The Dead Girls of Hysteria Hall

 

As I sat back and prepared to mope about it for a couple of minutes, I caught movement from the corner of my eye—a shadowy form slipping along the edge of my sister’s bed.

 

“Who’s there?” I said.

 

It—whatever “it” was—heard me and hunched over. Moonlight touched the sloping curve of its spine and outlined its back against the window.

 

I stepped away.

 

This wasn’t like the rest of the ghosts I’d seen here—not even Maria. This was something else entirely. Even if it had ever been human, it wasn’t now.

 

Slowly, it raised its head on a slender, too-long neck, and I found myself staring into a pair of hollow, endlessly dark eyes. Eyes that didn’t really seem to exist, but also seemed to look right through me.

 

The mere suggestion of its shape was terrifying. I could see lean, muscular arms hanging from its narrow shoulders, and the back was abnormally round, with a large hump that made the backbone more prominent. The way its legs were attached to its body was more doglike than human.

 

But more than that was the fact that it was … a shadow. It was made of mist, nothing more. Black smoke swirled inside the outline of its body.

 

In the moonlight, I saw the swish-swish-swishing motion of a tail.

 

Neither of us moved.

 

“Go away,” I said, keeping my voice firm. I tried to remember how Florence had acted with Maria. The only problem was that I didn’t know how to hulk out the way Florence had—not on command, anyway. For all I knew, this thing could chew me up and spit me out.

 

But I wasn’t going to let it mess with my little sister.

 

I clapped my hands and stomped my feet, and the creature reared back a little, surprised. Then it opened its mouth—an enormous mouth that stretched from one side of its face to the other—and hissed at me. Its short, sharp teeth looked like a jagged row of broken black glass.

 

Okay. I tried to calm myself. Reevaluate. Take things slowly.

 

It hissed again, surprising me so much that I jumped backward, knocking into the dresser. Something clattered to the floor behind me.

 

“Hello?” Janie sat up so quickly I doubted she’d been asleep at all. When she saw her phone on the floor, she started to climb out of the bed. But something stopped her.

 

“What … ?” she said. There was a thunking, clinking noise, and she pulled the blanket away, exposing her lower legs.

 

One of her ankles was bound in a leather restraint.

 

With a frightened gasp, she looked around the room—of course not seeing anything.

 

“Stay calm, stay calm, stay calm,” she murmured to herself, her slender fingers working to unfasten the buckle. “The important thing is to stay calm.”

 

Kicking her leg free, she slipped off the side of the bed, pausing to grab something from her nightstand, and hurried into the hallway.

 

The creature started to follow, and I went after them both. But just as she crossed into the hall, Janie bent down and moved her arm quickly across the doorway. The creature lunged for her, but then with a bloodcurdling howl scrambled away from the door and slinked under the bed.

 

I decided to use this chance to get away—except I couldn’t.

 

When I reached the door, an invisible wall bounced me back into the room. A short zap! vibrated through me. I didn’t even have to look down to realize what my sister had done.

 

Smart girl. Using the salt she took from Cordelia’s office, she got herself out and locked the shadow in.

 

The only problem was … I was locked in with it.

 

 

 

 

 

But I could walk through walls, right? So all I had to do was take two steps to the left and walk right out. Except when I tried, I was decisively bounced back.

 

By now, I knew enough about the spirit world and its weird nuances to figure that this had something to do with the salt. My sister’s intention, by blocking the doorway, was to capture the evil spirit in the room—but that probably locked all supernatural beings in—not just bad guys but regular ghosts, too.

 

I was stuck in the room with a monster.

 

I heard it shift and stretch under the bed. It let out a low, sustained growl—a warning sound that, under any other circumstances, would have convinced me to put a lot of distance between us.

 

Of course that wasn’t going to happen now.

 

“Stay down there,” I said. “Neither of us is going anywhere, so you might as well just keep away from me.”

 

But this thing—whatever it was—was not afraid. No amount of posturing or bluffing would make it fear me. It had teeth, claws, and an animalistic nature. Meanwhile, what was I? A defenseless ghost who was really good at … nothing.

 

And now I couldn’t even run away. Super.

 

A louder, longer growl came from beneath the bed.

 

Electric energy ran through me—the afterlife version of adrenaline. There was no way to get out of this fight, so I might as well psych myself up for it.

 

Before long, the creature crept out and crouched on the floor, staring right at me.