CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“I believe you,” Bryan said, looking up at her from the sofa. “Do you want me to take a look, or do you think we should tell Dr. Brandt first?”
Jess looked around the Great Room. Neither Gage nor Dr. Brandt was around. Fleetingly, she wondered where Gage was. What did it matter, anyway?
Bryan grinned. “I don’t think you’ve got anything to worry about, Jess.”
She frowned. “You mean about the mirror? The ghosts? Yeah, I tried telling Allison—”
Bryan laughed. “No, I mean about Allison and Gage.”
“I wasn’t worried—”
“Look, I’m not blind. I see the way you look at him.”
Jess eyed Bryan, unsure of what to say. She hadn’t meant to be so obvious. But Bryan was mistaken. There wasn’t anything between them. “It’s not like that. Honest.”
Bryan let out a small laugh. “Yeah, model perfect dude is sort of a jerk, so I can understand if you’d prefer someone like me.”
“What?”
“I’m kidding. Sort of. I’m not that much younger than you. What? A few months?”
Jess stared blankly. This was awkward.
Bryan sighed and slowly shook his head. “Look, he’s been checking you out too, if that makes you feel any better.”
Butterflies somersaulted in her stomach. This wasn’t the conversation she’d come down here for. She’d hoped to find everyone here, together. But truth be told, she had been disappointed not to see Gage.
Bryan got up from the couch. “So, back to your ghost spotting. Like I said, I believe you. What do you want to do about it? Dr. Brandt is walking through the house, somewhere. He’s been wandering around the past couple of hours. It’s like he’s doing some home inventory thing. That, or he’s just really into the place.”
“Really?” Jess said, recalling what Allison had told her about Dr. Brandt’s weird obsession with the house.
He shrugged. “I think he’s somewhere here on the first floor in one of the locked rooms.”
“Okay,” Jess said. “Dr. Brandt really should see this.”
“I’ll tell him,” Mrs. Hirsch said as she came into view. Keys in one hand, she fumbled with some pendant around her neck. Jess couldn’t make out what the object was—just that it looked like it was made of dark metal. “I don’t need the other of you two sneaking off someplace.”
Other of you two?
“We’ll be in Allison and Jess’s room,” Bryan said. He grabbed Jess by the wrist and headed to the stairway.
Mrs. Hirsch frowned, but Jess didn’t wait to hear her reply. She allowed Bryan to tug her up the stairs, trying not to think about Allison and Gage taking off together.
“Where did she come from?” Jess asked.
“Kitchen. Basement. Somewhere from that direction,” Bryan said, still holding onto Jess. “I don’t know, but it’s like she’s always going through the house. I don’t think she trusts us.”
“I guess,” Jess replied.
“Don’t sweat it. Allison isn’t his type. She just said she needed to show him something.”
They’d reached the third floor landing when Bryan finally released her.
“Right,” Jess replied.
“I’m serious,” he said as they walked down the hall. “She had her phone with her. I think she took it from Dr. Brandt’s room. At least, that’s the direction she came from—our rooms.”
Bryan paused when they reached Jess’s room.
“Why Gage?” Jess asked. “She seemed pretty pissed at him when he didn’t believe her earlier.”
“I think she wanted to prove him wrong. Allison is a bit touchy, or I would have asked to see it, too. But I know Gage will fill me in later. And Jess?”
She looked up at him.
“This thing you’ve got for Gage? I’m serious. The dude’s got it for you, too.”
Jess laughed. “You’re telling me to go for it?”
He shoved his hands in his pockets. “Yeah, I guess I am. Only if you wanted to, of course.”
Jess felt herself blush. “Well, let’s go back to the ghost for now, okay?”
Bryan nodded toward the room. “Want me to go in first? Check the mirror out?”
She shook her head. “I’m not afraid, but sure, go ahead.”
He opened the door slowly and took a look around. Jess followed him into the room. They stood side by side in front of the mirror.
“Where did you see the message?” he asked.
“Right here.” Jess leaned forward and breathed on the mirror. It fogged up, but revealed nothing.
“I swear, it was right there!” She stepped back, blinking. “It was right here!” The floorboard creaked outside the room.
“What is it? What happened?” Allison asked, entering with Gage.
“Writing,” Jess said, trying not to look at either Bryan or Gage. She didn’t need to see Bryan’s expression to tell he was probably smirking.
“Like the other night?” Allison asked.
Jess nodded. “Except one of the girls wrote it. Gracie was here. We talked for a few minutes and then she said Riley wouldn’t let her stay anymore. Next thing I knew, she was gone and the writing appeared on the mirror, like she was writing it from the other side.”
“How about using some of that fancy equipment?” Gage suggested. “Like an EMF reader or whatever. Maybe it’ll pick up on something.” He gave Jess a gorgeous half-smile.
Was Gage saying he believed her, or that he didn’t? It sounded as though he was giving her the benefit of the doubt. At this point, she didn’t think he actually doubted her, anyway. If he’d been a jerk before, it was probably just because he was trying to establish some weird power play, testosterone thing. Guys sometimes did that. She tried not to think about what Bryan had told her about Gage. She tried not to think about what his lips would feel like against hers. “Yeah, the equipment. Good idea.”
