One Hundred Candles [2] (14 page)

“See you in a few hours!” Mom hollered as she and Trisha raced out the front door. It slammed shut, and a moment later we heard her car start up.

I turned to Noah. “So.”

“So this is a typical afternoon in the Silver house.”

I laughed. “Kind of. I’m starving. You want something else to eat?”

We raided the fridge and came up with enough ingredients to make turkey sandwiches. I sliced tomatoes while Noah got the bread and cheese.

“You planning on taking off that dress?” he asked. His eyes widened as soon as he said it. “I didn’t mean, uh,” he stammered. “I mean, are you going to change into something else?”

“In a little while.” I was having too much fun walking around in my new gown, but I would definitely need to change before Harris arrived. I decided to make a smaller sandwich so I wouldn’t be too full when Harris and I went out to dinner.

“I was thinking about the cell numbers,” Noah said. “The four digits that showed up on everyone’s phones at school?”

“Mmm,” I said, my mouth full.

“What if it’s a date? You know, zero four one three could be April thirteenth.”

“That’s tomorrow.” I brushed some crumbs from my dress. I needed to be more careful. “Do you think that something big has been planned for tomorrow?”

Noah shrugged. “Maybe. Just a thought.”

“Well,” I said as I picked at my sandwich, “Harris and I are going out tonight. I’ll ask him to drive by the school, see if anything is going on.”

“Right.” Noah was staring at his plate. “So I guess he’s your prom date?”

“Yes.” I sat a little straighter in my fabulous new dress. “He asked me before spring break.”

“Well, he’s a lucky guy.” Noah’s eyes met mine. “I mean it. You look…”

I was waiting for something bland, like
beautiful
or
pretty.
But Noah surprised me.

“You look radiant.”

Radiant. No one had ever called me that before. “Thank you,” I said softly. It was a sincere compliment, I could tell. “I should change before I get mayo all over it.”

As I got up, my cell phone rang in the next room. I dug through my purse and picked up on the last ring.

“Charlotte?” It was Harris.

“Hey,” I said. “I was just talking about you. When will you be here?”

“That’s the thing.” I could hear a strange commotion in the background and wondered if Harris was at some kind of protest march. There were a lot of voices chanting.

“Can we go out tomorrow? Something’s come up. I’m really sorry.”

“Oh.” I had been looking forward to our dinner date. I thought he had been, as well. “I guess we could do it tomorrow.”

“Thanks. You’re the best. I have to go now.”

“Wait,” I said. “Where are you? Is everything okay?”

The voices in the background were getting louder. “Yeah. I’m okay. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Before Harris hung up, I heard a voice rise above the rest, a voice chanting something unfamiliar. It was a voice I’d known all my life.

It was my mother’s.

nineteen

“Explain to me again why we’re stealing my mom’s car?” Noah asked.

I was still wearing my prom dress. I’d thrown on some old running shoes, grabbed Noah by the arm and basically ordered him to take his mom’s car. Now I was fumbling with my purse, searching for the slip of paper Harris had given me earlier at school. My hand brushed against the amethyst necklace and I automatically squeezed it. I answered Noah’s question.

“We’re catching a ghost.”

The hallways of Lincoln High had been haunted by the same spirit for months. As Noah drove his mom’s car across town, I ran through a mental list of some of the “haunted” happenings: the ghost dog that had appeared within hours of Harris telling his story, the sound of footsteps, the clocks moving, the scent of peaches in the junior hallway, the power outages, the library books scattered across the floor. One thing connected them all, and now I had a name for my ghost.

Her name was Gwyn.

“Everything started with the party at Gwyn’s house,” I said to Noah. “She’s behind everything.”

“Why?”

I was still piecing it all together, but I explained what I had figured out so far. My parents had been to Gwyn’s house before Christmas and decided it wasn’t active enough to investigate. Gwyn’s mom, Lisa, had stayed in touch with my mom and spent a lot of time and money at Potion. As things got worse, Gwyn became desperate. She needed help, and had decided that if I believed something real was happening at school, I’d convince my parents to go back to Gwyn’s house, where the stories had all originated.

“Okay, let’s say that’s true.” Noah turned off the main road. I had found the slip of paper with Gwyn’s address written on it and directed Noah that way. “How did she manage to pull off everything?”

“She’s been working in the main office all year.” I told him how one day, the secretaries had been searching for the master keys. Gwyn had taken them, made copies and then placed them in the trash. “So she had total access to the school,” I explained. “She probably knew all the codes and could come and go whenever she wanted.”

“Still,” Noah said. “How did she do it all by herself? Moving every chair, opening the lockers? That’s a lot of work.”

“You think she had help?”

“It’s more than possible.”

“But who?”

We had entered Gwyn’s neighborhood, but instead of driving directly to the house, Noah pulled over on a side street and put the car in park.

“I need to tell you something,” he said. “Maybe I should have earlier, but I wasn’t sure if it meant anything.”

His voice was serious, yet gentle, and I knew that whatever he was going to say, I wouldn’t like it.

“I saw Harris and Gwyn together at homecoming.”

“What do you mean, you saw them together?”

