Dangerous Creatures (Book 3, Pure Series) (7 page)

              "Did you have a good time?" I asked.

              "Yes, yes, of course, Solnyshko."

              "Are you sure? You don't look so—"

              "So what?" GM said sharply.

              "I don't know," I said. "I just wanted you to have a good evening."

              "I did have a good evening."

              "Okay," I said. "I guess I'll go back to my room."

              "Good night, Katie."

              "Good night."

              I went upstairs and sat on my bed, but I didn't turn on the light. My eyes gradually grew accustomed to the dark, and I could see a white blur of a moon shining through a haze of clouds outside my window. GM seemed unhappy, and I wished I knew why. I wished, too, that I knew why she was so guarded—why she was unwilling to talk to me on any subject that touched her personally. Surely, whatever had happened tonight couldn't have been anything earth-shattering.

              So why would it be so horrible if I knew?

              I set my alarm for midnight and tried to sleep again. I did manage to drift off for a little while, but I slept lightly, and I woke up before the alarm went off.

              As I reached over to switch off the alarm, I heard GM come up to bed. A short time later, I went down the stairs quietly and slipped out of the house, locking the door behind me.

              I could see William waiting for me at the end of the driveway, and I went down to meet him.

              I glanced around. "No car? Are we walking over to see Bryony?"

              "I parked at the end of the street," William replied. "I didn't want to take the chance that I might wake your grandmother."

              A light drizzle began to fall as we walked to the car, and it was raining steadily by the time we reached Bryony's grandmother's house. The house was one I had seen many times—it was a white farmhouse situated not far from the Old Grove. I remembered that I'd wondered about the house last year when I had tracked Gleb Mstislav to the nearby cave where he'd been hiding. I'd speculated then that the white house might be home to Bryony's grandmother and her ghost, and it turned out that I had been right.

              "It's nice to have a little atmosphere for a séance," William said as we got out of the car.

              "I'm not sure this is actually a séance," I said.

              "I know," William replied. "I don't mean to be facetious. I'm just a little frustrated that my search earlier in the evening didn't turn up anything. And I made a point of checking out the Neverov house. I didn't find anything out of the ordinary there. We're running out of options."

              "And you don't have high hopes for this, either?" I said.

              William gave me a reassuring smile. "It can't to hurt to try."

              We knocked at the door, and Bryony answered quickly.

              She smiled when she saw us. "Come on in, guys."

              She did give William an uncertain glance as we passed her, but when I'd texted her to ask if he could come, she'd registered no objection.

              Bryony led us into a cheerful, tidy living room with lots of throw pillows and porcelain figurines. My foot clanked against a solid object, and I looked down to see an array of paint cans lined up neatly on a drop cloth next to a bookcase.

              "My grandmother's been doing some stenciling in here," Bryony said apologetically. "That's what the paint's for. And it's another reason why I know that she didn't just leave on her own. She didn't finish her work."

              She indicated a border of bright red cherries, green leaves, and pale-gold flowers that had been painted on the wall up near the ceiling—the border came to abrupt stop about halfway around the room.

              "Have a seat, guys," Bryony said.

              William and I sat down on a sofa, and I picked up the photo that sat on the end table next to me. In the photo, a middle-aged man and woman leaned their heads together and beamed at the camera.

              "Is this your grandmother?" I asked. Though I'd heard about Bryony's grandmother many times, I'd never actually met her.

              "Yes," Bryony said, sitting down in an easy chair across from us. "And that's my grandfather with her. But he died a long time ago, and I don't really remember him. My grandmother really misses him, though. She talks about him all the time."

              I thought then of GM and my own grandfather, whom I'd never really known, either. GM believed her husband to be dead, but I had discovered that as one of the Sìdh, my grandfather had a life expectancy that greatly exceeded that of any ordinary human being. It was very likely that my grandfather was still alive—though my grandmother could never know that. And even though he was still alive, my grandfather was gone for good. He had gone back to his people and would never again return to the mortal world.

              I set the photo down.

              Bryony busied herself arranging a few things on the coffee table between us, and I glanced around the quaint, cheerful room again—it seemed like the last place anyone would expect to find a ghost.

              "Thanks for doing this," Bryony said after a moment. "I didn't know if you guys would actually show up or not."

              "We're happy to be here," I said. "We're worried about your grandmother—and this town, too."

              "What do we need to do exactly?" William asked.

              "Well," Bryony said, "I looked up some information online about contacting ghosts, but I don't think much of it was very helpful." She brushed a lock of hair behind her ear. "I talked to some people online, too. They seemed to be nice and sincere—but they didn't seem to know anything helpful either."

              She paused and looked at us uncertainly. "I've always liked those shows on TV—you know, the ones in which they investigate hauntings. So, I thought we could try doing some of the things they do on the shows."

              She reached for a book that was lying on the coffee table in front of us. "The first thing they do is research the property, so I did some research on this house. It turns out it's listed on the National Register of Historic Places."

