“Seriously?” Madison rolled her eyes. “That’s it? What stops everyone from just spelling out whatever they want?”
Abby glared at her. “It’s not hard to tell the difference between a joke and a real spirit message, Mad. Besides, the spirit will know things, things no one else could.” She tossed her hair. “I wouldn’t expect you to understand. I only know because I’ve had a lot of practice. Now, are we ready to start?” she asked in a solemn voice.
I dug my fingernails into the rough carpet beneath me, wishing there were some way to slip out of the room unnoticed. When Molly struck a match to light the candles someone had arranged on the floor, I jumped. She brought the flame to the wicks and the candles sizzled to life.
“Try not to make any sudden movements during the séance,” Abby said, glaring pointedly at me. “We don’t want to alarm the spirit. It has to feel comfortable with us.”
“You know from experience or from what you’ve seen on the John Edward show?” Madison asked sarcastically, unable to help herself.
“The women in my family have always been very connected to the other side,” Abby said. I didn’t like the way she emphasized the words other side, as if she were telling a ghost story at school camp.
“Have you ever seen a ghost?” Hallie asked in a hushed voice.
“I have,” Abby declared, deadly serious. “Which is why I should act as medium tonight.”
I didn’t know whether Abby was telling the truth or not. People sometimes caught flashes of the dead as they crossed between worlds. But most of the time ghost sightings were the result of a rampant imagination. A flash of a shadow or a trick of the light could easily be mistaken for something supernatural. It was different for me — I could sense the presence of spirits all the time — they were everywhere. If I focused, I could tell who was lost, who had just passed on, and who was searching for their loved ones. Gabriel had told me to tune them out — they weren’t our responsibility. I remembered when my elderly friend Alice had come to say good-bye after she’d passed on the year before. I’d seen her outside my bedroom window before she faded away. But not all spirits were as gentle as Alice; the ones that were unable to let go of their earthly attachment lingered for years, becoming more and more twisted, driven mad by the life around them that they could never be part of again. They lost touch with humans, came to resent them, and often acted out in violent ways. I wondered how keen Abby would be if she knew the truth about what was really out there. But there was no way of telling her, not without giving myself away completely.
The girls nodded in agreement, happy to relinquish rights to the role of medium. I felt Molly shiver beside me. “Now join hands,” Abby said. “And whatever you do, don’t let go. We need to form a protective circle — if you break the circle you set the spirit free.”
“Who told you that?” Savannah whispered. “Doesn’t breaking hands just end the séance?”
“Yes, and if it’s a harmless spirit then breaking hands will send it back to rest, but if it’s vengeful then we have to be careful. We don’t know what we’re summoning.”
“Well, how about we just summon a nice friendly ghost,” Madison said, prompting Abby to give her a contemptuous stare.
“What, like Casper?”
Madison didn’t appreciate being mocked, but we all knew Abby was right. “I guess not,” she conceded.
“Then it’s luck of the draw.”
I bit my tongue to refrain from commenting on Abby’s foolproof plan. Conducting a séance on the one night of the year when it was actually likely to work was stupid in the extreme. I shook my head and tried to banish my doubts. I reminded myself this was nothing more than a childish game; something most teenagers dabbled in for fun. The sooner we got it over with, the sooner we could go downstairs and enjoy the rest of the night.
Molly and Savannah, who were sitting on either side of me, each took hold of one of my hands and gripped them tightly. Their palms were clammy and I sensed a combination of fear and excitement. Abby bowed her head and closed her eyes. Her blond hair flopped inconveniently in front of her face and she interrupted her invocation to tether it into a loose ponytail with the Day-Glo hair tie she wore around her wrist. Then she cleared her throat theatrically, cast us all a meaningful look, and began to speak in a low voice that sounded like a chant.
“Spirits that walk the earth, we invoke you to come forward and dwell among us! We mean you no harm; we only want to make a connection. Do not be afraid. If you have a story to tell, we want to hear it. I repeat, we will not harm you; in return we ask that you do not harm us.”
