I wasn’t sure what made me more nervous: doing a seance for the first time in over a decade, or having Ben there to see me mess it up. Would he judge me if it did go wrong? I sure wouldn’t be asking him for help again if he did.
‘Is this room all right?’ asked Candice. She was the one I’d spoken to, and the one organising the whole thing. It sounded like she’d been close to her grandmother, but something had gone wrong when she’d gotten sick towards the end. I tried not to ask for too many details – the fewer details I had, the easier it was to prove to them I was actually speaking to a spirit.
They were clearly an affluent family. Their living room was big enough to fit my whole house in and still have room for Maggie’s. Probably half the town library at least, too. It was all right for some.
‘This will be great, thanks,’ I told her as I looked around. It was your typical fancy sitting room, with lots of furniture and space but not a lot of personality. ‘Do you have enough seats for everyone?’
‘We can bring some in from the other room if you need them,’ she said.
‘As long as everyone has a chair and it’s arranged in a circle, we should be fine. We’ll need to clear the floor in the centre of the circle, too,’ I said. Spirits couldn’t go beyond the circle, so if there wasn’t anything in the circle for them to break, it stopped powerful – or vengeful – ghosts from hurting anyone.
Candice called out. A man in a suit appeared.
‘Van, can you help Niamh and Ben set up please? Whatever they need, get it for them.’ She said it with far more authority than I’d heard from her when I’d spoken to her on the phone a few days ago. It was like talking to her butler or whatever he was turned her into a whole different person.
‘Of course, ma’am,’ he said with a nod. He turned to us: ‘how can I help you?’
‘We need some more chairs in here. Do we know how many people are coming tonight?’
‘There’ll be seven of us in total, including both of you,’ said Candice.
‘I’ll go get a couple more chairs,’ said Van. He walked out of the living room and into one of the other rooms the size of a house.
Five people watching me, wanting me to summon their grandmother to solve some family dispute. No pressure.
‘I need to finish some work. Will you be all right with Van? I’ll just be upstairs if you need anything,’ said Candice, already having turned to leave.
‘Yeah, we’ll be fine,’ I said, my voice going unnaturally high.
‘You sure you’re OK?’ said Ben when it was just the two of us.
‘It’s not like there are lots of things that can go wrong during a seance,’ I said with an eye roll.
He gave my shoulder a squeeze. ‘It’ll be fine. You know it’ll go better if you relax. Why don’t you try meditating for a couple of minutes?’
‘Meditating? Have you ever seen me sit still?’
He chuckled. ‘That’s exactly why you should try it.’
*
Deciding to give his idea a chance, I went into the conservatory. It was empty and quiet, with good light. Still soulless, though. What was it with big houses feeling like nobody had really lived there?
I sat on one of the chairs and stared into nothing. A gazillion things that could go wrong played across my mind. How was I supposed to relax if every time I didn’t have something to think about, I panicked?
I took my phone from my bag and opened a guided meditation video. Soothing music played in the background as a woman with a midwestern American accent began to speak: ‘Sit somewhere comfortable, with your back straight. Imagine there’s an invisible rope, pulling you up to the ceiling, creating a straight line from your back, up through your neck and head, and to the ceiling. This will help with your breathing. Now close your eyes.’ She carried on, guiding me until my mind drifted away, focusing on a rhythmic counting. It wasn’t until the video was over that I realised I’d been meditating for five minutes, and my muscles had already loosened and my thoughts were less muddled.
I practically skipped back into the living room.
Ben was crouching over some equipment. ‘How do you feel?’
‘Surprisingly calmer,’ I said, walking over to him. It wasn’t equipment I recognised, but I knew it was to measure ghost activity. ‘Why do you need this stuff when you can see ghosts?’
‘Because I want other people to be able to see what I can see,’ he said.
‘So that they don’t think you’re a lunatic?’
That ship had sailed for me a long time ago.
‘So that they realise there’s more to life than what meets the eye.’ He flicked a switch on one of the gadgets in front of him.
‘What the bloody hell is that noise?’ I said, cringing.
‘A spirit box,’ said Ben. ‘It helps spirits communicate with us.’
