No. The men wanted something else, but what? They didn’t give a rat’s ass about Ben. Something was weird about them. They weren’t simply men in suits. One was a lawyer. He had been easy to spot with his jargon and his contract. The other one might have been military, judging by the haircut and the stiff way the dude stood. Both had seemed a bit too serious for the task of signing a college student for a month’s worth of paranormal research.
He loved his parents. He’d loved Ben, too. Hell, he still did. Why couldn’t they let him put what happened behind him? He wasn’t some sort of hero or corporation’s science experiment. He was just another college sophomore. At least, that’s all he wanted to be. But, here he was—at an old, supposedly haunted estate as part of some fucked up study on the paranormal—along with a few other freaks with abilities. Except they didn’t have a clue what this study was
really
about. Then again, he wasn’t positive he knew everything, either. He had no proof. His dad said he was being paranoid. Maybe he was. Or maybe not. But either way, Gage told himself he’d find out soon enough.
The incident in the backyard with Ben’s dog had been a fluke. Maybe the dog wasn’t really dead. Sure. Miracles happened all the time, right? But, Ben wasn’t a dog or a childhood pet and his parents’ desperation to bring back their youngest son put the weight of the world on Gage’s shoulders. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t
right
.
What to do, though? How to do right by them and be the son they wanted him to be? He’d let them down before. He hadn’t always been completely reliable. He liked to hang out with friends until all hours of the night. And he wasn’t exactly dependable boyfriend material, either. His choice in girlfriends hadn’t thrilled his mother in particular. But when it came to helping his family, he hadn’t been able to say no. Even though he was hoping the experiment would prove to them once and for all that he didn’t have what it took. Not anymore.
He was Gage.
Just
Gage. He wanted that to be good enough.
And yet, he never stopped asking himself if he’d wasted the last of his ability on Ben’s dog instead of Ben himself. He’d have to live with that the rest of his life.
“Checking out the girls, huh?” Bryan said as he joined Gage at the window.
Gage didn’t reply. He’d almost forgotten about the girls. They were talking now. The prettier of the two, a dark-haired girl wearing shorts, which showed off her long legs, and a t-shirt that clung to all the right places, pointed at the gravesite with its carved monument behind the iron fence. The second girl was a bit skinny, but still had a pretty face.
If you gotta be here, you might as well take in the sights
, he thought.
He wondered if the girls were here because they wanted to be, or because, like him, they
had
to be. The dark-haired girl seemed more comfortable. More at ease.
“Jess,” Bryan said as he stood beside him.
“Huh?”
Bryan laughed. “Dude, the girl you’re checking out? Her name is Jess. In case a name matters. I don’t know who the other one is yet.”
Gage grinned. “Jess? Well, then
hello,
Jess. Hey, this might be a lot more interesting than we thought, right, bro?”
Bryan shrugged.
“What? You don’t like the scenery?”
“The scenery is fine. Great even,” Bryan replied. “Look, I’m just not like you.”
“Meaning?”
Bryan tossed his hands up in a carefree motion and laughed easily. “No offense, all right? I mean, look at you, man. You clearly work out. A lot. Me? Not so much. The girls are fine. Definitely easy on the eyes. Especially Jess.”
Gage liked Bryan. Guys like him were easygoing and laid back. Definitely calmer and less demanding than some of the guys back home. This was good. Right now, the less stress the better.
“
Meaning
,” Bryan continued to clarify, “I probably move a little slower than you do. So go for it, man. Girls dig the six-pack thing. Besides, my mind is focused on the reason we’re all here.”
Gage sighed. He knew why
he
was here. His parents expected him to try to bring Ben back—as sick as that sounded. No pressure there. He turned his attention back to the window. Jess tugged at the hem of her shorts.
“I know about reality,” he said. “But right now, I’m happy with the fantasy. Ghosts might not be the only spirits we raise around here.”
The thin, blond-haired girl gave a frantic tug on Jess’s arm. Gage raised an eyebrow. “Afraid of the dead and buried, are you, little sister? Well, I think you’ve got something there.”
Bryan laughed. “If she’s afraid of ghosts, then I think she’s in the wrong experiment. Or maybe she’s afraid of the perv staring out the window at her.”
