“Thanks, bro,” said Tyler, rising now that Logan had saved him from spilling the books onto the ground.
Ashleigh passed the service desk and waved goodbye to Eloise before continuing towards the exit. Logan headed in that direction with his brother.
“Tyler?” asked Eloise.
Logan and his brother stopped and turned towards her.
Eloise held out a bag. “So you don’t drop any.”
Tyler grabbed it. “Thanks.” He shoved the books from his arms into the bag.
“You’re welcome.” Then her eyes met Logan’s. She revealed a slight smile before her lips flattened, and she grew more serious as she continued helping those in front of her.
Logan just stared at her, thinking about being alone with her for once. Up until now, they hadn’t discussed anything that revealed great depth about either of them. So if they saw each other again, what would they talk about? He had no clue, but it gave him something to look forward to.
“Hey, Logan,” Tyler called out from behind him. “Are you done looking at the pretty girl? Can we go home now?”
Logan clamped his lips shut and spun toward his brother, wanting to unleash a torrent of curse words his way. When he turned back toward Eloise in hopes that she hadn’t heard Tyler speaking, he found her looking at him with a grin. Then he noticed the adults in line staring at him with smiles. Heat forced its way into his face as he pivoted and turned back to Tyler, walking at a quick clip to avoid any more humiliation. And to think he’d almost made it an entire conversation with her without getting a little nervous.
When he exited the building, he ran over to his brother. “That wasn’t cool. At all.”
“No, it wasn’t,” Tyler said. A mischievous grin formed on his face. “But it sure was fun. Did you see everyone staring at you?” He laughed. “Man, I should’ve taken a picture.”
It reminded Logan of the framed photograph that lay on the floor beside the staircase. “Hey, Ashleigh,” he shouted into the parking lot.
She turned around and looked at him. “Where’s your car?”
“Wait up.” But he pointed off to the right.
His sister started in that direction.
Logan rolled his eyes at her for ignoring him. He reached the car, unlocked the doors, and they all got into the truck. After he pulled away from the parking space, he said, “Did you see that picture of me, you, Mom, and Dad?”
“Which one?” she asked, removing a book titled Ghosts That Attack from her bag and looking it over.
“The one on the staircase wall.”
“No. What about it?”
“It was lying on the ground when I went downstairs this morning.”
Ashleigh craned her neck towards him. Her eyes protruded. “Why?”
“That’s what I wanted to ask you about.” Logan set his gaze on his brother. “How about you? Did you see it on the ground?”
Tyler shook his head. “See? Told you.” He looked out the windshield. “It’s a ghost.”
Due to their certainty, the strange circumstances the past few days, and Eloise’s blasé way of acknowledging the existence of ghosts, Logan began to consider that maybe they were real. And just maybe…one was haunting them.
7
When they got home, Logan fixed them a quick lunch consisting of macaroni and cheese along with fish sticks he’d cooked in the oven. They sat at the kitchen table with a dozen books about ghosts spread out around them.
“The branch is so small,” Logan said. “I’m shocked they had this many books on ghosts. I mean, they only have a few books on the Cubs and Bears. But they have this many books about ghosts? It’s weird.”
Ashleigh swished the macaroni around her fish sticks. “There’s a reason for it.”
When she didn’t say a word, Logan gestured toward his sister with his fork and spun it in a circle, urging her to explain herself.
“When I found out that you liked Eloise, I sort of looked her up online.”
Logan staggered back a bit in his chair. “I thought you were friends? Don’t you trust her?”
“She is my friend.” Ashleigh wouldn’t look him in the eyes. “But you’re my brother.”
Based on the way his sister squirmed in her seat convinced Logan that she’d checked on Eloise for his own benefit, to see if there were any reason for him not to date her. The effort and the concern she’d shown really touched Logan. His throat clogged with emotion, and although he wanted to thank her for thinking about him, he couldn’t get a word out.
“Anyway,” Ashleigh said, “I found out some stuff about her.” She stuck a fingernail between two teeth. “Damn, I need floss.” She removed her finger from her mouth and pushed her chair back.