The room swelled with a deadly silence. The girls exchanged uneasy glances. I knew that some were now regretting expressing so much enthusiasm for Abby’s project and wished they were downstairs drinking with their friends and flirting with the boys. I gritted my teeth and turned my thoughts away from the distasteful ceremony that was taking place before me. I had enough sense to know that disturbing the dead was not only unwise, but insensitive too. It went against everything I’d been taught about life and death. Hadn’t they ever heard of the expression rest in peace? I wanted to pull my hands away and leave the room, but I knew Abby would be furious and I’d be wearing the label of buzzkill for the rest of the year. I sighed heavily, hoping they would soon get bored when no response was forthcoming and abandon the game. Molly and I exchanged dubious glances.
Five long minutes elapsed with only the sound of our breathing and Abby periodically repeating her incantation. Just as the girls were beginning to get restless and someone complained openly about a leg cramp, the crystal glass began to wobble. Everyone sat bolt upright, each girl’s attention fully restored. The glass shook for a moment longer and then began to teeter its way across the board, spelling out a message as it went. Abby, as self-appointed medium, called out each letter the glass touched until it had spelled out a clear message.
Stop. Stop now. Leave this place. You are all in danger.
“Oooh, that sounds exciting,” Madison said mockingly. The others looked at one another uncertainly, trying to determine the person in the group who was behind the prank. With everyone’s fingers on the glass, it was impossible to tell who was moving it. I felt Molly clutch my hand tighter as another message began to be spelled out.
Stop. Listen. Evil is here.
“Why should we believe you?” Abby asked boldly. “Do we know you?”
The glass now seemed to move in giant swoops, entirely of its own volition. It swam across the board and came to rest defiantly on the word YES.
“Okay, now I know this is a joke,” said Madison. “Come on, own up. Who’s doing it?” Abby ignored her protest.
“Shut up, Mad. No one’s doing it,” Hallie snapped. “You’re breaking the mood.”
“You can’t honestly expect me to believe …”
“If we know you, tell us your name,” Abby insisted.
For several long seconds the glass seemed to stall.
“Told you this is all a load of crap,” Madison began, but no sooner had she spoken that the glass resumed its dance around the board. At first it seemed confused, lingering under some letters and then steering away suddenly as if to tease us. It seemed uncertain to me, like a young child, not entirely familiar with the process. It careered across the board spelling out T-A-Y. Then it stopped as if it were unsure what to do.
“You can trust us,” Abby urged.
The glass slunk back to the middle of the board and slowly looped across to spell out the final three letters, L-A-H.
It was Molly who broke the uncomfortable silence. “Taylah?” she whispered in a voice that came out sounding strangled. Then she furiously blinked back tears and glared around the circle.
“Okay, this isn’t funny,” she hissed. “Who did it? What the hell is wrong with you guys?”
Her accusation was met by a flurry of head shaking and protests. “It wasn’t me,” they each said. “I didn’t do it.”
I felt a chill ru
n down my spine. Deep down I knew none of the girls would stoop so low as to bring their dead friend into the game. Taylah’s death was still fresh, no one would dare joke about it. And that meant only one thing — Abby had made a connection, broken the barrier. We were treading on dangerous ground.
“What if it’s not a joke?” Savannah suggested tentatively. “No one here would be that sick. What if it really is her?”
“There’s only one way to find out,” Abby said. “We have to summon her and ask for a sign.”
“But she just told us to stop,” Molly protested. “What if she doesn’t want to be summoned?”
“Yeah, what if she was trying to warn us?” Hallie shivered.
“You’re all so gullible.” Madison rolled her eyes. “Go ahead and summon her, Abby, nothing’s going to happen.”
Abby leaned forward, bending low over the Ouija board. “We command you,” she said, her voice deepening. “Come forward and show yourself.”
