The Hidden (23 page)

“Are you sure that’s …?” I didn’t know how to word it, so I just looked at her, hoping that she got my meaning.

“What? Spooky enough?”

I nodded.

“Oh, yeah.” She laughed derisively. “It’s spooky enough. Trust me. The deaths of a thousand dreams reside there. I can feel it. Hell,
I
die a little each time I have to go back there.”

She looked so unhappy that it actually made me uncomfortable to see her that way. “So, yeah, okay,” I said hastily. “When do you want to have it?”

“Tonight.”

“
Tonight?
That’s … soon.”

“It feels right. I generally go with what feels right and don’t question it.” Cyn shifted away from the locker and turned to head down the hall. “Be there at nine o’clock.”

She was almost out of earshot before I realized what I wanted to ask her.

“Hey, why exactly are we
having
a séance?” I yelled.

“To summon up the dark spirits and confer with them, of course,” she yelled back. “Mwahahaha!”

I told Caspian about the séance when he came to pick me up, and we talked about it on the way home from school. I thought he’d be against it, but he surprised me by saying that it sounded like fun.

“You’re going to come?” I asked, astonished.

“All séances need a ghost,” he said with a smile. “Isn’t that the point?”

It was nice to see this playful side of him. I thought that the incident last night with the pillow had really shaken him up. I smiled back. “Will you put on a good show?”

“I aim to please. You know that.”

There was something more behind his words, and the look
in his eyes had my heart beating faster. Suddenly all I could think about was the white dress in my closet and the fact that his death day was almost here.

When we got home, Sophie was there with Mom and they were both bent over the kitchen table. A bunch of papers were spread out between them.

“Hey, sweetie,” Mom said as I walked in.

Sophie said hi too, and tipped her head at Caspian when Mom wasn’t looking. I slid my book bag next to the chair and went to grab a bottle of water. “What are you guys doing?”

Mom looked up, all excited. “I’m studying for my real estate license. Sophie is walking me through the process.”

“She is?” I paused with the water bottle halfway to my mouth. “Why?” I directed my question to Sophie.

She smiled at me. “Since I’ve been spending
so much time
here lately, I thought it would be something fun for us to do together.”

So much time.
Right. Hanging around in case Vincent stops by again. I nodded at her and chugged the rest of my water. “Have fun.” Turning my back, I walked up to my bedroom with Caspian. And found Cacey there.

Waiting for us.

She was messing around with the perfume supplies on my
desk and didn’t even bother to act guilty that I’d found her pawing my stuff.

“Seriously, what is
up
with everyone wanting my perfume?” I said.

She glanced up. “Oh, hey, Abbey.”

“Cacey.” I lifted an eyebrow at her.

No
Sorry I was looking through your personal belongings when you weren’t here
, or
Whoops, you caught me!

She just smiled sweetly at Caspian. “How are you, dead boy?”

“I’d be a lot better if you weren’t pissing off Abbey right now.” He crossed his arms and scowled at her, but Cacey just threw her head back and laughed.

“Trained him right up,” she said with a wink at me. “Isn’t he just the cutest little guard dog
ever
?”

Her voice had a syrupy-sweet quality to it that grated on my nerves, and I almost found myself wishing for the burning smell and creepy crawly spider sensation that she used to bring. “Did you need something, Acacia?” I asked. “Even
you
have to be bored of hanging around this place for so long. Anything new?”

“Ooooh,
someone’s
been talking to Uri. He spilled the beans about my name, huh?” She shook her head and then sat down at the desk chair and swung her foot.

“He spilled the beans about a lot,” I said.

“Oh, Uri,” she sighed. “Between the two of us, he’s the nicer one. If you haven’t gotten that yet,” she said in an exaggerated whisper.

I rolled my eyes at her.

“As far as what we have on Vincent? Nothing. That is why I’m here. And you are
so
right, by the way. I’m ready to move on.”

“Do you guys have any idea where he is?” I prodded. “Or what he’s doing?”

