Bryan frowned.
“My family is afraid of me. They’re afraid they’ll come back, or that it’ll happen again,” Allison said softly.
“What will happen again? What is your family afraid of?” Dr. Brandt encouraged. He seemed eager now, watching Allison with an intensity Jess found a bit creepy. It was as though she were some prized find under a microscope.
Allison shifted uneasily in her seat. “Demons. They’re afraid the demons will come back.”
Evil spirits. So this was what Allison had been talking about. Jess could see why her roommate might shy away from anything paranormal. Ghosts were one thing, but demons? Jess nearly shivered. Yeah, she could see where Allison might be freaked out about that.
“Demons?” Bryan asked. “You mean as in possession?”
Allison shrugged. “I guess. Evil spirits. Whatever. It was like they were crawling around under my skin. Then, it was like I was the one crawling around under my own skin, and they’d taken over. They’re everywhere, you know—the demons. You read about them in the papers all the time. Murderers, mostly.”
No one dared to ridicule Allison. It was on their faces—her story fascinated them. Jess was glad that all she saw were harmless ghosts. Allison’s story about the demons made her skin want to crawl.
“Are they still with you?” Dr. Brandt asked.
Allison scratched at her forearm. “Not at the moment. They’ve been gone for months. But once they’ve been let in, they can come back. They said so. They know how to find you.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
When they had finished dinner, Dr. Brandt scooted his chair back. “Let’s clean up, and then we’ll talk about Siler House and how its history makes us feel.”
Feel? Jess already knew how Allison felt. And, with what she’d said about the demons, probably so did everyone else.
“I get what you’re doing,” Allison said to Dr. Brandt. “You’re playing with our imaginations. But you’re stirring things up that you shouldn’t.”
Take your own advice, Jess thought. You’re the one stirring things up over emotion alone. No one else seems half as freaked out about being here as you.
“Do you think spirits read our emotions?” Dr. Brandt asked.
“One year, our attic was infested with rats,” Allison said. “We had someone come out to get rid of them.”
“Rats? You’re comparing ghosts to rats?” Jess asked.
“Are you telling us you’ve got some ghost phobia thing going on?” Bryan asked. “Man, that sucks since you’re part of an experiment with ghosts.”
Jess nodded. Maybe if she cleared up a few things about ghosts—at least what Jess knew of them, Allison might relax. “You do know ghosts are supposed to be disembodied, right? It’s not like they can do anything to physically harm you.”
“You don’t know that!” Allison threw her napkin on the table. “Just because it’s never happened to you!”
Ouch! Jess thought. She was just trying to help. She didn’t mean for Allison to rip her head off.
“Easy, ladies,” Dr. Brandt interrupted. “I’m certain we’ll all be fine here. There’s nothing to worry about.”
Jess tensed. Why did she feel so uneasy about his response?
“Let me get this straight,” Gage said. “We all know we’ve been brought here as part of a study on the paranormal. Jess communicates with the dead. Allison has demons on speed dial. My buddy Bryan here sends stuff to the Twilight Zone without return postage. And I’ve got a knack for making my own zombie zoo theme park. Fun times. To add to all this fun, we’re actually sitting here talking about how we feel about a house?”
“We’re merely going over the history and legend of Siler House, both of which suggest that it has an effect on those who stay here.” Dr. Brandt got to his feet. “There’s a lot to cover, so let’s get this cleaned up, shall we?”
Kitchen detail didn’t take long with the five of them. While Dr. Brandt opened drawers and cabinets looking for the right place to put things away, Jess and Allison washed the last of the dishes that didn’t fit into the dishwasher while Gage and Bryan dried them.
Overhead, floorboards creaked, as though someone were pacing on the floor above them. Allison rubbed her arms.
“It’s probably Mrs. Hirsch,” Bryan said. “She likes to walk the halls a lot.”
Allison nodded, hesitantly.
“Well, everything here is reasonably tidy,” Dr. Brandt announced at last. “Why don’t we go into the Great Room and continue our conversation.”
