A Grave Conjuring Page 14

  “Kind of.”

  But something wasn’t right in Ashley’s gut. This was too easy. “But this girl isn’t evil, Leah. From the sounds of it, she was a victim. She wants her body to be found.”

  “And we’ll do that once this bloody storm is over.” Leah huffed a sigh and then proceeded to the stairs.

  Ashley looked at Mason. “I’m still not sure about this.”

  “Well for now we have to trust that she knows what’s she’s doing. But your aunt has got to know about this. It’s her house. You know that, right?”

  “Yeah, I know it’s her house.”

  “Now, who’s being the smart-ass?” He smiled down at her.

  When they got downstairs, Leah stood glaring at Maya. She turned to Ashley. “She tried to call your aunt. But the cell tower is out thank God.” Her eyes narrowed looking at Maya. “You didn’t have to do that you know! I fixed this!”

  Preston jumped to Maya’s defense. “Shu...she was scuh...scared, Leah! Besides, shu...she didn’t get thru...through.”

  “Did it work? You really think it worked? No more crashes or faces in the window?” Henry kind of looked disappointed at that.

  “Of course, it worked.” Leah went over to the refrigerator and opened the door. “Anyone else want something to drink?”

  “No thanks. I’m going to get changed though.” Mason left the room heading for the laundry room.

  The boys got up. Henry looked down at Maya. “No offense, Mayan, but pink looks better on you than me. C’mon Preston. Let’s get out of these clothes.”

  When they left to join Mason, Ashley went over to Maya and sat down next to her. She handed the box of salt to her sister. “Here. You keep this with you. I’m not mad at you. We’re telling Aunt Claire when she gets home. You’re right about that.”

  A streak of lightning hitting the lake outside lit the room. Immediately a clap of thunder shook the house. Maya grasped Ashley’s hand, almost jerking from her chair at the noise. But when the light in the kitchen zapped and extinguished, Ashley felt a shudder of dread flow through her shoulders.

  What next?

  TWENTY FOUR

  CLAIRE ENDED THE CALL on her cell phone and slipped it into her purse. She looked across the desk as Ed Rowntree signed the last line of the offer to purchase the house on Maple. She was almost done here.

  But her gut was tight with worry. She had called the girls four times since the storm had started and there was still no answer. From the “no service” message, it looked like the cell phone tower was out. But they weren’t alone thank God. At least she hoped that Mason hadn’t left them when the storm hit. But Leah would be there with the girls. She’d made sure of that.

  Ed looked over at her. “So when will I know?” He rose from the chair and tossed the pen on the table.

  Originally she had planned on presenting the offer to the owners right after she finished writing it up. “Tomorrow. I’ll meet with them first thing tomorrow morning.”

  “Okay. I’ll be waiting to hear from you.” He smiled and left her office.

  She was going home. She had no intention of hosting the open house for her boss. Ever since she’d left home, there’d been a growing knot of worry in her gut. There was something wrong. The girls had been up to something and she needed to talk to them ASAP. She knew herself well enough to know that it could be foolhardy if not dangerous to ignore that feeling. Call it a sixth sense or whatever.

  As she passed the secretary, she paused. “Something’s come up at home. I can’t do the open house. Gerry will be miffed but it is what it is.”

  Carol had been at the firm since Gerry had started it fifteen years ago. She looked up from her computer. “With this weather no one’s going to be looking at houses. Besides, he’ll be happy you made this sale today. Go home. Look after your kids.”

  “See you tomorrow.” She opened the door as the older woman called out to “drive safe.”

  Even going the ten feet to her car had soaked through her blouse by the time she settled in behind the wheel. She started the car, driving slowly along streets that were rivers of rain. She turned on the radio before swiping her hand across the windshield clearing the condensation.

  But after two minutes of some country artist crooning, she flipped the station off. She was way too tense to listen to that.

  It seemed to take forever driving through the town and then out to the road where she lived. When she pulled into the driveway she breathed a sigh of relief seeing Mason’s truck still parked there. At least they weren’t alone. But her brow furrowed as she peered at the house. Not a light was on.