“You can’t go now,” Logan said. “Not after what you said. What stuff did you find?”
“She has a blog,” Tyler said. He nodded at his sister. “Go on. Tell him.”
“What did you find?” Logan asked, his throat closing up on him at the thought that she might have posted naked photos of herself. In the few seconds that followed, he reconsidered that worry. Eloise didn’t seem the type of person to engage in that type of behavior.
“Well?” he asked. “Was she convicted of a crime or something?” But just as the question left his mouth, he couldn’t see her engaged in any type of criminal activity. The uncertainty was beginning to get to his head, and if he didn’t get an answer soon, he’d begin thinking of even more unlikely actions and scenarios.
“Come on, Ash,” said Tyler. “Look at Logan. If you don’t tell him soon, he might get brain hemorrhoids.”
Ashleigh clucked her tongue. “You mean a brain hemorrhage, not hemorrhoids.” She finally stared Logan in the eye. “She’s a psychic. Well, she’s also a medium.”
Logan squinted, trying to make sense of that. “So she can see the future?”
His sister nodded. “She can also communicate with ghosts.” Her eyebrows quirked upwards as she stared at him. After about ten seconds, she said, “Say something.”
Logan eyed her suspiciously. “You’re not joking, are you? You’re telling the truth.”
“Yep,” Tyler said. “That’s why they have so many books about ghosts.”
“Yeah,” Ashleigh said. “She goes to haunted houses and gets rid of spirits and bad things.”
Logan got a little dizzy, and his gut squeezed tightly. It explained why Eloise wanted more information from him at the library. She wanted to find out if a ghost was pestering them. “How does she prove it online? That spirits exist?”
“I can show you her blog,” said Ashleigh, half-rising from her chair. “That might—”
“No,” Logan said. The last few times he’d chatted with Eloise, they’d only had ten minutes together max, so he couldn’t expect her to offer up the info that Ashleigh had found. But if what his sister said was true, was a ghost truly haunting their home…and them? And how could he get proof that a specter had caused the trouble they’d been experiencing? A shiver ran through him that he was actually seriously thinking what he’d previously considered as ridiculous. It left him feeling chilled, and it had nothing to do with the temperature in the room.
In hopes of trying to avoid further reflection about ghosts inhabiting their homes, Logan turned to Eloise’s power as a psychic. If she truly had foresight, which he still couldn’t wrap his head around, could she see if they had a future together? Other questions bombarded his mind, questions he’d never get an answer for unless he asked her, but he silenced those thoughts because he needed to get clarity on one thing at a time.
Ashleigh pounded the table so hard, the plates rattled on the surface. “Stay with me.”
Logan quieted his inner inquiries and redirected his attention to his sister.
“I don’t know much,” she continued. “But ghosts are not made up things. She has a contact page on her website, so visitors can get in touch and tell her what’s happening in their homes. She’ll go and visit those places if the stories see
m legit.”
“What does she do?” Logan asked. “How does she make them leave?”
Ashleigh shrugged. “She didn’t say.” She pointed to one of the books on the table. “And I think she knows we might be dealing with something like that. She saw these books when I finished at the self-checkout machine.”
Logan was nauseated by this new development, and he figured the feeling wouldn’t leave until he learned more about it. They spent the rest of the afternoon and into the early part of the evening going through the books.
As the best reader among the group, Logan read or skimmed three books in that time, while his sister finished half that amount. Over that entire time span, Tyler managed to read one chapter of a book. Considering his short attention span and disinterest in reading, between rushing back and forth between playing his guitar and the piano, he’d accomplished more than Logan thought possible. In all that time, Logan and Ashleigh would stop each other if they found an interesting fact or passage.
Afterward, Logan didn’t know what to make of everything he’d read. Some of what he’d gone through spooked him, like how ghosts can attach themselves to a person and how they are filled with only thoughts and emotions. Other parts seemed ridiculous. For instance, Logan had a difficult time believing that spirits could haunt an empty home for decades. What was the point? How could a ghost get gratification from that? Wouldn’t it get bored and just say, “Screw this, I’m outta here?”