Dr. Brandt and Gage left, leaving Jess and Bryan with Allison. Allison continued to stare upward, oblivious when Bryan flicked the lights a few times. “Come on! Wouldn’t want to be late for campfire stories.”
“Allison,” Jess coaxed. When Allison didn’t budge, Jess grabbed her by the arm and pulled her from the kitchen, flicking the lights off a final time as they left.
Whatever hang-up Allison had with Mrs. Hirsch, she had gotten past it by the time they settled onto the sofa nearest the unlit fireplace. The boys took up the other two chairs, and Dr. Brandt moved another nearby chair closer to them.
“Before we dive into the history lesson I’d like everyone’s impression of the house,” Dr. Brandt said.
“It’s old,” Gage said. “It’s just an old house.”
“Nothing else?” Dr. Brandt asked, jotting stuff down in a notebook, making Jess feel more and more like a lab rat. Writing down their responses and actions made this discussion seem like a therapy session. Been there. Done that. Nearly had the straitjacket.
You’re in my office because your family worries about you, Jess. Tell me. Why do you think you can see ghosts?
“No,” Gage replied with a laugh. “It’s just a house, man.”
Jess noted that so far, neither Dr. Brandt nor Gage thought Siler House was evil. Only Allison.
“And you?” Dr. Brandt asked Allison.
“Why ask me?” Allison wanted to know. “I already told you. I hate this place.”
“Are you upset that you’re here because of what’s going on with you and your family—the disagreements?” Dr. Brandt crossed his legs.
“It’s because this place scares me,” Allison replied.
He resumed writing in his notepad. “And why does it scare you, Allison?”
“Because it’s...can’t anyone else here feel it? Can’t any of you?” She pulled her feet up under her as though something might be lurking beneath the couch.
Gage and Bryan both shook their heads, indicating they felt nothing unusual.
Yep, it’s only Allison. No one else feels what she does.
“How about you, Jess? Do you think there’s something wrong with Siler House?” Dr. Brandt asked.
All eyes were on her.
Ghosts aren’t real, Jess. You’re in what is called denial. I’m going to help you with that.
Jess pushed her former psychiatrist’s words aside. Ghosts were real. But a house wasn’t a ghost. As much as she’d like to believe Siler House had a soul, deep down, she agreed with Gage. It was a house. She hated to admit that, but what were the alternatives? Say that she wanted to think of Siler House as a person? Allison would feed off every word as though they were proof.
“No,” she replied. “It’s a great old house. It’s settled. I think it has history, is all. Maybe something paranormal exists here. I hope so. But I don’t feel anything weird. I don’t sense anything bad. If anything, I’d say the house has...personality.”
Gage laughed, and the grin on his face looked playful. “Why do girls assign human characteristics to things?”
Jess folded her arms in mock annoyance. “You mean like cars?”
He grinned. “Touché.”
Dr. Brandt kept writing. “What do you think of Siler House, Bryan?”
He shrugged. “I dunno. I’m with Jess and Gage, I guess. It’s old and big, and sort of drafty in places, and the floorboards creak, but I don’t feel anything weird here, either. Why
all the interest in how we feel about this place?”
“I hope we’re not supposed to group hug after this,” Gage quietly commented to Bryan.
Dr. Brandt wrote for a moment more before laying the pen on the notebook. “It’s been rumored that Siler House is haunted in a way no other house is.”
Gage and Bryan exchanged dubious glances.
“How’s that?” Bryan asked. “You said the house has an effect on people?”
Dr. Brandt smiled faintly, and Jess didn’t like it. It wasn’t a stretch that he knew more than them. She didn’t like the way he wasn’t sharing that information.
“It’s rumored that Siler House has a way of getting to people,” Dr. Brandt explained. “Supposedly, those who stay here for too long…change.”
Gage cocked his head and stared at Dr. Brandt. Jess couldn’t have agreed more with his skepticism. “Like how?”
“He means,” Allison said, “That this place gets under your skin. You begin to crave it.”
Bryan raised his eyebrows. “You mean like a drug?”
