SIX
CAMRYN
“You changed your mind?”Gwen’s eyes bug out.
I called this emergency meeting at the café after school, and now we’re seated on the couches at the back while the summer rain spatters on the window to our left. You’d think the rain would bring with it cooler temperatures, but no. Even the rain is warm.
“You were right all along,” I reply, sinking deeper into the couch, unable to meet anyone’s gaze. “Weird things happen in that house.”
Gwen stares at me for a beat, but Benny lights up on the armchair. “I knew it. Tell us everything.”
“Just…things.”
“Things?”
I slowly nod, as the lady behind the counter bags up a slice of blueberry pie for an elderly customer. “It’s hard to explain.”
Without sounding crazy.
“So why did you change your mind?” Gwen asks, holding up a finger when Benny opens his mouth to talk. “Why do you want to do a séance now?”
“I guess I want…to find out if it’s real or all in my head.”
Gwen’s gaze softens. “We’ll get to the bottom of it.”
“I still think it’s a bad idea,” Lily says on Gwen’s other side, shaking her head.
“Thought you said you don’t believe in the paranormal,” Aron teases as he stands up and digs his wallet out of his back pocket.
“I don’t, Aron.” Lily rolls her eyes and crosses her arms. “I can still disagree with it.”
Aron pulls out cash, puts his wallet back in his pocket, and smirks. “Sounds to me like you believe in it.”
As he moves to the counter, Lily sticks out her tongue at his back. Brittany returns from the bathroom and slides between Gwen and me, forcing us to shift to the side to make room. “What did I miss?”
“Séance at Camryn’s house this weekend,” Benny chirps, slouched on the couch with his ankles crossed and his brown hair sticking out from beneath his black cap that’s halfway down his forehead. “Let’s summon the demon.”
Lily sits up straight with a worried look, her gray eyes bouncing between us. “Please tell me we’re not summoning this…thing.”
“I’m starting to believe Aron is right,” Benny drawls in a bored tone. “You do believe in demons and ghosts.”
Lily glares at him.
“You don’t have to come,” Gwen says reassuringly. “We don’t want you to be uncomfortable.”
They bicker while I let my distracted thoughts drift. Maybe Lily was right that we’re better off leaving it alone.
Was there even anit?
For all I know, I’ve suffered a heatstroke or, worse, a mental breakdown and imagined things that weren’t there, but it seemed so real.
Sulfur still lingers on my tongue when the memory of his voice caressing my ears invades my mind, and icy chills race down my spine. Yesterday, instinct told me to run and not look back, and I listened. Do I really want to try to communicate with it? Whatever “it” is.
“So?” Aron asks as he returns with a slice of blueberry pie in a paper napkin. “Are we doing the séance or not?”
Gwen’s smile grows impossibly wide. “We’re doing it.”
“Sweet!” He collapses in the armchair. “Looks like we’re summoning a demon.”
