by Gillian Zane
“Join hands, and let us concentrate on what we’ve come here today to accomplish.” Everyone took hands, the assistant slipped his hand into mine, and I took Helena’s. I tried not wince as her sweaty palm met mine. She was nervous about something and I was pretty sure it was this entire affair. It wasn’t every day you went to a séance to try and eradicate the angry ghost that had taken up residence in your home.
“We’re trying to contact the Johnson children, are you with us today?” I droned.
“Oh dang, that’s me,” Emmett called. “But, I ain’t a child.”
“Someone is here,” I whispered.
“Who is it?” I called, pushing power into Emmett.
“Emmett Johnson, ma’am.” The words whispered through the room and Helena and her neighbor cried out in shock.
“Don’t break contact,” I hissed as I felt her hand try to pull from mine.
Emmett was jumping up and down in his excitement of making contact with the living. I swallowed a smile at his pleasure.
“Emmett, thank you for coming here. Can you do something so we know you’re really here?” I asked.
“The candle,” Drake said and indicated the candle in the middle of the table. Emmett wrapped his hand around it skeptically, but I pushed power into him, and he pulled it toward his side of the table. He was a little shaky, so it fell over and went out, splashing wax all over the tablecloth.
Everyone but the twins exclaimed in fear. Emmett was giggling.
“They all afraid of me,” Emmett said to Drake and he nodded.
In the midst of this, I watched as Mary materialized in the room. Her face had a worried expression on it and she tried to pull Emmett to her, but he was too hopped up on energy and excitement to listen to her. He pulled away from her and continued to bounce around the room.
“Is there someone with you, Emmett?” I wanted to get Mary involved, maybe she wouldn’t be so concerned, so reluctant to help, if I got her motivated. “Can you tell us if someone is here with you, Emmett?” I saw his mouth open to speak, but there was a rustling of clothes and paper as the temperature in the room plummeted.
“My battery is dead,” Teddy exclaimed.
“It’s freezing in here,” Cherish whined.
“Emmett?” I asked.
“Quiet, Emmett!” The voice was loud, vibrating with power. Where he had gotten the power from, I was clueless. Charles was here.
“You can’t tell me what to do!” Emmett fired back and I saw Mary try and shush him. They were whispering so low I couldn’t hear them.
“Who’s here? I demand to know who is here with Emmett!” I propelled my voice loudly through the room and Charles appeared in front of me like I had willed it. He floated through the table, only his top half visible. If looks could kill—well, it was a good thing I was already dead.
“My camera’s out now,” Gregor chimed in.
“Again, is anyone actually working around here? Back-up batteries are a thing, morons,” Roselle muttered.
“Is it the ghosts? Are they draining the batteries?” Helena asked nervously.
“Demons are known to use the energy within the batteries to power themselves.” Raul didn’t skip a beat, forcing the demon angle, and Helena’s daughter looked around nervously. Montana did the sign of the cross.
Charles disappeared, but I could sense he was still around, even though I couldn’t see him. I could feel his swirling energy, built up from whatever he had siphoned it from. Emmett and Mary also stood off to the side, worried expressions on their faces, their bodies translucent as they lost their power, while Charles gained more and more. Was he siphoning their power? Is that why he kept them around.
“Charles, is that you?” I improvised.
“Charles, who’s that?” Raul asked skeptically, choosing to pretend like he had no clue I had brought up the Johnson kids in earlier conversations.
“You’re the older brother, right, Charles?” I said. “Are you angry?” I placed both my hands on the table as I felt the energy pick up in the room.
“Angry! Hell yes!” he hollered, and Mary whimpered. I could almost see him fully now. He was using up a lot of energy swirling around the room, and yet he seemed to be having a hard time staying visible. His voice wasn’t coming through to my audience, only a few of his actions, so I gave him more energy and a whirlwind erupted in the room.
“Are you recording this?” Raul shouted.
“I told you, I’m out,” Teddy called. “All batteries drained.”
“Same here,” Gregor called over the swirl of the wind.
“That is too damn convenient.” Roselle stood up, breaking the chain of hands. The pressure changed in the room and I had to pop my jaw to clear my ears. Charles was pulling power from anything he could manage to siphon. I fought him, pulling the energy away from him and into me. The energy wasn’t the usual negative and dark power I was used to, so the feeling was odd, euphoric with an underlying taste of desperation. It felt like my hair was standing on end.
Drake, ever aware, stepped forward as Charles paled and slumped to the ground. He slapped the cuff on the boy’s wrist before he could get away. Charles, realizing what happened, began to howl like he was in pain.
The crowd glanced around the room apprehensively, some still held hands. Helena, Montana, and Cherish still clung to each other, but the twins were looking accusingly at me. What did I do now?
“You broke the circle, Roselle,” I said it clipped like I was holding back my anger. If they wanted a direction to point the finger of blame, I would supply it.
“We need to get the civilians out of here.” She ignored my accusation. “I think we’re done with this part of the investigation, seeing as we can’t film it.”
