7. Camryn

SEVEN

CAMRYN

"I can't believe we're skipping school for this." Brittany sounds delighted as she enters my house, her ponytail swaying.

I caught a lift in Gwen's car, and we drove here as soon as our first class ended. It was the only time we could have the house to ourselves. Mom is at work, and Dominic is in class. I don't trust that asshole not to barge into my room to interrupt us. There's no chance he would stay away if I brought friends home for the first time. No, he'd insist on inserting himself and ruining the night with a look of satisfaction on his smug face. Because the fucker would enjoy every minute of watching me squirm like a fish on a hook.

"I can't believe we convinced Lily to come along," Aron teases, his arm wrapped around her shoulder as they walk up the drive.

"Someone has to keep an eye on you all," she replies with an eye roll.

Benny walks past me with a soft chuckle. Aron and Lily enter, and I walk in behind them and close the door.

Ahead of us, Gwen makes a beeline for the kitchen with the box in her arms, putting it on the table while I remove the vase of fresh flowers.

I'm more nervous than I should be, my clogged throat making breathing difficult. There's no logical reason to be this anxious. Lily said it herself: ghosts don't exist.

Right?

After placing the vase of flowers on the counter, I slowly turn around. Gwen removes the spirit board from the box and puts it on the table. "Do you have any candles?"

It takes me a few moments to realize the question is directed at me, and I root through the drawers until I find two candlesticks and their holders. Once placed on the table, Benny fishes a lighter out of his pocket and lights them up.

Gwen flicks her attention to me. "Did you bring the item?"

"I'll get it now."

Walking upstairs, I force down the insistent feeling of stepping into unknown territory. Warning bells blare inside me, but I ignore them. What's the worst that could happen? Ghosts don't exist. And if they do, what can an entity possibly do to us? They don't hold any sway here in the physical realm. If something more dangerous is at play, why would it need to be called forward by a silly spirit board?

I return to the kitchen with the porcelain doll and place it next to the spirit board. Lily pales, and Gwen tilts her head as she studies it closer.

"It's…ugly."

"You mean creepy as fuck?" Brittany asks, pulling out a chair and sitting down. The others follow suit until we're seated around the table, swapping uncertain glances.

"Has anyone done this before?" I ask.

Gwen shakes her head. "I guess we link hands and invite it in?"

"Invite what in?" Lily looks alarmed, her eyes wide and jaw slack. "We're not encouraging it, are we?"

"Relax," Benny drawls, adjusting his cap so it sits backward, strands of brown hair sticking out behind his ears. "Ghosts don't exist, remember?"

"Yeah? You obviously believe they do, or we wouldn't be here, doing something this…this reckless."

Laughing under his breath, Benny shakes his head. "Take a deep breath so that you don't pop an artery or something from all the undue stress."

Gwen takes my hand and then holds hers out for Lily, who reluctantly accepts it with a glance in my direction.

When we're all holding hands, Gwen lowers her voice as a strand of green hair slides from behind her ear. "Let's close our eyes and empty our minds."

"Empty our minds?" Benny sounds stupefied.

"Just…think of nothing."

Brittany bursts out laughing, the sound sudden and piercing. "I'll be surprised if Benny ever has a single thought in his thick skull."

"Rude!" Benny scowls. "I think sometimes."

"Sure." Brittany winks.

Gwen demands their attention. "We're wasting time. Let's close our eyes and keep our minds quiet and receptive."

My eyes shut, and I tighten my grip on Gwen's and Aron's hands. Silence settles over the room as the seconds tick by. Someone coughs—a girl, by the sound of it—and my brow furrows. I try to clear my mind, but it races, jumping from thought to thought like clouds in the sky.

"Are we ready?" Gwen asks beside me, releasing my hand.

"Let's each put a finger on the skull dial."

I blink my eyes open and place my finger on the cool surface, swallowing down the nerves churning my stomach. Lily looks almost green as she hesitantly follows suit.

"Okay," Gwen breathes, glancing at us all, back to business. "Keep your finger lightly on the dial. Don't try to manipulate it in any way. We take turns asking questions. No one cheats, understood?"

I stare at the letters on the board, wondering if I should stop this before it's too late. We can still back out.

Something—call it intuition, if you will—tells me I should. I'd regret it if I don't speak up now, but one glimpse at the doll with its empty eyes steels my resolve. We're doing this. I need to learn more about this place and the weird things that have happened to me in the few weeks I've been here.

"Who wants to go first?" Gwen asks.

When no one replies, she looks between us, sets her jaw, and scowls down at the dial in concentration. "We wish to communicate with the spirit that haunts this property."

We wait in tense anticipation, hoping—no, expecting— something to happen. The seconds tick by, accentuated by the thudding heartbeat in my ears. Seconds that seem to stretch into eternity. The tips of my ears burn. I feel foolish.