  She hurried from the car and up the walkway to the house. She called out as she stepped inside, “Ashley? Maya? I’m home.”

  The kitchen was not only dark, it was empty. She strained to hear just as Ashley stepped into the kitchen. “Aunt Claire! Thank God you’re here!”

  Maya and Leah were right behind her. Maya rushed over and threw her arms around her waist. “Aunt Claire. We were so scared.”

  She hugged her niece and kissed the top of her head, noticing the guys file into the room as well. She looked down at Maya. “What’s wrong, honey? It’s just a storm.”

  Her gut was a tight knot watching the terror in the young girl’s eyes. What the hell was going on?

  Maya’s eyes welled up with tears and she was about to speak but Ashley beat her to it.

  “We did something really bad, Aunt Claire. We found a Ouija board in the attic and we tried to summon Mom and Dad. But something else came too.”

  “A Ouija board?” When they all nodded, she said, “Oh shit.” Claire straightened and her breath hitched in her throat remembering her own experience when she was their age with a Ouija board. It had been a nightmare! She’d learned her lesson and threw it away to end the horror. Even so, haunted dreams plagued her for weeks. On top of that was a constant sense of seeing something just at the periphery of her vision. It was a terrible and eerie episode in her life. Her voice was icy when she spoke, “Where is it now?”

  Ashley glanced at Leah and then she answered, “I don’t know.”

  Claire put her arm around Maya’s shoulders and walked her over to the table. “Sit down.” She turned on Ashley and Leah. “What do you mean, you don’t know? Did you throw it in the lake?”

  Ashley took a deep breath and sat down next to Leah and Maya. “No. I put it in the trashcan. But when I went out to check it this morning it was gone.”

  Maya grabbed at Claire’s arm and blurted, “I saw a face...a young woman in my window! And when we came back from looking for her body our rooms were trashed. The ghost was here, Aunt Claire. I saw her and she tore our rooms apart.”

  Leah jumped in trying to calm the situation. “I fixed it though, Claire. I used protection crystals, a sage smudge and salt. We cleansed the rooms. They’re good now.”

  Claire’s head was spinning from them rushing all the words at her. She slumped into the chair and stared at them. “Hang on. One at a time. Ashley, tell me what happened.”

  Ashley’s eyes filled with tears. “We used it to contact Mom and Dad. I think we really reached them because they answered questions only they would know. But the second time, some other spirit took over. She spelled out her name. Skylar. She told us that her body was in the circle—”

  Maya interrupted, “The fairy circle!”

  Claire turned to Maya and patted her arm. “Hush. Let Ashley continue.” A fairy circle? Oh God.

  Ashley looked at Maya and then back to Claire. “We found this clearing past that Kovac woman’s house. Leah says it’s a fairy circle and the ghost girl used that term too, so we’d know. She was murdered, Aunt Claire.”

  “And you didn’t think this was important enough to tell me? You searched for a murdered girl’s body?” Her back stiffened but she tried to appear calm. She was just barely able to. The only thing saving them was the fact they were terrified already.

  “Yeah. You’re right! I’m sorry we did
n’t! Anyway, the next day we found the Ouija board in my room even though we’d left it in Maya’s. And later, Maya saw this girl’s face in the window.” Ashley glanced at Leah. “Leah did a cleansing ritual.”

  She turned back to Claire. “We were so scared that I put it into the trash, deep inside.” Ashley was quiet for a few moments, looking at the table and then over at Maya. She spoke again, “Last night when I volunteered to go take the kitchen garbage out, the board was set up on the lid of the can. The reader was sitting on the word “No” like it was telling me I couldn’t get rid of it.”

  Maya gasped before yelling in her face, “What? You never told me that!”

  “Hush Maya!” Claire looked at Ashley. “And this morning it was gone? Is that it?”

  “Yes.” It came out as a small squeak. Ashley looked at her aunt and again her eyes welled. “We tried to find this Skylar’s body today. The rain started so we had to come home.”

  “Don’t forget the old gypsy I almost hit with the truck.”