Teddy’s camera had a sudden surge of power as I began to direct the power I had accumulated to where it belonged. Roselle was too distracted to hear his exclamation of excitement, which was a positive thing since I didn’t want her to know we were back in business.
“If my house is haunted, Roselle, I want it taken care of, even if there aren’t cameras involved,” Helena spoke up. I was impressed that she was standing up to this pinched female.
“If there is something in this house, that charlatan will not be helping get rid of it,” Roselle said icily, shooting me a look.
“I beg your pardon,” I said.
“You heard me. These nineteen century theatrics that you had go down in here were ridiculous. How did you do it? When did you get in here to set up the magic show? We’ve had this room on lock down since we decided to film in this location.”
“There were no such magic tricks, Roselle,” I stated vehemently.
“Bullshit, I know how these things are done, and this was clearly a big fat hoax. You should be ashamed of yourself.” The balls on this girl, she was one to talk.
“What are you talking about? You’ve said so yourself that this place is haunted, or possessed,” I fired back. I was suspicious of Raul’s submissive behavior, he was too quiet. He was also looking at his sister like she had grown horns. Was it an act? Or did he not like her reaction?
“The place is inhabited by a demon, which we will get rid of.” She emphasized demon.
“Right, yes, a demon,” Raul chimed in, finally catching on to the script.
“Let’s say it actually is a demon. Do you think it could pretend to be a child and do this? Why is your first thought that I staged this?” I argued.
“Well, of course not, a demon would…” She trailed off realizing her error.
“Why wouldn’t you believe what I’ve done here, Roselle?” I asked, trying to look as innocent as possible. I even looked over at Helena and gave her a pleading look, hopefully conveying my sincerity. I hated this shit. Justification would come when we helped the Johnsons cross over and the twins got served their karma.
“I’m not trying to fake anything, or scam anything,” I continued. “There are three children, teenagers, that live in this house, they ar
e still here.”
As if on cue, Charles’ struggles against the restrictive cuff began to increase. He was pulling power from anything he could, even with the power of the cuff working against him. James was staring at him in horror, shaking his head like this wasn’t supposed to be happening.
I protected the batteries in the cameras. This needed to get on film.
“It’s not children!” Roselle cried in exasperation.
“They are right there.” I pointed toward the two children huddled in the corner. The tiniest bit of energy directed to them, and a shadow formed where they stood. Helena and her daughter gasped and linked hands again, both of them turned and glared at Roselle.
“That isn’t fake, how is that fake?” Helena cried.
“More theatrics. I don’t know how you are doing this, Castalia, but it’s getting old.” Roselle was not backing down.
“If you think so, aren’t these rooms wired with cameras, they aren’t running on battery power, right? Let’s review the footage. Where is the computer recording their streams?” I looked to Raul and he went pale.
“Uh, I was going to review it and if I saw something then go over it with Roselle and maybe we would come back…” He glanced at a messenger bag on a chair to the side.
“We can just go over the séance footage. Where is the camera?” I looked around like I honestly didn’t know where they were.
A popping sound and a snap of electricity had everyone looking up at the chandelier. Tiny licks of fire were shooting upward from a black object affixed to a decorative crystal piece.
“Holy shit!” Raul jumped up from the table.
“Is that the camera?” Helena asked.
“Do you feel the massive energy draw? They must be trying to use the energy from the cameras.” I hoped I sounded convincing and like it had only recently occurred to me. There were snaps and fizzles coming from the other rooms. All the cameras were going up in smoke. All of them. If Roselle wanted a show, I was going to give her a show.
Teddy pointed his camera at the chandelier and then began making his way out of the room.
“Are you filming again? Why didn’t you tell me you were filming again?” Roselle screeched.
“I thought your cameras were down?” Raul asked more calmly.
“I have juice again,” Teddy said. “Who knows what the hell is going on here?” He laughed nervously, but kept filming.
Montana, who had been staring in shock at the chandelier, took this opportunity to get out of the room as quickly as she could manage. She nearly ran over Teddy trying to exit, but stopped right at the threshold between the two rooms. She turned back, real fear in her eyes.
“Something is burning, Helena, get a fire extinguisher.”
This began a flurry of activity. Even James was looking around for something to use to put out the fires.
I stayed in the dining room, my eyes on the messenger bag.
“Check your camera, Gregor,” Teddy snapped. “I need a second pair of eyes on this.” The man did as he was told, the surprise on his face conveying that he didn’t expect what he saw, which was a full battery. The camera was back up and filming.
Perfect timing too, as was the usual case in incidents of karma, because it was about to go down.
I knew the moment Cherish found the hidden cameras Raul didn’t want anyone to notice.
“What the hell! Mom!” Her horrified voice carried throughout the house.
Raul had been lurking in the dining room, not wanting to go far from his bag, but now he was curious as to what was happening in the rest of the house. He took two steps out of the room, but thought better of it and caught my eye. We both looked to the bag.
“There’s a camera in the girl’s shower!” Helena’s outraged voice ricocheted through the halls, the accusation heavy in the air. Teddy and Gregor ran to the bathroom. It was all getting filmed.
