by Megan Atwood
“My password was capital N, lowercase u-m-b-e, capital R, underscore 674834125, exclamation point, asterisk.”
“Whoa,” said Kayley. “Does that number mean anything to you?” Madeleine asked, daunted by the password.
“No, it doesn’t mean anything. I’ve had this password since I came to the academy. Remember when that hacker got into some of the students’ tuition accounts a couple years back? Well, no one got into mine. I’m super paranoid about that sort of thing.”
Kayley picked up a jewelry box off the dresser. As she opened it up, a haunting melody played and a ballet dancer spun around. “So we’re looking for a hacking genius lock-picking delinquent with murderous tendencies?”
“Who likes Trey,” Emma added. “And who’s been here more than once.” She pointed to a letter on the hardwood floor they all seemed to have missed. It had gone halfway under the dresser.
Emma picked it up and unfolded it. In the same magazine letters that Sophie had received, someone had written,
STAY AWAY FROM TREY OR YOU’LL DIE
Chapter 9
Emma dropped the letter like it was burning at one end. Sophie picked it up and examined it. “Yep, exactly like the letter I got.”
“No bad poetry this time?” Kayley said. “That’s too bad.”
Madeleine gave Emma a hug. “We will find out what’s going on. I promise.” She smoothed Emma’s hair back until Sophie led her sister to a chair and had her sit down.
“I can’t stay in this room tonight!” Emma said.
“Nope, you’re staying with me,” Sophie replied. “Do you want to text Trey and let him know what’s going on?”
Emma looked miserable. “He already thinks this is somehow his fault. I don’t want him to worry anymore or go do something stupid. You know how boys are.”
“Boys,” Kayley agreed.
Ophelia scanned the note on the bed, looking perplexed. “I wonder why the note wasn’t in verse,” she said.
“Jeez, Ophelia. I didn’t know you liked bad poetry,” Kayley said.
“No, seriously. Why did your stalker put the first two notes on your computer—a thing that is almost impossible to do—and this note is on a piece of paper? And without the bad poetry from earlier?” Ophelia sat up triumphantly. “Also, Sophie got a letter just like this new one. I don’t think there is just one person making these threats. I think there’s something else going on.”
Emma said, “Oh great, I have two people after me? I mean, Trey is great, but come on!”
Ophelia shook her head. “No, I don’t think it’s two people. At least not living people. I think what we have here is a ghost.”
Kayley thumped her head on the dressing table. “Not again,” she moaned.
“No offense, Ophelia, but you always think it’s a ghost,” Sophie said.
Ophelia flipped her head to Sophie and said, “Well, no offense, Sophie, but the one time I didn’t think there was a ghost, I almost died. I mean, let’s just go through what’s happened in the last year alone.
“First, a coven of crazy people try to ‘break a curse’ at the academy. And frankly, they weren’t too far off the mark, because we all know this school has some weird stuff going on.” The girls nodded, almost as one. “Then Kayley kicks up some curse because she steals some shoes.”
Kayley ducked her head. “We don’t need to ever mention that again, right?” she mumbled, fidgeting with a rubber band on the dressing table.
Ophelia ignored her. “And I fell in love with a ghost who was trying to kill me. So, excuse me if I am a little prone to think of every possibility.”
No one could argue with any of what she had said.
Finally, Emma spoke up. “But why do you think this is a ghost too?”
“Think about it. Anybody could have written those notes. But no one could have cracked that password. And on top of that, what student would have known how to mess with the school’s wiring? Even Bert was totally confused by that. So this looks like the work of a ghost and someone living.”
Everyone was quiet for a moment.
Worry tickled the back of Sophie’s brain. “Well, what do we do then?” she asked.
Ophelia stood up. “What else can we do? We go to the library. We find out what’s haunting Dario Quincy Academy.”
Kayley reluctantly followed her. “I think it would be easier to find out what’s not haunting Dario. Here we go again.”
Sophie knew exactly how she felt.