I glowered at him. The noise reminded me of static on a TV or radio, but multiplied with nails on a chalkboard and screeching car brakes. It was going right through me and giving me a headache. ‘We already can communicate with them,’ I reminded him.
‘The rest of the circle can’t. This will help them.’
‘And the headache it causes me will mean I can’t conduct the seance in the first place,’ I said through gritted teeth.
‘Is it that bad?’
‘It’s bad enough that I’m going to throw that thing at your head if you don’t turn it off right now.’
He turned it off.
My body relaxed. ‘Oh thank god.’
‘Was it really that bad?’
‘Are nails on a chalkboard that bad?’
‘Noted.’
‘Have you got any gadgets in there that don’t make horrific noises?’
‘Got a few cameras and a sound recorder. But I’m not sure where we can put the cameras.’ He looked around the room, examining the different places. ‘Ideally we want them to cover every corner of the room.’
All of the corners were empty. No bookshelves or anything to sit them on.
‘We could duct tape them to the ceiling.’
I narrowed my eyes at him. ‘Duct tape?’
‘Yeah. You do DIY. You must know what that is.’
‘I know what it is! But do you want to take their ceiling with your cameras?’
‘It wouldn’t do that.’
I stared at him, deadpan. How little did he know about DIY if he didn’t know duct tape stripped paint? And everything in its path?
‘OK then, it would. Next option.’
‘Let’s ask someone who knows the house better than we do.’ I faced the door and called out: ‘Van!’
He scurried in, carrying a chair. He put it down then addressed me. ‘Ma’am?’
Ma’am? As if I didn’t feel old enough already.
‘Have we got anything to put the cameras on, so they’re high enough and spread out enough to cover everywhere?’
‘I could bring a couple of shelving units in?’
‘How big are said shelving units?’ asked Ben.
Van’s shoulders fell. ‘Possibly too big to move.’
‘There goes that idea then,’ I said.
‘Lamps. Have you got any floor lamps?’ asked Ben.
‘Will they be tall enough?’ I asked.
‘They’re better than nothing,’ said Ben.
‘Just don’t use any bloody Duct tape on them.’
*
‘Is everyone ready?’ I said. ‘I’ll need everyone to be quiet for a few moments while we get started.’ Everyone nodded as I glanced around the room.
Ben tinkered with his sound recorder, which was perched on a portable table beside him. We’d managed to attach the cameras to some pop-up tables and a couple of lamps Van had found in the garage, so we’d done a makeshift job of attaching them as high as possible without damaging anything when we took them off.
Deep breath. It would go better if I stayed calm. ‘I call upon the spirits, to commune with us tonight, grant us your presence, come join us in the light.’
Nothing.
I glanced at Ben. He gave me a reassuring nod, but it didn’t reassure me all that much. We were sitting in the dark, and I’d just said a spell. It was the first time I’d cast a spell – warding houses aside – in years, and nothing had happened. I didn’t feel any different. The room felt the same. Everyone else in the room was the same, too. We looked like right prats.
Until the room went cold and a gust of wind flew from one end to the other. The candle flames swished in the breeze.
‘Neevie!’
I stared at the figure floating in front of me with wide eyes. An interception was always possible during a seance. And it was always going to be a possibility that my first husband – Edie’s dad – would be responsible. But I didn’t think he’d actually do it.
‘Javi?’
‘Who is it?’ said Kai, another grandchild, who was sitting opposite me.
Ben turned to look at me, his eyebrows raised. Because Javi had been powerful when alive, he looked almost human again as he stood in front of us. He was just as I remembered. Just as handsome; just as cheeky. Chin-length dark hair, eyes that knew what you were thinking before you said it, but that also had a cheeky glint in them. It was scary, looking back at the ghost of the man I’d expected to spend the rest of my life with.
I swallowed the lump forming in my throat. It was the first time I’d seen Javi since I’d held his lifeless body in my arms, ten years earlier. I clung to the arms of my chair to hide how badly I was shaking.
Ben’s sound recorder beside us crackled, hinting that we weren’t alone. The other circle members jumped, glancing at the machine and gasping.
‘You never called! I had to come say hi to my favourite person,’ said Javi.
