A Different Kind (32 page)

“Oh, c’mon,” I whispered, snorting. “You totally did that.”

Her resolve didn’t fade with my accusation. She looked down on the board. “Are you a friendly spirit?”

The pointer circled around the word “yes” repeatedly.

The strong smell of the incense made my heart beat faster, its pounding filling my ears. I figured Jessica was moving the pointer, but she seemed uncharacteristically sincere. “Holy shit,” she muttered under her breath. “It’s never done that before.”

“It’s friendly, alright. Sounds like someone’s going to get laid!” one of the guys yelled out. The room erupted in more laughter.

“If you can’t take this seriously,
leave
,” Jessica told the others, the irritation in her voice elevated to dangerous levels. She focused on the board before closing her eyes. “Spirit, can you move something to show us your presence?”

As we all sat there waiting for something to happen, my wild heartbeat raked my chest until it was difficult to breathe calmly. All at once there was a dull thud from somewhere in the basement. A few of the girls squealed, and I about jumped out of my skin.

“That was the water heater, people,” Alec told us. “It always kicks out like that.” Brooke let out a drunken cackle.

Annoyed no one took her ritual seriously, Jessica pressed her lips together, glaring down on the board. “Spirit, who in this room will be the first to die?”

“Seriously?” Brooke asked, sounding as freaked as I was beginning to feel.

The temperature of the room plummeted like the flip of a switch. As I sat there rubbing my arms, trying to ignore the creepy sensation inching up my back, a slight breeze from the windowless room flittered past, blowing my hair around my shoulders. Jessica’s eyes were still closed when the pointer moved from “yes” to the letter “G”. With my heart galloping in my chest, I snapped my head back to where Gavin sat, shaking his head.

“Let me guess, Jess. It’s
me
?” He rolled his eyes to the ceiling. “We all know you’re controlling the board. Stop messing with Harper.”

The pointer moved once again under my fingers, faster this time. I looked over to find Jessica’s hands held up at her sides, her eyes bulging. “Ohmigod, do you feel it?”

Bile rose in my throat when I realized there was no way she could’ve manipulated the pointer. There was only one way it could’ve moved.

My eyes fell down to the board, finding the pointer resting on the letter “A”. It continued to move on its own will underneath my fingers, spelling out the rest of my boyfriend’s name. Squealing with surprise, I snapped my hands away before it reached the “N”. The pointer flung off the board as if thrown, smashing into Alec’s gaming system.

“What the hell?” Jessica asked, holding her hands to her mouth. “Why’d you do that?”

“I didn’t!” I insisted, jumping to my feet. “I didn’t do anything!”

The room fell silent, everyone’s ragged breaths sounding like a living being waiting to pounce. Looking around at each of my friends, their collective stunned faces scared me even more. We all knew something unnatural had happened. We were all too afraid to admit it out loud.

Gavin broke the silence with a deep chuckle, standing to fold me in his arms. “Whatever, you guys. Jessica totally rigged it to do that. If we’re going to believe the stupid thing, then we better get to drinking before my time is up!”

“I would take this a little more seriously if I were you,” Jessica told him in a low voice.  I saw the raw fear behind her eyes when she glanced at me. Her lips were tight as she fled to the bathroom, leaving her demonic board behind.

Nervous, unsure chuckles from some of the guys followed. The music was turned back on, and everything returned to normal. Gavin kissed me before throwing me over his shoulder, whooping it up for our friends. For the rest of the night, no one mentioned the Ouija board or the freakish thing that had happened.

Little did we know, the clock had begun ticking.

The next morning as I lay in bed, contemplating getting up or throwing the covers back over my head, I felt the temperature of the room plummet. A dark shape drifted across my room, followed by what sounded like urgent whispers. It lingered directly above me for a terrifying moment before disappearing. I couldn’t make myself move until my mom came in for my morning wakeup call.

The thing is, it wasn’t just that one time. A few days later, I was passing the park near our house when I swore I saw something covered in hair and walking on two feet coming at me. Just as I decided to take off in a dead run, it walked right through the playground equipment and was gone. Strange things I couldn’t explain began to happen on a daily basis—human-shaped shadows moving around me, dark figures lurking outside my bedroom window, strange noises in the middle of the night.

Sleep was lost to my paranoia when I started to believe I was catching glimpses of ghosts or monsters before they disappeared. I started to wonder what exactly happened the night we messed with Jessica’s Ouija board, and called her the next weekend to see if strange things were happening to her too.

“Are you saying you actually think there was something to it?” she asked with a stiff laugh. “I thought you said it was a
kid’s game
.” Her voice was bitter enough that I knew she would make a big deal out of it to our friends if I told her the truth, so I did my best to laugh it off and change the subject. Jessica thrived on drama, and I wasn’t about to fall into her trap.

After a football game that Friday in which Gavin scored two touchdowns, his triumphant smile disappeared when he found me waiting for him by the fence. “God, Harper, you look exhausted. Should I be worried?”

I felt like a lost little girl when he wrapped his big strong arms around me. I wanted to tell him of the whispers in my sleep, of things moving in the dark. It was beginning to feel like I was losing myself. But I didn’t know how much of it was my overactive imagination, and I definitely didn’t need him laughing at me. “Gav, do you think ghosts are real?”

“We’re back to that?” he asked with a light laugh. “You know Jessica somehow rigged that thing. If you’re so freaked out, why don’t you research that stuff online? I’ll bet you can find all sorts of proof that ghosts don’t exist. On that show where they hunt ghosts they’re always proving people are just letting their imaginations get the best of them. Maybe it would help if we watched it together sometime.”