Chapter 10
“Shhhh!” Ophelia said for the fifteenth time.
The girls crammed up against one another, one after another, by the library door at the end of the third-floor hallway. Sophie could hardly tell where her body parts ended and someone else’s began.
They stuck together because at nighttime, Dario Quincy Academy was no pleasure cruise.
At midnight, when they were sure Bert was finished with his third-floor maintenance tasks, the girls had met at the library entrance and stopped just inside the door.
Kayley said, again, “I just want to put it out there, one more time, that I hate the library!” She had had an unfortunate run-in with an evil book earlier in the school year.
“Yeah, yeah,” Ophelia said. “I think the coast is clear. Kayley, where did you say that back room was?”
Kayley groaned. “You guys, I cannot express enough what a bad idea this is.”
“This is different, Kayley,” Madeline said. “We’re with you now. We’ll look after each other.”
But one glance at Kayley’s face and Sophie knew she wasn’t convinced. Kayley set her mouth in a grim line and raised her finger to a dark area behind the main stacks. “This way.”
Sophie felt a shudder go through Emma, who was pressed tightly at her shoulder. Sophie squeezed her sister’s hand.
The five girls crept as quietly as they could across the dark tile floor, each of them waving her flashlight beams up ahead. The area Kayley had pointed to looked like the mouth of a giant monster. Sophie understood why Kayley didn’t want to go back there.
Once they were closer, Sophie could actually feel the place. The room felt heavy and oppressive, and she was convinced that something was going to jump out at her at any moment. A small light shone from a window high above, but all it did was shed light on the thickest bunch of cobwebs Sophie had ever seen. The musty smell was almost overpowering.
This time Emma squeezed her hand.
When Ophelia spoke, her voice was subdued. “OK, Kayley. Props to you. How did you ever come here by yourself at night?”
Kayley said, “I know, right?”
With the squaring of her shoulders, Ophelia said, “Onward troops. The sooner we find something, the sooner we can leave.” She swung her light at the bookshelves, and the five of them walked into the back room.
“Everybody take a stack,” Ophelia said.
Sophie gathered her courage. It was just a library. What harm could books cause?
She chose the second stack from the back. She said to Emma, “Search on the other side of my stacks so we can keep in contact.”
The girls fell silent as they looked, which only made the library creepier. Skittering noises sounded here and there, and Sophie kept shining her flashlight at the floor, convinced she was going to see a rat. Or something worse.
Wind whistled through the high window above. It seemed to whirl and eddy around the stacks, bringing goose bumps to Sophie’s arms. She heard creaks and groans, and at one time, she swore she could hear a sinister laugh. She heard Kayley gasp too and wondered if Kayley had heard the same thing.
“What is it we’re looking for again?” whispered Emma.
“I don’t know,” Ophelia said. “A history of things that happened at Dario Quincy?”
A voice from nowhere and everywhere made Sophie drop her flashlight.
“Well. I’m not sure you want to know, girls.”
Every one of the girls shrieked. They ran out of the stacks and toward the libr
ary exit so fast that legs tangled with legs, and all five of them landed in a pile on the floor.
A light flicked on. A lamp from a reading table not far away.
Geraldine, the librarian, stood in front of them, laughing hysterically.
Ophelia was the first to get up. She brushed herself off, glaring at Geraldine.
Geraldine held her stomach and put a hand up. “I’m so sorry, girls. That was better than a Three Stooges routine. Now why is it you girls are back here? And past curfew?”
Sophie’s stomach dropped. Being caught sneaking around after lights-out could mean suspension or even expulsion. The girls always seemed to be in trouble with Madame. This would not be good.
Geraldine waved her hand. “Ah, hell. There are worse things than sneaking off to the library for some books in the middle of the night.”
Sophie felt her shoulders climb down from her ears. Everyone around her began to relax too.
“Just curious, though, what are you doing here? What are you looking for in this godforsaken back room?” Geraldine squinted at Kayley. “You aren’t looking for that one book you borrowed before …?”