  Claire sat back looking at Mason. It was the first time he’d spoken since she got home. Was he in on it too? “What about Mrs. Kovac?”

  Ashley took a deep breath. “She was in the middle of the road, and Mason almost ran her over! She looked right at me and said “you” and then she turned to Leah and she said “you started this.” When we got home we found our clothes…” Her voice hitched, but she plowed on. “Our clothes were thrown all over the bedroom floor!”

  Henry held up his hand. “Wait! There’s more!” He jerked a thumb at his older brother. “Mason saw her too! The face in the window!” Henry looked at his brother like he’d won the Indianapolis 500.

  Preston stepped closer and put his hand on Maya’s shoulder. “Thu...the duh...dresser crashed to the flu...floor right after.”

  “But we did the cleansing again. It really worked this time, Claire. Please don’t tell my mom.” Leah’s lower lip pushed out doing her best puppy-dog look.

  Claire sat back and said nothing, trying to digest all that they’d told her. From the corner of her eyes she could see them all staring at her, waiting for her to lower the boom. She needed a moment to think about this. And making them wait would serve them right. Anticipation of punishment was sometimes worse than the actual punishment.

  She rose to her feet. “I’m going upstairs to change out of these damp clothes. When I come down we’ll talk some more about this.” Her usual smile was gone as she looked at each of them in turn. She walked out of the room and up the stairs, hearing silence behind her. Let them stew.

  Opening the door to her room, she started unbuttoning her blouse. She wandered over to the bed and froze. All the air left the room as she saw what was on the bed.

  The Ouija board.

  And not just any Ouija board.

  Her heart leapt in her chest seeing the scrawls in red ink across the lid. With growing dread she reached out and flipped the board over to see what she feared.

  Her initials.

  In red ink that she had scrawled there thirteen years ago.

  TWENTY FIVE

  “YOUR AUNT IS TOTALLY PISSED.” Henry looked at Maya and took a seat across the table from her. “I hope she doesn’t ground you for the summer.” He leaned over the table and grinned. “Shit, she’s so pissed off, she’ll probably ground me, and I don’t even live here!”

  Ashley sighed. “Shut up, Henry.” She looked over to her sister. “I don’t think it will last the summer, Maya. But maybe two weeks.” There was a sense of relief, though. At least she wasn’t lying or sneaking around anymore.

  “I’ll take the punishment. I just need to know that this is over.” Maya’s eyes narrowed when she looked at Ashley. “You should have told me the board was set up on the trashcan last night. And that it was missing this morning. I’m in this too, you know!”

  Leah leaned to Maya. “She did it to protect you, silly.” She looked up, blowing a gush of air through pursed lips, “Who’s gonna protect me though? My mom is gonna ground me for life when she hears about this.”

  “Shhh. She’s coming. I heard her bedroom door close.” Mason walked over to stand behind Henry. He squeezed his brother’s shoulders in his hands leaning over to whisper, “Try to be quiet for once will you? Don’t make this worse than it is with your smart mouth.”

  They were deadly silent hearing the slow thud of Claire’s feet on the stairs. With every step Ashley’s neck muscles grew tighter and tighter. She looked over at the doorway when her aunt appeared.

  Ashley’s eyes flashed wide and her jaw dropped.

  Oh. My. God. She had the Ouija board box in her hands, carrying it like it was a bomb.

  “It was in your room?” Ashley sprung up from the seat.

  Maya’s voice was shrill, bordering on hysteria. “That can’t be! I checked your room earlier, after our rooms were trashed. It wasn’t there!”

  Claire stopped a few feet from them. She looked down at the box containing the Ouija board and flipped it so that the bottom faced them. “Do you see those initials on the bottom?”

  Preston who was the closest to her leaned over to look closely. “Cuh...C. V.”

  Aunt Claire looked dazed looking at each of them in turn. “Claire Vincent.”

  “That’s a coincidence. It has to be.” Mason muttered.

  “I WROTE IT!” Claire’s face was a knot of fear and the cords in her neck were taut and showing. “I was SEVENTEEN! I threw this board in a dumpster! HOW...How is this possible?”