I did as he suggested, finding more research that proved ghosts and other creatures
do
exist. And, to make things worse, more than one website indicated a gateway had been opened with the Ouija board. Whenever Gavin was gone at practice or work I’d read up on supernatural beings. Countless hours were spent in chat rooms with people who claimed to have a paranormal experience. I even communicated daily outside of the chatroom with someone who used the handle “Vhunter”.

I started to truly believe that I was catching shimmers of monsters, even though I couldn’t prove they were real, like how you know when someone is staring at you from behind, or how you know one of your favorite movies is missing from your collection, only you don't know exactly which one. Just like that creepy kid with a sixth sense, I was seeing dead people. And more.

I tracked anything and everything that sounded as if inhuman intervention could be involved. I kept each newspaper article that had a questionable resolution, and saved a zip drive of news broadcasts showing footage of crime scenes where something wasn’t right, from the uneasy look on the witnesses’ faces to the exasperated tick of the journalist’s lips. I felt empowered by every bit of oddity I could get my hands on, like the teen guy who completely vanished from his bedroom without a trace, or the mass break-ins to blood banks across the country.

At first Gavin thought my sudden interest in all things supernatural was some kind of cute stage. He’d play harmless jokes, like jumping out from behind couches and scraping his fingernails against my window after dark. It was fine when it was between the two of us, but it didn’t take long for his buddies to catch on. Word spread around school like wildfire. At the time, everyone laughed it off like it was some kind of quirky hobby. Now more than ever, I wish it had just been a hobby, and there wasn’t anything more to it.

After the homecoming dance that fall, once we had changed into comfy jeans and  sweatshirts, we made our customary stop at the park before heading out for the after-dance kegger. We’d been to the heavily wooded park dozens of times, watching stars twinkle against the sky over our heads from the back of his pickup. It used to relax me to hear the familiar sound of crickets, and the occasional animals jostling fallen branches and leaves. The smell of campfires around us used to remind me of late night parties the summer before sophomore year when Gavin and I first started dating.

But that night, the wooded clearing around us felt alive, even though we were completely alone in our little section off the main road. There was something more to the twilight—something sinister. I never used to be afraid of the dark, not until I started to wonder if there was something in it I should be afraid of.

A small sliver of moonlight made the whites of Gavin’s eyes glow bright as he stared down on me. He dropped his lips, trailing them from my jawline to my ear before grinning. “Why are you so quiet? What’s going on?”

“Nothing,” I lied, running my hand across the tiny stubble on his face. Most people didn’t see the coarse blond hairs that grew in after a day or two, but they drove me crazy when we kissed, even giving my face a red rash a time or two. “Dude. I can’t believe your mom let you out of the house without shaving for the dance.”

He flipped around in the bed of the pickup truck, pinning me underneath him. “Don’t try to distract me. And don’t lie.” He brushed stray hairs from my face, grinning. “I know when something’s bothering you. You bite at your lip and get that faraway look. I mean it’s cute, but I know it means something. Spill, Harper.”

Letting out a slow breath, I set my hand on his loose t-shirt, wanting to feel the taught muscles underneath. Dating an athlete definitely had its advantages. “Remember that story about the girl in North Dakota who was attacked by something
other than
a human in her sleep, but they were never able to prove what it was?”

“Ah, so that’s what’s bothering you?” Gavin dipped his head to the tall oak trees behind us, his eyebrows wiggling. “Afraid of the monsters that might be out there watching us?”

“Stop,” I pleaded, giggling uneasily. “It’s just...now that I’ve heard so many stories like that, I can’t help but wonder what else might be out there. Don’t
you
ever wonder?”

Tenderness filled Gavin’s gaze as he stroked my cheek with his thumb. “Why are you so determined to prove there are monsters among us?”

“Can’t you feel it?” I asked, flickering my eyes to the unknown tension in the sky. “There’s something else out there, waiting. I don’t know what they’re waiting for exactly, but they’re there. Ever since I touched Jessica’s Ouija board...I swear to you I’ve been seeing creatures, or ghosts, or
something
. You know, I’ve heard people only see things if they’re open to the idea of them. You’ll never see what’s really out there if you’ve already convinced yourself it doesn’t exist.”

With a low chuckle, he set his chin on his hand, his sharp nose and smooth lips lingering over me. “So if I start believing in Santa again, he’ll bring me a new X-Box for Christmas?”

I rolled my eyes. “Santa doesn’t exist.”

“But vampires do?” His eyes danced in amusement as they always did when we were on the subject. “I don’t get it. Why are you so obsessed with this stuff? You hate those chick flicks.”

I huffed, the idea of vampires being romantic and lovable irritating. “You’re right, I can’t stand them, but my belief in vampires has nothing to do with the movies.”

Okay, that’s not totally true. My online friend “Vhunter” said
Thirty Days of Night
best portrayed real vampires out in the wild. I shivered at the thought of running into one of those insane, blood-thirsty creatures.

“God, you’re crazy, but I love you,” Gavin whispered, pressing his lips to mine.

His hands grazed from my waist up, caressing my skin before settling on my face. Excitement vibrated through me with his touch and expert kisses. I responded with my own persistence, savoring the way our mouths fit together, the way our tongues worked in sync the way they had so many times before. As my fingers twisted at the short curls on the back of his head, I was glad he skipped the hair appointment his mom made the day before.