“That’s why you left the room suddenly that day, when you said you saw a spider.”
I nodded. “There was no spider. Just voices.” I ran my hands over my scalp, then rested them on my lap. “Geez, I must sound crazy.”
Damon moved closer on the couch and placed his hand on top of mine. “I don’t think you’re crazy.”
Our eyes locked and I wanted to hug him. Not because he was cute and I wanted to know what it would feel like, but because he was so nice to me. And revealing this secret had made me feel open and vulnerable and exposed and I felt like I needed some sort of human contact, some stability to stop my body feeling like it was floating away on an ever-moving cloud, taking me places I had no control over. I needed to feel grounded. Secure.
I glanced at Lara, who appeared deep in thought. She didn’t seem to notice that I was looking at her, waiting for her to give me some kind of response. Some reaction to my revelation.
“And this is why you’re so interested in delta brain waves, because you believe it has something to do with your abilities?”
“Yes.” I explained to him about Savannah’s coma and what the doctor had told me about delta waves and deep sleep and healing. And how we had all gathered around her bed holding hands, and that’s when we each sensed the future, and then she awoke. It was one of the most significant moments of our lives. And it changed our lives from then on, though we didn’t acknowledge it until three months later when our vision came true on moving to Iris Harbor.
“I’m guessing you don’t want to put it into our science project, though.” He half-smiled.
“Um, probably not a good idea.”
“Everything is energy,” Lara finally spoke. “And energy, though invisible, can affect other energy, so in theory it could be possible that Savannah’s vibrational frequency during her coma somehow affected yours, especially since you share a strong bond through a genetic relationship.” She tapped her chin with her multicolored fingernails. She wasn’t an “Oh my God!” kind of person or a “Wow, that is amazing!” person. For her it was all about facts and theories and reasons. No need for emotions to get in the way.
“Your last name almost sounds like ‘delta,’” mused Damon.
“That’s what we said!” I perked up. “We kind of gave ourselves a name, based on that.” Uh-oh, should I really have mentioned that? Too late.
“A name?” Damon tilted his head to the side.
“The Delta Girls,” I said with a cough.
“The what?”
I kept my gaze on the floor. “The Delta Girls.”
He grinned. “And are each of you called D1, D2, D3, and so on?”
“No!” I gave him a friendly slap on the arm. “I’m just Serena.”
He looked at me silently for a moment. “There’s no just about you, Serena.”
I didn’t know how to respond to that. I just fiddled with my pendant and watched the way the shadows from the tree outside moved hypnotically across his face.
Lara stood and stretched. “My brain needs some alone time to comprehend all this. I’m going to freshen up in the bathroom.”
We nodded.
“So, who else knows about The Delta Girls, D2?” asked Damon.
I smiled. “It’s Serena, thank you! Just our mom, and Riley. Oh, and some psychic tarot card reader we met at the market stalls.”
Lara left the room and a door creaked.
“And now us. Wow, before too long…” His voice trailed off in my mind as the door creaking took up all my attention.
I angled my ears toward the sound.
What came after the creaking in my vision?
The door slamming!
I stood and dashed to the living room entrance, just as the door to the sitting room next to us flung open and slammed against the wall.
Lara flinched and stopped in the hallway between the sitting room door and the staircase.
What came next, what came next? I went to that part of my brain that stored the memories of my visions.
Uh-oh.
A huge whoosh of air exploded from the sitting room toward Lara, right at the moment I remembered. I lunged for her, grabbing her arm with one hand and the railing with the other. She tipped sideways a little, and I almost went with her, but my hand on the railing kept us where we were. Next thing I knew, Damon’s hand was on my arm too, holding me—us—steady at the top of the staircase.
“How did that happen?” Lara’s voice went up an octave, and her breaths came fast and sharp. “I could have been seriously injured!” She moved away from the staircase and held onto the railing along the hallway, panting, and looking below to the first floor. “You got me just in time. Thank you.” She turned to look at me, eye to eye, which she didn’t often do. “How did you…” Her chin rose slightly. “Ohh…did you…see this, before it happened? I mean, hear this, somehow?”
I nodded. “I didn’t know how or when it was going to happen, just that you were going to fall and get hurt. It was my sister, Savannah, who knew it would be you.”
“That’s why you asked about her shoes,” said Damon.
The sitting room door slammed closed and we jumped, our gazes darting in that direction.
“Let’s get away from that room,” I said.
“Yes, I think we’ve had enough drama for one day,” Damon replied. “Big Bang Theory?” he asked.
Relief flooded my veins. A distraction was just what I needed. Until I had the strength and focus to think about how to deal with these ghosts.
“I’ll watch it too,” said Lara, following us into the room.
We sat on the couch and as the show played, Damon looked off into the distance.
“What is it?” I asked.
“It only just hit me,” he said. “It worked. The EVP actually worked.” He shook his head with an amazed smile.
And I knew in that moment that I had found someone special. Someone who got excited by science and research and new discoveries as much as I did. Yet someone who wasn’t bogged down by thinking inside the box of what we knew in this world to be “normal.” Someone who was open to new ideas. Someone who accepted things for what they were. Someone who accepted…me.