  Maya jumped up from her seat and ran to Ashley. She tried to comfort her sister, putting her arm around her waist and holding her close, while her own heart hammered fast. Maya openly cried, “I’m scared. Can we just go? Get out of here?”

  Leah rose from her seat and took a step closer to Claire. “Maybe the Salter kids found it there. They could have brought it home? It was with their stuff in the attic.”

  Claire shook her head. “No. It found its way back to me. Somehow. Just like it kept moving from where you’d put it.” She looked like she was barely holding herself together. Her hands shook and she almost stumbled walking across the room like a zombie.

  Ashley stared at her. “What are you going to do, Aunt Claire?”

  Her aunt’s jaw was tight. “What I should have done back then. I’m going to burn this damn thing!”

  Mason rushed over to her, “Hold on. It’s raining, Claire. I’ll put it outside. Whatever is left of it tomorrow, we’ll destroy. I’ll help you.” He pried the board from her fingers and then turned to go to the door.

  Ashley got up from her chair, about to go over to steady her aunt.

  “SHIIIIIIT!”

  The board flew up when Mason screamed. The lid flew off and Mason was a flurry racing across the room. “It’s her! That face! She’s at the door!”

  Ashley jerked back grabbing Maya and staring with horror. Was she gonna come in?

  Leah and Henry were the only ones to creep over to take a peek. Claire gripped the edge of the counter like she was holding a lifeline. Preston had moved to Maya’s other side, putting his arm around her shoulder.

  “Is she still there?” Mason’s voice had raised a few octaves as he stood in the doorway next to the hall. “I swear. I saw her and she was seriously pissed off!”

  “No. She’s not there now.” Leah stepped back looking down at the floor. “But you’re not going to believe this.”

  Henry gasped when he looked down. “Holy Shit!” The board lay on the floor with the planchette centered over the word “No.” He looked over at Maya. It was hard to tell if he was more scared or excited.

  Claire pushed away from the counter and stepped over looking down at the board. “That does it! I’m destroying this damned thing!” She stomped on the reader and the pegs it rested on flew in three different directions. She bent to pick the board up.

  CRASH! The whole house shook from the bang upstairs!

  Claire froze while Mason screamed “Shit!” as he raced over to join
Ashley.

  They stood in the semi darkness waiting while the wind and rain lashed the house outside.

  Leah whispered loudly, “It’s probably that dresser again.”

  The TV and the radio started blaring at full volume! Ashley jerked holding Maya even tighter.

  “Thu...that’s not possible. The power is off!” Preston shouted to be heard above the din. He looked over at Ashley and Mason.

  Leah stepped over to him. “LET’S GET OUT OF HERE!”

  The blaring stopped as quickly as it started, leaving Leah’s words still ringing in the air.

  Ashley grabbed her inhaler and took hit after hit of it deep into her lungs. Aunt Claire went over to her and rubbed her back; her eyes filled with tears. “Are you okay? Just breathe, Ash. We’ve got to get out of here. At least for today. We’ll deal with all of this tomorrow.”

  Mason headed for the door and stopped dead in his tracks beside Henry. “We can’t! She’s still out there waiting for us!”

  “Dude! She’s gone.” Henry looked disgusted for a moment and then he turned to Maya. “C’mon. This place is seriously screwed up.”

  Leah added. “No it’s not. This can be fixed but not today. Not by me.” She headed for the door and stopped when it refused to open. Pushing and twisting the handle, she gritted her teeth. “C’mon, you son of a bitch!” Her face was red from the effort when she turned. “The handle won’t budge. We’re locked in.”

  “No we’re not!” Henry raced to the living room door leading out to the backyard. His grunts were followed by the sounds of his foot kicking at it. “Shit! It’s locked too!”

  Mason looked around the room and stopped when he looked out the window. “We’ll break the window! It wants to keep us in here but it can’t!” He grabbed a kitchen chair and lifted it stomping over to the big picture window.

  Ashley looked at her aunt but it was like she’d given up. She didn’t care that he’d be smashing her house. And the way things were going in there, who could blame her? She crossed her fingers and then turned as he hurled the chair at the glass.