The Harrowing by Alexandra Sokoloff Read Free Book Online Page B

making shadows dance in the corners of the room. The circular swaying of trees through the window, the ebb and flow of the wind, the popping of the fire—all were dreamlike, seductively hypnotic, and Robin decided to play along. What could it hurt?
    Lisa was addressing the board again. “Have you come to tell us anything, Zachary?” The two girls watched the board as it spelled out the letters.
    ANYTHING YOU WISH
    Lisa smiled secretively in the flickering candlelight. She turned and informed the rest of the room. “He says, ‘Anything you wish.’”
    On the floor, Patrick snorted through a swallow of beer. “Ask him who wins the game.”
    Lisa seemed about to retort, but the indicator moved instantly, obliging.
    ALABAMA
    Robin read it out, and Lisa finished the sentence with her.
    BY 14
    Patrick sat straight up, pleased. “Can I bet on that, dude?” His voice was warm, hazy from pot.
    The pointer moved again. Robin and Lisa watched the letters in a little island of concentration, reading out together.
    BETTING S CLOSED
    The girls leaned over the board to watch the last word forming. As Robin realized Lisa’s joke, she smiled, and they called it out together in perfectly matched, stoned accents.
    DUDE
    Robin and Lisa broke out in delighted giggling. On the couch, Cain muttered, “Pretty hip ghost.”
    Patrick sat up from the floor, laughing heartily. “You should be charging for this, Marlowe.” He nodded to Lisa.
    Lisa shook her head, cascading curls caught by the firelight. “I’m not doing it, I swear.” She smiled across the table at Robin.
    Robin found herself wondering. Nothing that Lisa said could be trusted, obviously. It was a game, and it was working. Lisa was the center of attention, which apparently she needed to be at all times, and the boys were mildly amused, enough to keep watching. Robin was aware that even Martin was following the action at the board, not with his whole attention, maybe, but as background noise, like having music or the television on.
    At the same time, Robin found a strange thing happening.
    She’d played Ouija with slightly older cousins as a nine- or ten-year-old, and even though the candlelit bedroom setting and thrill of inclusion by the older girls had given the game an edge of newness and excitement, she’d also known she was the one being played, that Cousin Jeannie had been moving the pointer to spell out slightly racy hints of boys who were madly in love with whoever.
    And at first, she’d been quite sure that Lisa was moving the pointer, just as her cousins had. But somewhere along the line, it really felt that Lisa had stopped and something…else…had taken over.
    She shivered, and realized that Cain was sitting up on the couch, watching her, a question in his eyes.
    Lisa spoke into the darkness with a strange intensity, something more than just playful curiosity. “Who are you, Zachary?”
    The question hovered in the air. The planchette was still.
    Lisa glanced at Robin, frowned into the silence. “Did you live here in the Hall?”
    The planchette abruptly moved under their fingers, and Robin realized she’d been holding her breath. The wooden pointer slid simply to
    YES
    Robin was startled by a sudden image, very clear in her mind: a young man, pale and dark-eyed, with slightly longish dark hair, slim and tall and, yes, a bit haunted. Hovering at the corners of her imagination, but for a moment quite clear and real.
    And then gone. Robin snapped back to the present. The fire beside the table was crackling, almost too hot on her back. Across the table, Lisa was looking at her oddly. Robin realized, mortified, that everyone else was silent, staring at her. Outside, the wind crooned through the trees, a hollow sound between buildings.
    Robin leaned forward and addressed the board. “When? When did you live here?”
    The planchette jerked and then circled under their hands, as if pondering, a mesmerizing movement.
    And then the letters came again, and this