Chapter 16
“What’s Mom doing?” I asked as I arrived home that evening to find three of my sisters gathered near the door to the patio and Mom outside wearing a paint-stained apron and leaning over a large piece of wood.
“She’s painting,” said Sasha.
“I can see that,” I said. “But what?”
“It’s a mandala,” Talia explained. “She said it’s for the day spa, to display on the wall in the reception area so her massage clients can see it when they walk in.”
“Yeah, apparently her colleague who had that birthday on Saturday night got a DIY kit as a present, and Mom loved it so she bought one herself today,” Sasha said. “I want one too. You can get me one for Christmas, Serena.” She patted my cheek with her palm and wandered off to the living room. “Mmm, that dinner smells good.”
It was only then that I became aware of the subtle aromas of something warm and buttery wafting from the slow cooker in the kitchen. “So what’s a mandala?”
Tamara spoke up. “It’s a circular symmetrical pattern that’s sometimes used in meditation, or to focus the mind on setting an intention and creating a feeling of balance.”
“You sound like an expert,” I said.
“Nah, I’m just reading the description on the instructions.” She held up a sheet of paper.
“Oh, nice. Well, she looks like she’s enjoying herself,” I said.
“Oh, Serena, how did it go at the Jamesons’ house? I completely forgot! God, my mind is so scattered lately.” Talia held her hand to her forehead.
“Well, do I have a story to tell,” I replied, taking a seat on the couch as my sisters leaned forward, waiting for my news. “Hang on, where’s Savvy?”
“Still at Mandy’s.” Talia checked her watch. “She really should get home
soon, it’s getting late.”
“Maybe they’re making good progress on their science project for a change,” I suggested, though I doubted it. “Lets wait till she gets back so I can fill you all in at the same time.”
Savannah opened the front door a couple of minutes later. “Holy crap, guess what?” she blurted, dumping her bag on the floor and standing in the center of the room like she had arrived on stage in the live show of her life. “Mandy was looking for her dad’s cigarette stash, and she rummaged through a box under the coffee table that had these photo albums in it. She opened an album and on the page it opened at, there was a photo.”
“Yeah, there usually is, in photo albums.”
“Sasha!” Savannah ran a hand through her hair. “The photo, it was old. Really old. Black and white. There were three people in it, two women and one man.”
“And?” asked Sasha.
“The people in my vision! It was them!”
“Whoa, hang on,” I said, standing. “The people in the vision? Meaning, the same people that the voices belong to? The voices of the ghosts in the Jamesons’ house?”
Savannah shrugged. “All I know is that it’s definitely the ones I saw. So, assuming the voices belong to them, then yes, the same ghosts.”
“But what is their photo doing in Mandy’s house?” I said, pacing back and forth across the room. “Is she related to them? Did the three people once live in the Jamesons’ house?” A million thoughts raced through my head. The ghosts certainly shared Mandy’s unfriendly ways, so being related would make sense.
“Who knows?” Savannah shrugged again. “Mandy lives in a pretty crappy place; I don’t think she comes from a well-off family or anything. And she lives with only her dad, who is never home.”
Talia stood too. “You should ask her.”
“Oh yeah, ‘Hey Mandy, you know that photo in the album with the old people in it? Who are they, and why are they haunting Damon and Lara’s place?’ That would go down well.”
I stopped pacing. “You don’t have to be direct, just get to know her a bit more. Find out her history. Or maybe ask Samantha—Mandy probably tells her everything.”
Savannah twisted her lips to one side. “I’ll think about what I could do. And damn, I wish I’d taken a photo of the photo! But she closed the album too quickly and shoved the box back under the table.” She tapped at her chin. “If only I could go to the Jamesons’ house and see these ghosts for myself, see if they’re the same people…But how could we do that without Damon and Lara getting suspicious?” She glanced at me.
“Um, yeah, that won’t be a problem.” I shifted awkwardly on the spot.
“What do you mean?”
I took a deep breath and looked my sister in the eye. “They know. They know everything.”
Chapter 17
Three days later my sisters had almost gotten used to the fact that two more people knew our secret. But Sasha still avoided Damon and Lara at school. “Why yes, I can smell the future! What a gift!” she’d joked.
But Damon had other things on his mind. He approached me before class on Thursday, his expression weary and concerned. “We need to do something,” he said. “The noises are becoming more frequent. Dad still doesn’t seem to hear anything, but we do. And Lara, it’s freaking her out. She was curious and matter-of-fact about it all before, but now…” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Now, it’s making her anxious because she’s lost her sense of control. She likes to be in control, as you know. When she’s not, she doesn’t cope.”
My heart ached for her. “I agree. We need to work out a plan.” I moved closer to the wall so nobody would overhear us as more students shuffled past us toward their classes. Damon smelled of some kind of soap, something manly and different. I wasn’t used to it. But I wanted to get used to it. It was nice. “Has anything different happened? Just the usual?”