It was my idea to skip class to play a silly board game.

"We welcome you, spirit, to our circle."

"No," Lily hisses, but Gwen ignores her pleas.

"Is there anyone here with us?"

"This is stupid," Benny mutters under his breath, causing the burn in my ears to spread to my cheeks.

"We are your earthly vessel, and we welcome you?—"

"Earthly vessel," chuckles Benny.

Clouds suffocate the sun outside, and the light in the room darkens significantly, but the sudden change in weather isn't why Aron's grip on my hand tightens or why Gwen trembles.

Eyes wide, I stare at the smoke swirling from the wick.

"Did that…blow out?" Benny asks in a voice thick with apprehension and an undercurrent of disbelief and…excitement.

"It did," Aron confirms.

"It could have been a coincidence."

"Probably," Aron responds, but his grip on my hand remains tight, his palm clammy.

"Please tell me someone blew it out," Lily says uncertainly while I watch the smoke swirl and disperse.

"Ask it another question," Brittany suggests, eyes alight with the thrill.

Gwen looks unsure for the first time, her throat jumping. "Okay…"

The flame flickers back to life, taking us all by surprise. Lily even releases a startled scream.

"What's happening?" I ask as the flame burns brighter and taller, jumping violently in a non-existent breeze.

"We're not alone," Gwen breathes.

Brittany's wide eyes glitter in the candlelight. "This is so cool."

My heart thunders behind my ribcage. Cool isn't the word I would use to describe this moment. Terrifying seems more fitting.

"Are you a spirit?" Gwen asks.

We fall silent, gazing intently at the dial.

Just like before, nothing happens. The seconds tick by while the flame continues to dance.

Just when my heart is about to sink from disappointment or relief—I'm yet to decide—the dial moves.

A gasp falls from my lips, and I glance around at the others, only to be met by equally bewildered expressions.

"Who's doing this?" Gwen asks in an accusatory tone, but Brittany shushes her and then reads out the letters.

"N…O"

"Can we stop?" Lily begs as a tear clings to her lid. "I want to leave."

"So…not a spirit." Gwen worries her lip, ignoring Lily's question. "An entity?"

The dial moves again.

Outside, thunder rumbles in the distance.

I hold my breath, whispering each letter. "S…O…M…E…T…H…I…N…G." The dial pauses, and I swallow down the saliva in my mouth. It moves again. "F…A…R?—"

"Worse," Gwen finishes, her worried eyes clashing with mine. "Something far worse."

"What could be worse than an entity?" Lily asks, her voice high-pitched.

The candle flickers out, and the darkness presses in from all angles despite it being after lunch. Another rumble of thunder rolls across the stormy sky outside, and rain splatters against the window almost violently, as if the gods are punishing the house for standing after all this time.

"Are you a demon from the underworld?" Gwen asks.

Amused by the situation, Benny chuckles, but soon shuts up when the dial slides across the letters.

"Yes…" I exchange a look with Benny, whose jaw tightens. Beneath that ‘Nothing Fazes Me' exterior is a guy with doubts.

"Why are you here?" Aron asks beside me, his voice a soft grumble.

As I glance at the doll with matted hair and dead eyes, the dial slides across the wood and stops on letters, as if to build anticipation.

A lightning flash illuminates the crack in the porcelain, and a roll of thunder follows, like a bowling ball heading straight for the pins.

I quickly look away, but I can't shake the feeling that it's watching me, which is ridiculous. It's a spooky doll—a forgotten toy. Nothing more.

"To feed on chaos." Benny frowns. "What chaos?"

The dial moves again, and Benny visibly stiffens. "I didn't mean that as a question."

"Well," Brittany whispers around a thick swallow, "it wants to respond."

"D…E…A…T...H." I meet Benny's eyes again. "Death."

The tension in the air thickens until it's hard to speak. I'm still locked in Benny's gaze when Aron blows out a breath that seems loud in the reigning silence. "What do we ask now?"

"Nothing," Lily answers. "We stop this now before we take it too far."

"It's too late." The next flash of lightning highlights Gwen's haunted face. "It only responded when we said we're its vessel."

"I never offered myself up as a vessel. Those were your words."

"You didn't object or stop me," Gwen points out, then freezes when the dial moves again.

"No one asked a question this time," Brittany murmurs, barely audible above the splattering rain against the window.

"It wants to communicate."

"Please make it stop," Lily whines.

It moves from letter to letter, sometimes slowly, sometimes so aggressively that we struggle to keep our finger on the dial as it shoots across the board. My heart hammers wildly. I can't think about anything except my growing dread.

"Camryn," Aron whispers, peering at me sideways. "It spelled your name."

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?"