How was she supposed to do this? Mel had started with calling out to the spirit, using formal language and asking questions like she was a school teacher in front of a class. That didn’t seem right for this. Shouldn’t she just talk?
“This is nuts,” she said to herself, closing her eyes.
Under her fingers, the pointer moved.
It slid across the board until it stopped, pointing at the word ‘no.’
This is nuts.
No.
“Mom...” Katie breathed. “It’s really you?”
The pointer tugged on her hands again, this time to the other side. ‘Yes.’
Katie made a sound somewhere between a laugh and a sob. This was really happening. Around the painted words on the board--No and Yes--were a scowling moon for the negative and a smiling sun for the affirmative. She knew those had some sort of meaning but she didn’t care. Her mom was here.
She took a shuddering breath, and tried to put her thoughts in order.
“Mom, I need to ask you so much. I don’t know where to begin.”
With a little tremble that sent shivers up her arms to her elbows, the paper pointer moved across the polished surface of the board.
I L-O-V-E Y-O-U
Tears stung her eyes. That was a good place to start. She had to sit back from the Ouija board, and just allow herself to think for a moment. This was her mother. Her dead mother, talking to her, and sending her love.
This was insane.
The paper trembled on the board. Her mother wanted her attention.
“We caught the man who killed Marlena,” she told her mother. “Oh. You were here for that, weren’t you? That was you, throwing all those photographs around.”
The planchette shook, and shimmied, and trembled until it’s top point was laying in the direction of the word ‘Yes.’ Katie guessed that was all her mother could do without her hands on the planchette to help it move.
“Right,” she said drily. “Like I know how these things work.”
She sighed through a smile and wiped moisture away from her eyes with her fingers. “I must be losing my mind.”
The planchette quivered, but didn’t turn.
“Right. You know, just a few months ago I was a happy self-employed businesswoman. I bought houses. I fixed them up. I sold them again. That was it. Now it seems like I’m some sort of magnet for haunted houses. Three of them so far, Mom. Well, four if you count this one. I mean, one of them was no biggee, hardly worth talking about at all except for all the windows I had to pay to replace, but the other two...I nearly died both times. Now this? Coming back here to find my mother’s ghost is haunting our home? I mean, seriously Mom what is going on with...me...”
Her voice trailed off as she saw the planchette begin to spin in place. Round and round, like the needle of a compass.
“Mom?” The pointer stopped, facing Katie. “Um. Do you know why I keep finding all these houses with ghost stories to tell?”
The planchette moved again. She held her breath while it slowed and came to a stop, those two smiling faces from the past looking up at her from within the photo.
The pointer was aimed at ‘Yes.’
Yes, her mother knew about the ghosts in her life. How was that possible? “I don’t understand.”
The top point spun around the board, coming back to ‘Yes.’
“Mom? Answer me...I don’t understand.”
The planchette began to shake. Its edges trembled against the board, making it crawl sideways, still pointed a ‘Yes.’
“Damn it, Mom.” She reached out and pressed the creased edges of the photograph flat under her fingers. “I don’t understand. Do you know why this is happening to me? Why am I being drawn to all these ghosts?”
This time, the planchette stayed in place under her hands.
The board moved.
It stopped at first one, and then a second letter.
M-E
“You? What the Hell does that mean?”
The board began moving so fast that Katie couldn’t keep track of what it was saying. It moved sideways, it spun, it slid--
I-N-E-D-Y-C-M-H-E-
“Mom, stop. Slow down! I can’t...I can’t see what you’re... Stop it!”
Katie yanked the planchette away and held it tight in her hands and when she did the board flew up into the air and came dropping back down against the table with a clatter. She cringed, sure that the thing was going to break in two and then she would have to explain to Mel that she’d broken this important heirloom.
But it didn’t break. It just lay there, flat and centered on the little table, staring up at her.
Her fingers cramped around the planchette. She was starting to rumple it, and she made herself stop. No matter how frustrating this was, she needed to do this. She needed to talk to her mother. She needed answers.
So, very carefully, she set the triangle down on the table next to the board--not on it--and ran the side of her palm over the top of it to flatten it out again. When she was done, she brushed her fingertips over the image of her mother’s face, there on the beach.
“All right, Mom. Let’s try this again. I don’t understand. I need you to explain this to me but I need you to go slow, so I can read it, okay?”
Come to think of it, a lot of their conversations just before Katie had left for good had been exactly like this. Her mother, talking over her while desperately trying to get her point across. Katie, asking all the wrong questions and getting angry when the answers weren’t the ones she wanted.
It had been years since she had left home, and two years since her mother’s death, but they were still playing out the same scenario. She loved her mother. Why couldn’t they just connect like a mother and daughter should?
In a whisper, Katie spoke to her mother, her eyes still on the faces in the photo. “I’m sorry, Mom. I’ve never been able to say it before, but I was wrong. I should have listened to you. I was chasing a dream and when I finally realized what I had done, I didn’t know how to tell you.”