“I told you, I was looking out the window
before
they showed up,” Gage explained. He had been. The girls just sort of wandered into view, easing his mind off his dead brother and the heartache he saw in his mother’s face every day. There wasn’t a day that he opened his eyes, or a night he closed them, that he didn’t wonder why he hadn’t been able to fix Ben. So, a little distraction? Something to help him forget about the pain for even a moment or two? Sure. He was all over it.
He studied the two girls. Blondie was harder to read, but if she
was
a believer, she didn’t seem comfortable with it. Which meant she didn’t want to be here.
Bryan glanced over Gage’s shoulder, which was easy to do since he stood almost two inches taller. Gage had him pegged at probably six-two.
“The blonde doesn’t want to be here, huh?” Bryan commented, unconsciously echoing Gage’s thoughts. “Too bad.”
“Well, then she and I have that much in common. Her roomy, Jess, seems right at home with it.”
“I guess Jess is more like me,” Bryan said, grinning and turning away from the window. “Maybe you don’t have the edge after all.”
Great. He had more in common with Blondie, and Bryan, who seemed like the kind of guy who brought flowers and opened doors, had more in common with Jess.
“Think you can run with the big dog?” Gage said with a grin over his shoulder. “Bring it on.”
The girls’ attention veered suddenly from the graves to a section of the woods. Gage squinted through the glass. He could almost hear Blondie now. Her voice was rising, and he thought he made out the word
please
, but not much else.
Blondie finally managed to pull Jess away, and the two girls disappeared from sight, leaving just the view of the graves again. Gage stared at the markers and the almost life-sized monument of the grave’s occupants. He wasn’t great at guessing little kids’ ages, but the girls on the monument were probably somewhere around the age Ben had been when he died. The image of Ben’s small coffin haunted him. He closed his eyes and heard his little brother’s laughter as Gage helped him with his pitching game on summer afternoons. Gage swallowed past the lump building in his throat.
This was one of the good days. Sometimes, he couldn’t shake the image of Ben’s face as he lay lifeless in the hospital. He opened his eyes again, wishing Jess was still outside, showing off those legs of hers.
“You gonna stare at her all day?” Bryan asked, as he opened a drawer and neatly arranged his clothes inside them.
“The girls are gone, bro. Relax.”
Outside the room, the floors creaked, followed by a hard rap on the door.
“Dinner’s on the table. Don’t be lettin’ it get cold.” The voice belonged to Mrs. Hirsch, the head housekeeper or whatever she was. The woman looked constantly pissed off.
“They’re calling us for dinner,” Bryan said. “You coming or what?”
“Yeah. Be right there.” Gage drew in a deep breath and took one last look at the monument and graves. He thought of Ben once more.
Sorry, bud. I tried. Really.
CHAPTER SIX
“
Diseased?”
Jess stopped and turned mid-point on the stairs. Allison was crazy. Not crazy in a way Jess feared, but enough to make her rethink the roommate situation. Allison’s eyes lacked the glassiness of medication. Instead, they were wide and very alert.
She’s honestly afraid. Afraid! Of Siler House!
Jess ignored the small voice inside her that had its own reservations. A slight chill traced its way over the nape of her neck. No, this was nonsense. She was reacting to Allison’s behavior and nothing more. It was a house, not a person. Not a spirit.
“I get it, Allison, and I’m really sorry you’ve had such bad experiences. But I didn’t have that,” Jess said, unsure of how else to handle the situation. “What would you have us do? Leave?”
“Yes! Leave! We should all leave. Right now. We shouldn’t even pack.”
Jess tried not to look surprised by Allison’s outburst. “Why would we do that? I mean, I understand why you might—you’re clearly afraid of ghosts and this house. But I’ve seen ghosts for years. Years! I’ve never had a problem with them. Ghosts
are
the reason I came here.”
Jess had no doubt Allison’s fear was genuine, but what was she supposed to do? Freak out because Allison’s experiences had been awful while hers hadn’t? Believe her about Siler House because she said so, even though it went against Jess’s own intuition?
Of course, she hadn’t been able to find any information on what had actually happened at Siler House. Had Allison been told something she hadn’t? Maybe Allison was reacting to some terrible tragedy that had happened here. Rationally, a tragedy didn’t necessarily mean the ghosts had to be bloodthirsty. Scary, needy, persistent, even annoying, maybe. Surely, if the place was as bad as Allison thought, Jess would have sensed
something
. She’d been able to sense when ghosts were in bad moods before, but so far she felt nothing but a sense of peacefulness at Siler House. Whatever lurked here, Jess needed to draw her
own
conclusions.
