Chapter 21 #2
Bernadette is one of the people who drowned while the mill was still running.
The mistress of the owner, as the story goes, who was here late at night waiting for her lover.
She fell out of the window and into the water, hitting the waterwheel on the way down and breaking her neck.
Well, they say she fell, but some have theorized she was pushed.
She’s who Kit and I believe is the vengeful spirit, so I hope she says yes.
The light blinks. I smile. Then blinks again. My smile drops. Then again. My brow furrows. And again. It’s practically strobing now, on, off, on, off.
“Remember,” I say, trying to keep my voice steady, “once for yes and twice for no.”
But my words are ignored. The light keeps flashing on and off, the rate increasing, faster and faster. I gulp, my body going rigid.
Bad, bad, bad, I hear in my head. Is that me or Kit?
The flashlight lifts into the air. At first, only a millimeter off the ground, so I think I must be imagining it, a trick being played on my eyes by the shadows. But then it floats higher, rising to my eye level.
“Holy shit.”
I shoot to my feet with a small shriek and stumble backward. The flashlight keeps rising in the air, hovering and revolving in a slow circle, the light still flashing on and off.
The light focuses on me, shining in my eyes, staring me down. Unblinkingly, I hold my breath as though not breathing, not making a sound, will make me invisible. Everything is still.
Then the flashlight hurtles toward me.
I barely duck in time, letting out another shriek as I raise my arms to cover and protect my head. The flashlight slams into the wall behind me, the light flickering out.
“I’m sorry!” I yell, unsure of whether or not I said something to offend them.
I notice a humming spreading throughout the space, growing louder and louder with each passing second, and pick up my head cautiously to assess the room.
However, I don’t even have time to ask what the humming is before my camera lifts in the air and comes hurtling toward me as well.
I scream and go to duck again, but my arms move independently of my body and snatch the camera from the air.
“Thanks,” I say to Kit, breath heavy.
“I got you,” he says in my head.
He does. Even with my heart pounding so intensely that I fear it will burst from my chest, I know he has my back.
I should be safe. I stand steady on my feet, gripping the camera and facing the lens forward, using it like a shield.
I say, “I’m sorry if I offended you. I am not here to harm you. I just want to talk.”
The humming grows louder and louder until it morphs into the definition of a blood-curdling scream. A shiver shoots through my spine, so intense I feel like I’m convulsing. And then—
“Holy fucking shit.”
A woman appears before me, her long, dark hair swirling around her head and a blue light shining around her in a hazy aura.
Black lines run down her face like dripping makeup, and her neck is bent at an odd angle.
I inch backward until my back meets the wall.
Despite my fear, I release an incredulous laugh.
That’s a ghost. An actual ghost. And I am pointing a camera straight at her.
I hope it’s catching her. Oh my god. My hand is quivering so bad this footage will be shit, but, just, oh my god.
A full apparition. If I wasn’t frozen in place, I would jump for joy.
“Hello,” I say, unsure of what else there is to say.
She screams in response.
Without warning, my feet are hoisted off the ground, all the oxygen around me whooshing away. I can’t breathe. The ghost’s hands are clenched at her sides, and she is glaring at me like I’m the reason for her broken neck. I grope at the invisible hand around my throat.
“Kit,” I struggle out. “Kit. Help.” I scream the same words in my mind.
“I got you, babe.”
I’m thrown back into my head as Kit takes back control of my body. The walls are closing in on me, crunching inward bit by bit as the ghost attempts to squeeze the life out of me.
Then it’s as if all the air rushes back in and the walls go back to normal.
Endless and invisible. I rush to my window and see Kit with his feet on the floor.
I press my whole body against the glass, hands trembling and legs weak.
He got out of her grasp. He reaches into my jacket pocket and pulls out a handful of salt, chucking it at the ghost. She blinks in and out of existence but is still there.
He rushes to the backpack in the corner of the room and, pulling my jacket sleeve over his hand, yanks out a piece of…what is that? Iron?
It’s black and looks like a part of the iron fence that surrounds my building.