She sniffed, her voice thick with emotions. “I’ve made a good life for myself, Mom. I’m happy...well, sort of. Mostly. I love what I do for a living. My personal life maybe needs some work but the rest of it is going good. I’m sorry I never shared any of that with you. I’m sorry I never included you in my life away from here. The guy I left with wasn’t right for me. Just like you said. But the rest of it...ah, Mom, I wish I could have shown you who your daughter grew up to be.”
It was the truth. The simple truth that Katie had avoided for all these years. Now, here in this house, she’d been forced to confront it.
“I’m sorry,” she said again. “I’m ready to try, if you are.”
Very gently, the board slid closer to her hands, and slipped under the edge of the photograph planchette.
“Thanks, Mom.” With a deep breath, Katie started again. “Okay. Do you know why all of these ghosts are suddenly being attracted to me?”
She still didn’t have her hands on the planchette, but the board moved anyway. It was like the connection between her and her mother was getting stronger.
The letters came slower this time. Katie paid close attention, forming the words in her mind.
I N-E-E-D-E-D Y-O-U
Pause.
K-E-P-T C-A-L-L-I-N-G Y-O-U
Pause.
C-O-M-E H-O-M-E
The message stopped.
Katie sat back on the couch, running those words through her mind. “You were calling me home. Oh! You mean...now. You mean after you died. You were calling me to come home.”
As Katie watched, the triangle pointed to ‘Yes.’
“So you were calling me from beyond the grave--”
She realized how crazy that sounded.
Then she realized something else.
“You were trying to reach out to me.” She sat forward on the edge of the couch as her thoughts cascaded through her mind. “You were reaching out for me and somehow all the
se other ghosts listened in on the call. They followed you to...me.”
The pointer spun in a circle, settling back where it was before. ‘Yes.’
“Well gee,” Katie said sarcastically. “Thanks a lot for that.”
The planchette began to vibrate again and shake all over the board.
“All right, all right.” Katie slapped her hands at it a few times until she had it trapped under her fingers again. “Forget about that. You were calling me home because of your death, right? Because...you knew you’d been murdered?”
The board twisted in an arc until the tip of the triangle was pointing at ‘Yes.’
“Fine.” She swallowed back her fear of the answer, and asked the question. “Can you tell me what happened?”
The board spun, letters touching the tip of the planchette only briefly and once again, Katie was left with only bits and pieces of words and no way of making them make sense.
“Stop! Just stop. Mom, this isn’t working. They arrested Riley Harris. It’s over. You wanted me to know you were murdered. I get it now. I’m sorry I wasn’t here for you and you felt like you had to turn to Marlena for companionship but I can’t change any of that. I’m here for you now. Can we...” She sniffed back the tears that were suddenly right there again. “Can we just say we love each other and let that be our goodbye?”
The planchette spun.
‘No.’
“Mom!” Katie growled her frustration and dropped her head into her hands. “Why is it never simple with you?”
The board spun, starting a new message...
There was a knock on the front door, and Katie jumped in her seat. Then she laughed at herself. Here she was talking to her mother’s ghost and the thing that scared her was a knock on the front door.
Pushing her hand through her hair, blowing out a breath, she looked out into the hall. Who could that be...?
Then she remembered. Lizzy was supposed to be coming over. Had it gotten that late already? She hadn’t even had the chance to clean up.
“Fantastic. Mom, just...” She had been about to say don’t go anywhere, but that was a pretty stupid thing to say. “Just don’t go heading into any bright lights, okay?”
There was no answer. The board didn’t move. The planchette lay perfectly still.
The knock on the door came again.
“Coming!” Katie called out. With a last look at the Ouija, and the bit of photo showing on her home made planchette, Katie went to let Lizzy in.
Chapter 13
“I brought beer,” Lizzy said with a grin. “We’ll just order the pizza from here. I hope that’s all right.”
Her mind was still reeling from everything she had just heard in the living room, but Katie returned a smile of her own. “I drink beer,” she said. She preferred wine, personally, but any alcohol would be welcomed right now.
Lizzy came in as Katie held the door open, and then her sneakers crunched on some of the broken picture frames and she stopped.
“Wow. What happened here?”
“Uh. Renovations.”
Lizzy gave her a look. She wasn’t buying it. “My brother did this, didn’t he?”
“Er, not exactly. I meant to get it cleared up before you came over but I got distracted. Come on in. The kitchen is this way. We’ll put the beer in the fridge and then we can order that pizza you promised.”
“Yes, I remember where everything is. I’m really glad you asked me over, actually. I wanted to talk to you about Riley. I think I know why he did...what he did.”
“You mean Marlena.”
“That, and other things.”
The six pack of beer stopped halfway from Lizzy to Katie. Those words hung between them the same way, as Katie wondered what Lizzy meant.
“What’s wrong with your freezer?” Lizzy asked.
“Um, what?” Katie felt like a ragdoll caught in the wind trying to follow along with then change in conversation. “The freezer?”
Lizzy motioned to the freezer door. When Katie turned, she saw it was opening. All by itself.
Dropping the cans of beer on the counter Katie set her shoulder to the door and pushed it shut. The lever clicked closed as she did, and she stood back from it.