The sound record crackled some more, the sound waves on the screen reflecting Javi’s volume and pitch. As far as I could tell, it wasn’t picking up his words. Thankfully. That would’ve been even more mortifying than Ben seeing him act like a child.
‘Never called? Javi, you’re dead.’
‘Psht. You’re a ghost hunter. What difference does that make?’
I looked away from him, shifting awkwardly in my seat.
‘Retired, I know. Idiot,’ he added with an eye roll. So he’d been spying on me. Great.
Ben snorted. I kicked him.
Javi narrowed his eyes, floating closer to Ben and inspecting him. ‘Who’s this guy? He’s cute. Better than the other guy. He was an arse. I’m glad you’re rid of him.’
Ben laughed again. He leaned over his sound recorder and started fiddling with it. Sound waves appeared on the screen whenever any of us spoke – including Javi.
‘Can you hear me?’ said Javi, floating closer still and hovering an inch or so in front of Ben’s face. He then got closer to the machine, causing it to spring to life even more. Javi glared, waved his hand at it, and shut it off. Peace. Finally.
‘Yes,’ Ben replied calmly. ‘I can see you, too. Thanks for breaking my sound recorder, by the way.’
Javi flexed his arm muscles. ‘Look at me, Super Ghost. Also, no offence, but the noise was annoying. You need better gadgets, man.’
I face palmed. I mean, how else can you respond to your ex-husband calling himself Super Ghost?
‘Javi, what are you doing here? I’m supposed to be working.’ I said, hoping to get the conversation back on track. And find the ghost I actually wanted to talk to.
A quick glance around the circle showed me that everyone else in it was confused. Too confused to chime in and ask what the hell was going on. Which seemed fair. If I were in their shoes, I probably wouldn’t know what to say either.
‘You are working. Just pretend I’m the person they really want to speak to.’
‘Javi,’ I chastised. I’d forgotten how childish he could be.
‘Fine. Fine.’ He floated down, hovering an inch or so above the wooden floor. ‘I’ve been hearing whispers; rumours. I wanted to warn you.’
‘Rumours about what?’ I asked.
‘Edie.’
‘Face it, she’s a fraud! She can’t find Grandma. She’s using this as an excuse to talk to one of her friends,’ said Marcel. He’d been wary of me since walking in, mumbling to his relatives about the whole thing being a waste of time. Why wasn’t I surprised he was calling me a fraud?
I turned to glare at him. People like him were why I didn’t like customer service. ‘There’s no guarantee who will come through when we do a seance.’
‘Then who do you see?’ said Candice. Her tone was neutral; she wasn’t judging me nearly as hard as her relatives, which I appreciated.
‘My dead first husband.’
Everyone in the circle – except Ben – gasped. They immediately shut up to watch the drama unfold. Or at least, the parts of the drama they could see and hear. Which was basically just anything I said or did.
I turned back to Javi, leaning forwards as my heart thundered in my chest. ‘What about her?’
‘It’s not clear, exactly, but something to do with darkness. Bad stuff. Scary stuff,’ said Javi.
‘That’s it? That’s all you can offer me?’
‘Don’t you think I’ve been trying to find out more? It’s hard, you know! They don’t like to tell the people who are involved what could happen in case we find a way to pass the message on to the living people involved,’ said Javi.
‘You mean like now?’ said Ben.
Javi chuckled, pointing to Ben. ‘I like this guy.’
‘Is there anything else you can tell us? Anything at all?’ I begged, hoping for something.
‘No, I’m sorry. But keep in touch, yeah? If I find anything else out, I’ll find a way to let you know.’
‘Do you know where to find her?’ Ben asked.
Javi laughed again. ‘Of course I know where to find her.’ He winked at me. ‘Can’t escape me, much as she wants to.’
I sunk into my seat, taking a small amount of comfort from the fact that only Ben could hear him. But I was still mortified. It was like having an embarrassing, drunken relative crash a party.
‘Can I do something before I go?’ said Javi.
‘Like what?’ I said.
‘You know, scare them. I mean, they’re expecting a ghost. And with no disrespect to the lady waiting in the wings, she isn’t as strong as me. I doubt they’ll feel anything from her.’
I sighed. ‘Go on, then.’
