Chapter 36

When Maverick opened his door, he breathed Lucky’s name again as if the very sight of her stole all the air in his lungs.

A more enthusiastic “Lucky?!” and rapid footsteps sounded from behind him. Rebel, wearing a darling dalmatian-print pajama set, pushed past her dad and hugged Lucky first.

“Hey, Shortcake.” She laughed, truly delighted to see her. “Thank you for my cookies and the beautiful letter.”

“Xander let you come over?”

“Uhh, well, no. Not exactly.” She looked at Maverick, who was watching them with an expression she’d never seen before on his face. “I needed help with something.”

Rebel grabbed Lucky’s hand, tugging her inside. “Do you want to see my room? I showed Georgia but you didn’t get to see last time.”

“We redecorated. She picked out everything herself,” Maverick explained. “Sweetheart, I think Lucky is here for a reason. She might not be staying long.”

Lucky said, “I promise you can show me your room before I go. I wanted to talk to your dad about Hennessee House.” She’d waited for Xander to leave before she packed her supplies. Then after sunset, she waited in her car around the corner from the house for the first unknown call to confirm her theory.

“Everything okay?” Maverick stood at her side, hand finding its usual spot on her lower back. “Did something happen?”

Lucky knew not all couples shared their work or even their hobbies with each other, but it seemed to be true for them. He wasn’t as passionate about the supernatural as she was and that was more than okay. As long as he always cared enough to listen, she’d be happy.

“I cracked the code,” she said. “And I have you to thank for it.”

Maverick and Rebel sat together on the couch while Lucky set up her laptop on the opposite side of the coffee table. After typing up all her thoughts and evidence, she spent the afternoon creating hopefully easy-to-follow visual slides. “It’s been a while since I did a presentation. I think I’m a little nervous.”

“Take your time,” he encouraged.

“I need a hard line. Push back on everything,” she instructed him. “I need someone I trust to be my skeptic.”

He grinned. “That’s a tall order, but I’ll do my best.”

Rebel said, “I’ll help too. I’m really good at solving logic puzzles at school. My team always wins.”

Her partner and her partner-in-crime. Lucky couldn’t even remember the last time her heart felt so full. She spun her screen around for them.

Investigating Hennessee House:

A Study in the Sentience of Haunted Places

“Initially, I believed Hennessee House valued fear. That’s no longer the case,” she began. “Hennessee is a sentient house, and it will do whatever it wants. There’s zero morality involved in its decision making when in pursuit of its goals. However, it does value some things more than others. Value number one: children—young people.”

“Like me?” Rebel asked.

“Exactly like you—little kids wandering around alone outside or teens breaking in for fun. The house will react and guide them to safety.”

Maverick’s gaze slid to Rebel. “Wait.”

“Yes,” Lucky confirmed. “Rebel knew about the square from the pictures, but Hennessee opened the door for her because it would’ve led her straight to you.”

“But I left the library when they called me and you found her instead.” He dragged a hand down his face, muttering, “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

“Hennessee thought it was being helpful. It didn’t register how much it stressed everyone out in the process because it doesn’t really understand human emotions. Which, unfortunately, is kind of a running theme.” Lucky hit the next slide.

“Value number two: regular people. Specifically visitors, occupants, residents, etc. Hennessee House isn’t trying to scare anyone away. It believes it’s giving us what we desire—the things that will make us happiest.”

Rebel raised her hand as Maverick asked, “If it doesn’t understand emotions, how does it know what happiness is?”

“Hey, I was gonna ask that.” Rebel pouted and Maverick kissed the top of her head.

“You can ask the next one,” he promised.

“Excellent question, Rebel.” Lucky winked at her. “The answer is positive reinforcement. It has a handle on happiness, anger, and fear. That seems to be it for now.” She hit the next slide. “Hennessee’s primary goal is to give an occupant what they desire so they will return the favor by engaging with it. The house enjoys having company and socializing. I’ll use myself as an example.

“I said I wanted to find ‘secrets in the walls’; it gave me a crawl space and a hidden passageway. I called it ‘my haunted house’ before; it had Paranormal Activity–style temper tantrums in the hall. I challenged it to up the ante; it showed me specters. The house gave me what I asked for every single time. Without fail.”

