Gravity, a young adult paranormal romance (22 page)

I battled dizziness, my head pounding, but I
figured I was so close now...I hadn't come this far just to quit. I
would drive myself nuts with maybes.

Besides, I didn't hit my head that hard. My
stubbornness continued to win out.

Alex was making jokes, as usual. He carried a
plastic skull he had picked up somewhere and used the mouth as a
puppet, adopting a Cryptkeeper voice.

"Welcome kiddies," he said. "Would you like to
dance to death?"  

"He is such an idiot," Theo whispered to
me.

An oversized, muted portrait of a man hung
above the huge fireplace. I had never seen a fireplace so wide. A
pile of ashes remained at the bottom from some long-ago fire. It
smelled awful and I wrinkled my nose, turning away.
 

Each one of us took a seat at the table, with
me at the head. The bleeding from my forehead had stopped, and I
stuffed the red tissues in the side pocket of my purse. I set the
purse on the table, unzipping the main section, and started to take
out the supplies I had borrowed from Corinne. Four white candles,
to represent us; one red candle, to represent whatever we were
contacting; a small mirror, to act as a portal; and different
pieces of metal. Finally, I pulled out the séance book, which had a
photo I had printed out of the orphans tucked inside between the
pages.

Henry picked up the picture and looked at it,
reading the caption.

"'Orphans at Dexter House, 1926, with John
Dexter the third.'" He nodded towards the ugly portrait above the
fireplace. "I'm guessing that's the same guy."

I looked over the picture, too. Dexter was
standing behind the row of children, his face shadowed by his
wide-brimmed hat. All of the kids had their hair cut short, and
were wearing what looked like tattered nightgowns. For a moment
that look seemed familiar, although I couldn't tell why.
 

Henry rubbed the picture with his thumbs. "Did
you laminate this?"

I nodded. Everyone at the table
laughed.

"I was worried it might get something on it,
ectoplasm, or s-something," I stuttered, defensive.

"Spirit fluids?" Alex asked, causing everyone
else to crack up again.

I looked up at the painting again. The man
gave me the shivers. It reminded me of an evil painting in an old
movie I had seen, that cursed anyone who looked at it. Or the idea
that a soul could be trapped inside a photograph. The oil-painted
black eyes never left mine.  

Theo helped me set up the table to match the
picture in the book, putting the candles in a diamond shape with
the red one in the center.   

"Where's the Ouija board?" Alex
asked.

"I didn't bring one," I said.

"What kind of fake séance is this?" he
demanded. I gritted my teeth.  

It had started to storm outside, bursts of
thunder rattling the walls. Funny, it seemed like a clear night
before we came in. But I hadn't been worried about the weather
then. And in Michigan, a storm could start on one side of the sky
while the other half was sunny and clear.  

"
It was a
dark and stormy night,
" Henry
recited.

"Be serious," I said. I sat down again, and
stumbled a bit on the way down.

"Are you okay?" both Henry and Theo said at
the same time. They looked at each other, exchanging silent
communication. It reminded me of my parents, and irritated me even
more than Alex had.

"I am fine," I repeated yet again. "Let's just
do this. Oh...before I forget."

I rummaged through the side pocket of my
purse, and pulled out Grandma's necklace. I brought it in a plastic
sandwich baggie for safekeeping.  

"Fancy," Theo said. "Wouldn't want the ghosts
to see you without your fine jewels."  

"Are you going to pick on me, too?" I asked
wearily.

"Sorry."  

I put the necklace around my neck and attached
the clasp. The green stone was already promisingly warm.

Alex lit the candles with his lighter. We
joined hands around the table, Theo and Henry holding mine, and
Alex holding Theo's.

"Gross," Theo moaned, her eyes
closed.

"What?" I asked.

"His hand is wet," she said, pulling hers out
of Alex's and wiping it on her skirt.

"I have a sweating problem, okay?" he said.
"And I'm not holding hands with Henry."

"You don't have to. As long as we form a
chain," I said, looking at the book. Theo gingerly took Alex's hand
back. I took a deep breath, and began chanting the text.

"
We
gather here to call the spirits that have been left
behind
," I recited.
"He who cannot face death, and so has turned away. We call
thee to our gathering.
"

Henry started to chuckle. "'Thee'?"

"Keep it on thee low," Alex said in an old man
accent.  Both he and Henry laughed.

"You're really not funny," I said to Alex.
Then I glared at Henry.

"I'm sorry, but I warned you," he said, still
smiling. His eyebrows raised apologetically as he laced his fingers
through mine again.  

I tried to focus back on the book, but I was
more aware of how he was running his thumb over the back of my
hand. He didn't seem to notice he was doing it. All was
forgiven.

The amulet was growing almost uncomfortably
hot. I had to resist the urge to take it off, reasoning I only had
to keep it on for a short time. I expected the stone to emit a glow
or something, but it looked the same. The candles gave me tunnel
vision and I blinked, mentally envisioning the Tylenol at home on
the kitchen counter.

"
We
gather here to extinguish the flame that keeps you from finding the
dark
," I recited, fully aware that Henry
was still chuckling under his breath. "
Appear to us, so that we may send you on your way. Appear!
Appear!"

A lightning bolt shot through the center of
the table. The accompanying boom deafened me, and I went blind.
 

We are starving. He won't feed us.
We are locked in the room all day long. I haven't seen the sun in
weeks. I don't remember what it feels like.   

A little girl, cuts visible on her
arms.  

This is what happens when you
disobey me.

A little boy emaciated from hunger.
In a box beneath the ground.

This is what happens when you try
to destroy me.

