“Where are we going?” Chloe calls after her. Only Daniel, with his long legs, can keep up.
“The library,” Madison says over her shoulder, ponytail swinging. “We'll use it as base camp.”
The layout of the Wirth Mansion is confusing, with hallways going in all directions. We pass by an enormous ballroom, a formal dining room and a giant staircase leading to the upper floors. Our moving flashlight beams sparkle eerily off mirrors, crystal lamps, anything shiny. Somewhere high above is the ceiling, hidden in darkness.
Our footsteps echo on the slick, hardwood floors. I slip, but Gabe's hand shoots out to keep me from falling.
We finally reach our destination. It's one of the smaller rooms and it's easy to understand why Madison chose it. It has sofas and chairs, and it's a comfortable size. Everyone sets down their stuff. We've brought jackets and sandwiches and thermoses full of coffee and tea to help keep us awake. Madison pulls down thick wooden blinds and closes the heavy drapes. Then she goes around and begins flicking on table lamps. Destiny turns one on, too. It immediately makes an alarming crackling sound. One by one, all the lamps in the room go out. She jumps back, both hands clapped over her mouth.
“What the hell?” Alfie says.
Madison curses. Gabe begins checking the lights. “They're fried,” he announces.
Daniel looks up from where he's sitting cross-legged on the floor, fiddling with the settings on a video camera. “That's not good.”
“Electrical disturbance,” Raj says. “Makes sense it would happen here. We're at ghost ground zero. Right?”
Chloe takes a picture of Destiny, who blinks when the flash goes off. The mood shifts. I can feel it. There is a tension in the air that wasn't there before. No one's smiling or joking now. Even Madison, the girl who does not believe in ghosts, looks anxious. Raj is about to say something more when Daniel gets a text message. The alert is the theme song from Jaws. He checks his phone and sighs.
“Something's come up,” Daniel says. “I gotta go, but I'll be right back. I promise.” He is clearly annoyed by whatever is going on, but he doesn't explain. Madison walks with him to his car.
The minutes drag by. Gabe and Chloe, the two most familiar with video cameras, are starting to talk about a Plan B when Daniel reappears, breathless.
But he's not alone. His little brother Mitchell is with him. My heart sinks. Mitchell's face brightens when he sees me and he comes running over, throwing his arms around my waist.
“What's he doing here?” I mouth over his head, as I pat Mitchell's back.
Daniel gives me a pleading look. “The babysitter went home sick. I had to bring him.”
Alfie is scowling. “He shouldn't be here,” he whispers.
Daniel snorts. “No shit. But here he is,” he whispers back. Daniel pries Mitchell away and holds him firmly by his shoulders. “Hey everyone. This is my brother, Mitchell. He'll be hanging out with us tonight.”
Mitchell looks around, his eyes wide. “My babysitter threw up and my mom and dad are wine tasting.” Then he reaches for my hand.
“Looks like I just met my competition,” Gabe says into my ear.
With Daniel playing the role of filmmaker, we're all wondering the same thing: who's going to watch the kid? He is clearly attached to me and I'm beginning to think that's not such a bad thing—it's one way to avoid ghost hunting—when Raj crouches down in front of him. “I brought some cards. Want me to teach you a new game?”
And just like that, the two of them are off in a corner as if they've known each other forever. Madison and Chloe leave in search of more lamps. Daniel returns to his video equipment, with Gabe playing the role of flashlight holder.
I look over at Mitchell, worried. There is no telling what we've gotten ourselves into. Girls have died. And now we have a little kid tagging along.
Destiny walks over. “I read something interesting today. If there's a spirit, it'll probably leave him alone. They don't usually target children.”
I turn and stare at her. “They usually target someone?”
She hooks her arm through mine. “Poltergeists do. Mostly teenage girls.”
My heart lurches in my chest. It is going to be a long night.
Chapter 41
Everything is finally unpacked for our overnight stay at the Wirth Mansion. We grab camping lanterns and flashlights and go together to make sure all outside doors and windows are locked. Even Raj and Mitchell come along. Daniel's little brother thinks we're playing a game.
