The Dark Reunion (3 page)

“Would it work?” Meredith said to Bonnie.

“Should we?” Sue wondered aloud.

“Do we dare? That’s really the question,” Meredith said. Once again Bonnie found everyone looking at her. She hesitated a final instant, and then shrugged. Excitement was stirring in her stomach.

“Why not?” she said. “What have we got to lose?”

Caroline turned to Vickie. “Vickie, there’s a closet at the bottom of the stairs. The Ouija board should be inside, on the top shelf with a bunch of other games.”

She didn’t even say, “Please, will you get it?” Bonnie frowned and opened her mouth, but Vickie was already out the door.

“You could be a little more gracious,” Bonnie told Caroline. “What is this, your impression of Cinderella’s evil stepmother?”

“Oh, come on, Bonnie,” Caroline said impatiently. “She’s lucky just to be invited.
She
knows that.”

“And here I thought she was just overcome by our collective splendor,” Meredith said dryly.

“And besides—” Bonnie started when she was interrupted. The noise was thin and shrill and it fell off weakly at the end, but there was no mistaking it. It was a scream. It was followed by dead silence and then suddenly peal after peal of piercing shrieks.

For an instant the girls in the bedroom stood transfixed. Then they were all running out into the hallway and down the stairs.

“Vickie!” Meredith, with her long legs, reached the bottom first. Vickie was standing in front of the closet, arms outstretched as if to protect her face. She clutched at Meredith, still screaming.

“Vickie, what is it?” Caroline demanded, sounding more angry than afraid. There were game boxes scattered across the floor and Monopoly markers and Trivial Pursuit cards strewn everywhere. “What are you yelling about?”

“It grabbed me! I was reaching up to the top shelf and something grabbed me around the waist!”

“From behind?”

“No! From inside the closet.”

Startled, Bonnie looked inside the open closet. Winter coats hung in an impenetrable layer, some of them reaching the floor. Gently disengaging herself from Vickie, Meredith picked up an umbrella and began poking the coats.

“Oh, don’t—” Bonnie began involuntarily, but the umbrella encountered only the resistance of cloth. Meredith used it to push the coats aside and reveal the bare cedarwood of the closet wall.

“You see? Nobody there,” she said lightly. “But you know what
is
there are these coat sleeves. If you leaned in far enough between them, I’ll bet it could feel like somebody’s arms closing around you.”

Vickie stepped forward, touched a dangling sleeve, then looked up at the shelf. She put her face in her hands, long silky hair falling forward to screen it. For an awful moment Bonnie thought she was crying, then she heard the giggles.

“Oh, God! I really thought—oh, I’m so
stupid! I’ll clean it up,” Vickie said.

“Later,” said Meredith firmly. “Let’s go in the living room.”

Bonnie threw one last look at the closet as they went.

When they were all gathered around the coffee table, with several lights turned off for effect, Bonnie put her fingers lightly on the small plastic planchette. She’d never actually used a Ouija board, but she knew how it was done. The planchette moved to point at letters and spell out a message—if the spirits were willing to talk, that is.

“We all have to be touching it,” she said, and then watched as the others obeyed. Meredith’s fingers were long and slender, Sue’s slim and tapering with oval nails. Caroline’s nails were painted burnished copper. Vickie’s were bitten.

“Now we close our eyes and concentrate,” Bonnie said softly. There were little hisses of anticipation as the girls obeyed; the atmosphere was getting to all of them.

“Think of Elena. Picture her. If she’s out there, we want to draw her here.”

The big room was silent. In the dark behind
her closed lids Bonnie saw pale gold hair and eyes like lapis lazuli.

“Come, on, Elena,” she whispered. “Talk to me.”

The planchette began to move.

None of them could be guiding it; they were all applying pressure from different points. Nevertheless, the little triangle of plastic was sliding smoothly, confidently. Bonnie kept her eyes shut until it stopped and then looked. The planchette was pointing to the word
Yes.

Vickie gave something like a soft sob.

Bonnie looked at the others. Caroline was breathing fast, green eyes narrowed. Sue, the only one of all of them, still had her eyes resolutely closed. Meredith looked pale.

