"I still can't believe she's gone," Sue said quietly, shaking her head and shutting her eyes. "She was so much more alive than other people."
"Her flame burned brighter," said Meredith, gazing at the patterns the rose-and-gold lamp made on the ceiling. Her voice was soft but intense, and it seemed to Bonnie that those words described Elena better than anything she'd ever heard.
"There were times when I hated her, but I could never ignore her," Caroline admitted, her green eyes narrowed in memory. "She wasn't a person you could ignore."
"One thing I learned from her death," Sue said, "is that it could happen to any of us. You can't waste any of life because you never know how long you've got."
"It could be sixty years or sixty minutes," Vickie agreed in a low voice. "Any of us could die tonight."
Bonnie wriggled, disturbed. But before she could say anything, Sue repeated, "I still can't believe she's really gone. Sometimes I feel as if she's somewhere near."
"Oh, so do I," said Bonnie, distracted. An image of Warm Springs flashed through her mind, and for a moment it seemed more vivid than Caroline's dim room. "Last night I dreamed about her, and I had the feeling it really was her and that she was trying to tell me something. I still have that feeling," she said to Meredith.
The others gazed at her silently. Once, they would all have laughed if Bonnie hinted at any-thing supernatural, but not now. Her psychic powers were undisputed, awesome, and a little scary.
"Do you really?" breathed Vickie.
"What do you think she was trying to say?" asked Sue.
"I don't know. At the end she was trying so hard to stay in contact with me, but she couldn't."
There was another silence. At last Sue said hesitantly, with the faintest catch in her voice, "Do you think... do you think you could contact her?"
It was what they'd all been wondering. Bonnie looked toward Meredith. Earlier, Meredith had dismissed the dream, but now she met Bonnie's eyes seriously.
"Is that the only way to communicate with dead people? What about a Ouija board or something?" Sue asked.
"My parents have a Ouija board," Caroline said a little too loudly. Suddenly the hushed, low-key mood was broken and an indefinable tension filled the air. Everyone sat up straighter and looked at each other with speculation. Even Vickie looked intrigued on top of her scaredness.
"Would it work?" Meredith said to Bonnie.
"Should we?" Sue wondered aloud.
"Do we dare? That's really the question," Meredith said. Once again Bonnie found everyone looking at her. She hesitated a final instant, and then shrugged. Excitement was stirring in her stomach.
"Why not?" she said. "What have we got to lose?"
Caroline turned to Vickie. "Vickie, there's a closet at the bottom of the stairs. The Ouija board should be inside, on the top shelf with a bunch of other games."
She didn't even say, "Please, will you get it?" Bonnie frowned and opened her mouth, but Vickie was already out the door.
"You could be a little more gracious," Bonnie told Caroline. "What is this, your impression of Cinderella's evil stepmother?"
"Oh, come on, Bonnie," Caroline said impatiently. "She's lucky just to be invited. She knows that."
"And here I thought she was just overcome by our collective splendor," Meredith said dryly.
"And besides-" Bonnie started when she was interrupted. The noise was thin and shrill and it fell off weakly at the end, but there was no mistaking it. It was a scream. It was followed by dead silence and then suddenly peal after peal of piercing shrieks.
For an instant the girls in the bedroom stood transfixed. Then they were all running out into the hallway and down the stairs.
"Vickie!" Meredith, with her long legs, reached the bottom first. Vickie was standing in front of the closet, arms outstretched as if to protect her face. She clutched at Meredith, still screaming.
"Vickie, what is it?" Caroline demanded, sounding more angry than afraid. There were game boxes scattered across the floor and Monopoly markers and Trivial Pursuit cards strewn everywhere. "What are you yelling about?"
"It grabbed me! I was reaching up to the top shelf and something grabbed me around the waist!"
"No! From inside the closet."