The Haunting Season (8 page)

“The house, I suppose,” she said. The thought both pleased and set her senses on edge. It sounded like something Allison would come up with.

It’ll be our secret.

The voice was in her head, but it wasn’t hers. It sounded younger.

Her mother’s words echoed in her head
. Admit that ghosts don’t exist…

But Jess wanted there to be someone here. There had to be. Just had to.

“Who’s here?” she whispered. “Are you a ghost? Riley?”

Why she’d said Riley instead of Emma or Gracie, she didn’t know. She wasn’t even sure who Riley was, except that Allison had said Riley was a boy, not a girl. Dr. Brandt hadn’t mentioned that the Silers had a son.

She waited a minute or two for a reply, but none came. Jess left the room, careful to close the door behind her.

“No one goes in there!” Mrs. Hirsch announced loudly. She stormed toward Jess, mouth pinched.

“Sorry,” Jess said. “I didn’t touch anything.”

Mrs. Hirsch narrowed her eyes and stared at Jess as though searching for a lie.

“It wasn’t locked,” Jess explained.

Cold grey eyes glared at her. “Bobby pin? Sewing needle? What do you have? I locked this door myself.”

“Neither. Nothing. It wasn’t locked.”

Mrs. Hirsch opened the door. “Didn’t touch nothing, did ya?” She pushed past Jess and into the room. She thundered to where the mirror stood. The sheet covering it had somehow slipped off onto the floor. Mrs. Hirsch threw the sheet back over the mirror and turned to Jess. “You’re messing with things you shouldn’t.”

“The mirror?” Jess asked. Cold pooled in her stomach as she recalled how Allison had sworn she’d seen someone in the dresser mirror. “What’s wrong with it?”

“It ain’t yours to be messin’ with is what’s wrong with it! What’s wrong with
you
, girl? Ain’t you got the common sense not to be touchin’ stuff that don’t belong to ya?” She turned to Jess, hands planted firmly on her hips and a scowl on her face. “Well, what in blazes are you waitin’ for? Scat.”

Jess turned and ran back across the hall to her room, leaving Mrs. Hirsch behind.

Allison was now awake and dressed. “Hey,” she said, offering a thin smile. “I was looking for you. I thought you might be downstairs, but you weren’t. Just the guys and Dr. Brandt. You went exploring without me.”

“Yeah, well, Mrs. Hirsch ended that,” Jess replied, leaning against the door.

“She’s weird. She freaks me out,” Allison said. “I think we should go downstairs.”

“Allison,
everything
freaks you out.”

“The guys want to go exploring outside today,” Allison said, ignoring the dig. “Not sure what there is to do, but maybe we should tag along.” She grabbed a hair clip from the dresser and swept her hair up into it. “I heard one of the maids say that it’s going to be in the nineties today.”

“Good thing for cool showers. I hate summers,” Jess replied.

“Come on. You can shower after breakfast. Let’s get out of here before Mrs. Hirsch decides to check up on us.”

Jess couldn’t agree more.

Dr. Brandt was already at the table, just as Allison said he would be, drinking coffee and going over more of his notes. “Morning!” he called out cheerily. “Fresh coffee in the kitchen. Bagels and pastries as well.”

The girls went into the kitchen and grabbed cheese Danishes from the buffet. Allison poured a glass of juice, while Jess made a cup of coffee.

“That stuff isn’t good for you,” Allison said, motioning to Jess’s cup. “I read it somewhere.”

“Yeah, well,
I’m
not good without it,” Jess kidded as they left the kitchen.

“I suppose you’ll want to hear about our first night here,” Allison said to Dr. Brandt. She unfolded her silverware from the cloth napkin.

“From each of you, yes,” he replied. “But I think we should wait until Bryan and Gage join us. Gage went to shower and Bryan stepped out onto the front porch to return a phone call. I’m sure they’ll be here soon. If not, I’ll send Mrs. Hirsch to look in on them.”

Jess grimaced.

“Is there a problem, Jess?” he asked.

“No. Not really, just that I’ve already seen Mrs. Hirsch. She doesn’t seem very cheerful today.”

“She’s not so bad,” Dr. Brandt said. “She just takes her responsibilities seriously.”

“Dr. Brandt,” Allison interrupted. “Have you ever heard anything about mirrors and the paranormal?”

“Do you mean about breaking mirrors and bad luck?”