I am on fire. My skin burns, the
pain like nothing I've ever known before.  

Jenna stands with her face in the
corner of the room. Weeping.

Chapter 15

I woke up looking at a sky full of stars. I
hadn't rested that well in months. For a moment in my
disorientation I thought that I was in my backyard, like when Hugh
used to put out a tent and we'd pretend to camp behind our house.
Then I heard someone sobbing.

I looked around. We were on the lawn of the
orphanage. The source of the crying was Theo, sitting back on her
haunches. Tears streamed down her face.

Alex was pacing the hard ground.
"We're going to get caught. This is
trespassing
. And I knew it, and I
came along anyway, because hey, I have no life. I don't even like
you guys and I'm not going down for you."

"Shut up, Alex," Henry growled, glaring at
him.  

"Let's just chuck her in the jeep and go,"
Alex said. "We can take her to a hospital —"

"And explain what exactly?" Henry was sitting
stone still beside me. None of them were aware I had woken up. I
didn't see what the big deal was. "We were trespassing, holding
some idiotic séance like a bunch of ten year olds, and then she
started having a fit?"

"I didn't throw a fit," I mumbled, sitting up.
The ground was wet from rain underneath me, and the back of my
clothes were damp. 

"Oh, god," Theo sobbed, taking her hands from
her face. "You're okay."

"Don't celebrate yet, she had a seizure,"
Henry said. His tone seemed rather harsh, not what I expected from
him.

"What are you talking about?" I asked. "I
didn't have a seizure."

"That's what it looked like," he said. "One
minute you were chanting from that goddamn book and the next minute
you fell on the floor, twitching." His cheeks were flushed, and his
eyes were on fire.  

"I'm sure it was nothing," I said brightly. I
hadn't felt so fantastic in years. Energy flowed through my blood,
and the trees on the lawn looked beautiful in the light from the
stars. I wondered if Alex slipped me drugs. "I feel awesome," I
assured them.

Three faces showed nothing but
doubt.

"I don't really remember anything after...I
was chanting and then I thought I saw
lightning..." 

Whatever it was, it didn't seem important. My
hand flew to my neck, seeking my pendant.

"What happened to my necklace?" I asked.
 

"You yanked it off and threw it in the corner
when you were...before..." Theo said, wiping the tears from her
cheeks. "I got all of the other supplies together, though. I
figured you would want them." She held up my stuffed
purse.

"Thanks," I said gratefully. The space between
my collarbones felt burnt, and I rubbed the skin gently.
  

"Are you sure you're all right?" Henry asked
quietly, his eyes staring intensely into mine. I remembered my
earlier urge to kiss him, and licked my lips without thinking. I
wanted to eat him alive.

"Let's go," I said, and the words had a double
meaning.  

"Do you want to go back and get your
necklace?" he asked.

I shook my head vehemently, surprising
myself.

"No, let's get out of here." The euphoric
cloud in my head began to dissipate.  

As if on cue, police sirens started up in the
distance. Whether they were coming for us or not didn't matter. We
ran off of the lawn, the front gate slamming behind us. Hopping in
Alex's jeep as he gunned the engine, we drove speedily
away.

I watched the orphanage through the rear
window as it became a small dot in the distance and disappeared.
The earlier elation I felt when I woke up was gone, leaving me with
a deep feeling of uneasiness. I never wanted to go back there.
There was something in the house all right, but it was no friend of
mine.

Claire and Hugh arrived home safely on
Sunday.

"How was the wedding?" I asked them, helping
them inside with their luggage.

"Just fine," Claire said. Her skin looked more
tan than usual, even though they had only headed East. "The bride
looked beautiful."

"Typical wedding, a yawner," Hugh offered.
"The most noteworthy part was the best man putting one too many
away before he gave the toast. I'm going to check my email and see
if Steve made a video." My father, ever the romantic.
 

Corinne already had her minivan packed. She
left, none the wiser. I had carefully returned her supplies back to
her trunk the instant I got a chance. Thanks to Theo, nothing was
harmed. For the first time in my life, I was convinced Corinne had
no psychic ability.

Claire noticed the bump on my head as soon as
we got back in the house, despite my attempts to hide it with my
hair.

"How did you get that?" she asked with
concern.

"Bumped my head on one of the cupboard doors,"
I lied. It was a good lie, because I was always leaving the
cupboards open when I unloaded the dishwasher.  

"You have got to stop doing that," she said,
pushing my hair back. "You really got yourself. Ouch." I had tried
putting a bandage over it, but the cut was in a terrible spot due
to my hair. It looked like the skin split open. I hoped it wouldn't
scar too much.

I wore long sleeves, since it was harder to
explain the scuffs on my arm. And the burnt mark I had found on my
neck on examining it in the mirror.

Even though I hadn't been in contact with
anything in the house, and no answers came to me for my trouble,
calm settled over me. There was no way Jenna was there. Nothing
could make me voluntarily go back to that creepy house, anyway. And
whatever had been tormenting me before, now left me alone. At least
for now.

Henry's father dropped him off at my house for
our now-weekly tutoring session. Henry had gone to a doctor's
appointment that day, and since he had been busy last week, too, we
had catching up to do.

I'd never actually been introduced to Phillip
Rhodes or talked to him. He remained the shadowy figure behind the
wheel of his Lexus. Occasionally I would feel him looking at me
through the tinted windows.  

Though I was loathe to admit it, I treasured
having Henry all to myself. Whenever I was around him, I felt a
thousand things at once. My dull brain awoke from the slumber that
captured it for months. It was often agony being in the same room
with him without being able to touch him. But I didn't want to be
away from him, either.