The Phantom Hour

by Kat Shepherd

  Clio drew a small spiral in the corner of her paper. Her pencil moved, and the spiral became a ram’s horn. “Okay. But do you believe in other stuff, too?” she asked without looking up.

  Ethan’s brow furrowed. “What kind of other stuff?”

  The ram’s horn grew into a crown, and Clio found herself drawing hair cascading out of it. The hair was jointed, like spiders’ legs. “Like, I guess, you know … other realms and creatures and things like that.”

  Ethan thought for a moment. “My great-grandma Moina was always writing about the Spirit Realm, so I don’t see why there can’t be other realms, too.”

  Clio sighed with relief. “Okay. Good. Then this is going to sound way less out there to you. Because my friends and I have visited one of those other realms: the Nightmare Realm.”

  Ethan dropped his pencil and leaned forward. “Tell me everything.”

  * * *

  When the bell finally rang at the end of the period, Clio and Ethan looked up, startled. Their drawings lay forgotten on the table, and the older kids were long gone.

  “Oh, shoot. I have to get to math!” Clio grabbed her backpack and threw it over her shoulder. She turned to Ethan. “I gotta go. Um … thanks for listening. I know how it sounds, but I swear, it really did happen.”

  Ethan reached out and touched Clio’s arm. “Hey, Clio?” He blushed.

  “Yeah?”

  “I believe you.”

  CHAPTER

  14

  AFTER SCHOOL THAT day, the four girls met up at Creature Features. Clio was still thinking about her conversation with Ethan. It had been nice to talk about it with someone else. Someone who truly believed in ghosts.

  Kawanna gave her niece a big hug. “You look like you’ve had a day, Li’l Bit.” Clio rested her head against her aunt’s arm.

  “Yeah,” she said. “It was a day. But I think it ended up okay.”

  “Good,” Kawanna said, rubbing her back. “Now, have you girls decided what the plan is for the Plunkett Mansion?”

  Tanya and Rebecca looked at each other. “We finalized it during study hall today,” Rebecca said. “The first thing we need to do is to observe and record exactly what kind of paranormal stuff is happening at the Lees’, and when. Maybe if we can find a pattern behind it, that will help us figure out what’s causing it.”

  Tanya rubbed her hands together, her brown eyes sparkling. “So we’re gonna do a stakeout.”

  Maggie’s face brightened. “A stakeout? Cool! Do we get to wear disguises?”

  “Why would we wear disguises?” Rebecca asked. “Clio’s supposed to be there.”

  “Well, what about the rest of us?” Maggie asked.

  Tanya pulled out a hand-drawn map of the house. “Clio is babysitting for the Lees on Wednesday night, right before they leave for their trip on Thursday. Their wedding anniversary is right after they get back in town, the same night that Clio’s going to see Hamilton in Portland with her parents. Since they asked Clio about a backup sitter, she can bring Rebecca along on Wednesday to meet the family.” She pointed to a small X on the map. “Kawanna will wait with Maggie and me just down the road, and after the Lees leave, she’ll drop us off. We’ll set up a perimeter outside the house and watch for anything unusual.”

  Maggie shimmied her shoulders. “Oooh, ‘set up a perimeter’ sounds so official. I like it!”

  Kawanna and the girls bent their heads over the map and put the final steps of their plan in place.

  * * *

  Two days later, Clio and her friends met outside the shop just after sunset. The weather had turned chilly, so Clio zipped up her vintage moto jacket and wrapped a chunky oversize wool scarf around her neck. “I should have changed into jeans,” she moaned, shivering in her opaque black tights and short plaid skirt. She pulled her slouchy black beanie lower over her ears.

  “You should have just dressed for a stakeout, like me,” Maggie said. She wore a fake fur vest on top of an oversize black sequined sweater and black leggings. Leopard-print high-tops and bright fuchsia socks completed the look.

  Tanya shrugged into her black hoodie. “Definitely stakeout-ready, Mags. Especially the socks.”

  “What can I say?” Maggie said. “I’m just chic like that.”

  Kawanna pulled her turquoise Scout around the corner, and the girls gathered their things and threw them in the cargo area before sliding into the bench seats.

