The Haunting of Willow House

by Anthony M. Strong

  Becca was sprawled across the bed on her stomach, one leg hooked in the air, her bare foot angled toward the ceiling. When they entered, she looked up from the cell phone clutched in her hand, a slight smile upon her lips. “Hi, Tyler.”

  “Hey.” Tyler looked toward her, then back at Sarah.

  “Hi, Logan. Why don’t you come over here.” Becca scooted sideways, making room on the bed.

  “Sure.” Logan was a tall, lanky kid with a mop of curly blonde hair. He picked his way past the inflatable mattress and perched on the edge of the bed, looking a little uncomfortable.

  Becca swung her legs off the bed and sat up, exchanging a look with Sarah as she did so.

  Tyler turned to Sarah. “I hoped to hear from you again after the other day.”

  “I would have texted sooner, but we were busy.” Sarah felt a flutter of excitement deep inside. Now that he was here, she was pleased Becca had talked her into inviting him. “I wasn’t sure you would come.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know. Things have been so weird between us,” Sarah said. “I know we kissed, but…”

  “I still feel the same about you.” Tyler walked to the window, looked out. “I didn’t want to break up, remember.”

  “I was in a bad place.” Sarah watched him gaze out over the landscape, his back to her. “I wasn’t thinking straight.”

  “Forget about it.” Tyler glanced back over his shoulder, and then returned his attention to the window. “Is that the woods where we found the grave?”

  “Yes.” Sarah glanced at Becca, who shot her a knowing look. “It is.”

  “There’s a grave behind your house?” Logan’s eyes flew wide, his interest piqued.

  “Creepy, huh?” Becca said. “The woman buried there is a witch. She was hung from the tree near the road, the big old dead oak.”

  “No way,” Logan said.

  “For real?” Tyler turned away from the window. “Neat.”

  “Not really,” Sarah said. She didn’t bother to mention the second trip to the grave, the one she had taken with Becca a few nights before, or the strange winds. It was as if telling another person would somehow make it all the more real. “It’s pretty gross actually.”

  “We should go take another look at it.” Tyler’s eyes glinted with excitement.

  “Hell yes.” Logan jumped up.

  “No.” Both girls spoke at the same time.

  “I don’t think that would be a good idea,” Sarah added. “Besides, it’s getting dark. The woods won’t be safe.”

  “What, are you scared?” Tyler said. He looked at Becca. “I thought you liked this kind of thing. You’re always the one dragging us into stuff.”

  “Not tonight.” Becca shuddered.

  Tyler looked between them, confusion on his face. “Okay, fine. So what do you want to do?”

  “I don’t know,” Sarah said. She remembered her brother downstairs. It was almost nine o’clock, and she didn’t want to get in trouble with her dad for not looking after him. “Why don’t you two think of something while I make sure Jake goes to bed? The last thing we want is that squirt discovering you guys and making a fuss.”

  Chapter 53

  Jake was flipping through the pages of a coloring book, looking for a picture that he hadn’t filled in yet, when the phone rang. He got up, went to the dresser where the phone sat, and plucked it down.

  He perched on the bed and lifted the receiver.

  A familiar voice filled his ear, scratchy and faint, as if it was talking from a very long way off.

  He listened.

  The voice spoke, telling him what it wanted him to do.

  Jake nodded.

  He didn’t need to vocally confirm that he understood. It was as if his mother – because that was who Jake was sure he was talking too – could somehow see him.

  The voice faded, the line filling for a moment with a hiss of static, and then there was no sound at all.

  His mother had gone back to wherever she came from, at least until the next time the phone rang. A couple of times he had wondered where she was, why she only talked through the phone and did not visit him in person. When he’d asked that very question, the voice had replied without hesitation.

  Heaven.

  Apparently, one could not just leave heaven, it wasn’t allowed, which was why they must talk over the phone. But, the voice promised, if Jake was very good, he would come to heaven and be with her soon. All he had to do was follow her instructions. Even if those instructions seemed to contradict what he’d been told to do previously, which they did.

