CHAPTER NINE
The first night with Allison had been nearly impossible. Jess awoke on more than one occasion to find her roommate sitting upright in bed, rocking back and forth. Trying to ignore her, Jess turned over and faced the window. Sleeping in a strange place the first few nights bothered most everyone, she figured. Hotels were the worst because of the noise from elevators, doors and neighbors in close proximity. Jess put old houses right up there on the same list. But Siler House was a good distance from noisy highways and the sounds of city life. The chirp of crickets and chorus of bullfrogs in a nearby marsh had filled the night, and eventually lulled her to sleep.
It was only when the crickets and frogs stopped that she awoke. She blinked, trying to adjust her eyes to the dark. She turned back over, expecting Allison to be either still sitting up, or asleep. But her bed was empty and Allison stood in front of the dresser, hands at her sides, staring at the mirror. Alarmed, Jess sat upright.
“It’s happening again,” Allison said.
“Huh?”
“The spirits. They’re back. I can see them.”
Jess rubbed her eyes as a spark of uncertainty and a moment’s worth of fear rustled somewhere deep inside her. “They’re there, in the mirror?”
“Yes.”
Jess got out of bed and tentatively stood next to Allison. She looked at the mirror, then behind her. Nothing. Uncertainty gave way to disappointment. The mirror cast back only the shadowy figures of Allison and herself, their faces made pale by the moonlight streaming into the room. They were alone, as far as Jess could tell.
Damn it! Why couldn’t she see the ghosts? Were they here? Disappointment gave way to a pang of envy.
“You don’t seem as upset as you were before,” Jess said. “If they’re back, aren’t you afraid they’ll take over? Possess you?” She wasn’t making fun of Allison. Something horrible had happened to her, and she was probably more sensitive to the supernatural than Jess was.
“Yes, I’m afraid,” Allison replied calmly.
The way Allison spoke seemed at odds with her words. The hairs on Jess’s arms tingled, but not because of any ghosts she couldn’t see. Right now, the only thing creepy in the room was Allison. The girl had been possessed, after all.
Allison turned her head to look at Jess, her expression unreadable in the shadows, even this close up. “He collects souls.”
Jess peered harder into the mirror, trying not to show Allison she was indeed afraid. “He? Who are you talking about?”
“He’s looking at you. I can’t make out what he’s saying. But see?” she pointed to the mirror. “He wrote his name.”
Fear and a healthy dose of agitation rose inside Jess. Fear, because someone staring at them from inside a mirror was downright scary. Agitated, because she couldn’t see anything, and Allison’s continual freak-outs were wearing on her. After a long day getting here, she was exhausted and just wanted to sleep.
“Allison, I don’t see anything! He? Who are you talking about?”
“Riley,” Allison whispered.
“Riley? Who’s Riley?”
Allison stood just as still as she had upon Jess’s wakening. “He lives here. With the others.”
“Others?” Jess stepped closer to the mirror, leaning against the dresser to get a better look. Her breath fogged it enough to reveal a single name, written backward: Riley.
Jess’s heart and feet leapt in unison. “Oh my God! Oh my God!”
“See? I told you,” Allison said, still speaking in the same monotone voice.
Jess gulped in a breath and approached the dresser again, her heart still hammering in her chest. Shadows shifted eerily inside the mirror, but Jess told herself it was just the light refracting off the angular ceiling. She leaned even closer. She had to be sure. Wanted to be sure. The name was there, but she hadn’t actually seen anyone write it. Allison had been standing in front of the mirror before Jess woke up. What if she’d written the name herself?
What if she hadn’t?
Ghosts can’t hurt you. They’ve never hurt you—or anyone you know of, Jess tried to reassure herself.
“Hello?” Jess whispered. She squinted, bringing her face closer to the glass, trying to seek out any movement, any form deep within the mirror.
Allison grabbed her arm and jerked her backward.
“Allison! Ow!”
“Ignore him, Jess. Don’t talk to him. Don’t talk to any of them. It just makes them stronger. We’ll have to tell Gage and Bryan not to talk to them, either.”
Jess opened her mouth to say Allison was scaring her again, but snapped it shut. If there were ghosts here and Allison wanted to be afraid of them, fine. Not her. Not yet, anyway. A name in the mirror didn’t mean the ghost was evil.
“Allison, did you write that?”
