They watched in horror, unsure what they should do. Their hands were still gripped tight but were now hovering above the table top. They looked at each other. The candles were starting to send hot wax flying across the table. One tipped over and rolled onto the floor. Without saying a word, all four of them pushed their seats right back and stood up.
The table continued its rocking pattern. Steadily, it quickened its pace. Without warning, the table completely tipped over onto its side. They stood there, unable to move from the shock. The candles resting on the piano were now the only light source, casting eerie shadows right around the room. The rain continued to beat against the windows.
Cate was the first to speak. “I can’t do this. This isn’t natural, it’s wrong. We have to stop.”
“We can’t! How else are we going to help Eve?” Charlie looked at her sister’s face, her look of terror mirrored in her own.
“Cate, I can assure you we are safe here for the moment. Eve isn’t trying to hurt us. She is just confused and is misdirecting her energy. She will learn how to control it and speak with us again. Just don’t break the circle,” Melanie tried to calm everyone down. “Charlie, try again with your questions. She seems to respond to you very well.”
She nodded. “Thank you for your answers so far. We just need to ask you a few more so we can work out how we can help you, Eve,” Charlie could barely talk, her heart was beating so fast. “Did your parents have anything to do with your murder?”
They all held their breath waiting for an answer. One knock could be heard in the room. They couldn’t tell where it was coming from this time. Up until that point, it was clear she was knocking on the floor. Now, the floor no longer vibrated with the knock.
“Did Thomas Rochester Reign murder you?”
One knock. This time, the knocking was back on the floor.
“Were you to marry Thomas?”
Two knocks.
“Were you in love with him?”
One knock.
“Were your parents forcing you marry him?”
Two knocks.
“Can you knock out how old you were when you died?”
They counted the knocks. All up, there were sixteen.
“That’s very young, I’m so sorry. Did you die in 1806?”
Two knocks.
“Is that why your parents moved out of this house? Was that why they couldn’t stay here any longer?”
Two knocks.
Charlie remembered her nightmares. “Are you the one that is making me have dreams about you?”
Two knocks.
“Are you the one that has been trying to scare us?”
One knock. Charlie gulped, she didn’t like the thought of the darker spirit being the culprit. It would have been much easier to take if it was just Eve playing tricks on them.
Melanie interrupted for a moment. “Can you knock out the amount of spirits that are in the house?”
They counted. One knock, two knocks, and then a third knock. They waited for more but they didn’t come. The room went silent again.
“Are you scared of the other one?” Melanie asked.
Two knocks for yes. They looked at each other. If a ghost was scared of something, they knew they should be scared too. After all, you can’t kill a ghost but you can kill a real flesh and blood human. The air around them felt electric. There was a definite presence of something in the room. Even if they didn’t have the knocking, they would have known something was there with them.
Charlie stayed quiet, letting Melanie take over again. “Is the spirit a female?”
One knock.
“Is the spirit a male?”
Two knocks.
“Is he the one that murdered you?”
Silence filled the room. They held their breath, waiting to hear the knocks. Out of nowhere, a shower of small rocks rushed over them. They broke the circle by instinctively covering their heads with their arms. The rocks pelted down in a constant stream. They hit the floor with a rumbling sound.
“Run! Leave the room!” Melanie had to yell to be heard above the barrage. She ran for the door and tried to open it. The door handle wouldn’t move. She used both of her fists to beat against it. “Open the door!” She yelled loudly to the room. Her cries could barely be heard above the pounding of the rocks. Her panic was rising, putting the others completely on edge.
She tried the handle again. After some repeated attempts, it finally gave way. She pulled it open and ran down the corridor, the others following close behind. When the psychic ran, you made sure not to stick around. She rounded the corner and sprinted down the steps, taking two at a time. She made it to the front door and didn’t stop running until they were all outside on the front porch.
“What the hell was that?” Blair asked, panting.
Melanie caught her breath before replying. “That was the evil spirit I was worried about. He pushed Eve away. He’s hurting her. Even in the afterlife, he’s still murdering her.”
“What do we do now? We have to help her!” Charlie said.
“I can’t,” Melanie shook her head slowly from side to side, still panting from the sprint downstairs. “He’s too strong. I can’t do any more here. He’s just too much. There is too much dark energy here to do anything.”
“You have to!” Cate shouted.
“I’m afraid I can’t. I have never come across such a strong force before. If I tried to cleanse him from the house, he would kill me. The amount of energy that would require is beyond me.”
“Who can do it then? We have to get rid of him some way. We can’t just let Eve suffer like this for the rest of eternity. She needs us,” Charlie started crying. She had no idea where the emotion was coming from.
“I doubt you will be able to find any psychic that will even attempt to get rid of him.”
“What about Alice? Couldn’t you use her strong energy to be able to do something? She said she wanted to help the girl, right?” Charlie sobbed.