They all expected her to know what to do.

“Keep concentrating,” Bonnie told them. She felt unready and a little stupid addressing the empty air directly. But she was the expert; she had to do it.

“Is that you, Elena?” she said.

The planchette made a little circle and returned to
Yes.

Suddenly Bonnie’s heart was beating so hard
she was afraid it would shake her fingers. The plastic underneath her fingertips felt different, electrified almost, as if some supernatural energy was flowing through it. She no longer felt stupid. Tears came to her eyes, and she could see that Meredith’s eyes were glistening too. Meredith nodded at her.

“How can we be sure?” Caroline was saying, loudly, suspiciously. Caroline doesn’t feel it, Bonnie realized; she doesn’t sense anything I do. Psychically speaking, she’s a dud.

The planchette was moving again, touching letters now, so quickly that Meredith barely had time to spell out the message. Even without punctuation it was clear.

CAROLINE DONT BE A JERK
, it said.
YOURE LUCKY IM TALKING TO YOU AT ALL

“That’s Elena, all right,” Meredith said dryly.

“It sounds like her, but—”

“Oh, shut up, Caroline,” Bonnie said. “Elena, I’m just so glad …” Her throat locked up and she tried again.

BONNIE THERES NO TIME STOP SNIVELING AND GET DOWN TO BUSINESS

And
that
was Elena too, Bonnie sniffed and went on. “I had a dream about you last night.”

TEA

“Yes.” Bonnie’s heart was thudding faster than ever. “I wanted to talk to you, but things got weird and then we kept losing contact—”

BONNIE DONT TRANCE NO TRANCE NO TRANCE

“All right.” That answered her question, and she was relieved to hear it.

CORRUPTING INFLUENCES DISTORTING OUR COMMUNICATION THERE ARE BAD THINGS VERY BAD THINGS OUT HERE

“Like what?” Bonnie leaned closer to the board. “Like what?”

NO TIME
! The planchette seemed to add the exclamation point. It was jerking violently from letter to letter as if Elena could barely contain her impatience.
HES BUSY SO I CAN TALK NOW BUT THERES NOT MUCH TIME LISTEN WHEN WE STOP GET OUT OF THE HOUSE FAST YOURE IN DANGER

“Danger?” Vickie repeated, looking as if she might jump off the chair and run.

WAIT LISTEN FIRST THE WHOLE TOWN IS IN DANGER

“What do we do?” said Meredith instantly.

YOU NEED HELP HES OUT OF YOUR LEAGUE UNBELIEVABLY STRONG NOW LISTEN AND FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS YOU HAVE TO DO A SUMMONING SPELL AND THE FIRST INGREDIENT IS H
—

Without warning, the planchette jerked away from the letters and flew around the board wildly. It pointed at the stylized picture of the moon, then at the sun, then at the words
Parker Brothers, Inc.

“Elena!”

The planchette bobbed back to the letters.

ANOTHER MOUSE ANOTHER MOUSE ANOTHER MOUSE

“What’s happening?” Sue cried, eyes wide open now.

Bonnie was frightened. The planchette was pulsing with energy, a dark and ugly energy like boiling black tar that stung her fingers. But she could also feel the quivering silver thread that was Elena’s presence fighting it. “Don’t let go!” she cried desperately. “Don’t take your hands off it!”

MOUSEMUDKILLYOU
, the board reeled off.
BLOODBLOODBLOOD
. And then …
BONNIE GET OUT RUN HES HERE RUN RUN RU
—

The planchette jerked furiously, whipping out from under Bonnie’s fingers and beyond her reach, flying across the board and through the air as if someone had thrown it. Vickie screamed. Meredith started to her feet.

And then all the lights went out, plunging the house into darkness.

3

Vickie’s screams went out of control. Bonnie could feel panic rising in her chest.

“Vickie, stop it! Come on; we’ve got to get out of here!” Meredith was shouting to be heard. “It’s your house, Caroline. Everybody grab hands and you lead us to the front door.”