Dr. Brandt nodded. “Something like that. An addiction of sorts. I’m not sure how it works, exactly, except that those who’ve experienced things here tend to stay, regardless of how frightened they become. Regardless of how much they tell themselves they want to leave.”
Allison turned her head to stare at Jess as if saying I told you so.
Hearsay, Jess thought. Although the idea fascinated her, she preferred to make the call for herself. What raised her suspicions at the moment was that Dr. Brandt might trick them into some group psychosis, fueled by Allison’s fear of Siler House. If the legend had any truth to it, and Siler House had some power of its own, she’d see evidence of it soon enough. What did Grams always say? Believe nothing you hear and half of what you see? Was it possible? Sure, and Jess hadn’t gone all skeptic, believing in only ghosts and nothing else. It was more like she wanted to experience Siler House and everything in it for herself, in her own way. Not second hand. It’d be like going on vacation and everyone telling you everything about a place before you saw it yourself. Still, a house with a soul or presence might be pretty cool.
Or really scary.
Dr. Brandt set his pen and pad aside. “Okay. Short history lesson, as promised. Siler House was built in 1904 by banker Jonathan William Siler for his wife, Catherine, and their two young daughters, Gracie and Emma. The house has three aboveground floors, four if you want to count the attic, which the Silers converted to a dance studio and music room for their daughters. Mrs. Siler loved ballet and piano. Siler House has thirty-five rooms, ten of which are now bedrooms. There’s a basement, which is mostly storage space and a pantry. The stairs to the basement are through the kitchen. There’s the main staircase connecting the three top floors, and another separate staircase from the third floor to the attic. All told, Siler House is over twenty-two thousand square feet, including the basement, and sits on almost thirty acres. The estate sat deserted for years, and only recently has anyone decided to renovate it, mostly because the descendants of the Silers refused to refurbish it, live in it, or even sell it. That changed when there wasn’t money enough left to continue paying the taxes. The last living heir to the Siler estate finally agreed to sell last year—Mrs. Hirsch. But, the event, the reason we’re all here, happened in August of 1909. It was the week before the start of the fall hunting season.”
Jess nudged Allison. “The graves!”
Dr. Brandt smiled. “I see you’ve been exploring. Gracie and Emma were murdered when they were ten years old. Their bodies were found in a clearing in the woods by hunters the following week.”
“Did they find out who killed them?” Allison asked.
Dr. Brandt nodded. “Oh, yes! They did.”
“Did the parents do it?” Gage asked. “One of the servants?”
“No,” Dr. Brandt replied. “The parents were very kind, very loving. They doted on their daughters. Nothing was too good for them, as Jess and Allison can attest. Their graves are remarkable.”
“So, the house has been sitting empty for nearly a hundred years?” Bryan asked. “Seems like a waste.”
“It’s what the family felt best at the time,” Dr. Brandt said.
“Just because of a couple of murders?” Bryan asked, shaking his head in disbelief.
Allison rubbed her arms again. “See? The house got to them, didn’t it?”
“Enough!” Jess nearly shouted. “Would you stop it? You don’t actually know that’s true!”
Gage exchanged a glance with Bryan as though he thought the girls might break into a fight. Jess glared at him.
“Relax, okay?” Gage said. “Don’t get so uptight about it.”
Allison withdrew, balling herself up and continuing to rub her arms.
“I’m sorry,” Jess repeated, more quietly this time. “I didn’t mean to yell. But Siler House didn’t kill Gracie and Emma and dump them into the woods. As much as I believe in the supernatural, that’s impossible. It had to be someone close to the family, or some random stranger. Maybe the killer was someone tied to Mr. Siler’s business?”
Allison looked away from Jess.
Great. Now she’d done it. But what else could she do? Allison wasn’t dealing with the facts, just emotions. If she weren’t careful, they would consume her. Jess wasn’t ready to admit that she had her own observations about being watched when she’d first arrived—as though the house really was alive in some odd way. In all honesty, though, if something had been watching her, Jess was more inclined to believe that it had been a ghost who hadn’t wanted to show himself yet. Gage was right; anything else would be assigning human characteristics to an inanimate object.