“In the parking lot. They were, uh, close.”

Avery had told me that Harris had been busted making out with someone, but he had later told me it was just a rumor. “Well, it was before he knew me, so why does it matter?”

“Maybe it doesn’t, “Noah said. “Maybe it was a one-time thing. But they were awfully, um, heavy. And if he was that way with her and dropped her immediately afterwards, that says a lot about him, doesn’t it?”

So now I knew why Noah didn’t like Harris. “You don’t think it was a one-time thing, do you?”

He squirmed in his seat. “I was getting Avery’s coat for her. I was in the backseat of her car, searching the floor. They didn’t see me at first. I overheard Harris tell Gwyn that he loved her. Then they got busted and Harris saw me.”

The rational part of my brain said that it was in the past. Homecoming had been almost seven months earlier. But their being together as a secret couple made so much sense. They shared a long history. They may have wanted to keep it secret so that Gwyn’s brother wouldn’t find out. Harris could have been helping Gwyn this entire time. A memory of running into him at his locker minutes after the office keys were discovered hit me. What if Harris had been out making a copy of the keys and that was why he had rushed to school so late? What if every time he’d said his dad called it had actually been Gwyn? He had canceled dates, left early, made excuses—all for her.

“Are you saying that Harris has been using me this whole time? That the only reason he’s been with me is to help his real girlfriend?” I touched the pearl dangling from its chain. I thought the gift had meant something. Now it felt like a token of betrayal.

“I’m sorry.”

My first real boyfriend, I thought. My first romantic moment gazing at the stars had been nothing more than a carefully choreographed scheme, and I had fallen for it. He’d never wanted me. He was going to dump me as soon as Gwyn’s problems were fixed and her house felt safe again. All this time, I’d thought Harris was jealous of Noah. He wasn’t—he was simply trying to make sure Noah stayed away from me so I wouldn’t learn about homecoming.

“Let’s go,” I said, trying to make myself sound stronger than I felt.

“You sure?”

“Yes. Let’s figure this out once and for all.”

Noah put the car in Drive and followed the tree-lined street to the cul-de-sac. I saw Mom’s car parked in front of the familiar house. Shane’s van was behind it.

“Ready?” Noah asked.

I nodded. He put his hand on mine. “If you want, I’ll beat the crap out of him later.”

That made me smile. “Thanks, Noah, but I think I can handle this one.”

“You sure? Because I’m not afraid to hit below the belt if I have to, and let’s face it, Harris is a big guy. I may have to.”

“No hitting.” I squeezed his hand. “But I appreciate the thought.”

We got out of the car and approached the house. I didn’t bother knocking. I could hear the frantic voices inside, all yelling some strange chant. I opened the door and marched past the foyer and into the living room.

It took me a second to take in everything I was seeing. Beth was there, waving a smoking bunch of sage that filled the room with its sharp, earthy odor. Mom stood near her, reading from her red notebook. A woman I didn’t know but figured was Lisa was also reading, her voice louder than the rest. Shane was behind a camera, and finally, off to the side was Gwyn, wrapped tightly in Harris’s arms. They were both watching Beth, but Harris was whispering something in her ear and she was nodding.

I wanted to run across the room and pull his arms off her, demand an explanation even though I already knew it and make him beg me for forgiveness. I wanted to tell my mom what Harris had done so she would call off whatever ceremony they were conducting. We could all storm out and tell Gwyn she’d have to live in a creepy house forever and it was all her fault for being manipulative.

They hadn’t seen me yet. No one had—they were all too focused on the cleansing ceremony and, it appeared, an upholstered armchair in the center of the room. As I watched, the chair wobbled slightly and moved across the floor an inch. Then a framed picture hanging on the wall behind me came down with a crash. I jumped, and suddenly everyone was looking at me and Noah.

Mom shot me a quizzical glance but kept on reading aloud from her notebook. I turned my attention to Harris and Gwyn. They both looked back at me with wide eyes. Harris loosened his arms around Gwyn, but only a little. I stayed where I was, debating whether or not I should stomp out of the house or help the team. Beth made the decision for me.

“We need to join hands,” she announced. She motioned toward me and Noah. “We could use more help. I’m glad you two are here.”

I sighed and joined everyone else as they formed a circle, making sure that I was nowhere near Gwyn or Harris. Noah held my right hand while Lisa grabbed my left. She had the same straight blond hair as Gwyn. Her clammy palm and loud breathing told me how scared she felt. She was also clutching my hand too hard, like she was afraid she might get pulled away at any moment.

Beth lit some candles and closed her eyes. She began singing something in a low voice. Then she asked Lisa to reclaim her home. Lisa clenched my hand again, then spoke in a clear, quivering voice. “This is my home. You have caused us harm. You must leave. You can no longer stay here.” The words sounded carefully rehearsed. Lisa repeated them several times, her voice gaining strength each time. Then Beth asked us all to repeat the lines.

“Focus your attention,” Beth said. “Take all your fear and anger and channel it into this one purpose.”

I had plenty of anger to channel. And while some of the others looked afraid, I was pissed. I thought about Harris while I chanted the lines aloud.