  It didn’t matter.

  All that was important was that he was a good boy, and then he would be with her again, and everything would be back to the way it should be.

  He slid from the bed, picked up the phone, and placed it back upon the dresser.

  Next he went to the closet and pulled the door wide. Reaching as far in as he could, he fumbled around, pushing stuff aside until he found the planchette he had hidden there a few days before. He pulled it out and inspected his prize, feeling no small measure of satisfaction.

  When the knock at the door came, he was ready.

  Chapter 54

  Sarah made her way to Jake’s room.

  She knocked on the door, waited a moment, then gripped the handle and opened it just enough to poke her head in.

  “Time for bed,” she said a second before her eyes fell on Jake, standing in the middle of the room, something small and familiar clutched in his outstretched hands.

  “I think this is yours.” Jake took a step forward, then another.

  Sarah opened the door wide and met him halfway. She looked at the object, recognizing it. “Where did you get that?”

  “I…” Jake hesitated. His eyes grew wide. “I found it.”

  “This was in my bedroom.” Sarah snatched the planchette out of her brother’s hand. “Where did you find it?”

  He shrugged, said nothing.

  “Talk to me, you little creep.” She felt the anger rising. Had he been up in the attic – her attic - snooping around when she wasn’t there? Had he stolen this? What else had he looked at, her journal? Probably not. She hardly wrote in the diary that sat in a drawer next to her bed. Most of the time she wrote online, venting her frustrations anonymously, blogging about boys, shoes, and everything else a teenage girl cares about. Except that she hadn’t even done much of that during the last year. Encountering violent, unexpected death at an early age had a habit of making such things seem trivial. “Well?”

  “I don’t know.” Jake glanced down, avoiding eye contact.

  “Damn it. You stole this from my bedroom, didn’t you?”

  “No.” Jake looked up at her, and something in his eyes gave her pause. Instead of the usual glint of mischief, there was something else, something dark and brooding. For a fleeting second she imagined she was looking into the eyes of a complete stranger.

  “Forget about it.” Sarah took a step back, uncomfortable. “It’s time for bed.”

  “Okay.” Jake made no attempt to move.

  “You should go brush your teeth,” Sarah said. “And then you can get into your pajamas. I want you in bed within ten minutes, understand?”

  “Sure.” Jake shuffled his feet.

  “I’m waiting.” Sarah wondered if this was what it was going to be like when she had kids, or rather, if she had kids.

  “Alright. Stop nagging me.” Jake pushed past her and went to the bathroom. When he reached the door, he stopped, turned back. “Sarah?”

  “Yes?”

  “Why are there boys upstairs?” His unblinking eyes searched her face. “Why is Tyler here?”

  “What?” Sarah felt herself floundering. How could he possibly know that Tyler and Logan were here? She had been so careful, and there was no way he saw them sneaking up to the attic. Jake’s bedroom door had been closed the whole time.

  “I know that Tyler is upstairs.” Jake lingered at the ba
throom door, half in, and half out. “There’s another boy up there too. I don’t know who he is.”

  “It’s no one. A friend of Becca’s.” Sarah could feel the anxiety wadding up in her stomach, a hard ball of fear that refused to settle. “I suppose you’re going to tell Dad?”

  “Why are they here?”

  “We didn’t want to be alone while Dad’s gone, that’s all.”

  “I don’t like Tyler.” Jake spoke the words in a low, matter-of-fact voice. “He shouldn’t be here.”

  “You get on great with Tyler,” Sarah said, confused. “He used to play with you all the time, you used to go to Boston Common and chuck footballs.”

  “I don’t like him now.”

  “Why not?”

  “He’s ruining things. They both are.”

  “I don’t understand,” Sarah said, a creeping unease coming over her. “Why do you think he’s ruining things?”

  “Mom told me so.” Jake glared at Sarah, his eyes narrow slits.

  “Mom told you.” Sarah repeated the words. “What are you talking about. Mom’s dead, Jake. How many more times do we have to go over this?”