“Alice is strong but she is nothing compared to the male. She tries to stay away from him. He ignores her, but only providing she stays out of his way. If she were to even try to cross him, then he would have her for breakfast. I have to go, I can’t be here anymore. I need to rest and recover. This is not good.” Melanie walked towards the stairs before realising she’d left her handbag and keys inside the house. “Someone needs to go back inside and get my handbag. I can’t go in there again. I’m too weak.”
Cate and Charlie looked at Blair, he got the hint and cautiously entered the house. He was in and out in a heartbeat. He handed Melanie her handbag.
Charlie tried to make one last appeal as Melanie was climbing into her car. Shouting through the rain, she pleaded. “Please help us. We don’t know what to do.”
“My advice is to move.” She started the car and backed down the driveway as quickly as physically possible. Within seconds, the car had sped off into the distance.
“Now what the hell do we do?” Cate asked, frustrated and speaking louder than really required.
“I guess we go back inside and wait until morning,” Blair suggested. They turned around and faced the front door of the house. It was not a nice prospect of stepping inside.
Blair extended his hand and pushed the door open. Everything in the foyer looked normal. It betrayed nothing of the horror they had experienced in the upstairs living room. He reached around for the light switch and flicked it on. The room lit up with a yellow glow. At least the lights hadn’t gone out, it was a start to easing their nerves.
They walked into the front living room and turned the light on in there, too. Blair walked over to the television and turned it on. It restored some of the normalcy to the room. He turned it down so it just acted as background noise. It was far better to hear the infomercials than any stray knocking sounds.
“I vote we stay here for the night. Try and get some sleep. We can figure it all out in the morning,” Blair tried to reassure the women. They went about fi
nding a place on the lounge to lie down. Blair picked up a cushion and laid on the floor. Charlie gave up on the lounge and joined him.
With every little noise in the house, they all jumped. Their nerves were stretched to their all time maximum. It was going to be an extremely long night.
* * *
As the dawn light filtered through the windows of Sage Manor, it cast an orange glow through the living room window. It shone happily over the sleeping bodies of Charlie and Blair laying on the floor and Cate at rest on the lounge. The sun didn’t last long and was replaced by heavy clouds dripping rain before they awoke. Just like the way last night had turned on them so quickly, so had the weather.
Charlie opened her eyes to see the other two already awake. None of them looked like they had a good night’s sleep. Dark circles hung underneath their eyes like cobwebs.
“Did anyone sleep properly?” She asked. They both shook their heads to answer ‘no’. They slowly made their way into the kitchen and nursed a mug of coffee each. It helped them slowly wake up.
After breakfast, they were at a loss as to what to do. None of them felt like going upstairs, however they knew they had to shower and get dressed for the day. Unfortunately, everything required for that couldn’t be found on the lower level.
“I bags never going into the upstairs living room again,” Blair declared.
“I say we lock the door and leave it alone for good,” Cate said.
“Well, I need a shower to feel normal again - if that’s possible. I’m going to get dressed,” Charlie stated. “Blair? You’ve got to come with me. Come on!”
“That’s fine for you two, but what about me?” Cate asked, suddenly panicked about the prospect of being alone.
“You can come too. We’ll stand outside the door so you won’t be on your own. We’ll be in speaking distance,” Charlie assured her sister. They walked up the stairs, their senses in overload trying to determine if it was safe. Charlie glanced at the chandelier but it wasn’t moving.
By the time they had found a change of clothes and showered, there had been nothing out of the ordinary happen. They were relieved by the time they returned downstairs.
They had decided that, while Cate was picking up Rahni and the dog from her friend’s house, Charlie and Blair would pay a visit into town. Their mission was to buy as much sage as they could find in Pickerton. Melanie had bought a small amount with her the day before and swore it helped cleanse a place from negative energy. Charlie wondered what would have happened if she had bought a whole lot more with her, maybe last night’s events could have been avoided. Still, she couldn’t blame Melanie for everything that had taken place. There was no way she could have known what evil was lurking within the walls of Sage Manor.
They hurried outside and climbed into two cars. Cate headed left down the road, Blair turned his car right. It was a relief being out of the house, even if just for an hour. They drove into town and parked the car. They first tried the plant nursery in their quest for sage. The only type of the plant they had was still growing in its green pot. The store assistant suggested they try the bookshop. He said it with a smirk across his face, Charlie thought he may have been joking but they crossed the street and entered the bookshop anyway. Desperate people would be willing to try anything.
As soon as they opened the bookshop door, they understood. In the front of the store were shelves and shelves of books all neatly lined in categories. At the back of the store was another matter. Incense burners glowed all over the place. Thin slivers of smoke danced from them, giving off an exotic aroma. There were crystals of all sizes and colours on the back shelves. They passed a sign saying ‘Fairies grow in my Garden’. Charlie ignored all the ornaments and searched for the sage. She spotted a large bunch of dried foliage in the corner and picked it up. It smelt something like sage.
“Found it!”
“Good work, now let’s get out here. This place is a little creepy,” Blair was obviously uncomfortable with the new age paraphernalia.