“Can we hear another example?” Maverick looked unconvinced, brow furrowed like the skeptic she needed him to be. “We’ve all noted that the house treats you differently. Those things made you happy, but what about everyone else?”

“How about Xander?” she offered. “First, I need to explain the function of a specter and how it communicates.” She hit the next slide, which gave them a thorough overview. “Xander was very close to his deceased stepmom, Brightly. He’s still actively grieving—he wants to see her again. He’s always thinking of her. So, that’s who Hennessee presents as. Specter-Brightly asks him when he’s getting married and about his job. It’s initiating conversation, which Xander freely engages with, reinforcing the house’s belief that this is a desirable interaction.

“However, Hennessee doesn’t recognize that this is also tremendously painful for Xander. It’s as if he’s being haunted with no understanding as to why. He feels sorrow, but the house doesn’t recognize that emotion. It knows something is wrong, just not what exactly.”

“Okay, wait.” Maverick held up a hand. “If the house talks through the specter, why can’t it explain its motivations on its own? Clear the air for him.”

“It has been—or at least trying to.”

When Hennessee House spoke, it wasn’t cruelly mocking them. It was being literal.

“are you not happy” Am I giving you what you wanted?

“will you stay—will you run” Was this right? Did I mess up again?

“give me what I want” Talk to me, please. I’m lonely.

“you will stay” I know you won’t leave me.

Lucky suspected Hennessee House’s sentience was a fairly recent phenomenon that possibly started with Brightly. Because she never lived there full-time, the house had been alone more often than not with no one to teach it. It was still in the mimicking language stage, trying to learn how to express itself.

She continued, “Hennessee presenting as a loved one, deceased or alive, who looks and acts the part perfectly is devastating. Asking someone to stay forever is sinister icing on the uncanny cake. Of course, it makes everyone want to leave.”

“Except you.”

“I considered it,” she reluctantly admitted with a sigh. “The first night I saw my specters, my strongest desire was to be able to share my family with you. Unfortunately, my family talks to me like I’m garbage so that’s what the specters did. The house can only mimic memories. It doesn’t understand that some of the ones it used were painful for me because I kept going. Every night I came back for more.”

Neither Maverick nor Rebel had a response to that, other than staring as her words took root. That was the first time she’d openly talked about her family, barely saying anything at all, but it’d clearly been enough.

Rebel raised her hand. “What happens if you think of someone who made you happy and was nice to you instead?”

“That’s most likely who I would see. Hennessee will make a specter of them.”

“You should do that, then.” An order, not a suggestion. Her little face looked so serious, Lucky had to stop herself from smiling.

“Don’t worry. I plan to give it a try soon.”

“You can think of me. My specter would be really, extra nice to you and if she’s not, I’ll beat her up.”

Maverick scoffed, squeezing her into a side-hug. “You can’t fight a house, honey,” he said softly.

“Yes, I can! I will!”

“Okay, okay.” He kissed the top of her head again, gently saying, “I’m sorry. I believe you.”

“That’s very sweet, thank you.” Lucky did smile then, and had to stare at the back of her computer to get herself together before she started crying. Rebel, her tiny defender—she wasn’t quite sure why that made her so emotional, but it did.

She quickly wiped under her eyes, cleared her throat, and moved on to the next slide. “The unknown phone calls. Sleeping there at night creates a connection between humans and the house. We know this. What I didn’t know was how extensive it was. The longer you’re there, the more intense it becomes, but it also doesn’t stop when you leave. It has to fade over time. Until that happens, it can use the connection to make calls.”

“How can a house make phone calls?” Rebel snorted with laughter. “That sounds like a joke on a popsicle stick.”

“You’re right—it does. In any case, Hennessee has seen our memories. It knows our phone numbers. There are phone lines in the house. It can make the call, but that’s about it so far. It doesn’t have vocal chords and I don’t think it knows Morse code,” she mused. Although, it did make clicking noises when she answered. Hmm. “My connection to Hennessee is abnormally strong. Yesterday it discovered I’d been hiding my true desire when I opened Rebel’s present. I think it realized it didn’t need to show me a specter because it had the means to potentially give me the real thing.”

Maverick’s solemn expression dipped into a frown before understanding set in. “So, the house called me?”

“It seems so. Do you have your phone?”