Chloe thought ahead. She's brought a roll of blue electrical tape. She cuts off long strips and places them across each door and window we inspect. If one of them opens on its own and shuts again, we want some evidence. Daniel records this with his video camera. Leaving Raj and Mitchell back in the library, the rest of us troop through the enormous house, making sure we're alone. We even check out the famous secret passageway.
“Maybe it's a way to enter a supernatural realm,” Chloe says.
Madison stops and whirls around, blasting Chloe's face with the beam of her flashlight. She has no patience for that kind of talk. “It was used by the servants to enter the dining room through a camouflaged door.” Madison continues leading us down the narrow corridor. It doesn't feel like we're headed for the dining room, but it's impossible to get a sense of direction in this place.
Chloe flips off Madison's retreating figure. Gabe gives me a quizzical look. I shrug. It would take all night to explain their complicated relationship. When we are finally done with our inspection, we stand outside the library, out of Mitchell's earshot.
Daniel sets up a couple of lights, and with the camera rolling, we all agree not to pull any pranks, lie, or exaggerate about our experience that night. We're after the truth.
Madison holds up her hands. “I just want to say I do not believe in ghosts. I'm here because I want to support Raj. And you needed me to let you in.”
“Noted,” Chloe snaps.
Daniel looks up from the viewfinder. “Anyone want to say anything else?”
Destiny raises her hand. “I believe in the supernatural.” She pauses to clear her throat. “Because I'm a witch. And I plan on inviting whatever spirit or spirits are here to communicate with us tonight.”
“And how do you plan on doing that?” Daniel says from behind the camera. I can't see his face, but he sounds as surprised as I feel.
Destiny steps toward Daniel and pulls something from the pocket of her jacket. She holds out two crystals, then places them carefully on a little table. “Like this.”
“What are you doing, Destiny?” Madison asks sharply.
Destiny rearranges the crystals until they are perfectly aligned. “Getting ready to send an invitation.”
Daniel asks Chloe to help him move one of the lights to focus on the crystals. When they're done, he motions for Destiny to continue.
I take a step back to put some distance between myself and whatever is about to happen. My chest feels heavy with dread. Gabe reaches out and grips my hand in his. With the additional light, I can see one of the crystals is a milky white. The other is watery blue.
“This is an old house,” she begins in hushed tones. “And there are probably many spirits that surround us. But tonight, I would like to invite only one. The one that was called by Nicole DeSilva. If you are here, listening, I would like you to make yourself known. Show us in some way that you are here. And if you are the spirit who took the lives of Nicole, Emily Miller, Monica Goodman and our friend Mary McKissick, then I would like you to communicate why you have done this, and what it will take to get you to stop.”
Each time his sister's name is mentioned, I can feel Gabe flinch beside me.
Destiny pockets the crystals.
“Is that it?” Daniel asks.
“That's it,” Destiny replies. Then she moves over to me. “Did I sound like an idiot? Because I felt like one.”
Daniel steps out from behind the camera on its tripod. He gives her a thumbs up. “That
was good stuff.”
Madison snorts. “She wasn't acting.”
“You could have fooled me,” Alfie mutters.
Daniel pins a wireless mic to each of our collars. Even if we're not near the camera, the mics will capture sounds as we move around the mansion. We head our separate ways. The air seems to have changed somehow. It feels charged. No one else notices anything strange.
For the next few hours, we wander around the mansion. Gabe insists we stay in pairs, and I don't argue. Daniel takes turns following and recording Madison and Destiny, Chloe and Alfie, and me and Gabe. I think I hear a door slamming somewhere near the entrance, but Gabe doesn't hear it.
Around one o'clock in the morning, everyone regroups in the library to drink some coffee and eat.
We're quiet because Mitchell is sleeping on a couch, his feet on Raj's lap. Raj is dozing, his head thrown back. The heat is off so it's freezing inside. We're all bundled up in jackets and scarves.
Gabe puts his arm around my shoulders. It feels nice and safe, and I doze off. The next thing I know I'm waking up to a thunderous noise upstairs followed by a terrible scream and a heavy thud, like someone had fallen. I look around wildly. Raj and Mitchell are still asleep, undisturbed, and so is Gabe.
