Frizzy haired and overweight, sixteen year old Elizabeth Summers hears ghosts. She also reads people's auras often seeing when something bad is headed their way. Unfortunately, she can't choose which ghosts visit her psychic hotline or when her para...
Dylan, Jerry, and I, watch apprehensively as a pinpoint of light appears inside the skull's eye socket. Sitting in the center of the table, the crystal face grins as if it's alive. The eerie light grows brighter, pushing back the shadows in the room. When she speaks, Madam Regina's voice sounds disembodied and hollow, as if it's emanating from the skull. "There will be specters in the room with us tonight," she says. "Do not be afraid." Her voice sounds distant and muted, as if she's speaking through a bad connection. The intensity of it raises and falls, like waves crashing on the beach. "These forms you witness tonight are just echoes of the past. They have no true power or substance in this world." As the strange light inside the skull intensifies, ghostly forms slowly materialize above us. They twist lazily in the air, until they settle suspended over our heads. I clamp my mouth shut to keep my teeth from chattering.
Under the table, I feel Dylan's hand tighten over mine. Sneaking a quick glance at Jerry, I see his face looks tight and pale in the darkness. I wonder if he's going to bolt from the room.
Moving her head, eyes closed, Madam Regina seems to be listening to someone we can't hear. She sits unnaturally erect, reminding me of one of those mechanical fortune tellers at a seaside amusement park. Suddenly, as if they're not her own, her hands reach out for the grimoire on the table. There's no draft in the dark room, but the book opens suddenly, the pages fanning as if gusted by a strong wind. I can't help thinking invisible hands are rapidly turning the pages. As if someone else is still controlling her hand, Madame Regina slaps her open palm on the book, arresting the flying pages with a loud bang. I jump in my seat at the sudden noise, then gasp when I see the entry in the book. It's opened to the same one I found last night. The psychic's trancelike voice solemnly addresses me, "Lizzy, who would like to speak with tonight?"
"Katherine Stanford," I tell her. Looking up, I wonder if the dead woman's face will appear above us, alongside the other death masks.
Slowly at first, as if it's having a hard time materializing, I see a cloudy face start superimposing itself on the skull. Leaning forward, I see the skull's face is trying to say something. I can barely make out the words, but they sound like a warning, "Nooooo..don't read from the book!"
The entry in the grimoire is now illuminated. Hidden fragments of blood colored handwriting begin to appear in the page's margin. "There's a spell on this entry," Madame Regina warns, her voice rising. She frowns, her brow creasing in concern as she concentrates. "No, not a spell. It's a curse!"
"What?" Alarmed, I feel the temperature of the room plunge as our breaths collectively plume out in the frigid air. The unnatural cold feels as if someone's opened a large freezer door. I can't stop shivering.
Madame Regina makes a strangled cry of distress, her voice growing urgent. "Demons are trying to come through! Whatever happens, don't break the circle!" Dylan and Jerry look terrified as the delicate tea cup sitting by Jerry's hand starts rattling, uncontrollably. It feels as if we're experiencing a seismic earthquake. Glancing down, I check to see if Jerry's touching the china, but both of his hands are lying flat on the table.
"In the name of Christ", Madame Regina shouts, "I exorcise you from this room!" She commands the demons to depart as the feet of the table rises two inches off the floor, then crashes back down. Shaking pictures on the wall start rattling, adding to the mayhem. As the terrifying chaos intensifies, Madame Regina seems to recognize she's lost control of the seance. She frantically shouts a counter spell. When it has no effect, she curses in another language I don't recognize. "Open the lights!" She orders. "We need to stop this seance before the book transports unspeakable evil into our world!"
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