After looking back at what had recently occurred in their home, Logan couldn’t pinpoint any situation that couldn’t have been manipulated by his siblings. He’d just opened the fourth book, but after being confronted with the first chapter, his eyes were strained and grainy, making it difficult to read. A headache had begun forming, and he couldn’t go on, so he closed the cover, but at least his stomach had settled down.
“Giving up?” Ashleigh asked. Her eyes appeared drowsy. She yawned. “Probably a good idea.” She closed the paperback she’d been reading and pushed it away from her. “What do you think, Logan? About a ghost being here?”
He rose from his seat and pushed the chair under the table. “Anything’s possible.”
Her mouth hung open. She jabbed the book in front of her with a finger. “It’s all right there. Everything that’s happened here.”
Logan couldn’t meet her eyes. “I’m open to their existence now, but I can’t say for certain that we’ve got one in this house.”
“Then you think we did this?” She pushed her chair away from the table. “Well, not me, but Tyler. You’re saying he slammed my door? He stuffed the toilet with tampons? Tyler said he didn’t do that stuff.”
“Slamming your door? Yeah, of course, Tyler could have done that. But the toilet bowl thing? I don’t know if he would’ve done that, but the books said that if a spirit had enough energy and harnessed it, the entity could actually manipulate matter, so it’s possible a specter pulled that off.”
“Okay, fine, then how about that ghost grabbing my shoulder?”
“That also sounds possible,” he said. It certainly fit with a ghost who clutched onto a human and wouldn’t let go. In that case, the entity followed that person wherever they went, basically haunting them 24/7 to make their life miserable. Doing so also apparently resulted in a transfer of power, as the spirit stole the energy a human emitted. The more fear or anger a person gave off, the more energy the ghost could take from them. As crazy as it all seemed, the rationality behind it made sense, but admitting that made him quiver.
“It sounds possible,” she repeated, “but you think I’m exaggerating or something?” Ashleigh shot up from the table, the back of her legs shoving the chair behind her, making it thud against the wall. “So I’m a liar? Is that what you’re saying?”
“I wasn’t there, so I don’t know what happened.”
“Well, Aaliyah, Jin, and Josephina were there, and they called me a liar.”
He couldn’t speak to that, so he remained silent.
Ashleigh lowered her head, and since she didn’t speak for quite some time, Logan decided to leave her with her thoughts. The moment he stepped away, he heard his sister clear her throat.
“Then call Eloise,” she said. “Ask her to come over and check things out.”
He wanted to verify Ashleigh’s claim that Eloise was a psychic-medium, but if he contacted her, and she denied that claim, he’d look like a kook for even thinking it. He felt like he’d made some good progress so far. He didn’t want to jeopardize the inroads he’d made. Besides, he needed time to think about what that might mean and how he felt about it. If she really had those abilities and he’d asked her about them, he’d want to know how to respond.
“Contacting her won’t solve anything,” he said.
“Why not? Because you don’t believe she can speak with the dead?”
Logan didn’t want to admit the truth. Indeed, he thought talking to the dead was incredibly spooky, and he didn’t want to learn that the girl he had a major crush on had those skills. It seemed he didn’t need much time to figure out how he felt. But when he brought up her image in his head, he didn’t think she acted or seemed the least bit creepy. She was gorgeous and fun to talk to. To put it mildly, he was conflicted.
“Oh, so you’re scared,” she said. “Why else wouldn’t you call her?” She nodded and turned her head to the side in a look of pity.
Logan hated seeing her feel bad for him. “You don’t understand. You see—”
She looked off to the side, as deeper concentration gripped her. The judgmental glint in her eyes disappeared. “If you like her, don’t wait too long. If you do, she’ll think you aren’t interested, and she’ll start doubting herself, wondering things like, ‘Why didn’t he call? Was it my hair? Or that zit on my face? Maybe I’m too fat. Or too short. What did I do wrong?’ Then she’ll feel foolish for giving you her number. And after that, she’ll want to pretend you don’t exist, because now whenever she thinks about you, she feels those bad feelings.”