Then it opened again.
“Old houses, right?” Lizzy said. “You must see things like this a lot.”
“Not really,” Katie muttered. She pushed the door shut again, one handed, and held it that way. “Lizzy, listen. I know you think I left town to get rich off flipping houses but there was a lot more to it than that.”
“Sure, sure.” Lizzy pushed the beer cans back and forth on the counter. “So have you decided what to do with the house?”
“I’m still selling it. I wasn’t going to but now that everything’s resolved, you know, with your brother? I think it’s time.”
The beer cans stopped moving. “Really? You don’t want to stay here?”
“No. I just can’t do it. There’s too many memories and not all of them are good.”
“Like how you left your mother behind and forgot about her. I understand.”
That was harsh, Katie thought to herself. “No, that’s not what I meant.”
“Wasn’t it? Oh, sorry. Then why did you leave?”
Katie took her hand off the door, gesturing in helpless frustration with her hands.
As she did, the door clicked open again.
“Damn it,” Katie swore. She leaned her back against the freezer, feeling the cold leeching through the metal into her skin. “You’re twisting everything that I’m saying, Lizzy. I didn’t leave Mom because I wanted to.”
“Katie, you don’t have to explain yourself to me. You left your mom behind and went to find yourself.” Lizzy shrugged. “It’s just too bad that the rest of us never had that luxury. My parents died, too. I didn’t get to run away to a whole new life.”
She smiled in a way that didn’t touch her eyes. For some reason it set Katie’s teeth on edge.
“Are you mad at me?” she asked Lizzy.
“Oh, no, Katie. How could I ever be mad at you? Everything you do is so perfect.”
Katie couldn’t believe this. “Your brother has been terrorizing me. He killed Marlena. I think he may have killed my mother, for that matter, and you’re going to stand in my kitchen and belittle me for a decision I made years ago? I don’t think so!”
Lizzy took a beer off its plastic ring on the six pack and slowly opened it. Then she took a sip. Her eyes never left Katie’s.
“Whatever you say, Katie.” She took another sip. “You got it all figured out, right?”
Katie was about to snap something else at Lizzy when she realized, it wouldn’t matter. Lizzy had decided to hate her for no reason that Katie could see. All of this was her brother’s fault. Whether Katie had spent more time at home or not, Riley would still be who he is. There was no changing that.
The demons from her past were her problem. Not Lizzy’s. She and her mother had a chance now, a chance to talk and fix things. They’d already started to do just exactly that. Riley’s arrest had been a good start, and Katie admitting that she had made a mistake all those years ago had made her feel so much better.
She wasn’t going to let anyone ruin this for her now.
“This was a mistake.” Katie waved her hand in the direction of the door. “Just leave. Get out.”
Lizzy drank from her beer. “I haven’t finished this yet.”
“Take it,” Katie grated out through her teeth, “and go.”
In no rush, Lizzy drank the rest of the beer in one long gulp. Then she set the can down. “Keep the rest. It seems like you need it.”
Finally she turned away and walked out of the kitchen. Katie heard her footsteps crunching on the broken photo frames. A moment later the front door opened and closed.
Pushing away from the freezer she ran down the hallway to the door and clicked the lock in place. That was enough of that for one day.
Katie wanted to bang her head
against a brick wall. She shouldn’t have even bothered extending her hand to Lizzy. There was enough for her to worry about as it was. She didn’t need any more to think about.
Maybe this was why she didn’t have many friends.
Things had been going okay, really, until Katie had told Lizzy she was still going to sell the house. Then Lizzy got all snotty again.
Well. Her brother was in jail. Maybe she had a right.
Or maybe Katie was seeing the real Lizzy Harris.
The beer on the counter was calling her name. She had never wanted to get blistering drunk more than she did right now. Going back to the kitchen she pulled a can off from the others and opened it up. It was bitter against her tongue but she could feel the flush of the alcohol in her bloodstream almost immediately. She shouldn’t drink on an empty stomach. She knew that from long experience. She just didn’t care.
The freezer door opened again.
“I take it back,” she said with another swallow. “Now is the perfect time to drink.”
That freezer door. She glared at it. What was she going to do about it? Taking it off the hinges seemed like a great idea. Welding it shut occurred to her as well.
“Hear that?” she shouted at the freezer. “How about I shut you permanently. What would you do then?”
The door swung itself shut and stayed that way.
“That’s what I thought.”
She lifted her beer to it, and then drank.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw a dark shadow move silently down the hall.
Katie spun, trying to see it again. “Who’s there?”
No one answered, and she held her breath for a moment listening to the silence. There was nothing to hear. No one was in the house except her. Well, her and her mother’s ghost.
Of course, the fact that it kept opening and closing now meant she’d been wrong to accuse Riley of closing it on her. This wasn’t being caused by any human hand. It wasn’t a malfunction, either. And, no matter how much it felt like the freezer had come alive and started trying to eat her, she knew that wasn’t true.
Sight Unseen Complete Series Box Set Page 34
