Lay Me Down
She’s done surviving for everyone else. Now she’ll live for herself—even if it kills her.
Kylee has always kept her head down. At school, she’s invisible. At home, she’s broken—caught between a stepfather’s rage and a mother who refuses to see the damage. The only way to cope is silence. Numbness. Disappearing.
But then Price moves in next door.
He’s all wrong for her: too charming, too curious, too determined to see what she’s worked so hard to bury. Still, Kylee can’t help but let him in. And with Price comes something else—something she can’t explain. Scratches on her skin she didn’t make. Whispers in the night she swears aren’t hers. Visions of a girl who looks just like her, begging to be remembered.
As her grip on reality frays, Kylee must choose: stay hidden in the shadows of her pain, or face a truth darker than she ever imagined. Because someone is watching her. Someone who wants her to forget.
But this time, Kylee won’t be anyone’s ghost.
A haunting, emotional slow-burn romance with a twist of the paranormal. Because sometimes the bravest thing a girl can do is write her own heartbeat—and choose to live it out loud.
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Chapter: Get OutKylee jerked on the mailbox, angry when the lid jammed.“Need help?”“I got it.” She gritted her teeth and pried it open on the third pull.“Hey, don’t be like that. I don’t pretend you don’t exist.”She whirled to face Price, jaw tightening. “Yes, you do! As soon as your sister appears, you stop talking to me! I know she ignores me, which is rude enough, but you, too? Can’t you just tell her we’re friends?”His face reddened, and Kylee interpreted his answer for him.“No,” she said. “Okay. I get it. Fine.” She swiveled around.“Wait, Kylee, please, listen.” Price paraded in front of her, holding his hands out with the palms facing her. “Don’t stop talking to me
Last Updated: 2025-08-10
Chapter: Block his Laser EyesKylee lowered her eyes. Suddenly everything about Price was endearing, from his spiky brown hair to his light-brown eyelashes to his fidgeting feet. She made him nervous? The thought brought a delighted smile to her lips.He coughed. “Yeah, okay, you can laugh.”Her eyes shot up. “No, no, I’m not laughing at you. I understand better than you think, actually. I get nervous too, right?” She gave what she hoped was a sincere smile. “I’d love to go. It would be nice to have a friend. I deserve that, right?”He cocked his head and peered at her. “Yeah. Yeah, you do.”Something in his eyes was so serious, so tender, that Kylee felt like he was seeing an intimate part of her. She pulled her shirt tighter around her as if to block his laser eyes.“I better get inside,” she w
Last Updated: 2025-08-08
Chapter: You Make Me NervousPrice blinked at Kylee and twirled one hand. “I can’t ask them to take you. I mean, it’s not my car. It’s kind of rude.”Kylee took a step back from the fence, her shoulders hunching forward as she deflated. “You just don’t want your friends to know you talked to me.”“No,” he said. “It’s not that.”“Who’s picking you up? Michael? Amy?” Of the twelve hundred students at Kellam High, only a small handful lived in this part of town. Whoever he was going with had to be a friend of hers. “Forget it. Tell everyone hi for me.”She turned on her heel and stomped toward the house.“Kylee,” Price called after her.He remembered her name. In spite of her anger and hurt, a spark of triumph flared in her c
Last Updated: 2025-08-06
Chapter: Room for One MoreKylee had just finished taking the clothes off the line when it started to rain.“Dang it,” she muttered. She hadn’t been fast enough to beat the downpour. She clutched the laundry basket of clothes to her chest and ran for the front door. The rain came in at an angle, slamming into the sagging porch steps. She lifted one arm over her head, though it did little to shield her from the onslaught of water.“Hurry!”“Come on, Lisa, it’s pouring!”Kylee paused on the porch and watched the kids from the bus run toward their houses. Amy squealed and laughed, holding her notebook above her like a shield, her backpack bouncing behind her. Michael howled and charged through the rain as fast as he could. Price tugged on Lisa’s hand, trying to get her out of the puddles.
Last Updated: 2025-08-03
Chapter: What are People Saying?“What? No, no, of course not!” Price exclaimed. “You think I’m rich, huh? Because my dad drives a hot car and our house is bigger than yours. So?”“Then what is your problem with me?” Kylee pressed her lips together, not about to let him off easy.“I don’t know.” He gestured toward her house. There were no windows in the back, and it wasn’t visible from here in the forest. “I guess I was afraid.”“Of my stepfather? Because of the fighting?”“Everything, I guess. You. Your house.”Kylee pictured her old rundown house. Ugly, unkempt, yes, but not scary. “What do people say about us?”He avoided her eyes. “Nothing.”“You’re lying.”
Last Updated: 2025-08-01
Chapter: Tortured SoulsShe ran for the front door and let herself out. The night air pricked her skin, cooling her face where tears streamed down. She flew down the crumbling porch and ran into the forest behind the house.Kylee knew the path with her eyes closed, which was good because the moon was just a sliver, too small to shine any light through the network of tree branches sheltering the woods. Her bare feet ran over the smoothed dirt, littered with pine needles and leaves.There it was. A large oak tree had fallen down years ago, and sometime after that the forest animals had hollowed it out. Kylee knelt down and crept into the empty space. She pressed her back against it and wrapped her arms around her knees. In the safe solitude of her tree, she allowed herself to bawl.“I can’t take it anymore,” she sobbed. “I’m getting out of here.” She had to flee. She could
Last Updated: 2025-07-30
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