“Care to show us what’s on your computer, Raul,” I said in a low voice.
“There’s nothing on there, I don’t know what you are implying.” He stepped forward trying to get closer to his computer, but I grabbed the messenger bag before he could.
“There are cameras in my girls’ room, in my room!” Helena stormed into the dining room, her eyes went to mine and then to Raul.
“I was waiting for Raul to explain.” I looked over at the twin and his pale skin had gone red with the accusation.
“Those cameras were installed to catch activity.” Roselle hurried back in the room ready to defend her brother, but her voice was weak, and she knew her argument was useless.
“Paranormal activity in the shower, where my teens bathe? What kind of racket are you three running?” Helena asked vehemently.
“I assure you, Helena, I have nothing to do with these con artists. They only hired me a few days ago to give their operation more psychic credibility. If I would have known.” I shook my head to reiterate how truly disappointed I was in how this turned out, even though I was thrilled that it had gone exactly as planned. “I’ll be turning this over to the police.” I gripped the messenger bag to my chest.
“As a psychic you would think you would have known,” Roselle laughed morosely.
“Oh, I knew you were up to something,” I smirked.
“Bullshit, you’re about as much of a psychic as there are ghosts in this house.” She rolled her eyes.
“Really? Is that your angle, there isn’t anything here?” I fired back.
“If you’re stupid enough to believe that ghosts exist…” She choked on the words like they were a bad piece of fruit stuck in her throat that she desperately needed to expel.
“You’re finally admitting it, Roselle? Admitting what you and your brother have believed since you started your little scam operation? What you’ve believed since your family hired their own demon hunters?” I put both hands on my hips and glared at her. The itch of annoyance and embarrassment raced across my skin as the cameras turned to me.
“Roselle, it’s time to be quiet now,” her brother hissed. But Roselle wasn’t done, and she was not letting Raul calm her down. All her attention was focused on me as she glared me down, willing me to call her out. She needed the final say, she couldn’t let me get away with what I had done, which in her mind, was ruin everything. She was kind of right.
“Scam! You are one to talk. Where did they drag you up from, some back alley scamming tourists out of their dollars for a prophecy?” Her anger was only increasing, her feeling of being wronged hung around her like a storm.
“Admit it, Roselle, admit how you feel about the people you supposedly help, the people who believe they are being haunted…” Ignoring her accusations, I focused only on her, giving her what she had always wanted. She was now the center of attention. Her eyes were only on mine, but all eyes were on her. She didn’t notice the two cameras pointed in her direction, or the outraged looks shared by Helena and her neighbor. Nor the pleading look from her brother. They all stared at her like she was the demon.
“You know you feel the same!” Her eyes widened, almost imploring me to be on her side. To stop this ridiculous attack and join her team of skeptics.
“I believe in ghosts, Roselle, what does that make me?” Helena asked in a quiet, ashamed voice. My heart ached for what this was doing to her. I wanted to end it quick, get these monsters out of the house and reassure Helena that her problems were done. But Roselle was a tough nut to crack. To emphasize my point, she began to rant.
“Stupid! Delusional and stupid. There is no such thing as ghosts, you gotta know that…” She slapped her hands down on the table, glaring daggers at me.
“I’ll let you in on a little secret then.” My pace was slow and deliberate as I walked over to her. She flinched away from me, but I was persistent. Placing my hand on her shoulder for effect, I bet on all eyes being on Roselle and me. I made the four ghosts in the room visible.
“This is what it’s like to have the Sight,” I pushed energy into the four of them, p
ulling from the humans around me, pulling from the negative energy that was free flowing off Raul and Roselle and into me. I pushed it into the ghosts to make them visible. The long con. I couldn’t actually affect Roselle’s ability to see the dead, but I could make it seem like she did.
Roselle began to scream as four figures came into view.
“That’s Drake, Emmett, Mary, and Charles,” I whispered in her ear, even though she probably didn’t hear me over her own screaming.
After only five seconds of them being visible, I took the energy back. Well, most of it. The energy that Drake had siphoned was sticking with him, but he used his own power to hide again. I removed my hand from Roselle’s shoulder and she fell into the chair, a rasping sound of pain coming out of her chest. The dark energy that had pooled around her was now in my possession.
Teetering with my intake of power, I gripped the messenger bag to my chest and collapsed into a chair next to Roselle. My head was spinning from what I had just done.
Karma delivered.
19
Transitions
Hours of chaos ensued. Lawsuits were threatened. A vase was broken. Equipment was hurriedly packed. More lawsuits were threatened. The twins fled. An hour, at least, was spent on the phone with the money man in L.A. who couldn’t understand why this meant the end of his show. Teddy finally rescued me and took over, pitching his new idea, which revolved around uncovering scams like this. The money man seemed receptive.
Finally, the last box was packed up and I was left in the house alone with Helena and James. James had lurked in the shadows since it all went down, trying to be unnoticed.
“Helena, this is James. He’s not a reporter. I brought him in when I suspected the twins of duplicity,” I said, which was an agreed upon cover story that James and I had made up on the fly after the séance.