and Alex away from their houses.
“Luke’s body was found in the wooded area by the bay, right?” Marcy asked. “That’s where we’re going. His connection to the earth will be the strongest there. That’ll make him easier to contact.”
The trees where Harper and Alex had found the bodies weren’t far from where they lived. Neither of them had been back there since they’d shown the police where to go. It wasn’t someplace where Harper ever wanted to go again, so she slowed her steps when Marcy told them that was where they were headed.
“Are you coming, Harper?” Alex asked, glancing back over his shoulder at her. He hadn’t slowed down even slightly. Harper knew that finding the bodies had really freaked him out, too, but apparently he was braver than she’d thought.
“Uh … yeah.” She sighed and caught up to them.
Fortunately, when they got to the small cypress forest that ran along Anthemusa Bay, they didn’t go into it. Marcy stopped abruptly before going in and declared that it gave her bad energy, and that apparently would interfere with contacting the spirits.
“We’ll set it up here.” Marcy motioned to a grassy patch just outside the trees. “Sit down in a circle.”
“Shouldn’t it be nighttime or something?” Alex asked, but he still did as he was told. He sat with his legs crossed underneath him, and Harper and Marcy sat on either side of him so they formed a small circle.
“Shouldn’t what be nighttime?” Marcy asked. She set her book bag on her lap and began rummaging through it.
“It just feels weird to be doing a séance or whatever outside in the bright sunlight,” Alex said.
“Yeah, I feel like we should be in a spooky room with candles and incense,” Harper agreed.
“That’s because you guys are idiots,” Marcy told them.
“This coming from the girl who carries voodoo stuff in a Captain Planet backpack,” Harper muttered.
Marcy glared at her. “Nobody messes with Captain Planet. He keeps looters, plunderers, and evil spirits at bay. And I don’t practice voodoo. That’s not my thing.”
“What is your thing?” Harper asked.
“This.” Marcy pulled out a handful of black stones, a faded book, and a thick white candle.
“I thought you said people who brought candles were idiots,” Alex pointed out.
“No, I said you were idiots.”
Marcy put the candle in the center of their circle, then carefully laid out the smooth black stones around it. When Alex reached out to touch one, Marcy slapped his hand. Then she set the backpack aside and opened the book on her lap.
“Now what?” Harper asked when Marcy appeared to be finished laying out everything.
“I’m going to read from this book,” Marcy explained. “The incantation is in Latin. I don’t know why. I guess the dead all speak a dead language. It’s important that you don’t interrupt me and you don’t speak. Just sit quietly until I’m finished.”
After Harper and Alex both nodded in understanding, Marcy flipped open the book and began reading from it. Harper had no idea what most of the words meant, but every now and then she’d catch one like “necro” and “terra.”
As soon as Marcy finished, the candle lit up. A bluish flame burned from the wick, and even though the candle was white, the wax that dripped down the sides was black.
“How’d you do that?” Harper asked.
“I’m magic,” Marcy said matter-of-factly, and closed the book. “So it’s all set. We should be able to talk to Luke now.”
“Really?” Alex asked. “I can just … talk to him?”
“Yeah. I would start by saying his name and seeing if he’s around and wants to talk.”
“How will we know if he wants to talk?” Alex asked. “Will he just talk back?”
“The stones will vibrate if something’s present.” Marcy motioned to the black rocks. “And then we talk to him and decide how he’s going to answer. It’s usually stuff like, Knock once for yes, twice for no.”
“How will he be able to name a place, then?” Alex asked. “If we say, Where’s Gemma? it’s not like he can knock once, and we’ll go, Oh, right, Toledo.”
“Let’s just see if he’s here, and we’ll take it from there,” Marcy suggested. “You start, Alex, since you were closest to him.”
“Okay. Um…” He took a deep breath, then cautiously said, “Luke? Uh, Luke Benfield? It’s me, your friend Alex. Um, I wanted to know if you wanted to talk.”
They waited a few minutes, and when there was no response, Alex tried again. Even Harper joined in, and eventually Marcy retried the incantation.