“Oh no. No, no, no, no, no, no,” Kayley said.
Geraldine looked confused and shrugged. “Is there anything I can help with? I forgot my phone here today, so I came back to get it. But while I’m here, I can always do my job.”
“We’re looking for legends and stuff,” Emma said. “About Dario Quincy.”
Geraldine eyed Kayley. “Another school project?”
Kayley looked down at the ground and shook her head.
“This one is a little more … personal,” Ophelia said. “We’re just interested.”
Geraldine exhaled and pulled out her desk chair. “‘Just interested’ in the middle of the night, huh? Well, I do know a ton about this building and its history. Why don’t you tell me what you’re looking for, and I can tell you what I know.”
The girls looked at one another. Sophie wondered if they should tell Geraldine the rest.
Sophie made the decision for the others: “Well, we’re looking for any legends of a ghost. A jealous ghost that is out to kill.”
Chapter 11
Sophie expected Geraldine to laugh, but she didn’t.
“Oh. You’re talking about Millicent.”
“Who is Millicent?” Ophelia said. “What happened?”
“Well,” Geraldine began, sitting back in her chair, “Millicent was a dancer here in the 1920s. The story is, she fell in love with a boy at the same time as her best friend. Back then, remember, boys and girls didn’t share this academy—it was strictly for girls. But the Monsieur who was running the place at the time would bring in male dancers for classes sometimes. And that’s where Millicent fell in love.”
Sophie could hardly believe it. Maybe Ophelia was right—it was a ghost.
“Let me guess,” Kayley said. “She didn’t die of natural causes?”
Geraldine chuckled. “Oh, no. No, no, no. This was one of the worst tragedies in the many years of the Dario Quincy Academy. Millicent was about to declare her love to the boy—I think his name was Thomas—so the story goes, when her best friend beat her to it. Her friend—I forget her name—kissed Thomas on the very night that Millicent was going to make her move.
“Now, keep in mind, Millicent was already a little nuts. Again, so the story goes. She was one of those artists who was maybe a bit over the top, needed emotion to fuel her work?”
Sophie nodded. She knew those dancers. In a small way, she might have been one of them.
Geraldine continued: “But when Millicent found Thomas kissing what’s-her-name, she lost it. They were on the third floor, I believe, in what is now the old science room. Back then, though, it was like a parlor room, a place where all the girls would hang out and chat. Millicent found a pair of scissors and stabbed what’s-her-name. What is her name …?”
Geraldine’s thoughts overtook her, but Sophie had stopped paying attention. She was looking at Emma, who had gone completely white.
“Emily!” Geraldine exclaimed triumphantly. “Her name was Emily.”
But the other girls had turned to stare at Emma too.
“Thanks, Geraldine. That’s really helpful,” Emma said, her voice shaking.
“Oh, dear. I hope I didn’t scare you girls,” Geraldine said, leaning forward. She looked around the room, concerned. “This place can get to you …”
Emma started to regain her color. “No, that was an interesting story. But I think it’s about time we went to bed.”
Geraldine winked. “OK. We’ll keep this between us then, shall we? You won’t be in trouble for being out past curfew, and I won’t be in trouble for passing on creepy legends.”
The girls agreed, and Emma began walking out, Sophie close behind. As Sophie prepared to ask what was going on, Emma shook her head. “In your room,” she said. The girls snuck back down the stairs and into Sophie’s room.
When Sophie closed the door behind them, Emma collapsed in the chair. She’d gone from shocked to grim.
“Well, it’s Millicent all right,” Emma said.
“What convinced you?” Ophelia asked.
“There are some things I haven’t told you guys. Like, every time Trey and I are alone, something weird happens. Like, something breaks or noises seem to come from out of nowhere.”
“That’s horrible!” Madeline said. “How do we get rid of her?”
“There’s more,” Emma continued. “Trey and I always meet in the science room. You know, the room where Millicent went crazy?”