Through the window, I saw a dark cloud drift across the sky, obscuring the moon and completely blotting out the silver light that had been filling the room. For a moment I felt Taylah’s presence, radiating warmth as strong as the heat in the hand I held. But just as suddenly she vanished, leaving nothing but a cold space in the air.
“We command you,” Abby repeated with heightened emotion. “Come forward!”
The windowpanes rattled as the wind started to howl outside. The room suddenly felt very cold, and Molly wound her fingers so tightly around mine she was almost cutting off my circulation.
“Come forward!” Abby commanded. “Show yourself!
At that moment the window flew open and a harsh wind rushed into the room, snuffing out the candles in an instant. Some of the girls squealed and gripped each other’s hands more tightly. I felt the wind on the back of my neck, like cold, dead fingers. I shuddered and hunched forward, trying to protect myself from it. Savannah whimpered and I knew she felt it too. These girls might be oblivious to most things, but anyone could sense that there was now a presence in the room and it was none too friendly.
I knew then I had to say something before it was too late.
“We have to stop this,” I cried. “It isn’t a game anymore.”
“You can’t leave now, Beth. You’ll ruin everything.” Abby’s eyes darted around the room. “Is someone here?” she asked. “Give us a sign that you can hear me.”
I heard Hallie gasp and looked down to see the glass drifting silently across the Ouija board. It came to rest on the word YES. Savannah’s hand in mine was now slippery with sweat.
“Who’s doing that?” Molly whispered.
“Why have you come?” Abby asked. “Do you have a message for someone here?”
The glass spun in a circle across the board and responded with the same message. YES.
“Who is it for?” Abby asked. “Tell us who you’ve come to see.”
The glass slid down until it found the letter A. Then it loped gracefully from letter to letter as it began to spell out a name. Abby looked confused as she put the name together in her head.
“Annabel Lee?” she said puzzled. “There’s nobody here by that name.”
I felt a claw of ice fasten around my heart. That name might not mean anything to them, but it meant a lot to me. I could still remember him standing before the class and reading the poem in a voice like velvet: “It was many and many a year ago / In a kingdom by the sea, / That a maiden there lived whom you may know / By the name of Annabel Lee.” I remembered the way his dark eyes had seared into mine and I’d felt then a terrible, burning uneasiness deep within me. That same feeling flooded back to me now, and I felt my throat go dry and my chest begin to seize up. Could it really be him? Had an innocent prank really summoned something so monstrous? I didn’t want to believe it, but looking at the bewildered expressions around me, I knew there was no mistake. That message was intended for me and me alone. Jake Thorn was back and right here in the room with us.
My gut reaction was to instinctively tear myself away, but I fought against it. Protecting the others was the only thing that stopped me. I prayed we still had time to end the séance properly and return the evil we’d conjured back to where it came from.
“Tell us what you want,” Abby said, swallowing hard, her voice several octaves higher than before.
What was she doing? Couldn’t she see how out of our depth we were? I was about to take charge and demand that Abby stop when the doorknob began to rattle vigorously. It shook and twisted from side to side as if some invisible force were trying to get out. By all logical reasoning it was impossible — the door was unlocked. Such an unnatural occurrence proved too much for some of the girls to handle.
“Try to stay calm,” I counseled in as level a voice as I could muster, but it was too late. Molly pulled her hands free and scrambled backward on all fours. In the process she kicked the board with her foot and sent it skidding across the floorboards. The sherry glass flew into the air and landed beside me, splintering into tiny shards. At that moment I felt a rush of frosty air hit me in the chest, almost knocking the wind out of me. The bedroom door flew open, rattling on its hinges.
“Molly!” Hallie screeched as soon as she’d recovered from the shock. “What have you done?”
“I don’t want to play anymore,” Molly cried in a choked voice. She wrapped her arms around her torso, as if she could hug the warmth back into her body. “Beth was right, this was a stupid idea, and we should never have done it.”
I got up and fumbled for the light switch, my stomach twisting into a knot when I remembered the power at the house had been disconnected.