He grinned, floating up and down a few times with excitement. It was like dealing with a child. Honestly.
He puffed his chest out and grinned. The crowd gasped.
‘I see someone!’
‘Is it—who is it?’
‘Oh my god, what the hell?’
‘It’s just a trick of the light.’
Ben walked to the light switch and turned it on. The circle gasped again; Javi was still visible. Of course he was. The whole darkness thing was just a spectacle. People insisted on sitting in darkness because it added to the atmosphere and most just did seances to be scared witless.
‘Happy now?’ I grumbled.
‘Ecstatic!’ said Javi, still grinning.
‘Did he just speak?’
‘What did he say?’
‘Was it in reply to what the medium said?’
Always nice to have a name.
They groaned in disappointment as Javi’s power drained and he disappeared from their view. Making himself visible to those who couldn’t normally see ghosts was draining. And the few shows of power he’d exhibited were too much, even for him. ‘Keep in touch, Neevie,’ he said as he faded away.
Ben turned the light off again and sat back down beside me. A few seconds later, a frail old woman, with her hair wrapped in a purple turban, appeared in front of me. In her barely visible state, she wasn’t even close to as powerful as Javi. I was surprised she didn’t resemble a white orb, which was what most ghosts who were too weak to maintain physical appearances looked like.
She noticed me staring at her and floated over. ‘You. Who are you?’ she asked, pointing.
‘I’m here to ask questions on behalf of your family,’ I replied.
‘She’s here,’ Ben told the circle.
‘Who is? Grams?’
The ghost turned in the direction of the voice, a small smile creeping over her lips. She reached out her arms. ‘My child.’
‘She’s near you, Candice. Holding out her arms. And she just called you her child.’
The woman beamed, wiping a rogue tear as it fell down her cheeks.
‘Ask her where the money is! Before we lose her!’ said Kai.
I rolled my eyes. Impatient.
The woman floated back over to me. ‘That’s why they wanted you to summon me? My money?’
I nodded.
‘It’s all gone,’ she said.
Ben and I exchanged worried glances. That answer wasn’t going to go down well.
Her nostrils flared as she floated over to Marcel and pointed at him. ‘He spent it. Check his bank. You’ll find some interesting transactions when my health was failing me.’
‘What’s she saying?’ asked Candice.
I glanced at Ben, hoping he’d tell them so that I didn’t have to. He was good cop, it seemed. He didn’t take my hint. Dammit.
‘She’s saying that Marcel took it.’ I pointed at Marcel. ‘She said to check his bank, because you’ll find some interesting transactions. She’s claiming he stole it when her health was failing her.’
‘I’m not claiming it! I’m telling the truth!’
‘Sorry, sorry,’ I said to her. I turned back to the circle, who looked confused: ‘She told me off for saying she claimed it. She says she’s telling the truth.’
‘No she’s not! I’d never steal from her!’ said Marcel.
‘What reason does she have to lie?’ said Candice.
‘The medium is just trying to con us out of our money!’ said Marcel. Still not using my name. ‘That’s why she asked us to pay upfront!’
I clutched the bridge of my nose. There was always one. Some things never changed.
The old lady’s face filled with rage. Her form became more visible, until she looked as clear as Javi had. She was so clear the circle saw her, just for a second. The circle gasped.
‘I saw her!’
‘Where’d she go?’
‘She isn’t strong enough to maintain visibility,’ said Ben. ‘I can barely see her,’ he whispered to me.
‘Yeah, she’s pretty translucent for me, too,’ I said.
The old lady lowered her head, clearly sad she couldn’t make herself visible for longer. My heart went out to her. I wished she could’ve resolved the conflict herself, too, but sometimes, death was just as complicated and heartbreaking as life.
‘How do we prove what she said?’ asked Candice.
‘Check his bank account!’ said Kai.
‘Where’s his phone? Doesn’t he use mobile banking?’ said Candice.
Marcel edged towards the door, his hand covering his pocket. Where his phone was stashed, probably. ‘No! I don’t give you permission to look through my phone!’ He opened the door. A couple of the men chased after him, breaking the circle.
The matriarch maintained her presence for a moment. Just long enough to apologise to us for their behaviour before she disappeared.