They waited for the shop assistant to appear, even ringing a small bell sitting on the counter. They were expecting to see someone resembling a hippy. Dreadlocks, tie-dyed psychedelic t-shirt, and vacant eyes wouldn’t have surprised them. Instead, a middle-aged man that was just starting to lose his hair appeared from behind a bright floral curtain separating the back office from the rest of the store. It shocked them more than anything.
“May I help you?” He spoke with a soft, polite voice.
“Yes, can we buy these please? It’s sage, right?” Charlie placed the dried leaves on the counter.
“It certainly is sage. Dried sage, to be exact. You must have some cleansing to do,” he smiled.
“We do. Do you have any tips?”
“Make sure to get it right into the corners of every room. Most people just wave it around the room haphazardly and think that’s enough. It’s the corners where they lurk so you need to make sure to concentrate there. Even use a stool to get right up near the roof if you have to. That will be twelve dollars, thank you.”
Charlie handed over the money. She nudged Blair, who was staring at the man. Trying to reconcile the gentleman’s appearance with the store was almost impossible. It’s like they belonged in two different dimensions.
He couldn’t help himself. “I hope you don’t mind me asking, but do you know a lot about this new age stuff?”
The man smiled kindly. “I know a bit. It’s really my wife that’s into all this. The books are my department. This...,” he waved his hands around and indicated to the crystals, “ ... this is all her doing. She’s very knowledgeable on the subject. She works here most days if you need to speak with her, just in case the sage doesn’t work.” He winked.
“Thank you very much. I’m sure we will be back if we’re still having trouble,” Charlie accepted the brown paper bag and gave Blair a slight push. They left the store and returned to their car.
“Man, that guy was weird,” Blair commented as he started the car.
“We’re the ones buying dried sage at nine o’clock in the morning to rid our house of evil spirits. I don’t think we’re in a good position to judge people. Do you?” Charlie laughed, despite herself.
“I guess you’re right. It’s good to know the store is there if we need it again. I wonder what his wife is like? It must be true that opposites attract.”
“Must be. Hey, I was thinking about what the professor was saying about the mirror. Just for a moment, pretend you agree with the theory the mirror isn’t just a reflection of our world. Pretend it really is another dimension. It couldn’t hurt to try and see if we can actually see Eve or the guy that killed her. I was thinking of trying it when we got back to the Manor. What do you think?” Charlie was nervous about the idea of staring into a mirror and trying to see the spirit world, but at that stage she would do just about anything to have things resolved.
“I don’t know. I don’t think we should be playing around with things we don’t know enough about. Last night was a classic example of that.”
“How bad could it get by just staring into a mirror?”
“How bad? Were you there last night? We got pelted by rocks. There is a real possibility we could get hurt doing anything in that house. I’ll help you with it if you insist on doing it, but I don’t agree with it,” Blair said, hoping she would change her mind.
“I want to try it. Besides, if you were an evil ghost, would you bother making an appearance in a mirror?”
“If I was trying to scare you, then yes I would. We don’t have any idea who this guy is. All we know is that he snapped a teenage girl’s neck. He’s not the kind of ghost I really want to be playing with.”
The rest of the drive home was made in silence. As they pulled into the driveway, they noticed Cate’s car already parked there. They hurried inside to show her the sage. As they did, they saw Rahni in the living room watching cartoons. She had Sammy the dog sound asleep across her lap. They both looked like they
hadn’t had much sleep during the night either.
“We got sage. It should be enough for the whole house if we walk fast,” Charlie took the dried foliage out of the paper bag and placed it on the kitchen table. Cate found a lighter and handed it to her.
“All set then,” Cate sighed. “Let’s do this. Hopefully it will do something. This place just gives me the creeps now. By the way, Rahni has no clue about what happened here last night. I’d like it to stay that way if possible.”
“Trust me, we have no plans to tell her anything.” Charlie agreed. “Hopefully Alice will keep her mouth closed too.”
Blair picked up the sage and held it while Charlie set it alight. It burned slowly and let off a thick smoke. They walked from room to room and waved the bushel around. They remembered to wave it in each corner and didn’t miss even one. Rahni gave them a curious look when they entered the living room but she didn’t ask any questions.
They climbed the stairs and did all the bedrooms and Rahni’s play room. The only room left was the upstairs living room where the séance had taken place.
“We have to go in there. That’s the room that needs the sage the most,” Charlie admitted, dreading the prospect.
“I know. I know. He’s probably gone somewhere else anyway, right? Just because that’s where we had the séance, doesn’t mean he’s stuck in there. Does it?” Blair gulped.
“On the count of three open the door and I will run around with the sage. In and out. Nice and quick. One... Two... Three.” Blair threw open the door, praying the room would be back to normal.
They stepped inside cautiously, their eyes scanning every inch of the room for signs of life. The table was still lying on its side, the candles still strewn around the room. The two candles that were sitting on top of the piano were burned half-way. Something had obviously caused the flame to stop. Scattered across the floor were the black pebbles. They looked like the kind you would see road workers using to repair pot holes. It was no mystery why they had hurt so much when they fell from above their heads.
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