Based on the seriousness in her voice and the moisture in her eyes, Logan suspected that Ashleigh spoke from experience. If that was true, he felt incredibly bad for her. “I didn’t realize that you felt that way.”
“Me?” She shrugged one shoulder and blew air through her lips. “Yeah, right?” But her lips quivered and more tears had entered her eyes.
“Well, I never thought of it that way.” Logan didn’t want to embarrass her, so he stopped and looked elsewhere. “That’s good to know. Thanks for telling me.” He pulled out his phone, found Eloise’s name in his contacts, and tapped it. The phone started to ring.
Logan’s heart started hammering. His chest felt tight. And he elicited a suction sound when his tongue peeled away from the dry bridge of his mouth. At first, he didn’t want her to answer. After all, Ashleigh was watching him. But what had he expected? He’d called Eloise to prove that he had the balls to do so. And that wasn’t a good enough reason to call a girl you liked. He was calling under false pretenses. Not a cool thing to do.
When it rang the fourth time, Logan started worrying that she wouldn’t answer. Now he no longer feared that he’d stumble while talking to her, but the pressure mounted when he realized he’d have to leave a message.
It rang a fifth time. If she didn’t answer, he’d be forced to start talking, and Eloise could listen to his voicemail over and over. She could pick apart what he’d said and the timbre of his voice and make her own conclusion. A conclusion that might differ from what he truly meant.
“Hello, this is Eloise. I’m not here right now, so please leave me a message with your name, number, and a detailed message, and I’ll get back to you ASAP.”
There was a beep on the other end of the line.
“Hey,” Logan said in a quiet tone. Movement from the side caught his attention.
Ashleigh mouthed the words, “Talk louder and stronger.” Then she did a bodybuilder pose and wore a big grin.
“I mean, hi,” he said, r
aising his voice. “This is Logan, by the way. I, uh, just wanted to call…because I said I would, and well, now I guess, I’m calling.”
Lines formed on Ashleigh’s brow as her mouth dropped open. Then her head tipped back, and she shook it.
“So,” Logan continued. “Yeah, um, call me back.” He paused, unsure if that sounded too cocky. “Or not. Whatever. Not a big deal.”
Ashleigh smacked an open palm against her forehead.
According to his sister, he’d blown it. His spirits fled him. It couldn’t get any worse than that. Anger replaced the disappointment in his heart. He imagined Eloise cringing while she listened to his message. He didn’t want to leave her with the impression that he was some kind of weeny. He turned his back on Ashleigh. All the while, at least five seconds of silence had passed.
“You know what?” Logan said, his voice trembling a little. “I’m just going to say it: I like you, Eloise. And I want to take you out on a date.” He read off his number. “So give me a call. I’ll talk to you then.”
“Whoa!” said Ashleigh. “You were supposed to ask her to check out our house for ghosts. Not ask her out.”
“Oh,” he said, only now remembering that important detail. “Right.” All the second-guessing had messed up his thought process. He felt like he’d let his sister down. It bummed him out because she’d been so concerned and because she wanted him to believe her. Now that he hadn’t contacted Eloise and given her a reason to contact him back as soon as possible, Ashleigh wouldn’t get the confirmation she desperately needed. “Sorry about that, Ash.”
“It’s all right,” she said and nodded. “There are two ways she could respond. First, she’ll think you have split personalities and won’t call back.”
“What? I didn’t sound like a psycho.”
“You kinda did.”
Then he recalled her facial expression and body language during the call. She liked Eloise, and Ashleigh obviously wanted things to go well for him. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have reacted that way. Taken in that context, he needed to believe his sister. It made him feel like a loser. His stomach dropped so fast, it felt like he’d entered an elevator without any brakes, only to discover that it had just begun its descent from the top of a skyscraper.
The Descendants Page 7