“Nada. Zip. Zilch. We’ve got nothing.”

I let out a frustrated breath and paced over to the bed. “So, what’s next? Can I please have some idea? What are we waiting for?” I didn’t want to say it, but I was almost ready for them to just take me and get it done with already.

I glanced over at Caspian.
Well, maybe not ready yet
…

“Can’t you guys just use your mind mojo to find him?” I asked. “You can communicate telepathically with each other, right?”

“Only with our partners,” she replied. “Which means that I can only communicate with Uri, Sophie can only communicate with Kame … You get the picture.”

“But what about the mind-bendy thing? The feel-good mojo? That affects others. Can’t you tap into that?”

Cacey shook her head. “It only works with humans. Sure,
there’s the persuasion bit. A very little bit, but it’s mostly just memory
reading
.”

“Is that like mind reading?”

“No. Memory reading. Just what I said.” She looked annoyed.

“Explain it to me.”

“We can tap into memories. Whatever happened to someone at an earlier time.”

“So, wait, you can read
all
of my memories?”

I fought hard to keep myself from blushing, but I could feel the heat creeping up as thoughts of Caspian and the hotel room instantly flooded into my brain.

“Recent ones, mostly. Uri’s better than I am at going back farther. And Sophie and Kame are really good. That’s how we knew so much about you and Kristen. For now, I can …” She broke off and squinted a little. “Okay, there’s one.” She shut her eyes.

I tried to turn away. Tried desperately to think of something—
anything
other than Caspian and the hotel room … the towel … no shirt. … And then there was the lotion.

“Oh, gross!” she yelled. “Do
not
want. I did NOT need to see that! Cool it, Abbey. Put a shirt on, dead boy.”

Caspian just looked confused. “What’s—”

“Never mind,” I blurted out, forcing myself to think about the puppy I saw in a store window at the mall during Christmas when I was twelve. He’d been so cute and fluffy, and I got to pet him—

“Thank you,” Cacey said immediately. “Thank you, thank you, thank you. That was a
much
better one.”

I stared down at the floor. My face was never going to feel normal again. I was always going to have a scarlet ring of shame around my ears.

“Aaaaaaanyway,” Cacey said a moment later. “I’m just here to let you know that we’re still keeping an eye on things, so keep playing it cool. If you see Vincent, let us know. Don’t accept rides from strangers. Don’t eat Halloween candy that doesn’t come from your neighbors, yadda, yadda, yadda. You know the whole safety drill. Understand?”

I glanced up at her. “Yeah, we got it.”

“Good.” She stood up. “Then, I’m off.” She waved to Caspian, then turned to me. “Oh, and I heard about this big prom thing coming up? Just FYI: Don’t be surprised if you see me and Uri there.” She started to move toward the door, but stopped. “Do they still serve Coca-Cola at those things? Or do I need to bring my own?”

I just laughed. I couldn’t help it.

“I’m taking it that’s a no?” she said. “I don’t need to bring my own?”

“No,” I said eventually. “You don’t need to bring your own soda. They’ll have drinks.”

“Cool. Then, have fun. Drink smart. And use protection.” She slipped her hand into her back pocket and withdrew something before tossing it to me. “And by that, I mean this.”

I glanced down at it. “A phone? I already have one of those.”

“Yeah, but he doesn’t.” She nodded at Caspian.

“You got a phone for
me
?” he said in clear surprise. Then suspicion crossed his face. “Why?”

“So in case you need to reach us right away and you can’t get to her phone, you have your own.”

Caspian and I shared a look. It made a lot of sense, and I couldn’t help but wonder why we hadn’t thought of it sooner.

“Oh, and don’t worry about the bill,” Cacey called, continuing out the door. “You’re covered by the Revenant calling plan. The long-term contract, however, is a bitch.”

She laughed again as she went out the door, and a minute later I heard her downstairs talking with Mom and Sophie.

I flopped back onto the bed, feeling like I’d just been run over by a truck.

