hawke

Bridget White just wants to be an average girl, but the car accident that killed her sister took away everything normal in Bridget’s life. Now she spends her days talking to unhappy ghosts and helping them move on to the afterlife. But dealing with death on a daily basis is too much for one girl to handle, so when she finds a way to get rid of her supernatural sight, she jumps at the chance.

There’s just one more job standing between her and normal. When a missing local girl turns up as a freshly murdered ghost, Bridget realizes she’s the only one who can find the killer. Worse still, he’s not done killing. Now Bridget may have to sacrifice her only chance at being normal to stop him from taking another innocent life.

Phantom Touch is a thrilling YA paranormal that has readers laughing, crying, and begging for more! It is currently available in paperback or electronic formats. Thanks for reading!

Excerpt from Chapter 7

            The mirror fogged, turning me into a featureless shadow as I paused, fingers halfway through a big hank of hair at the back of my head. While I rarely made the mistakes of doomed horror movie characters, I slipped up this time. Come on, I’m human, and a teenager. It’s practically my destiny to make stupid mistakes.

I looked up at the unfogged corner of the mirror, and saw a gory specter peeking over my shoulder. My legs went rubbery and loose as I whirled to see the bloody apparition coming for me. I didn't waste time screaming and bolted toward the door. The ghost disappeared, and a freezing wind buffeted me, powerful enough to blow a stall door open with a metallic clang. A big brown trash can flew from the corner into my path, spilling out a mound of scratchy brown paper towels. My foot slipped on the trash, and I went down hard.

            "Kale?" I said in a weak voice. The ghost stood in the doorway, its cloudy eyes pulsing slowly like there was a light flickering behind them. I scrambled to my feet and backed away, but it matched me step for step. Cold kissed the back of my neck as I reversed into the cinderblock wall. My heart pounded so fast that I felt light-headed. I didn't have anything from my ghost kit here–no salt, no holy water, no nothing. But the ghost didn't know that.

            "I'll banish you again," I bluffed. "I mean it. I have the power of God on my side."

            The ghost looked surprised for a moment, but advanced again when I didn’t yank a cross from my pocket. Unless I wanted to run straight through the ghost and risk getting choked to death, I had no way out. The best option I could see was screaming bloody murder. I didn't care how crazy I’d look, as long as I got the hell out of there. But the ghost stopped a few feet away, its milky gaze fixed on my dropped backpack. It pointed at the backpack, then at me, then back at the backpack.

            "You want something in there?" I asked. It nodded, matted hair swinging like tattered curtains around its face. "Okay," I said. "But if I help you, you gotta stop with the sneaking up and scaring the hell outta me." The ghost nodded again, looking as apologetic as it could with its bruise-darkened face and milky dead eyes. It looked so forlorn that I almost felt guilty for scolding it. Almost, I said. Evil Casper here had a good scolding coming after last night. "I mean it. I'll banish you if you do it again."

            Once the ghost backed away, I knelt by my bookbag and started taking things out. Math notebook, minimally used copy of Hamlet, bright pink flyers, colored pencils. A cold sensation poured over me like water, and I stopped with the pencils in my hand. "This?" The ghost shook its head and pointed to the flyers.

            Sue me, I was tired. A ghost might have a perfectly good reason for wanting some Crayolas. Everyone likes coloring.

            "You want this?" I asked as I held up the pink flyers. The ghost nodded slowly, pointing to the picture of Natalie. It took me another five seconds to put it together, which had nothing to do with me being slow and everything to do with me simply not wanting to accept what was right in front of me. "Oh God…no."

            Please, no.

Enjoy the Phantom Touch Trailer:


 

For more information on Jessica Hawke and her books, click here.