I shake Gabe's arm. “Oh my god, what was that?”
He sits up, dazed. “What? Did you hear something?”
“You didn't? It was horrible!”
My pulse is racing. When I try to stand, my legs wobble. Gabe hauls me to my feet. “Which way?”
“Upstairs.” We grab flashlights and bound up the first flight of stairs.
“Hey! Anyone?” Gabe shouts.
A flashlight beam swings wildly at the end of the hall. Alfie and Chloe appear. “What's wrong?” Chloe cries, hand on her chest. Alfie's face is pale, his eyes dark hollows.
I explain what I heard. They shake their heads. They didn't hear a thing. Neither did Madison, Destiny or Daniel when we find them a few minutes later. Once again, we go our separate ways, but this time I am so tense and my senses so sharpened, it's like I can hear every little creak and noise in the mansion. The minutes drag by, and another hour passes.
The fourth floor is bedroom after bedroom, but we don’t see anything unusual. Gabe has been quiet all night. I suspect not-so-pleasant memories of his sister haunt him as we make our rounds.
We haven't seen the Grand Parlor, the room where Madison had found Mary staring at portraits, so we head there. It's on the first floor a couple of doors down from the mirrored ballroom. Even in the light of our flashlights, it's easy to see it's an elegant room. Busy cream and gold wallpaper. Fancy drapes. Lots of heavy dark furniture. Not a room I'd like to spend a lot of time in, but it's the portraits I want to see.
On one side of the room is the famous Mr. Wirth and his elder son. On the other side, over the fireplace mantel, are two others: one of a stern middle-aged woman with dark, piercing eyes. The other is David Wirth. He's even better looking in this picture than in the one I saw in The History of the Wirth Mansion.
I wonder what, exactly, captured Mary's attention.
“She'd look right at home in a Nazi uniform,” Gabe says, pointing at Edith Wirth.
I'm laughing, quietly, when our flashlights go out, plunging us into darkness. Gabe mutters and fumbles with the switch. I do the same with mine, but they stay stubbornly off. Then Gabe grabs my elbow, making me jump.
“What was that?” He's clearly alarmed.
“What was what?”
“I felt something. Like someone walked past us.”
The flashlights flicker back to life. We sweep the beams across the parlor, but there's nothing. A strange rustling sound reaches my ears. Like a long silk skirt worn by a woman crossing the room. Like one of the mansion's ghost tales. But Gabe doesn't hear it. I'm scared now, trembling. We exchange glances and move quickly toward the door. We're just feet away from it when it slams shut. I hear myself scream. Gabe lunges toward the door and throws it open, dragging me after him. Dragging me because it's like I've grown roots and they're sunk deep in the floor.
We're in the hallway now, looking at each other, wild eyed. Gabe is breathing hard. We're starting to recover when a series of loud knocks come from somewhere down the wide corridor stretching before us.
“Alfie?” Gabe calls.
No response. The knocks grow louder. We move toward them. The sounds continue, but as we approach, they seem to move further away. Gabe looks down at me. “Do you think someone is playing a joke?”
Before I can reply, there is a splintering crash overhead. A shrill scream follows. The knocks have stopped only to be replaced by the sound of footsteps pounding back and forth above us. Gabe jumps. He hears it, too.
“What's going on?” I shout, spinning around, looking up at the ceiling and seeing only darkness.
My plea goes unanswered. Then I hear Madison screaming. I begin running blindly toward her voice. It's coming from upstairs. Gabe grabs the back of my jacket to keep me from getting too far ahead. When we reach the second floor, breathless, everyone is there except for Raj and Mitchell. Madison's ponytail has come undone. She's shaking. Daniel has the video camera pointed at her. Chloe and Destiny are clinging to each other. Alfie is walking in circles, muttering.
“Tell us what happened, Madison,” Daniel says.
The light on top of the camera is aimed at Madison's pale face. “When we were walking in the servants' hallways, it sounded like someone was pounding on one of the doors. I should have waited for you, but I didn't.”