  “I told you, she talks to me on the phone.”

  “You need to grow up.” Sarah did her best to keep her voice level, but even so, it cracked. “If you want to play with imaginary friends, that’s fine, but you have to understand that the dead don’t come back and talk to you on the telephone.”

  “Yes, they do,” Jake said.

  “No, they don’t,” Sarah said. Only She didn’t truly believe that. Not after the events in the cellar, the other stuff that had happened. Maybe there were such things as ghosts, and maybe there was even a ghost in Willow House, but the telephone in Jake’s room was absolutely not a hotline to heaven. Of that, she was certain.

  “I won’t tell Dad,” Jake said. “Mom told me not to tell him. It’s our secret.”

  “Well, aren’t I lucky?” Sarah said, and even though she felt a wave of relief that Jake wasn’t going to rat them out, she still felt uneasy. There was one good thing though. They wouldn’t need to creep around anymore, since Jake already knew the boys were in the house.

  “I’m going to get ready for bed now.” Jake turned and disappeared into the bathroom. Soon the sound of water running reached Sarah’s ears.

  She stood there, looking at the empty corridor a while longer, and then retreated back to the attic stairs. Jake could get himself into bed. She no longer cared if he stayed up all night. She sensed something strange in him, a subtle change, cold and dark. And even though she didn’t want to admit it, deep down she knew the truth. Jake’s newfound friend frightened her, because maybe, just maybe, there really was someone, or something, on the other end of that phone.

  Chapter 55

  Becca turned toward the door when Sarah entered the attic. Her eyes alighted on the planchette cradled in her friend’s hand. “You found it.”

  “My little crap of a brother had it in his room.” Sarah closed the door. “He claimed he found it. I bet he snuck up here when we were out and stole it. What a creep.”

  “I hope you gave him hell.”

  “I wish,” Sarah said. “He knows we snuck Tyler and Logan in.”

  “Great.” Tyler looked crestfallen. “Your dad’s going to ban me from seeing you after this. You’ll be grounded for like, a million years.”

  “He’s not going to find out,” Sarah replied. Jake's words stuck in her head. Mom told me not to tell him. It’s our secret. She shuddered, overcome with a sudden sense of foreboding. “He said he wouldn’t tell anyone.”

  “Why?” Becca looked up in disbelief. “That doesn’t sound like Jake.”

  “Beats me. I have no idea,” Sarah lied. “At least we don’t have to sneak around anymore.”

  “So what did he steal?” Logan asked, peering at the planchette. “Looks like some kind of weird mouse.“

  “It’s a pointer,” Becca said. “For an Ouija board.”

  “No way.” Logan jumped up. “Let’s do it.”

  “Absolutely not.” Sarah stepped in. “We’re not playing with that thing again. Not after last time.”

  “Last time?” Tyler raised an eyebrow.

  “Forget I said anything.” Sarah didn’t want to talk about it, especially to Tyler. He must already think she was half crazy after the whole pill incident and then shutting him out for months, blaming him. But to tell him that they had spoken to a spirit she suspected was a seventeenth century witch, and that she thought the witch was haunting their house, that would seal the deal. He would never want to see her again, and she couldn’t have that, not now when things were finally starting to go well between them again.

  “Come on, tell us,” Tyler persisted. “You can’t leave us in suspense like that.”

  “Yes, I can.” Sarah went to the bed, sat down.

  “I’m with Tyler,” Logan said. “Something must have happened, or you wouldn’t be so secretive.”

  “Nothing happened.” Becca came to Sarah’s defense. “We just played around for a while and it spelled out some stuff. It’s a game, that’s all. No big deal.”

  “I still think we should do it tonight.” Logan glanced between Sarah and Becca, a grin on his face. “It’ll be fun.”

  “I agree.” Tyler jumped in, but when he saw the look on Sarah’s face, he backpedaled. “I mean, if everyone wants to. I don’t really care.”

  “You said it was just a game,” Logan said. “What are you afraid of?”