“Then, maybe I’ll just leave you here,” Allison replied. “Leave all of you here.”
“Dinner!” boomed a voice high above them, and both girls craned their heads back in attempt to get a better view of who had spoken. “Do
not
be late.”
“Mrs. Hirsch,” Allison whispered, as the woman’s shadow loomed large and wide on the stairwell wall. The housekeeper thundered toward them, her girth nearly filling the staircase, a large hoop with keys on it clenched in her thick hand, just as Allison had described. Mrs. Hirsch wore a button-up, baby blue dress and a white apron. Wiry, gray hair hung at shoulder length.
The girls slid over on the stairs to let her pass. Mrs. Hirsch didn’t acknowledge them further, continuing methodically down the stairs, into the Great Room and out of sight.
“I don’t think we should be late. There’s no telling what she’ll do to us if we are,” Allison said, seemingly forgetting that she’d been ready to leave. “Let’s just follow her.”
Jess nodded, feeling a bit better. Allison’s rat in a maze nervousness seemed more of a personality issue than a haunted house problem. The girl was afraid of everything, including Mrs. Hirsch. The head housekeeper was intimidating, but hardly scary.
They went down the stairs and through the Great Room, following the scent of food and sound of other voices.
“We weren’t supposed to dress up or anything, were we?” Allison asked.
Jess shrugged. “I hope not, but it’s too late now.”
Dr. Brandt was already seated when they entered the dining room. Bryan was still standing, as though he had been waiting for them to arrive. He held out Jess and Allison’s chairs.
On top of being cute, he was downright polite. Jess smiled up at him. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome,” Bryan replied as he walked past the new guy at the end of the table, offering him what seemed to be an apologetic shrug.
The new guy in the snug t-shirt, who, Jess couldn’t help but notice, leaned back in his chair. His eyes met Allison’s, then hers. “Hello,” he said with the faintest hint of a smile on his lips.
Allison seemed to blush, and Jess couldn’t blame her. The new guy was hot, but extremely cocky. Jess looked away. No sense in stroking his ego any further. She was all too familiar with guys like him. Sexy, desirable. Until you got too close. She’d been burned by an ex just like him, although he hadn’t been quite as hot as this guy. Which meant she’d be smart not to let those eyes and that perfect mouth distract her.
Once everyone was seated, Dr. Brandt tapped his knife against his water glass. “I thought we’d take a moment to introduce ourselves before we eat. Just give us your name and where you’re from. Jess, why don’t you start?”
Jess introduced herself, followed by Allison—who Jess learned was from Kentucky. Dr. Brandt’s eyes cut to the end of the table and the new guy. He was still leaning back in his chair, still looking smug and tempting.
“Gage Jackson. Blairsville, Georgia,” he offered.
Simple, to the point, Jess noticed. Right along with those hazel eyes and that totally kissable mouth…
Quit staring at him!
“Man,” Bryan said in a low whisper from across the table. It made Jess frown. Clearly, the boys had some inside joke going on between them at her and Allison’s expense. She’d been caught staring a second too long and Bryan had picked up on it.
Bryan’s comment caught the attention of Dr. Brandt, who motioned for Bryan to go next.
He cleared his throat and straightened. “Bryan Akerman from Easley, South Carolina. Nice to meet everyone.”
Dr. Brandt slid his chair back a little and all eyes turned toward him. Jess leaned forward, eager to learn exactly what they’d be doing here and how each of them had been selected.
Dr. Brandt situated his napkin in his lap. “As you know, I’m Dr. Gregory Brandt. I work as a parapsychologist at EPAC, a government-funded organization sponsoring this experiment. Each of you has been carefully chosen. And before any of you asks, yes, I honestly
do
believe in the paranormal. At least to an extent. Ghosts, mostly. Also, evil spirits and demons, but not werewolves or vampires—the sparkly kind or otherwise.”
Jess and Bryan laughed. Gage smirked. Allison didn’t seem to enjoy Dr. Brandt’s attempt at humor.