              She flipped to a page in the book and handed it to me. I could see a photo of the house we were sitting in.

              "This house was originally owned by the Dobbs family," Bryony said, "and it's not far from the spot where Elspeth Quick's house used to stand. The ghost is reported to be Marie Dobbs, the daughter of the family. She was pretty young when she died, and she died right here in this house. It was the flu that killed her—apparently it was more dangerous to have that in those days."

              I handed the book to William, and Bryony continued.

              "Once the investigators know what they're looking for, they try to contact the spirit that resides in the house. I don't have access to some of the things they use, like the EMF detectors—that's a device that measures the electromagnetic field in the immediate area. An EMF fluctuation can indicate paranormal activity."

              William finished looking over the book and set it down.

              "But I do have these," Bryony said, pointing.

              On the coffee table were a recording device and two flashlights.

              She picked up the recording device. "We can use this to do an EVP session—that's electronic voice phenomena. We ask questions and then review the recording later to see if the device picked up any responses to our questions that were inaudible to our ears."

              Bryony set the recording device down and pointed to the flashlights. "We can use these to try to prompt a response as well. We can designate one of the flashlight as 'yes' and the other one as 'no,' and then ask questions and wait for an answer."

              She looked up at us. "And that's about it. Unless you guys have some ideas."

              "No, that sounds good," I said. "All of this is new to me."

              "It's new to me, too," William said.

              "Okay, then," Bryony replied. "I guess we should get started."

              She stood. "I'm going to turn out the lights. They always do that. I guess it makes the spirits a little more comfortable."

              We were soon plunged into darkness, and stumbling a little, Bryony returned to her seat.

              William, I knew, could see perfectly well in the dark, and after a few moments, my eyes adjusted to the gloom.

              The darkness somehow made everything seem a little louder—I could hear the light patter of the rain outside, and from somewhere nearby a clock ticked steadily.

              "Since I know the most about this, I guess I should start," Bryony said softly. There was a click as she turned on the recording device.

              She cleared her throat and then spoke in a high, clear voice.

              "My name is Bryony Carson. I'm the granddaughter of Alice Carson. She's the one who lives in this house."

              Bryony paused as if to let her words sink in. After a moment, she went on.

              "I heard there was someone else who used to live in this house—a family, in fact. I heard they had a daughter named Marie Dobbs. I've also heard that Marie is still here."

              Bryony paused. "Is that true? Is Marie still here? If you are here, Marie, just speak into this device. The device will catch your voice, even if you speak quietly."

              She paused again, and then went on.

              "I heard that Marie had a good friend a long time ago—a friend named Elspeth Quick. The woman who lives here, Alice, has said that she's been contacted by Marie Dobbs, and that she is her friend, too. Is that true, Marie? Are you Alice's friend?"

              Bryony stopped once more to allow for a response.

              "If you are Alice's friend, Marie, can you help us? Alice went missing from this house. We're afraid she's in danger. Can you tell us what you saw the night Alice went missing?"

              Bryony continued asking questions and then pausing for answers. After a little while she shut off the recording device.

              "Well, that's it for me," she said softly. "Unless you guys have some questions you'd like to ask."

              "I think you covered everything pretty well," I said.

              "Those questions were good," William said. "I have nothing to add."

              "Were you expecting to hear a response?" I asked. "Knocks or banging sounds? Something like that?"

              "No," Bryony said. "I mean, it's great if you do get a response you can hear, but the real purpose of it is to record responses that are too quiet for the human ear to pick up—the recording device is much more sensitive. I'll review the tape after we're done here to see if we got anything."

              I glanced at William—I knew he could hear things that were inaudible to the human ear, too. He simply gave me a subtle shake of the head.

              "The flashlights are a little different," Bryony said. "With those we are hoping to get an immediate response. That's why you ask simple yes or no questions. It requires a lot of energy for an entity—that's you call a spirit—to manifest itself. So, if you want it to interact in a very clear way with the physical world, you have to make the task very simple."

              She moved the recording device to the side and then moved the two flashlights so that they were in the center of the coffee table.

              "You guys ready?"

              "Yes," I said.

              Bryony addressed the dark once more. "Marie, we really need your help tonight, so we have another way for you to communicate with us. We have two flashlights here. You've probably seen flashlights before. I'm sure you've seen Alice use them whenever there was a storm and the power went out. These are just little lights you can hold in your hand. If you could make these flashlights light up, then you can reach us—we can understand what you want to say. Light up the left one for 'no' and the right one for 'yes.' I'm going to start asking questions now."

              Bryony took a deep breath.

              "Is Marie Dobbs with us tonight?"

              I glanced at the flashlights, and Bryony paused.

              The flashlights did not light up.

              "Marie, can you hear us?" Bryony asked.

              Again, the flashlights did not light up.

              "Marie, we know you have contacted Alice Carson in the past. Alice has always said you were her friend. Are you friends with Alice?"

              There was still no response.

              Bryony went on with her questions.

              "Can you help us, Marie?"