She shook her head. “No. Not breaking them. About seeing things in them.”

He eyed her for a moment. “Superstition has it that to look into a mirror is to see your own soul. It explains why, in folklore, vampires cannot see their own reflections. In Greek mythology, reflections can foretell the future. In some cultures, when someone dies, all the mirrors in the house must be covered to prevent the soul from being trapped behind the glass. Then, there’s some who believe mirrors are portals into the world of souls. Some people have sworn they’ve seen the image of a dead person in a mirror, others claim they’ve seen evil spirits. And finally, according to a few demonologists, demons, being the vain creatures they are, sometimes like to see their own reflections. Does that help?”

Jess nearly spilled her coffee. Last night, Allison had stood in front of the mirror, staring into it. Given her history, or at least her story about possession, she couldn’t help but wonder exactly what Allison had been looking for. The demon she believed had once taken her over? Had it followed her?

“Yes, thanks, that does help,” Allison replied calmly and took a bite of her Danish.

Dr. Brandt set his pen down. “Did you see something in a mirror, Allison?”

Allison didn’t appear as though she wanted to answer. She chewed on her breakfast and then chased it down with juice.

“Allison? What did you see?” Dr. Brandt pressed.

“Riley,” Allison replied matter-of-factly.

He blinked and fumbled with his coffee mug. “How do you know about Riley?”

“Who is Riley?” Jess asked Dr. Brandt. She turned to Allison. “A demon? Is he the one who possessed you?”

“No,” Allison replied. “I don’t speak his name.”

“Bael,” Dr. Brandt said as he continued to stare at Allison. “A demon commanding sixty-six legions. He’s the one who possessed Allison.”

“
Don’t say it!”
Allison slammed her hand on the table, rattling the dishes. “Don’t call him.”

“My apologies,” Dr. Brandt replied. He picked up his pen and began writing.

Jess looked from one to the other, not sure which direction she wanted to go—whether she should try to get more information on the demon Allison wouldn’t talk about or learn what she could about Riley—the boy in the mirror Allison also wouldn’t talk about. But maybe Dr. Brandt would.

“So, who is Riley, Dr. Brandt?” Jess asked.

He removed a small voice recorder from his pocket and placed it on the table. He pressed a button and a red light flickered on. “Tell us about Riley, Allison.”

“I thought we were going to wait for Gage and Bryan,” Allison replied.

“It’s okay. Just tell us about Riley.”

She sighed. “He lives here. There are others here, too. He trapped them and now they can’t leave.” She turned to Jess. “You can’t help them, Jess. The souls Riley has kept here are his now. It’s too late for them.”

“It’s too late for whom?” Dr. Brandt asked.

“The others. And the girls. He killed them. Riley told me.” She took another bite of her pastry.

“You could have
researched
that much,” Dr. Brandt said.

Jess took a thoughtful sip of her coffee. Allison hadn’t told her Riley was a murderer. A small shiver danced along her spine. She thought of the two girls, their souls held captive by some evil being. They were the same age as her sister, Lily!

If I find a way to talk to ghosts again, maybe I can help them.

Jess didn’t have any ideas on just how she’d do that, or even why the thought occurred to her. The idea of helping the girls escape their murderer made her uneasy, but if they’d been trapped this long and no one else had helped them, Jess figured she and the others were the girls’ best hope.

“Did he tell you how he killed them?” Dr. Brandt asked.

“No,” Allison said. “I didn’t want to know. At first, I was afraid he was a demon, because he looks that way. He doesn’t look entirely human anymore.”

“Why didn’t you tell me he’d killed them?” Jess asked.

Allison laughed, but it was more cynical than humorous. “I didn’t want to scare you more than you already were. Don’t look at me that way! I know what you think of me. All you’ve ever seen are normal ghosts. I see the kind like Riley. Once you’re touched by darkness, it follows you. No matter where you go.”

Careful what you let in, Jess...

The chill spread from her spine down her arms as she remembered Grams’ warning, but Jess shoved the thought aside. She wouldn’t let Allison spook her. Fear was paralyzing, and Jess refused to let Allison’s fears keep her from the very reason she was here—to break down whatever barrier was keeping her from seeing ghosts on the other side. But, the ghost of a murderer was enough to make her a bit more cautious.

Maybe Dr. Brandt knew of some way to banish evil spirits. He was an expert in the field, after all. Surely he knew how.