“I like it,” Bryan said. “This looks like the perfect opportunity to get my geek on.”
Dr. Brandt sat a box on the Great Room’s coffee table. He took out three devices, handing one to Jess and the other to Gage, keeping one for himself. “One per team. Sorry, you’ll need to share. These are EMF meters, also known as electromagnetic field detectors. Not only will they give us readings, but they also have alarms.”
“So, if there’s a particular threshold and we’re, say…in the dark, it’ll let us know?” Bryan asked.
“Exactly,” Dr. Brandt replied. “Better, the display is backlit so even if you are in the dark, you can see what the reading is.”
He pulled a few more devices from the box. “For each of you, there’s a flashlight, a digital thermometer and voice recorder. And we also have a full spectrum video camcorder which allows us to film in the dark.”
“Cool,” Gage said, hand extended. “Do you mind?”
Dr. Brandt handed the device to him. “Pass it around.”
The guys spent a few minutes going over the equipment before handing it to Jess. She had no real idea what she was looking at, aside from the camcorder itself, which seemed like any other handheld video camera. “You mean this works in the dark?”
Dr. Brandt nodded. “Yes. It does. Well, we could’ve added an IR booster, but this should suffice for our purposes. And, it still gives us some light to see by.”
“What else have you got?” Gage wanted to know.
Until now, Jess hadn’t noticed how quiet Allison had been. She was staring at the box on the table. “No,” Allison said. “You shouldn’t have brought that here.”
Dr. Brandt gave her a puzzled look. “Brought what, Allison? Do you know what’s in the box?”
Allison nodded. “It’s either Tarot cards or a Ouija board.”
“You can’t possibly know that,” Jess said. “Can you?”
Allison gave a disinterested shrug. “It’s all pretty standard stuff, actually.”
“But it’s not standard,” Dr. Brandt said. “At least, not exactly.” He pulled out a Ouija board. It was old, the oldest Jess had ever seen. Not that she had seen that many, but this one wasn’t plastic, small or glowing. There were creepy people illustrated in the lower corners, each one appearing to be using the board.
“It’s an antique,” Dr. Brandt explained.
“Is it as old as the house?” Jess asked.
He smiled. “No, not quite. This board is from the early forties. It’s the oldest I could track down.” He reached back into the box and withdrew a wooden object with a point on one end. Jess recognized the device as the piece that spelled out the answers. Except this pointing device, also wood instead of plastic, had a hole toward the pointer itself, along with the Ouija logo stamped on it. For some odd reason, that silver dollar-sized hole made the object more menacing.
“Now this,” Dr. Brandt exclaimed, “This is the planchette from the Ouija board first used in the 1910 séance here at Siler House. A maid destroyed the original board. She burned it in the fireplace.”
“What happened to her?” Allison asked.
Dr. Brandt frowned. “What do you mean?”
“She’s dead, isn’t she?”
“Well, probably,” Gage said. “1910? I don’t think the Ouija board was her personal fountain of youth.”
“Don’t be such a dick,” Bryan said. “This is cool stuff. Listen.”
“Kidding, Dude,” Gage said, sounding somewhat sincere. “But seriously? All this equipment is a lot cooler. The full spectrum camera, the EMF meter. This…” he touched the Ouija board, spinning it on the table. “This is old school. It’s Hasbro, man.”
“Actually,” Dr. Brandt corrected, “This one was made by the William Fuld Company, which made the boards from 1890 until 1966.”
Gage laughed. “Sixty-six?”
“True story,” Dr. Brandt said. “As for what happened to Ms. Evans, the chambermaid, she fell down the stairs. The fall broke her neck.”
“You puttin’ us on?” Gage asked.
“No,” he said. “But keep in mind that people fell down stairs and broke their necks or died of head injuries without ever having to touch, much less set flame to, a Ouija board, Gage. You just have to ask yourself if you think the house, the spirits…” He observed the planchette for a moment before setting it down directly over the word GOOD-BYE, and Jess could see the letter Y through the hole in the planchette. “…or if the board had any part in her demise.”
“You’re saying this was used here?” Jess asked. “After the girls’ deaths?”
Dr. Brandt nodded. “Yes. Several times. Catherine Siler swore her dead daughters first started talking to her through the Ouija board.”
“Portals,” Allison said, drawing her legs under herself. “The last time I touched one…” She shook her head. “Keep it away from me. I won’t. You can’t make me.”
There she went again. If Jess weren’t inclined to believe her, she’d think Allison really was as crazy as she appeared.
“That’s fine,” Dr. Brandt replied to Allison. “Perfectly understandable. You won’t have to. You’re welcome to watch, of course. Although I think it’s highly unlikely your experience had anything to do with the Ouija board.”
Gage frowned. “What is she talking about?” He turned to Allison. “What about the Ouija board, Allison?”
“Wrong,” Allison said. “That’s exactly how the demon found me.” She lowered her head, glaring at Dr. Brandt as though the two of them shared some intimate knowledge. “You don’t want to use that board in Siler House.”
Bryan frowned. “Huh?”
Gage tapped the board. “What she’s saying is that using it in this house is like waving a steak in front of whatever’s here.