  When they pulled into the Lees’ driveway a few minutes later, Kawanna kissed the top of Clio’s head. “Shoot Maggie and Tanya a text a few minutes after the Lees leave and you and Rebecca get settled with Minna. Then I’ll drive them back over, and they’ll take their positions outside. Don’t worry; we’re just around the corner.”

  A short time later, the Lees drove off, and Maggie and Tanya were soon in place outside. Rebecca and Clio sat with Minna at the kitchen table as she finished her dinner of fish sticks and carrots. “So, Minna, are you excited for your trip tomorrow?” Clio asked.

  Minna nodded. “We’re gonna see my grandma.” She smiled. “She loves me, and we play lots of games!”

  “That sounds really fun,” Rebecca said. “Is Wesley coming, too?”

  Minna shook her head. “We’re going on an airplane. So Mom says he has to stay home.” She peeped under the table, where Wesley was lying at her feet, and slipped him a fish stick. The dog took it gently from her fingers. “Dad says don’t worry, because somebody’s taking care of him.” Minna looked tearful.

  “I know you’ll miss him a lot, but it’s only for a few days,” Clio said reassuringly.

  “You’ll be back before you know it,” Rebecca added. “Hey! It looks like you’re almost finished eating! What would you like to play after dinner?”

  Minna munched thoughtfully on her last carrot. After a moment, her face brightened. “Hide-and-seek,” she said. Rebecca’s and Clio’s eyes met above Minna’s head. Hide-and-seek was the last thing Clio wanted to do.

  Clio picked up Minna’s dinner dishes and carried them over to the sink. She raised her voice so the little girl could hear her across the room. “I don’t know, Minna; maybe we should play hide-and-seek another time.”

  “Pleeeease?” Minna drew out the word, her brown eyes pleading.

  “I have an idea,” Rebecca suggested. “Maybe we could do an art project!”

  Minna folded her arms, a scowl darkening her face. “I don’t want to do art. I want to play hide-and-seek.”

  Rebecca shrugged and looked at Clio. What should we do? her expression seemed to ask.

  Clio rinsed the dishes and put them in the dishwasher, thinking. Finally, she turned back to face Minna. “I guess we could play for a little while, but no hiding upstairs or in the basement. Only on the first floor.”

  Minna’s eyebrows lowered. “I don’t like the basement. It’s too scary! I won’t hide there.”

  “Good,” Clio said. “Rebecca will hide with you, okay? And I’ll look for you both.”

  “Okay,” Minna said, her scowl gone. She stood up. “Close your eyes and count to one hundred.”

  Clio covered her eyes and started counting. She heard Rebecca and Minna creep out of the room. Keeping her head down, she sent a quick text to Maggie.

  Clio lifted her head and listened. She was hoping that Wesley might give her a clue to find the two girls, but he was curled up in his bed, his eyes droopy. She poked around the TV room, pushing the floor-length drapes back from either side of the window and peeking behind the couch. Nothing there.

  The next obvious hiding spot was the pantry. Clio steeled herself and turned the knob, pushing sharply inward. The door flew open, banging into the bag of dog food against the wall. Definitely not stuck anymore, Clio thought. With one foot in the doorway, Clio switched on the pantry light and dragged the bag to prop the door open. She checked under the shelves and behind a pile of plastic storage bins. No one was hiding, and Clio wasn’t sure whether to feel disappointed or relieved. The pantry made Clio nervous eno
ugh; she definitely would have screamed to find someone hiding in there, even though she was expecting it.

  The dining room was next. Clio lingered in the doorway, looking nervously at the dark room. The chandelier was silent and still. She switched on the light. There weren’t many places to hide in here, she was relieved to see. She crouched to peer under the table. Empty. She felt a slight breeze move across the floor, and goose bumps broke out on her arms. The chandelier tinkled, and Clio stood up quickly. It grew quiet again.

  The credenza under the mirror had large cabinet doors. It was certainly big enough to fit Minna, and maybe Rebecca, too. Clio tugged at the tarnished brass handles of the carved doors. The hinges creaked as they slowly opened, and a musty smell seeped out of the wood. Clio coughed. Inside was a pile of faded table linens and a crystal punch bowl. Clio closed the cabinet doors again.