“Okay,” Caroline said. She didn’t sound as frightened as everybody else. That was the advantage to having no imagination, Bonnie thought. You couldn’t picture the terrible things that were going to happen to you.

She felt better with Meredith’s narrow, cold hand grasping hers. She fumbled on the other side and caught Caroline’s, feeling the hardness of long fingernails.

She could see nothing. Her eyes should have been adjusting to the dark by now, but she couldn’t make out even a glimmer of light or shadow as Caroline started leading them.
There was no light coming through the windows from the street; the power seemed to be out everywhere. Caroline cursed, running into some piece of furniture, and Bonnie stumbled against her.

Vickie was whimpering softly from the back of the line. “Hang on,” whispered Sue. “Hang on, Vickie, we’ll make it.”

They made slow, shuffling progress in the dark. Then Bonnie felt tile under her feet. “This is the front hall,” Caroline said. “Stay here a minute while I find the door.” Her fingers slipped out of Bonnie’s.

“Caroline! Don’t let go—where are you? Caroline, give me your hand!” Bonnie cried, groping frantically like a blind person.

Out of the darkness something large and moist closed around her fingers. It was a hand. It wasn’t Caroline’s.

Bonnie screamed.

Vickie immediately picked it up, shrieking wildly. The hot, moist hand was dragging Bonnie forward. She kicked out, struggling, but it made no difference. Then she felt Meredith’s arms around her waist, both arms, wrenching
her back. Her hand came free of the big one.

And then she was turning and running, just running, only dimly aware that Meredith was beside her. She wasn’t at all aware that she was still screaming until she slammed into a large armchair that stopped her progress, and she heard herself.

“Hush! Bonnie, hush, stop!” Meredith was shaking her. They had slid down the back of the chair to the floor.

“Something had me! Something grabbed me, Meredith!”

“I know. Be quiet! It’s still around,” Meredith said. Bonnie jammed her face into Meredith’s shoulder to keep from screaming again. What if it was here in the room with them?

Seconds crawled past, and the silence pooled around them. No matter how Bonnie strained her ears, she could hear no sound except their own breathing and the dull thudding of her heart.

“Listen! We’ve got to find the back door. We must be in the living room now. That means the kitchen’s right behind us. We have to get there,” Meredith said, her voice low.

Bonnie started to nod miserably, then abruptly lifted her head. “Where’s Vickie?” she whispered hoarsely.

“I don’t know. I had to let go of her hand to pull you away from that thing. Let’s move.”

Bonnie held her back. “But why isn’t she screaming?”

A shudder went through Meredith. “I don’t know.”

“Oh, God. Oh, God. We can’t leave her, Meredith.”

“We
have
to.”

“We
can’t.
Meredith, I made Caroline invite her. She wouldn’t be here except for me. We have to get her out.”

There was a pause, and then Meredith hissed, “All right! But you pick the strangest times to turn noble, Bonnie.”

A door slammed, causing both of them to jump. Then there was a crashing, like feet on stairs, Bonnie thought. And briefly, a voice was raised.

“Vickie, where are you? Don’t—Vickie, no!

No!”

“That was Sue,” gasped Bonnie, jumping
up. “From upstairs!”

“Why don’t we have a
flashlight
?” Meredith was raging.

Bonnie knew what she meant. It was too dark to go running blindly around this house; it was too frightening. There was a primitive panic hammering in her brain. She needed light, any light.

She couldn’t go fumbling into that darkness again, exposed on all sides. She couldn’t
do
it.

Nevertheless, she took one shaky step away from the chair.

“Come on,” she gasped, and Meredith came with her, step by step, into the blackness.

Bonnie kept expecting that moist, hot hand to reach out and grab her again. Every inch of her skin tingled in anticipation of its touch, and especially her own hand, which she had outstretched to feel her way.

Then she made the mistake of remembering the dream.

Instantly, the sickly sweet smell of garbage overwhelmed her. She imagined things crawling out of the group and then remembered Elena’s face, gray and hairless, with lips shriveled back
from grinning teeth. If
that thing
grabbed hold of her…