“The banging on the wall, doors opening and slamming, and lights flickering. And not just in the sitting room. The bathroom, too. When Lara had a shower last night, the lights went out completely and she screamed. Dad came upstairs but by then the lights had come back on. He checked the switches and they still worked and the lights didn’t need replacing. He said it might have been to do with too much steam from the shower. But…”
I nodded. “But we know what caused it.”
“Maybe after our study session today, you could…sort of, try to…”
“Talk to them?”
He shrugged. “I don’t want to put you under any extra stress, but you’re the only one who can hear them. Well, unless we do the EVP again, but that seemed to irritate them more.”
“I’ll do whatever I can do to help,” I said. Then I glanced around to make sure Mandy wasn’t around. “Also, Savannah found an old photo at Mandy’s house, and it’s of three people that she saw in one of our, um…”
“Visions?”
“Yes. And they may be the people that I’ve been hearing, at your place.”
Damon’s brow creased.
“I know, confusing, huh? We don’t know why the photo is at Mandy’s house or what it has to do with your house, but Savvy’s going to try to find out. Although, she’s not going there again till Monday.” I nibbled my bottom lip and searched the crowd of students. “Savannah!” I waved her over.
“Yeah?” She joined us at the wall. “Hey, Damon.”
“Hey,” he replied.
“Any chance you could try to talk to Mandy today? We need to move things along in the, um,” I leaned in close, “ghost department.”
She glanced at Damon. “I take it she told you about the photo?”
He nodded.
“I guess I should maybe come over sometime, if that’s okay with you, to see if I can see…anything.”
“Yes, that would be good. I mean, if you want. Maybe Friday after school, or Saturday if that’s better for you.”
“Either is fine,” she replied. “But first, I need to see what I can find out from Mandy about the photo. And I need to see if I can get a pic of it with my phone.” She looked around the hall, and glanced in the direction of the lockers where Mandy was chatting to Samantha. “I have a plan.” She flashed that look at me, the one she got whenever she had a sneaky idea.
I watched along with Damon as Savannah walked over to Mandy. Was she going to ask her about it right now, straight up? No, she must have an alternate plan. She said something to Mandy and even adjusted her posture to match her a little, as though trying to establish some kind of subconscious bond. Mandy had her locker open and was putting her bag in it, but then turned in the direction Savannah had pointed. I had no idea what they were looking at. Savannah seemed to be telling her something (why couldn’t my heightened hearing ability kick in now?), but while doing so she reached behind Mandy and into her locker, yanking something from her bag and slipping it into her pocket. I exchanged surprised glances with Damon.
She came back over. “What did you do—did you steal something?” I asked.
She shrugged. “A little bit.”
“Savvy!” I whacked her on the arm. “Why?”
“I’ll give it back, don’t worry. I just needed an excuse to go to her house today.” She discreetly reached into her pocket and pulled out a beaded butterfly charm. “Oh no, it must have fallen off her bag!” she said in a fake voice of despair. She chuckled and put it back in her pocket. “I’ll go there after school and tell her I found it on the ground. Then I might get in her good books for returning it, and maybe she’ll invite me in and I can try to distract her somehow and get a photo of the photo, and get talking about her family. It will be easier than doing it on Monday anyway, without Samantha there.”
“You’d be a great undercover cop,” said Damon.
“I know.” Savannah tugged down on her collar with both hands like she was a tough guy, then laughed. “Ooh, I know! I’ll bring a drink—no, two drinks, and say one was for my sister but she didn’t want it so I thought I’d bring it over along with t
he charm.”
“Alcohol? Are you crazy?”
“No, not alcohol! A smoothie or something, I dunno.”
“Oh. Right. Well, I guess that might work,” I said.
“Worth a shot!” She held up her hand at me. “High five for the clever thief.”
I gave her a high five, then I remembered something from a vision, but wasn’t sure whether to say it in front of Damon.
“What is it?” Savannah asked. “Your face is doing that weird thing.”
“What weird thing?”
“You know, when you kinda, sorta…oh, forget it, just tell me what’s on your mind, girl.”
I looked at Damon. “I hope you don’t mind me saying this, but a while ago we had a vision about Mandy, and in it, she mentioned Lara.”
“Go on,” he said.
“She called her a thief.”
“Lara would never steal anything. She’s not that kind of person.”
“I know, I agree. But anyway, that’s just what I heard.” I turned my attention to Savannah. “Something to keep in mind when you’re talking to Mandy later on? See if you can get her to talk about what she’s got against Lara.”
“And while you’re at it, tell her to stop bothering my sister.” Damon slipped his hands firmly into his pockets.
“I’ll add it to my undercover mission strategy thingy.” She gave a thumbs-up and walked off to class.
• • •
I could almost hear the ghost lady whispering, “Oh no, not her again,” when I entered the Jamesons’ house that afternoon. That’s what it felt like she would say. At least Damon’s parents were here, unlike last time when we did the EVP, so surely the ghosts wouldn’t cause too much disruption while the adults were around. Didn’t ghosts like to make people feel crazy by having others not believe them when they confessed to sensing a ghostly presence? Or was that only in movies?
“How’s the project coming along?” Mr. Jameson asked, emerging from the downstairs living room.
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