  Leaving the dining room light on, she entered the living room. There was no light switch on the wall, and Clio stood silhouetted in the doorway, her eyes struggling to make out the faint shapes of furniture in the dark room. Her shadow loomed before her, blacking out the rectangle of light that stretched across the floor.

  Clio had never been in the living room, and it took her a moment to find a floor lamp to switch on. Its warm amber glow was just bright enough to illuminate a high-backed leather chair and a round rosewood table. This could be a nice spot for reading, I bet. Clio smiled wryly. If the house wasn’t haunted, anyway. She crossed the room to an old piano with brittle, yellowed sheet music still sitting on the music stand. She switched on a painted porcelain lamp on top of the piano, but the extra light made little difference; the corners of the room were still bathed in shadow. Moth-eaten velvet drapes framed the front windows, and Clio checked for feet beneath the hems. “Nobody hiding here,” she said loudly, in the hopes that Minna would giggle and give the girls away. The room was silent.

  Clio navigated around the oval coffee table to check behind the tufted velvet sofa, her hands running over the polished wood of its curved edges. Above the sofa, sepia-toned photographs of the Plunkett family framed an oval convex mirror. Clio noticed that one of the pictures had been turned to face the wall. Why?

  Clio picked up the photograph and drew in a sharp breath. It was a portrait of the Plunkett twins. They were a little older than in the dining room photo, and both pale-eyed girls wore dark dresses with petticoats and puffed sleeves. Each cradled a doll in her arms. Clio held the photo in her hands. One of these poor girls never got the chance to grow up. She never even got to cuddle her doll again. Filled with sadness, Clio gently dusted the glass front and replaced the portrait properly on the wall.

  The portrait flew across the room and slammed into the opposite wall, glass shattering across the floor. Clio screamed.

  In the hallway, the closet door flew open, and Rebecca and Minna tumbled out. “Are you all right?” Rebecca asked breathlessly.

  “I—” Clio saw the frightened look on Minna’s face. “Uh … I accidentally dropped a picture and the glass broke.” She forced a smile, but her hands were shaking. “Silly me! Minna, why don’t we start a movie for you, and Rebecca and I will clean this up. We’ll come join you in a few minutes.”

  The girls settled Minna in the TV room, and Clio brought the broom and dustpan to the living room, where Rebecca was crouched over the broken photograph.

  Rebecca held a small, cream-colored rectangle in her right hand. “Clio, I found something hidden behind the picture.”

  Clio leaned forward to see. “What is it?”

  Rebecca’s eyes were wide. “It’s an old calling card. From Ethan’s great-grandma Moina.”

  CHAPTER

  15

  CLIO SWITCHED OFF the overhead light in Minna’s room and walked out quietly, leaving the door slightly ajar and the girl sound asleep in her bed. Luckily, Minna hadn’t noticed anything was wrong, despite Clio’s phone buzzing all night from the flurry of texts between Rebecca and the others.

  As she walked down the hall, she slipped her phone out of her pocket and skimmed through the texts between her friends. The last two from Maggie and Tanya caught her eye.

  By the time Clio got to the bottom of the stairs, Rebecca was nowhere to be found. “Rebecca!” Clio called softly. There was no answer. Clio picked up her phone and texted the group:

  No answer. Clio did a sweep of the first floor, scanning all the rooms, the closets, and the pantry. They were empty. Clio’s voice rose with anxiety. “Rebecca?” The back door was locked and bolted from the inside. Where could she be? Had the ghost done something to her?

  Finally her phone buzzed.

  Clio rushed to the front hall and paused by the door. She peered through the window, looking for the black-and-white stripes of Rebecca’s cropped hoodie. The clock chimed out the hour, making Clio jump. She gritted her teeth. What is with this stupid clock? Clio thought. She checked the time on her phone: seven forty-five. But the clock was chiming eight. It can’t even get the time right!

  The front door was unlocked, and Clio opened it and stepped onto the porch. “Hey, you guys! What’s going on?” She was yanked to the side, and a hand covered her mouth.

  “Shhh!” Maggie whispered. “Don’t scare it off!”

  Clio turned to Maggie. What? she mouthed.

