Chapter 11 #3
I walk over to the closet and throw open the doors. I don’t need the ghosts to direct me—this close, I can feel the rushing whisper of energy. And once the closet is open, I can see the vortex. Just faintly—a slightly glowing outline—but it’s there.
“Is it in there?” Skye asks, coming to stand at my shoulder. He holds his hands out toward it. “I can feel… kind of like a breeze?” He steps back and glances around. “Or is that the air-conditioning?”
“It’s here,” I confirm. There’s definitely a flow of energy coming through, seeping around the edges of the ghosts’ block—which is itself a big lump of energy, but it feels different.
Still, I have no idea how to close it.
I study it a bit longer, hoping something will catch my attention, but other than the energy flow making me feel great, there’s nothing. I turn to face the others and shake my head. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what to do.”
Disappointment flashes across their faces, and I hate to have let them down.
“Never mind,” Ewan declares, grabbing the salt from Daniel and moving forward. “We were pretty sure we’d need to do some research first anyway.” He smiles at me. “Should I just salt the whole closet?”
Spinning to look at the vortex again, I hold out a hand, palm up. “Hang on. Give me some salt, please.”
The fine grains fill my palm as he pours it, and I close my fist around them. I need to do this carefully. I’m not sure how the salt will affect the ghosts’ block, and we definitely don’t want to accidentally pull that down.
Pinching a few grains of salt between my fingers, I toss them at the block. There’s no change.
“Did you feel anything?” I ask Joe and Hattie, who are hovering near the door.
“No,” Hattie says, and Joe shakes his head. So I try a bigger pinch of salt.
Still nothing.
Then I throw the whole fistful at it.
“I don’t know what you’re doing, but it’s making a mess,” Kieran observes.
“We were going to pour salt there anyway,” Skye reminds him. “And the housekeepers won’t be coming in to complain. Which reminds me…” He turns toward the bed. “I guess it’s up to us to strip the linens.”
“Dammit,” Arissa whines.
Blocking them out as they begin discussing whether they should leave the old sheets on to protect the mattress while it’s being moved out to the cabin, I reach into the bag Ewan’s holding and grab another handful of salt.
“Do you need anything?” he murmurs to me, and I shoot him a grateful smile. It might be weird, but I can’t help liking it when he tries to take care of me.
“I just want to see if the vortex will react to the salt.”
This time, I adjust my aim away from the block and toward the faint outline of an opening. The salt hits it squarely, and then some of it blows back into the room.
“Whoa!”
“What the fuck?”
Ewan’s and Daniel’s voices grab everyone’s attention.
“What happened?” Arissa peers over Daniel’s shoulder, trying to see.
“It was like a wind,” he tells her, “blowing the salt.”
Skye’s eyes get big. “Really?”
“Can you do it again?” Ewan asks me as they all crowd around. I want to say something about it not being a party trick, but I don’t since I want to try it again anyway.
This time, I use a bit more salt, and the effect is clearly visible, the salt floating on the energy current for almost a foot before dropping to the floor.
“Holy fuck,” Kieran whispers. “Fuck fuck fuck.”
“So, uh, there’s definitely something there.” Arissa takes a big step back. “You don’t need me in here anymore, do you? I’ll just, uh, head back to the kitchen.”
“Go,” Kieran tells her, not taking his eyes off the spot in the closet where the salt had been. “Could you take the monitor from Skye and keep an eye on reception again? I want to get everything we need for the cabin out of this room now.”
Skye passes the device over to her, and she flips us a wave as she dashes out the door. I can’t blame her—I’m used to paranormal crap, and this still makes me nervous.
“Did the salt affect the vortex?” Ewan asks, laying a big hand on my shoulder.
“I don’t think so. The flow of energy is undisturbed, and there was no change in shape or size.” I glance over at the ghosts. “Right?”
“Agreed.” Hattie speaks for them both.
Kieran sighs. “There go my hopes of chucking enough salt at this thing to close it.”
“The vortex itself doesn’t appear to be dangerous—more what comes through it.
And the salt might help to deter that.” I take the bag from Ewan and pour a thick line of salt around the vortex, getting into the closet to reach behind it too.
Its energy brushes up against my skin when I get close, and I can’t lie: it feels amazing.
The ghosts were right to be cautious about who they trusted.
When I step back, there’s a circle of salt in the closet. “Could we get some quartz stones in here too?” I suggest to Kieran. “Now that there won’t be any guests to question it, they might be useful.”
“Definitely.” He whips out his tablet and makes a note. “So… that’s it?”
I spread my hands. “There’s nothing else I can do until I know more.”
He nods. “Then let’s get the furniture out of here.”