Chapter Thirty

Rusty grumbled to himself as he locked his camera onto a tripod. He used heavy-duty duct tape to secure the three legs to the floor. If things started flying again, he didn’t want the expensive camera thrown about.

Paul and Nina were engaged in private conversation, probably talking about what they would say when they resumed rolling. Mitch and Tobe were in the kitchen, getting drinks and some ice for Mitch’s eye.

This is insane. I didn’t come here to film something out of a B horror movie.

Satisfied that the tripod wasn’t going anywhere unless a hurricane blew through the house, he double-checked the charge on all of their equipment. Everything was in working order. He wondered how long that would last.

What’s next—floating candelabras?

A thought occurred to him. What if all of this was staged? Mitch seemed awful calm. So did Tobe. Could it be they both had rigged the place, keeping him, Paul and Nina in the dark so they could capture their very real reactions? It almost made sense. Yes, Nina and Paul shouldn’t be aware of it because they were on-camera. But Rusty wasn’t. Maybe Mitch realized I wouldn’t come if I thought this was all just some hoax.

That had to be it. What was going on here was downright insane. There was no way it was the work of ghosts.

But then, how did they make it so damn cold. And not just in the house?

That would take some thinking.

“You guys almost ready?” he called down to the kitchen.

“Be right there,” Mitch answered.

“How about you two?” he asked Paul and Nina. The psychic had regained her composure but Paul still looked jittery. He kept fiddling with his beard, his fingers working through it like automated knitting needles.

Paul answered, “Yeah, sure. We thought we should start over here, and you could follow us as we walk to the front door.”

“That’s doable.” He handed Paul a new, fully charged audio recorder from his shirt pocket. “Here, that other one is toast.”

“Thanks.”

Nina sidled up beside him, smelling of jasmine and sweet spices. “You seem nervous. If you like, I could create a barrier of white light around you to offer protection.”

He peered into her eyes, looking for any trace of sarcasm.

Oh boy, she’s serious.

“Do you always do that for yourself before you try to interact with spirits?”

“Of course. Any medium worth their salt knows to protect themselves from the dark.”

Rusty tittered. “Well, it looks like it didn’t do much for you before. I’ll stick to whatever light I currently have.”

Nina’s lip curled and he swore she was going to growl at him. Spinning on her heels with more drama than was necessary, she went back to tending to Paul.

Everyone in this house is crazy, including me for even being here.

Walking the route Nina and Paul would take, he mapped out in his mind where the stationary camera shot would end and the handheld would begin. Mitch and Tobe returned to the great room, talking things over with Paul and Nina. Rusty looked up the winding stairs. He’d forgotten for a moment that there were five more people upstairs, two of them completely innocent, four if you counted Jessica and Eddie. He wondered if it gave the kids comfort, hearing the bustle of adults in the house, even if it might keep them awake. He sure as hell would have preferred it to pregnant silence, waiting for ghostly sounds, if he was a kid.

“Come on, Rusty, let’s get the show on the road,” Mitch said.

“Coming.”

Rusty judged where he would stand while Paul and Nina stopped at the door, aware of anything that might be in his way or trip him up.

He turned away from the door, heading to the great room when he saw them.

Three girls, triplets, each of them sharing the same slack expression, jaws partly open, deep set eyes under furrowed brows, stared at him from within the mirror on the foyer wall. They weren’t pale or wispy or ethereal in any sense. In fact, their skin was slightly tan, their matching tops printed with colorful flowers. There was something strange about them, whether it was the off-kilter geometry of their faces or the emptiness behind their dull eyes or both, he wasn’t sure. Learning disabled, he thought. Or when he was a kid in simpler and less sensitive times, people would have said retarded.

He spun, expecting to find three strangers standing behind him.

They weren’t there.

Heart galloping, he slowly faced the mirror. Their breath fogged the glass from within. They stared at him with an emptiness that was alien and disturbing.

“Guys, come over here,” he said, finding it hard to push the words out. He wanted to run but his legs ignored him.

Blood rushed to Rusty’s head. He was dizzy. He couldn’t break their gaze, no matter how much he wanted to.

He reached out to the mirror, his fingertips mere inches away from the cold, flat surface.

“Seriously, I need you all to see this,” he said.

Nina’s heels clacked on the bare wood floor.

The girls raised their hands, seeming to reach out for him.

Oh my God, this is real.

His finger pressed against the glass the moment Nina turned the corner. The girls turned their heads in her direction, vanishing before she could see them.

But the condensation of their breath remained on the glass, retracting clouds of spirit vapor that left ice water on Rusty’s finger.

“He won’t give me the key,” Daphne said. One of her cheeks was heavily powdered. Eddie thought he saw a rose mark at the edge of her jawline. Her red-rimmed eyes were in stark contrast to her alabaster skin.

“Don’t worry, we can still get to the attic if you can tell us which room has access,” Jessica said, deftly avoiding whatever had happened downstairs.

“It’s across the hall, the second bedroom from the right. There’s a door to the left when you go inside. That leads to the attic.”

“Have you been in there before?” Eddie asked, noting the slight tremble in her hands. Cupping her elbow, he led her to the chair positioned between the two beds. Jason and Alice were fast asleep.

She shook her head. “As a rule, I don’t like attics. I’m not a fan of spiders and they tend to collect there. Tobe thinks it will add atmosphere to their film. He doesn’t want me to spoil it for them. I…I honestly don’t understand him at all right now. This is so unlike him.”

They left her staring at a spot on the floor, overcome by her emotions.

“I think he hit her,” Eddie hushed.

Jessica had taken her makeshift lock-picking tools from her pocket and was already at work on the bedroom door.

“I know he did,” she said. “But we have something bigger to do right now.”

They heard Rusty say, “Seriously, I need you all to see this.”

Eddie closed his eyes, let the house and everything in it come to him. When he opened them, Jessica had successfully picked the lock and was turning the knob. “They just made themselves appear to Rusty,” he said. “I get the impression they got a kick out of scaring him. These kids were powerless when they were alive. They’re beginning to realize they hold some of the cards now.”

As the door swung open on rusted hinges, Eddie peered inside, pulling Jessica back.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“They’re all in there,” he said.

“Not just the Last Kids?”

“Them and a lot more.”

Eddie waded within their ephemeral bodies, their intent gazes following his every move. Reaching up for a metal cord, he pulled down, filling the room with light. The empty floor and bare walls were covered with a thin, sparkling sheen of frost. Eddie watched as a dragon’s breath of rolling clouds of smoke poured from his mouth and nose.

Can you please let us pass through to the attic? he asked them. Their psychic silence produced a dull tickle that ran across his scalp. He futilely scratched at his temple.