Talking to Cacey was exhausting.

Later that night Caspian and I left for Cyn’s house right before nine. Main Street wasn’t that far away, so it would only take us about two minutes to get there. I was actually a little bit surprised at how close she’d been this whole time.

On the way there we passed Mr. and Mrs. Maxwell’s house, and I noticed two things right away. The first was that even though it was dark outside, their house looked
really
dark. And … empty. The second was the reason why it looked that way: the
FOR SALE
sign in the yard. I came to a complete stop in the middle of the road and just stared at it.

“What’s going on?” Caspian asked, coming to a stop beside me.

“That’s the … For … It’s …”

I couldn’t even speak. All I could do was point.

“Isn’t that—”

“The Maxwells’ house,” I blurted out. “
Kristen’s
house. For sale.” I stood there, just looking back and forth at the sign and their empty house. I couldn’t believe it. They’d just upped and moved? What about Kristen? What about her room?

“This doesn’t mean they don’t love her anymore,” Caspian said, reading my mind. “You know that, right?”

“Yeah, but how can they …? Why would they …? I didn’t
even know they were thinking about leaving,” I said softly.

Caspian stood there with me in silence, until I realized that we were going to be late for Cyn’s séance. “We should go,” I said, reluctant to pull myself away.

Caspian looked at me questioningly. “Are you sure? We can skip tonight.”

“And miss all the fun?” I shook my head firmly. “No. Let’s go.”

Because it didn’t matter how long I stood there and wished for things to change. The Maxwells had made their decision. Now it was time to make mine.

When we got to Cyn’s, the porch light was out and we had to bump our way up the dark walkway. The doorbell stuck when we pushed on it, and it kept buzzing and buzzing and buzzing. I was just about to cram my hands over my ears and tell Caspian we were leaving, when the front door finally swung open and Cyn peeked out.

Her wild red and green hair had been tamed back, pulled into a smooth mane that flared out from beneath a witch’s hat. Dark eyeliner rimmed both of her eyes, making them look large and exotic. As she moved forward to greet me, I saw that the little black dress she was wearing was sheer, and almost
see-through. Jealousy reared its ugly head and I almost wished that we had gone home. I didn’t want Caspian to get a glimpse of any part of her beneath that dress.

“Hey, Cyn,” I said, moving to block his view.

She threw both arms around me in a giant hug. “So glad you could make it, dahhhhling. Do you like the hat?”

“Love it.”

She gestured for me to come in, and I stepped through the door. Caspian followed quickly behind, but when he passed Cyn, I could have
sworn
that her eyes focused on him for a moment. I held my breath to see what she would say.

A crash came from above us, and then loud laughter. Cyn’s eyes flitted away from where Caspian was standing, and drifted up. “Ben’s here,” she said by way of explanation.

“Ahhhh, I see. Then the party’s already started.”

“Yup. Follow me.”

I tried not to pay attention to the living room as we crossed through it. It wasn’t that it was dirty, or even cluttered. Far from it. It just had a vague, unlived-in look about it. None of the furniture matched. No pictures hung on the walls, or sat above the tiny TV. And there wasn’t a single personal possession in sight.

Cyn led me to the stairs, but she didn’t say anything. I
couldn’t tell if she was embarrassed by the way her house looked or just didn’t care. We climbed up two flights, and then came to a door. The door was attached to more stairs that led the rest of the way.

“The attic,” Cyn said slowly as we walked up. “Watch out for bats.”

Automatically I ducked my head, and she laughed.

“I’m teasing. There haven’t been any bats up here for a couple of weeks. Well, live ones, anyway. I found a skeleton in one corner, but I left it. Maybe we’ll be able to contact its former owner tonight. Do you speak batanese?”

I wished that I could have reached back for Caspian’s hand and held on to it. I didn’t want to see
any
bats, living or dead. Then I felt that buzzing sensation on the back of my leg, and I glanced at him. He smiled at me and whispered, “I’m here. I won’t let the bats get you.”