“It’s okay, Molly.” I put an arm around her shoulders and hugged her, trying not to let her see the panic that was welling inside me. Somebody needed to stay calm. I could feel Molly’s body shaking uncontrollably. I wanted to tell her it was nothing but a stupid game and we could all have a good laugh about it later. But deep down, I knew this was no harmless prank. I rubbed Molly’s arm and said the most comforting thing I could think of.
“Let’s just go downstairs and pretend it never happened.”
“I don’t think it’s that easy.” Abby’s voice was soft and ominous. She was still kneeling on the floor, picking up shards of broken glass, her eyes fixed on the mess before her.
“Stop it, Abby,” I said angrily. “Can’t you see she’s scared?”
“No, Beth, you don’t get it.” Abby looked up at me and I saw all her condescension had fallen away. Her blue eyes were just as wide and alarmed as Molly’s. “She broke the circle.”
“So what?” I demanded.
“Whatever we summoned was trapped within the circle,” Abby whispered. “We could have sent it back. But now …” Her voice was tremulous as she looked around the room uneasily. “Molly just set it free.”
5
Highway to Hell
I stood on the landing watching my hysterical friends stumble down the stairs two at a time. It wouldn’t be long before word spread that there’d been an actual ghost sighting on the night of Halloween. While no one had actually seen anything, I was sure the story would be embellished many times before the night was over.
A sudden wave of dizziness caused me to reach for the banister to steady myself. So far what had been planned as a night of fun had turned out to be anything but. I’d had enough of this party. It was time to leave. Now all I had to do was find Xavier and ask him to take me home. When the dizziness passed, I found my way into the kitchen where I was grateful to be greeted by a much more innocent Halloween activity. A group was taking turns bobbing for apples in a tin tub they’d dragged in from the barn and placed in the center of the room. A girl was on her knees practicing taking deep breaths before submerging her face in the water. The onlookers cheered her on. When she finally rocked back on her heels, her dark hair clung to her exposed neck and shoulders and a rosy apple was clenched triumphantly between her teeth. When someone propelled me forward, I realized
I had unwittingly joined the line to play.
“Your turn!” I felt a swarm of warm bodies around me.
I resisted by digging my heels into the floor. “I don’t want a turn. I was just watching.”
“Come on!” the voices urged. “Give it a shot.”
I decided it might be easier to pick up an apple than try to fight their enthusiasm. Despite the voice in my head telling me to run, to leave this place, I found myself on my knees staring at my own reflection distorted by the movement of the water. I squeezed my eyes shut and forced the warnings out of my head. When I opened them, I saw something in the water that made my heart stop. Hovering just behind my reflection was a wobbly image of a wasted face, its skeletal features concealed behind a heavy hood. It clutched something in its crooked, clawlike hand. Was it a sickle? Its free hand reached out toward me and its abnormally elongated fingers seemed to curl themselves like tendrils around my neck. I knew it was impossible, but the figure was startlingly familiar. I’d seen its iconic black robes in books and paintings and I knew it from my teachings back home. It was a representation of death … a Grim Reaper. But what did it want from me? I couldn’t be touched by death so it must be here for a different reason. It was an omen. But of what? I panicked and pushed my way roughly out of the circle and ran for the back door.
Outside I could still hear the muffled cries of protest at my alleged lack of participation. I ignored them and put a hand on my chest as if willing my heartbeat to steady. The cool air helped a little, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that the phantom reaper had followed me and was lurking nearby, waiting for a chance to catch me alone and encircle my throat with its wafer-thin hands.
“Beth, what are you doing out here? Are you all right?”
I heard a strange sound and realized it was coming from me. I was taking long, gasping breaths. The voice was familiar but it didn’t belong to Xavier as I’d hoped. Ben Carter got off the porch and came and stood beside me, shaking me gently as if I needed to be woken from a trance. The human contact made me feel marginally better.
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