Allison reached up and wiped at the name with her fingers. The name didn’t smudge. “If I had, don’t you think I’d be able to erase it?”
“Oh, my God,” Jess repeated. She paced in front of the mirror, rationalizing this out. “Okay, so a ghost wrote his name on the mirror. That doesn’t necessarily mean he’s evil.”
“But he is,” Allison said. She still hadn’t budged an inch.
“Then maybe it’s a demon. Did the demons follow you here?” Jess asked. The thought of demons in their room did scare her.
“No,” Allison answered.
That was a huge relief. So Allison had only seen a ghost. One that tried to communicate with her and startled her. “Did he hurt you?”
“No.”
“Threaten you?” Jess asked.
“No.”
Jess resumed pacing. Allison had no real proof the ghost meant anyone harm. She couldn’t make out everything Riley said. She’d said so herself.
She didn’t doubt Allison had seen a ghost, just that she knew for certain it was evil. Allison was quick to freak out, quick to judge without good reason. Understandable, given her history, but no one else, not Jess, and neither Bryan nor Gage, had felt anything inside the house yet—especially anything bad. Weren’t they also sensitive to the paranormal?
“I don’t mean to sound bitchy, but why is it just you, Allison? Help me understand. Why are you the only one who thinks something is wrong here? How come the rest of us don’t sense anything in the house is evil?”
“I told you,” Allison said. “It’s fooled you. It’s fooled you all.”
Jess took another look into the mirror. No ghosts. No one named Riley stared back at them. She wished she could see what Allison did. Maybe then she could help her with her fears.
“Allison?”
“Yes?”
“Is it possible that you’re afraid of Siler House and ghosts because you’ve had such a bad experience? I mean, demons…that’s worse than anything I can imagine.”
Allison didn’t respond. Maybe Jess was getting somewhere. “Ghosts are spooky,” she continued. “I get that. They pop into and out of a room so quickly and so quietly. Sometimes they shimmer, or flicker. Sometimes they stand there and stare without saying a single word. I’d call that scary if I didn’t know better—if I hadn’t come across them as often as I have. I’ve seen hundreds! And not one of them ever threatened or hurt me. And ghosts aren’t the same as demons, right?”
“I don’t know,” Allison said, still staring into the mirror. “Until now, I’d never seen a ghost. We need to warn the others. Gage. Bryan. Dr. Brandt. Even Mrs. Hirsch.”
Jess nodded slowly. “Fine. We’ll tell them what you saw, okay?” They’d tell the others, all right. And if Allison’s behavior got any stranger, she’d insist on her own room. Jess was exhausted and if it wasn’t already so late, she’d find another room right now.
“Sorry. Go back to sleep.” Allison turned away from the mirror at last, and crawled back into her bed. “I think he’s gone now, but I’ll stay up and watch for him. If you want.”
“No,” Jess said. “We should both go back to sleep. If you say he’s gone, then he’s gone. We’ll tell Dr. Brandt about it first thing in the morning. Will we be okay until then?”
The odd, trance-like state Allison had been in was finally gone. “You think I’m crazy, don’t you?”
Jess struggled for the right words, but came up short. It had been a long day. Her brain couldn’t rationalize anything right now except sleep. And she was worried that there might truly be something wrong with her roommate.
Like there’s not something wrong with all of us, Jess thought.
Allison laughed. “I wouldn’t believe me, either. The girl who sees malevolent spirits in mirrors.” She turned to face Jess. “I’m sorry about grabbing you so hard. I don’t want you to be afraid of me. But, we’ve got something in common, don’t we? We’ve both been to a psychiatrist. You’re like me, Jess. People think we imagine things. They may not say it out loud, but they think we’re crazy, you and me, both.”
Jess wanted to disagree, that seeing ghosts or whatever didn’t necessarily make them crazy. But she couldn’t, because Jess had felt that her parents and everyone else who knew about it did think she was crazy.
She communicated with ghosts, or at least, used to. Allison had demons on speed dial. Bryan sent stuff (and people) to the Twilight Zone, and Gage reanimated the dead. Yeah. To most people, they had a lot of crazy in common. What if this whole experiment was about them, and how madness sets in? How people begin to hallucinate, see things others didn’t? Claim that things happened that never did?
Allison’s eyes were pleading now, and her voice began to quiver. “Everyone is always afraid of me. Please don’t be scared of me, Jess. You’re all I have here. You’re the only person who can understand.”