  Maggie pointed to the other end of the porch, where a twisted creature was peering into the living room window, hanging from the shutters by its long, ropy arms. The creature’s face was pressed against the glass, its head moving back and forth as though it was searching for something. It was completely unaware of Rebecca and Tanya, who were slowly closing in. The girls carried an old fishing net between them.

  Rebecca and Tanya looked at each other and nodded their heads. They threw the net over the creature, who shrieked and struggled against the tangled rope. “Got it!”

  Clio and Maggie ran across the porch. “What is it?”

  Tanya grimaced and tried to restrain the wriggling creature. “I can’t tell yet! It’s too dark, and this thing won’t stay still! Help!”

  Clio grabbed a corner of the net and held it down. The creature’s silhouette looked vaguely familiar. “I think this is what was following us in the woods when we closed the portal,” she said. “It had that same kind of monkey shape, with those skinny long arms.”

  “Maggie,” Tanya said, breathing heavily. “There’s a flashlight in the pocket of my jacket. See if you can grab it while the rest of us hold the net.”

  The creature lunged against the net in violent bursts, the three girls struggling to keep it trapped. Maggie gingerly made her way around the chaotic scene and slipped her hand into Tanya’s pocket. She pulled out the flashlight and clicked it on. “Let’s see what’s been causing so much trouble around here,” she said, and shone the beam onto the animal. She gasped and almost dropped the light. “It’s … it’s that horrible thing!”

  “What?” Clio asked. “What horrible thing?” The creature’s strong legs were scratching and kicking against her, so she couldn’t get a view of the face.

  Rebecca stopped fighting the creature. “I can’t believe it,” she said. “It’s the changeling.”

  CHAPTER

  16

  THE GIRLS DROPPED the net, and the changeling ceased its writhing. It bared its jagged teeth, hissing like a feral cat. Sunken eyes peered out at them malevolently from the pitted, decaying face. It was still wearing the onesie from when it had pretended to be Kyle, the baby Rebecca babysat. Long, sinewy arms snaked out from the rotted-log body, and mushroom-capped fingers reached through the net, snatching at the girls. Clio jumped back. An ugly giggle burbled out of the changeling, and it snapped its jaws together.

  “I think it remembers you, Clio,” Rebecca said.

  “How does it remember anything?” Maggie asked. “The last time we saw this digusto thing, it could barely limp its way through the portal out of the Nightmare Realm. I thought it was supposed to be dead!” The changeling swiped at Maggie with its taloned
feet, and Maggie swatted it away. “Ugh! Why are you still alive, you nasty little monster?”

  “Oh, don’t be so mean,” Rebecca said. “It can’t help being horrible.”

  “I don’t care if ol’ Horrible here can help it or not; we almost got killed because of this little nightmare.” Maggie scowled at the changeling.

  “It wasn’t his fault,” Rebecca said. “Was it, Horrible?” The creature reached one mushroomed finger through the net and touched Rebecca’s hand.

  “Oh, so we’re making friends with it now?” Maggie asked.

  “Come on, Maggie,” Rebecca said. “I took care of him for, like, weeks.”

  “Yeah, but that’s only because you thought he was a baby!” Maggie retorted. She eyed the changeling critically. “Although I don’t know how a person could confuse you with anything remotely pleasant, Horrible.”

  “Okay, guys, we figured out the mystery, so let’s let him go,” Rebecca said. She lifted a corner of the net and reached in to pull the changeling free.

  Tanya grabbed her arm. “Let him go?” she asked, surprised. “But we need to know why he’s been hanging around the Plunkett Mansion playing tricks, and why he was following us!”

  “What difference does it make?” Maggie asked. “He can’t tell us anything, anyway.” As she spoke, a white grub dropped from the changeling and squirmed on the ground. Maggie shuddered. “I want this little yuckfest as far away as possible. Can’t we just tell him to get lost and never come back?”

  Tanya turned to Clio. “What do you think we should do?”

  Clio looked through the front window, thinking. She could see the broken picture of the Plunkett twins on the living room floor, resting against the wall where she’d left it. “I don’t know, but we should go back inside. I don’t want to leave Minna in the house alone.”