“You have caused us harm.” His goal from the second we met was to use me. He sent me roses, gave me jewelry, pretended to be jealous of Noah—and none of it meant anything.

“You must leave.” When we had sat in the dark parking lot of the drive-in and he’d told me about Gwyn, he had told half truths. He said their relationship had changed after her brother went to college, and it had: they had gotten closer. And he’d kissed me because he and Gwyn really had gotten into a fight that night. He was mad at her and, once again, using me. When he wasn’t manipulating me to help her he was using me to get back at her.

“You can no longer stay here.” My reward for helping him was an invitation to prom, an invitation he’d made only after I’d said I would get my parents to look into Gwyn’s case. And here I was, wearing my stupid orange prom dress and dirty running shoes while doing exactly what he had wanted me to do all along: help his precious Gwyn.

As we chanted, furniture moved slightly and pictures trembled on the walls. Lisa gripped my left hand so tightly I could barely feel my fingers. Noah was holding on, too, but his grasp was warm and secure. I kept my eyes focused on the chair in the center of the room so I wouldn’t have to look at either Harris or Gwyn. I tried to do what Beth asked: channel my feelings and direct it toward our purpose. I wasn’t doing it for Gwyn or her mom. I was doing it for my mom, who was obviously working hard to help this family. It was just another case, I told myself. And the Silvers always approached their cases seriously.

We finished chanting and Beth took over again. The room had quieted down, the furniture no longer thumping the floors. I had seen stationary objects do many things, but not all at once and not so continuously. I hated to admit it, but Gwyn had been right: something strange resided in her home.

“Please bring me the box,” Beth said.

Gwyn broke the circle and retrieved a cardboard box from the corner of the room. Beth pulled a Ouija board out of it. She set the board on the floor and began taking other objects out of the box, items that supposedly brought people into closer communication with the dead. Beth examined each object before returning everything to the box. Then she placed the box in the living room fireplace and lit the entire thing with her burning sage.

The flames quickly devoured the box and its peculiar contents. As the fire burned, I felt Lisa relax her grip. I tried to understand what had happened in her home. Maybe there had been some strange activity, but my guess was that the family had made the situation even worse. They had unwittingly invited more negative energy into their space each time they’d experimented with different things. The one hundred candles may have contributed to the chaos as much as the Ouija board.

I don’t know how long we stood around the fireplace, but after a while I realized the room was dark. Hours had passed since Noah and I had arrived, the sun had set and I was feeling hungry. Finally, Beth announced that we could release hands. “We have restored calm,” she said.

“It’s done? It’s over?” Lisa asked.

“I’d like to bless each room and stay the night to make sure,” Beth said. “But, yes, I think we were successful.”

I guess we had been expecting a final occurrence, some crazy rush of activity followed by complete silence or a light wind. Instead, the house was perfectly quiet. We all looked around us and then it was like everyone exhaled at once. Shane began clapping, then the rest of us did, too. While Lisa hugged Gwyn and thanked Beth, Mom walked over to me.

“Honey, what are you doing here?”

I shook my head. “It’s a long story.” I paused. “What was here? Gwyn said it mentioned pushing back the curtain. Was it the Watcher from Ohio?”

“No. I don’t think so. Something similar, but not quite as strong.”

Harris came up to us, and I realized he had never met my mother. “This is Harris.”

“Hello.” She looked at him with a confused expression. “I thought you were here with Gwyn.”

“He is.” My voice came out hard and more than a little bitter.

“Oh. I see.”

Harris looked panicked. “Please don’t hold it against Gwyn,” he said, talking fast. “You won’t undo any of this, right? I mean, she’s safe now?”

“This is now the safest location in town.” Mom turned to me. “I’ll give you guys a few minutes. But I’ll be home in a little while, okay?”

She walked away without saying anything else to Harris and joined Noah across the room. It was just me and Harris for the moment.

“Don’t worry,” I told him. “My mother would never undo anything. I don’t think she even knows how. Your girlfriend’s house is fine.”

“I’m sorry, Charlotte, I really am.” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “I don’t know what to say.”

“How long were you planning on stringing me along?” I asked. “If I hadn’t been here today, what were you going to do? Dump me tomorrow?”

“No!” He looked at me, taking in my orange dress. “I asked you to prom and I meant it. I was going to take you, honest.”

“Right. So a date to prom was my consolation prize.” I pulled at the necklace he’d given me until it snapped off. “This is yours. Or Gwyn’s. Whatever.” I thrust it at him and he took it. “I’d give back the roses, too, but they’re dead.”

“Um, yeah. About that.” He was fixated on the necklace in his hands. “I didn’t send those. I don’t know who did.”

I sighed. “What
did
you do, Harris? And why?”

“We were desperate,” he began. “Gwyn needed help, but no one knew what to do. I made copies of the school keys, and we would go in at night.” He closed his hand around the necklace. “We ransacked the library, moved chairs. Gwyn sprayed peach air-freshener in the air vents. We used some old video stuff from her attic to make the dog appear. She was the white-haired girl in the video. We needed to get your attention.”