  “I’m not afraid of anything,” Sarah shot back. “I just don’t want to do it, is all.”

  “So don’t. The rest of us can still do it.” Logan looked around, his eyes searching the room. “Where’s the board.”

  “It’s there, on top of the dresser.” Tyler pointed.

  Sarah let out an annoyed snort.

  Tyler turned to her. “Sorry.”

  “It’s fine,” Sarah replied. “Do the stupid board if it makes you happy.”

  “Everyone needs to do it or it won’t work.” Becca stood up, retrieved the board and opened it on the floor between the bed and the air mattress. “There can’t be any distractions.”

  “Whatever.” Sarah sighed. “I’ll do it with you, but I don’t like it one bit.”

  “Really?” Tyler slid to the floor, sitting cross-legged. He motioned for Sarah to join him. “Awesome.”

  “Yeah, so awesome,” Sarah said, a sarcastic tone to her voice as she slid off the bed.

  “Are we all ready?” Becca took her place at the fourth side of the board and glanced across at Sarah.

  “Get on with it already,” Tyler said.

  “Don’t be so impatient.” Becca held her hand out, waiting until Sarah gave her the planchette. She placed it on the board, just as she had done the first time, and touched a finger to it. “Come on, everyone else do the same.”

  The two boys reached over and placed their fingers on the pointer. Sarah hesitated, but then, with a sigh, did the same. Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad, she reasoned. After all, it was only a game. Except that she didn’t believe that, not after the last time. But it was too late to back out now, especially since she didn’t want to seem any worse in Tyler’s eyes.

  “Good.” Becca studied the small group, making eye contact with each before speaking again. “Now remember, don’t push down. Touch the pointer, but don’t influence it.”

  “What now?” Logan asked. “Do we just wait?”

  “I have to invite the spirits to come to us.” Becca cleared her throat, and then, as she had before, she spoke to the air above the gathered group. “Is there an entity that wants to converse with us?”

  Sarah watched the planchette, expecting it to remain still. The first time they had done this the pointer seemed reluctant to move at the beginning, but not so this time. It shot sideways so fast that she lost contact with it for a moment before it settled over the word YES. She let out a gasp and resisted the urge to pull her had back.

&nbs
p; “Holy crap,” Tyler said. “Did one of you do that?”

  “Not me,” Logan replied, shaking his head.

  “She’s here.” Becca’s face had drained of color. There was a tremble in her voice. “It must be her.”

  “Who?” Tyler looked confused.

  “The witch.” Sarah felt sick. Her hand shook, but she didn’t have the nerve to remove it from the pointer. “We should close the connection right now.”

  “What? No way,” Logan said. “Isn’t this why we’re playing with this thing?”

  “I agree with Sarah,” Becca said. “We shouldn’t have done this again. It was stupid. I’m closing the connection.”

  Sarah felt a rush of relief, but then, before any of them could say another word the planchette quivered, as if it were trying to shake itself free of the fingers resting upon it.

  They froze, four sets of eyes on the pointer.

  It slowed, stopped, and for a moment nothing happened. Then it rushed sideways in the other direction with such force that the feet left thin scratch marks on the surface of the board.

  It stopped above the word NO.

  As it came to rest, there was a buzz, and the lights flickered, plunging the room into momentary darkness before coming back on.

  “Oh crap,” Sarah whispered. “She’s not going to let us, is she?”

  “Okay. One of you might be pushing the pointer, but how the hell did you make the lights go out?” Tyler looked shaken. “Please tell me this is a joke.”

  “It’s not,” Becca said. “This is the real deal. I have to close the session before anything else happens.”

  “How?” Tyler asked.

  “We drag the pointer to the word GOODBYE.”

  “So let’s do it,” Sarah said. She pressed down, tried to force the planchette upward.

  It didn’t move.

  “Is anyone holding it in place?” Becca looked around the group.

  “No.” Tyler shook his head.

  “Absolutely not,” Logan said. “It seems to be stuck.”

  “That’s impossible.” Sarah pushed again, but still the pointer refused to move.