She would have pushed, insisted, touched him if need be. But the buzzing that reached her ears stopped her.
The ghosts at her back were loud, an almost yell in her ears, louder than they had ever been that she could recall. They were inside her mind, taking up everything and anything, their wordless voices screaming and demanding.
It was like nothing she'd ever experienced before, as if something broke between her world and theirs, and in front of her eyes everything went whisper grey, the muted colors of death.
She clapped her fingers over her ears, and she screamed. The sound was a blood-curdling thing, something felt to the marrow, and a small trail of blood dripped from beneath her fingertips.
She backed up.
Whatever was in there, she didn't want to see it.
With one panicked look she fled the room and the apartment, leaving a torrent of fear and pain in her wake.