What was she doing? Considering going up against something she couldn’t see? A demon or something else? Jess was barely starting to learn to take care of herself, make her own way, and now she was considering how to get rid of an evil spirit?

She’d had the thought before—that she was holding onto this whole ghost thing as a way to believe that death didn’t really matter. That Grams and her father were still with her and always would be. It was a way of holding onto the past as though nothing had happened—that Grams hadn’t died. That her parents hadn’t divorced. That her father hadn’t died, either.

That life wasn’t moving too fast.

You want ghosts, but what you need is something real to hold onto.

Jess shook the thoughts from her head. Ghosts
were
real. So was the past. She wasn’t ready to set those memories aside just yet.

Baby steps. Stick to the plan. See if I can talk to ghosts again and prove I’m not going mad. Get my college fund back. THEN go to college and get a normal life. Whatever that is.

“Allison? Did Riley follow you here?” Jess asked.

“Oh no, he’s been here a long time,” Allison replied. “And before that, he wasn’t Riley. Although that’s what he calls himself.”

“Go on,” Dr. Brandt encouraged.

“There are others here,” Allison said, moving the discussion away from Riley.

She had mentioned this before, but her tone unnerved Jess. Even if Allison managed to hold it together long enough to help her find and talk to the girls, even if she found some way to help them find their way out of Siler House, what scared her most was
not
the ghosts of the girls or anyone else. Dr. Brandt kept asking Allison whom she was talking about, but Jess began to wonder if maybe it was more of a
what
than a who.

The guys had entered the room while Allison was talking, but Dr. Brandt had motioned for them to keep quiet. They each took a seat and listened, too.

“Allison, who was he before he became Riley?”

“A demon,” she said.

“Which demon, Allison?”

Allison began to tear her paper napkin into tiny pieces. “They don’t like to give up their real names, and bad things happen when you try to force them. People die.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Gage took a seat quietly, as Dr. Brandt had motioned for him and Bryan to do. Allison was at it again. Demons. Evil spirits. The girl needed to let off the crazy pedal. Okay, so they
all
had some sort of experience and, as he saw it, had time to come to grips with it before they’d come here. It wasn’t like they’d all been invited here for a picnic.

Sure, it was a bit freaky. But if Allison didn’t chill, she’d soon find herself on the fast track to the funny farm. He’d hate to see that happen.

Jess sat at the table a bit too stiffly. Gage offered her what he hoped was a reassuring smile. He could see Allison’s nervousness was wearing on her. In fact, the whole topic of Siler House had begun to cause a rift between the two girls. It didn’t take a genius to figure it out. Jess loved Siler House—so much so that Gage sometimes thought she and the house could use some alone time. It was the way she looked at everything, the way she studied it and touched the furniture and art. It was even in the way she listened so intently when Dr. Brandt talked about the place.

In contrast, Allison hated the house. Feared it. Even said it had done bad things. And
that
was a bucket full of crazy.

Gage had come to grips with the fact that there probably were ghosts, as well as ways to make weird shit happen—like make stuff vanish or…reanimate things that had been alive. But a house was just a house. Just walls and floors and a roof. It didn’t have a soul or a spirit. It had never been alive and therefore, couldn’t die and haunt people. Maybe Allison meant the house was haunted as in
ghosts
were haunting the house.

He and Bryan listened as Dr. Brandt quickly filled them in on what happened last night. Ghosts in mirrors? That was some weird, freaky shit.

“If Riley is some sort of demon or evil spirit, do you think he’s hurting them? The girls and the other ghosts?” Jess asked.

“They’re dead, Jess. If they’re really ghosts, they’re not feeling anything,” Gage pointed out softly.

She glared at him, which definitely wasn’t the response he’d hoped for. So much for trying the reassurance route.

Bryan rubbed his chin. “Maybe we could talk to them. Find out if they’re in any sort of danger from Riley.”

Jess’s pretty eyes lit up in Bryan’s direction.

Grrrreat!
Leave it to Bryan to say exactly what Jess wanted. And the doc just sat quietly, scribbling down notes and watching everyone’s interactions like a hawk. Gage didn’t trust Dr. Brandt. Of course, he didn’t trust this whole experiment, but until he checked out what Brandt was writing, he didn’t have any real proof. Yet. First step, see what buttons to push.