Gravity, a young adult paranormal romance (19 page)

"Someone as young and inexperienced as you
wouldn't be able to do it," Corinne said finitely. I felt insulted,
especially considering the fact that at the moment it seemed like I
was having more contact with spirits than she ever had.

"Well, I wasn't necessarily talking about me,"
I backtracked. "I was just curious. For a beginner, what would be
most helpful?"

She brought two steaming bowls of gunk to the
table and set one at my place. I sat down and swished the spoon
around, mentally envisioning the microwavable ham and cheese
pockets in the freezer. Less nutritious, maybe, but definitely
tastier.

"Where's the necklace that your mom gave you
for your birthday?" Corinne asked unexpectedly. I wondered if she
would lecture me about not wearing it enough.

"I keep it in my jewelry box," I said,
wondering how I could avoid eating the soup without hurting her
feelings.  

"How about you go and fetch it while I order
pizza?" she asked. That was surprising for her, considering she
hardly ever indulged in junk food. Of course, she had actually
tasted her own food.

I ran downstairs and picked the necklace up
out of my jewelry box, inspecting it tentatively. I hadn't
forgotten how it heated up when I was at the restaurant, spying on
McPherson's hidden meeting. Back upstairs, Corinne had already
picked the table up a bit, although drops of liquid still shined on
the surface that I rubbed off with a napkin.

Corinne held out both of her hands for the
necklace and I gave it to her. She squinted at and turned it
around.

"This could be a talisman to help increase
spirit view. It reminds me of something in one of my books, but I
don't think I have it with me." She pointed a sharp fingernail at
some etchings I hadn't noticed before on the back.

"See these designs?" she asked. "These look
like alchemic symbols. Sometimes alchemy has been used in modern
times for spell craft. This could prove to be a powerful tool when
trying to contact spirits."

I sat at the table as she called the pizza
delivery place, staring at the funny symbols on the back of the
necklace, and thinking about what to do.

After we had finished our pizza, I excused
myself downstairs to kill some time. I fiddled through books and
with my homework, unable to concentrate. Every few minutes I'd get
up and pace, checking the clock. When I came back up long after
dark, Corinne had passed out on the recliner in the living room, a
bottle of wine and an empty glass beside her. Her snore carried all
the way down the basement stairs. A TV special about arsons was
blaring loudly. I sneaked into the den, pushing the door almost
shut. Her trunk was pushed against the bookshelves.

I didn't like taking things. But I
rationalized that I would bring them back as soon as I was done,
and take every precaution to make sure they weren't harmed in any
way. 

I was already being bad, anyway. I told my
parents I would be spending the night at Theo's, and that we were
going to Hell's Orphanage with Ms. Vore as our chaperone. I knew
there was no way they would approve of us going alone. But the
nagging urgency to go through with my plan wouldn't let me
stop.

Roses were carved into the antique
wood of the trunk. Opening the heavy lid, I propped it up against
the bookshelves, hoping it wouldn't come slamming back on my
fingers. I rummaged around inside. There was a stack of books
against the back, so I shuffled through them. At the bottom of the
stack was a tome entitled
Modern Séance
Methodology
. Flipping through it quickly,
I gathered the supplies I needed and shut the trunk.

With the book tucked under my arm, I tiptoed
through the living room and down the hall to the staircase.
Upstairs, I navigated with gentle steps to my parent's room, hoping
Claire hadn't tied a string or anything on the door to check for
snoopers.

I opened her dresser drawers and rummaged
around, looking for my grandmother's medical records. But wherever
Hugh had hidden them, there were nowhere to be found. He could have
put them anywhere in the house. Deciding not to push my luck, I
crept back downstairs and to my room, preparing for the next
night's deception. 

I had been planning for this night for a week,
but for some reason, I was more nervous than I had been on the
first day of school. I intentionally refused to examine my motives.
Something was haunting me, but it wasn't Jenna. Whatever it was, it
was manipulating my emotions to make me see and think of her. That
was all. Every possibility remained that she now resided in Las
Vegas or Hollywood. I shut my eyes, pictured her in gigantic
designer sunglasses with a floppy hat over her hair.
    

I stood in front of the mirror in my room,
studying my reflection. My face looked thinner than usual, but my
hazel eyes were bright and excited. Maybe too excited. I was
putting a lot on this evening. There was every possibility that we
would go there and it would be a total bust. I glanced at the wall
above my desk in the reflection, half expecting the thudding sound
to start up again.

I said goodbye to Corinne, taking my roomiest
purse with me and hoping she wouldn't notice the weight of it. She
didn't, and only pestered me a little before I got out the
door.

"Call me when you get to Theo's house." She
pronounced her name "Tay-Oh" even though I had already corrected
her twice. "And be careful. Remember that your mom and dad don't
want you getting in any trouble."

"Sure," I said. I knew there was a good chance
she might forget that she had told me to call her when the time
came.  

Ms. Vore drove Theo and me to the orphanage
and dropped us off around eight in the evening.

"Be back by 11:30, have fun," she told Theo,
and sped off in her car. She seemed to be rather lax about Theo
staying out, or maybe that was just me being used to overprotective
parents. For a moment I felt guilty that Hugh and Claire didn't
know about my ruse. Being partially honest was still lying. But I
tried to tell myself I wasn't hurting anyone, and I would take care
of myself.

Theo wore huge, glittery bat earrings, her red
hair up in a bun. With her glasses she looked like the world's
coolest librarian. As we walked through the gate I had a flashback
to long-ago birthday dream. The moment when I realized that I was
locked out and I could go no further. Jenna standing in front of
the house, hands hanging at her hips...face flat and
hopeless...

