A sudden lightning bolt right outside startles me. I rip my hand from his palm, but he grabs it and asks our mysterious guest, “What do you want with Camryn?”
I try to pull free, done with these games, but his grip remains iron-tight. Lily is crying now, and even Benny has paled.
When the dial fails to move, I yank free and shoot to my feet. “What the hell was that?”
Aron slumps and then picks up his head and stares at me over his shoulder with regret. “If the history of this place is anything to go by, you better convince your mom to pack up and leave.”
“I can’t do that. Where would we go? We don’t have any money left.” I huff a humorless laugh, looking between them all. “We can’t just up and leave.”
“Aron is right,” Gwen says, placing her elbows on the table and dragging her hands over her face. “I thought it was all baseless rumors at first.” She lifts a shoulder. “All small towns have an urban legend. I thought the demon was one. But after today…”
“We invited it,” Brittany finishes for her.
“Exactly.”
At a loss for words, I remain mute, looking at them all in turn. Anger and something else, something far more painful, something that pinches my chest, wells up inside me until I struggle to hold back tears. “This was your idea. You suggested a séance.”
No one says a word.
Swiping at my wet cheeks, I ask, “So now what? It gets worse?”
“I don’t know.”
The dejection in Gwen’s voice pisses me off. This was her idea. We wouldn’t be in this mess if not for her careless suggestion. It was she who offered us up as vessels to an unseen deity.
I open my mouth to speak, but Lily beats me to it. “No one listened to me.”
“Shut up,” Benny growls, pinning his hard eyes on her. “You don’t believe in the paranormal, remember? Why don’t you go ahead and blame it on one of us manipulating the dial or something equally ridiculous.”
Hope flares inside me, and I straighten up. No one looks at me.
“Aron,” I plead, and he slowly lets his eyes drift to me. “Please tell me it’s a prank. You moved the dial.”
Instead of replying, he lowers his gaze, and I pin my attention on Benny next. “Was it you?”
Crossing his arms, he shakes his head.
My eyes swim with tears when I look at the others. “Anyone?”
They look anywhere but at me.
I spin around. Rivulets of rainwater race toward the bottom of the glass. It’s hard to breathe, and with every inhale, my chest aches. I clench my jaw as the tears fall. “It could have been a trick of the imagination.”
“Maybe,” Aron replies, though I know he’s only agreeing to placate me.
“We need to find out more about the previous inhabitants.” I turn back around, desperation heightening my tone. “We need to find out what happened to the previous family. They can’t just have disappeared without a trace.”
Lily sniffs. “Nothing is going to happen, right? People play the spirit board all the time without anything happening.” Her eyes light up, and she clasps Gwen’s elbow. “You found this at the local toy shop. It’s not like these games would be readily available if people died playing them. I bet we would discover reasonable explanations for why the dial moved if we googled the science behind it all. It must have been a subconscious thing.”
I nod along. “You’re right.”
“Let’s hope so,” Gwen says, scooting her chair back and standing up. She reaches for her bag on the floor and offers me a small smile. “Emotions were running high, and we got carried away.” Walking up to me, she wraps an arm around my shoulder. “Don’t worry about it, Camryn?—”
We both look up when the front door slams shut. My stepbrother’s voice echoes through the house. “Camryn!”
Heavy footsteps sound in the hallway. Then he’s there, looming in the doorway and taking in the somber atmosphere. His gaze falls on the spirit board on the table, and he stiffens. “What the fuck have you done?”
EIGHT