With a big gesture, he runs toward the ghost and swipes through her translucent body.
She fizzles away with another shriek. He quickly gathers our things and is soon out the door, hurtling himself into the front seat of my car and slamming the door.
He cackles. “That was awesome! Oh, wow.” He drags a hand down his face. “She was pissed.”
He continues to cackle, but I don’t join in. I can’t. I start crying instead. Sobbing, in fact.
In the void, he says, “Oh, fuck. Are you okay?”
I offer a louder sob.
“Oh, no. Lacy, sweetness. You’re crying so hard you’re making me cry. What can I do?”
I can’t respond with my full-force blubbering. My void is filling with water, similar to how it did when Kit got drunk, but now it is a sea of my own tears. Poetic. Pathetic.
“Fuck. Hold on.”
Everything goes black, and suddenly we’re standing in front of a green door I recognize instantly. Kit rings the doorbell over and over until my sister opens the door.
Meggie manages to get out, “Lacy? It’s one thirty in the morning. What’s—”
Everything goes black again before I wake up back in my body, ass on the ground on the porch, just in time to see a mass of yellow smoke entering my sister.
I stand on quaking legs and see a flash of black in her eyes before they become Kit’s.
He pulls me into a tight hug, and I let him.
I sob into his shoulder as he rubs my back slowly, letting me cry, whispering that I’m okay.
He’s here. The arms around me are familiar and comfortable, and I honestly don’t know if the comfort is coming from my sister’s body or Kit.
When he thinks I can move, he pulls me into Meggie’s house and leads me to the couch. He sits me down before bringing me a glass of water and forcing me to take a few sips. The water soothes my raw throat.
When I can, I manage to utter, “I didn’t like that.”
He frowns. “I’m sorry. That was really scary, wasn’t it? I didn’t think. I just thought it would be cool footage.” His fingers graze my neck. “Are you all right?”
I shrug, because I don’t know. I tap my pointer finger to his skull. “Is she awake?”
He shakes his head.
I lean forward and press my lips to his cheek. “Get out of her, please.”
“Are you sure? I can give you a longer break if you need—”
I cut him off. “No. Get out of her.”
He nods. I see the yellow smoke for a flash as it barrels out of her chest and slams into me.
And here I am, back in the void.
Meggie blinks back to consciousness. She squints at me. “Lace? What are you…? What happened?”
Kit laughs his laugh, not mine, in my voice. “You all right?”
“I…sorry. I literally don’t remember letting you in.”
He cocks his head to the side. “Oh. Well, you let me in. You got me water.” He holds up the glass as evidence. “And then you sat next to me and got really confused. You feeling okay?”
“Yeah, sorry. Stress brain, I guess. Are you okay? You look like you’ve been crying.”
He wipes at his wet eyes. “Yeah, yeah. I’m fine. Was investigating this place and got spooked. I just needed to get out of there and, well, here I am.”
Meggie nods, lips pursed. I know it’s because she wants to ask if I was breaking and entering again, but she is refraining because I’m upset. “Okay. I’m glad you’re here, then. You should spend the night. I’m wide awake if you want to watch a Pixar movie. Those always make you feel better.”
“Yes, please,” I say, and Kit echoes.
Meggie grabs the TV remote and settles into the couch.
“Which one?”
Kit gently echoes in my head, “Which one, Lace?” while making a, “hmm,” with his mouth.
“Can we do Monster’s, Inc.? I love that one.”
“Ah, a fine choice. Not all monsters are bad.”
Kit repeats my choice aloud and relaxes into the couch beside my sister. Without thinking, I reach out to take my sister’s hand, lacing my fingers through hers. I can feel her palm in mine.
“Uh…?” Kit says in my head.
“Uh?” I repeat back at him.
“Nothing. Just. Okay. I didn’t let you do that.”
“Oh?” I pretend to be surprised, like this is the first time anything like this has happened.
“Oh.”
Neither of us says anything else. In the void, I bring my knees up on my chair so I can wrap my arms around them. Out of the void, I can still feel my sister’s hand in my own. With her hand in mine, things feel almost normal. I wish they were.