“As it happens, however, Allison is correct,” Dr. Brandt said. “The house did get to the Siler girls. It got to them all in one way or another, or so the legend goes. But the question remains, is the legend metaphorical or literal? Does Siler House have a way of putting people under its spell? Is such a thing possible? And, will any of you think the deaths here had anything to do with the paranormal? Or did the Siler family merely experience a string of bad luck?”
CHAPTER NINE
The first night with Allison had been nearly impossible. Jess awoke on more than one occasion to find her roommate sitting upright in bed, rocking back and forth. Trying to ignore her, Jess turned over and faced the window. Sleeping in a strange place the first few nights bothered most everyone, she figured. Hotels were the worst because of the noise from elevators, doors and neighbors in close proximity. Jess put old houses right up there on the same list. But Siler House was a good distance from noisy highways and the sounds of city life. The chirp of crickets and chorus of bullfrogs in a nearby marsh had filled the night, and eventually lulled her to sleep.
It was only when the crickets and frogs stopped that she awoke. She blinked, trying to adjust her eyes to the dark. She turned back over, expecting Allison to be either still sitting up, or asleep. But her bed was empty and Allison stood in front of the dresser, hands at her sides, staring at the mirror. Alarmed, Jess sat upright.
“It’s happening again,” Allison said.
“Huh?”
“The spirits. They’re back. I can see them.”
Jess rubbed her eyes as a spark of uncertainty and a moment’s worth of fear rustled somewhere deep inside her. “They’re there, in the mirror?”
“Yes.”
Jess got out of bed and tentatively stood next to Allison. She looked at the mirror, then behind her. Nothing. Uncertainty gave way to disappointment. The mirror cast back only the shadowy figures of Allison and herself, their faces made pale by the moonlight streaming into the room. They were alone, as far as Jess could tell.
Damn it! Why couldn’t she see the ghosts? Were they here? Disappointment gave way to a pang of envy.
“You don’t seem as upset as you were before,” Jess said. “If they’re back, aren’t you afraid they’ll take over? Possess you?” She wasn’t making f
un of Allison. Something horrible had happened to her, and she was probably more sensitive to the supernatural than Jess was.
“Yes, I’m afraid,” Allison replied calmly.
The way Allison spoke seemed at odds with her words. The hairs on Jess’s arms tingled, but not because of any ghosts she couldn’t see. Right now, the only thing creepy in the room was Allison. The girl had been possessed, after all.
Allison turned her head to look at Jess, her expression unreadable in the shadows, even this close up. “He collects souls.”
Jess peered harder into the mirror, trying not to show Allison she was indeed afraid. “He? Who are you talking about?”
“He’s looking at you. I can’t make out what he’s saying. But see?” she pointed to the mirror. “He wrote his name.”
Fear and a healthy dose of agitation rose inside Jess. Fear, because someone staring at them from inside a mirror was downright scary. Agitated, because she couldn’t see anything, and Allison’s continual freak-outs were wearing on her. After a long day getting here, she was exhausted and just wanted to sleep.
“Allison, I don’t see anything! He? Who are you talking about?”
“Riley,” Allison whispered.
“Riley? Who’s Riley?”
Allison stood just as still as she had upon Jess’s wakening. “He lives here. With the others.”
“Others?” Jess stepped closer to the mirror, leaning against the dresser to get a better look. Her breath fogged it enough to reveal a single name, written backward: Riley.
Jess’s heart and feet leapt in unison. “Oh my God! Oh my God!”
“See? I told you,” Allison said, still speaking in the same monotone voice.
Jess gulped in a breath and approached the dresser again, her heart still hammering in her chest. Shadows shifted eerily inside the mirror, but Jess told herself it was just the light refracting off the angular ceiling. She leaned even closer. She had to be sure. Wanted to be sure. The name was there, but she hadn’t actually seen anyone write it. Allison had been standing in front of the mirror before Jess woke up. What if she’d written the name herself?
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