“I didn't see where she'd gone and I got lost,” Daniel explains.
Madison rubs her forehead. “When I found the door, I could swear someone was inside, slamming it with their fists. I thought it was one of you. Maybe trapped inside. Then the door opened and swung back and forth, like someone was standing behind it playing with the knob. And then it flew wide open and hit me before I could get out of the way. I could hear someone walking around inside. And then I heard a woman's voice. Whispering. And then there was this horrible scream. And I got the hell out of there.”
Alfie pats Destiny on the back. “Looks like your invitation worked.”
There in the cold darkness of the mansion's second floor, we exchange stories. Everyone heard something. Felt something brush past them. Chloe says she didn't see anything, but swore someone was close by, watching her. Not everyone had the same experience, even if they were in the same room or standing just feet apart. When we make our way back to the library, Raj and Mitchell are still asleep. When we wake up Raj, he shakes his head.
He's sitting bolt upright now. “I didn't hear a thing.”
The noises have stopped, but we've had enough.
We grab our things. On our way out, we pass the doors and windows that Chloe marked with tape. Every strip of blue has been torn off.
After all that we've experienced, it's like we're numb. Alfie mutters a half-hearted “Damn!” and Madison manages a faint, “What the hell?”
Daniel passes his sleeping brother to Raj. It's amazing the kid doesn't even stir. Daniel turns on his camera again and hurriedly begins shooting. Chloe collects the bits of tape and adds them to our garbage bag we're taking out with us. We don't want to leave any evidence of our ghost hunt behind.
Daniel takes Mitchell and heads home. I drop off Gabe at his friend’s house. The rest of us go to Alfie's and crash. We're all exhausted, and nobody remembers to set an alarm.
When we wake up, it's late. We don't have a chance to talk about what happened because it's a mad rush to get to school on time.
We agree to meet later that afternoon and check the recordings. We all want to be there, together, to see whatever it is Daniel caught.
Chapter 42
At Daniel's house the atmosphere is tense. Everyone is anxious to see what is on the video he recorded overnight at the Wirth Mansion. Outside a fierce new storm is on full display through the floor-to-ceiling windows in Daniel's living room. Rain slaps the gl
ass. Wind lashes the trees.
Daniel is clearly uneasy. He's clearing his throat like something is stuck in there and he's clutching the TV remote so tightly his knuckles are white.
“I have something to tell you,” he finally says, his eyes darting around the room.
Raj looks at me, eyebrows raised, and I shrug in response. Alfie is first to break the strained silence. “Just say it, man.”
Daniel pulls at the collar of his sweater. “I know I was supposed to wait so we could watch it together. But I couldn't. There was a lot of footage to go through and I thought it might be easier if I did a first pass. You know, see what was there. So I stayed home and went through it all.” He stares down at his feet.
Alfie leans forward in his chair. “And?”
Daniel blows out a noisy breath before replying. “It's a good thing Samantha asked me to bring my camera.” His eyes are gleaming now. He's bouncing from foot to foot.
My pulse is pounding in my temples. Whatever Daniel has captured on video, I am not sure I'm ready to see it. There's no conversation. All eyes are fixed on the enormous TV screen.
“Ready?” Daniel asks. Everyone nods.
I force myself to look where I'm supposed to. It feels like a monster is crouched behind the black screen waiting to reveal itself.
Daniel's long fingers are trembling ever so slightly as he fumbles with the remote. His skin looks almost gray in the strange, watery light of the room. Destiny is shivering even though the room is warm. Madison's expression is wary yet defiant, like she is ready to argue. Gabe is sitting next to me on a long blue couch, but he's lost in his own world. I wish he'd hold my hand or put his arm around me. He doesn't and this nags at me. Alfie's eyes are focused on Daniel.
“Can you please just start it?” Chloe says.
Daniel hits play.
The Wirth Mansion rises up, floodlights bathing it in an eerie glow. “Okay, I cut out all the video where stuff wasn't happening. There's nothing until one thirty in the morning. This was taken when Destiny, Madison and I are on the top floor.”
The Box in The Cuts: A Supernatural Mystery Page 16