“More like stabby,” Kayley said.
Ophelia’s eyes started glittering. “Oh, yeah. It’s Millicent, all right. And I know just what to do. We use a spirit board, and we make her back off.”
Kayley said, “A spirit board? We don’t want to ask her questions. We want her gone! What made you think of a spirit board, anyway? After everything you’ve been through with ghosts, I’d think the last thing you want to do is talk to one.”
“A spirit board is the only thing we can do that will help. I did a lot of research after the whole … incident I had. I never wanted to feel that way again. And damned if I’d let one of my friends go through something like that. So I’ve been researching ghosts.”
Sophie sat on the bed by her. She recognized that look in Ophelia’s eyes. Ophelia was on a mission.
“Almost everything I’ve researched,” Ophelia said, “says that ghosts stay on the earth to relive things over and over again. Their old lives get mixed up with the living, and they get confused. Maybe this Millicent thinks Trey is like Thomas. You know—two best friends fall for the same guy …”
Had she really brought forth a ghost? Sophie wondered. Just because she’d had a crush?
Ophelia went on: “I think we somehow need to let her know that this isn’t Thomas. That this isn’t the same thing she went through and that she’s not living it through you guys now.”
She looked at Sophie. “We’re all going to be involved, but you might have to be the one who asks her to stop. I don’t know for sure, but I think this Millicent is living out what happened in her life through you and Emma—which makes you, her, and Emma, Emily. If sites I’ve been reading are right, we need to talk to her stat. Before this gets any worse.
“This isn’t some girl who was sad,” Ophelia continued. “This is a girl who committed murder. She could be really dangerous.”
“I’ll do whatever it takes,” Sophie said. “No one is going to hurt Emma. No one.”
Emma smiled through tears in her eyes. “And no one will hurt Sophie.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Kayley said, “this is all well and good, but where are we going to get a spirit board?”
Ophelia smiled slowly. “I thought you’d never ask. I haven’t just been researching ghosts. I’ve been stocking up on ghosty supplies.” She stood up. “Girls, come to my room and check out my new spirit board.”
Chapter 12
&nbs
p; “It has to be the third-floor science room?” Emma asked again. “This is where it happened. It’s so … creepy.”
Ophelia rolled her eyes. “Exactly. That’s why we have to call her from here.”
Emma shivered. “OK, I guess.”
Sophie cleared her throat. “And, well, this is where I first saw you and Trey … It’s like Ophelia said: she thinks all our high emotions agitated Millicent’s spirit. This room is a double whammy. She killed someone in here, here own life ended here, and then we come along, years and years later and go all … dramatic … Well, I guess we sparked something.”
Emma said quietly, “Yeah, I know. We talked about it. It’s just, this is like our own private horror movie. Why can’t you ever just ask a ghost to stop being mean from the comfort of your own bed?”
Sophie started to giggle, and the rest of the girls did too. Laughing felt good. Sophie felt some of the tension leave her body.
The five of them approached a table in the center of the room, placing the spirit board in the middle of the table. Just as Ophelia had coached them, each girl placed her fingers on the planchette. Sophie couldn’t tell whose hands were shaking the most.
Huge windows lined the far wall, and the trees cast long shadows into the classroom. The full moon didn’t help—the light just seemed to twist things around, rather than illuminating anything.
Ophelia lit a candle, and the girls’ faces brightened in the warm yellow glow.
“Great. A candle. In a science room. This’ll end well,” Kayley murmured.
“Shush,” said Ophelia. “I’m pretty sure the gas in this room’s pipes hasn’t worked in years.” She rubbed her nose and looked a little uneasy. “I think.”
Kayley groaned.
Ophelia flexed her fingers, hoping all the time she’d spent researching would pay off. “OK, what we need is for you, Sophie, to try to get Millicent to come out. But first, we all need to concentrate and be willing to let a spirit come into our presence. When you feel the time is right, Sophie, you start talking. Emma, you stay between people at all times, yes?”