"Where's Henry supposed to be?" Theo asked,
breaking me out of my memory.

"He just said he would meet us here," I
replied. "No specific place."

"Hopefully we can find him," she said.
 

There were lots of juniors and seniors from
Hawthorne, although I didn't see anyone I knew by name. They all
towered above us, making me feel adolescent. Theo and I peered
around the tall crowd of bodies, but I saw no sign of Henry. The
lawn looked like someone had come along and done a cleanup job
since my last visit.

"Maybe he ditched on me," I said, not wanting
to accept the disappointing possibility. In my head, I tormented
myself for thinking he would follow through with it. "I should have
found someone who didn't think the whole idea of ghosts was the
most ridiculous thing they'd ever heard."  

Just then, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I
turned to see Henry, smirking. I felt the same sense of relief as I
did when I was lost as a child, and I spotted one of my parents'
faces in the crowd. A familiar, safe beacon. Hope.
   

"Were you going to give up on me that easily?"
he asked with a mock hurt expression on his handsome face. I
noticed with some trepidation that Henry had obtained Alex, the
idiot always cracking jokes in History class, as our fourth
person.

"This is who you came up with?" I asked,
raising my eyebrows and scrutinizing the other boy.

"I'm just here for the free entertainment,"
Alex assured me, running a hand through his hair. "You did buy me a
ticket, right?"

I frowned and nodded at the same
time.

"Yes, I bought you a ticket." I distributed
the little printouts I'd bought online out to everyone.

"I don't have to pay you back, right?" Alex
asked.

"Uh, no," I said, annoyed.

We handed in the tickets as we got in line.
The sessions, as the staff referred to them, ran early in the
evening, and we were there for the eight-thirty, the last. I had
tried to time it so that hopefully everyone else would leave and
we'd have the property to ourselves.

I was somewhat excited to see the haunted
house itself, even though it presented merely a distraction. I
shifted on my feet as we stood in line. Everyone spoke excitedly in
little groups, their speech peppered with apprehension. A few girls
appeared scared, their boyfriends comforting them with quiet words.
   

A chill had arrived now that the sun had gone
down, making me glad that I had dressed in a chunky sweater and
jeans. There were a few guys in costumes, one even wearing a skull
mask. I peered around the people in front of me. The line went to
the entrance, the double doors underneath the staircase. Our little
bunch remained near the back.  

"You females can cling to me if it gets
scary," Alex said. I figured he would start beating on his chest
like a gorilla any minute. It was a show I would be delighted to
miss.  

"Stuff it, bro," Theo retorted. "We can take
care of ourselves."

My phone beeped and I pulled it
out of my sweater pocket. Henry's name was on the screen.
Sorry, he has a car
was
all it read. I giggled.

After a few minutes of waiting, the doors flew
open with a puff of thick fog. I couldn't help but be reminded of
my dream, and I shut my eyes. The line quickly moved as everyone
shuffled inside. I took a deep breath, and Theo and I walked in.
The doors slammed shut behind Alex and Henry, rending the space in
darkness.  

"Whoa, what the —," Alex sputtered.

The dark inside was impenetrable, and I could
not even make out my own hands as I waved them in front of my face.
My heart skipped a beat as I thought back to the recent night in my
room, when all the light was sucked out of the bulbs. I'd always
prided myself on being brave when it came to this stuff, and thanks
to circumstances beyond my control, I was losing my edge.
  

Blacklights on the wall flickered on with a
hiss, making Theo's red hair glow hot pink.

"That's better," she said.

We were in a dilapidated little room, with
collages of body parts on the walls. Cavernous darkness stretched
out before us. The people in front had already run into it, the
shadow swallowing them. The faint strains of an out of tune piano
came from somewhere inside. I squinted into the dark but couldn't
see anything.  

"Let's go," I whispered, looking at
Theo.

She had a tight smile on her face, as though
her stomach was upset. Our little group stuck together as we
shambled down the hall. I could hear the boys talking quietly
amongst themselves behind us.

The first room bore the first scare. Theo
wandered into the center, when suddenly a trap door opened above
and a rubber corpse in a cheap suit deployed on her. She screamed
and doubled backwards, nearly falling into me. Righting herself,
her face remained frightened, eyes big as soup bowls. Her tiny
hands were clasped up by her chin.  

"Are you okay?" I asked, concerned.

"Just a little scared, that's all," she said,
smiling self deprecatingly. "I'm a wuss when it comes to this
stuff."

"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked, surprised.
She had seemed as keyed up as me to visit the haunted house. "You
did fine when we were spying."

"When you were what?" Henry asked. I ignored
him.  

"I didn't want you to think less of me," she
admitted. "It's only in situations like this, when there are
jump-type scares. The anticipation makes me jumpy."
 

Suddenly, I felt very selfish. I grasped her
hand. "If we stick together, we'll get through it fast." I assured
her. She nodded, visibly gathering her resolve as we proceeded
farther on into the house.  

Haunted houses were old hat for me, but I
quickly became disoriented. Not good when I was trying to comfort
Theo. We made our ways through the rooms in the murky space, only
occasionally lit by dull colored lightbulbs. The sound of other
people shrieking farther inside made Theo tense up. Every time
there was another shout she squeezed my hand.

A monster jumped at Theo from the left and she
screamed, dropping my hand. The mechanism rattled as it retreated
back into its hiding place inside the wall.

"See, just a stupid old contraption," Henry
reassured her, patting her gently on the shoulder. He could tell
she was scared, in fact it looked like she was trembling. Again I
felt like a jerk for bringing her there, for my own selfish
reasons. Especially when odds were that the house would keep all of
its secrets and not share any with me.