He checked his pockets. “I think it’s in my room.”

“I’ll get it,” Rebel volunteered and took off down the short hall. She came back suspiciously fast, as if she’d known exactly where it’d been. “No missed calls.”

Lucky checked her phone and had three. “See? I’m not there. It doesn’t have a reason to call you unless it’s for me.”

“Jesus.” Maverick rubbed his forehead. “I can see why you got drunk last night.”

“Believe it or not, that came before.” She laughed. “I didn’t figure everything out until you told me you got those calls—my big light-bulb moment. It was the only thing that made sense. Why else would the house call you and not, let’s say, Stephen? Everything fell into place when I started reconsidering everything I knew.”

“Have you told Xander yet?”

Lucky shook her head. “I still need to do a final test and create a long-term solution to giving Hennessee what it wants.”

“Which is?”

Lucky hit her last slide. “A permanent resident or permanent access. So, what do you think?”

“It was a good presentation. Nothing’s confusing. Seems solid.” Maverick bit his lip, hesitating. “Overall, though, I’m not sure yet. I need to think it over a little longer.”

“Oh,” Lucky said, surprised and decidedly not going to push. “Sure. Yeah. Of course.”

“I think you’re right about everything,” Rebel said, quickly coming to stand by Lucky. “Do you want to see my room now?”

“I’d love to.” Lucky grinned.

Rebel’s redecorated room had pale pink walls and an early-sunset pink-and-blue ceiling. She gave Lucky a full tour of her bookcases, desk fully stocked with colorful pens and art journals, laptop covered in cartoon stickers, and her brand-new reading corner—an oversize armchair right next to her window, surrounded by her stuffed animal collection.

“You did such a good job,” Lucky said. “Your room feels like you. That’s pretty hard to pull off.”

“My dad helped. He gave me the money for everything.”

“Good job, Dad. Very nice.”

“Thanks,” he said dryly. Maverick was watching them from the doorway.

Rebel asked, “Are you sleeping over? Do you want to watch a movie? I usually read a book before bed but we’re in the middle of one right now. You’ll be too confused to follow along.”

“Well, I’ve already broken the rules. I could stay a little longer.”

They both turned their attention to Maverick for confirmation, who suddenly looked genuinely startled. “Oh Jesus, not together.” He swiftly left the room, laughing. “I wasn’t ready!”

Rebel chased after him. “What’s so funny? Dad! Can Lucky stay or not?”

When she rejoined them back in the living room, Rebel was accepting the remote from her dad to pick a movie, settling on an epic high fantasy clocking in at over two hours. “This one is my favorite,” she told Lucky, settling in next to her on the couch. “Have you seen it?”

“Not yet.”

Maverick sat on Rebel’s other side and draped a blanket over her. “She’s gonna talk through the whole thing.”

“It’s not talking, it’s commentary. I know all the behind-the-scenes stuff. It’s important.”

“It’s fine.” Lucky laughed. “I don’t mind.”

Rebel ended up falling asleep in under twenty minutes—out cold before the flashback sequence even ended. Maverick carefully picked her up, carrying her off to bed. Lucky met him in the hall as he was closing her bedroom door.

“We have a pretty strict bedtime schedule,” he explained. “There isn’t much that keeps her up.”

“I should’ve called first,” Lucky admitted. “After I put everything together, I think my brain stopped processing rational thought. All I could think was how much I wanted to see you. Sorry.”

“How are you so beautiful?”

“That’s—”

“Don’t you dare.”

Lucky pressed her lips together, fighting her smile.

“You’re beautiful.” He stepped forward, placing his hands on either side of her against the wall.

Her hands trembled as she placed them flat against his chest. She hadn’t been able to touch him in weeks. She’d been in his apartment for over an hour, silently timing how long she had to continue to wait. “If you were allowed, would you come see me?”

“During the day. Am I allowed yet?”

“Xander wouldn’t give me a straight answer. What if I’m wrong about the house? What if I’m not done and I have to go back to square one? I’m tired of being alone,” she confessed. “I miss you. I miss everyone.”

“Your work is important to you. We understand.”

“I liked it better when it was our work. When we were together, as a team.”

Maverick nodded. “It’s late. You should stay.” He gently tugged her hips, pulling her toward him. They walked together to his bedroom farther down the hall.