“The first time we came here, more than a year ago, we picked up some orbs and a little EMF agitation,” Calista said.
“When we came back last month, we got a bit of a woman’s voice, saw some strange shadows, got hit by pebbles and rocks and had a bunch of other poltergeisty stuff,” Pete added, splitting his attention between us and what he was watching on his glasses.
“The readings are way more extreme this time,” Drew chimed in. “Pegging the red zone. I’ve never seen anything like this.”
“What happened when the Robertsons held their séance? I asked.
“They got more than they bargained for,” Kell replied. “The medium went into her trance and began to speak in a man’s voice, threatening them. The Robertsons moved out shortly afterwards, and a developer bought the land and just let the house go to rot.”
Out in the hallway, I heard the squeak of footsteps on the floorboards, but no one was in the hallway. From downstairs, the faint sounds of a piano and voices were unmistakable.
“Yeah, you heard that,” Drew confirmed, noticing my expression. He checked his equipment. “I picked up some audio.”
“Let’s take a look at the last two rooms,” Kell said. “Just in case we decide to make a fast getaway.” Above our heads, I heard a scraping sound, as if someone were shoving a heavy piece of furniture or dragging a trunk.
“How do we know there isn’t someone up there?” Teag asked. “Maybe squatters moved in.”
Calista adjusted the sensors on her equipment, and held up a metal wand connected to her tablet. “I’m picking up six heartbeats and six separate thermo readings in here,” she said. “If there’s anyone upstairs, they’re cold and they don’t have a beating heart.”
Teag and I exchanged a glance. I wasn’t going to say so, but that didn’t rule out vampires and other supernatural creatures.
The fourth room looked like it might have been an office. Paint peeled from the walls and cockroaches skittered past. On the hardwood floor, someone had made a large circle with charcoal and salt, like the kind used to do powerful magic. It had been smudged open. I could still feel the remnants of magic, dark and stained.
“No ghosts,” Calista said, looking at her tablet. Pete shook his head. “Nobody home.”
“What about the circle?” I asked. “Was it here the last time you visited?”
Kell frowned. “No, or at least, we didn’t notice it. Vandals must have gotten in again.”
I let him think that, but the residual power I felt wasn’t from a bunch of kids with a Ouija board. Someone with real power had been here. I wanted to know why.
“The fifth room has always been the wildcard,” Kell said as we moved to the last room in the hallway.
The door slowly swung open as we approached. Inside, dingy curtains hung over the windows. Something skittered beneath the fabric. The sense that someone was present in the room was overwhelming, and all my instincts were screaming for me to run.
I stepped far enough into the room to note that its window overlooked the pool. In the moonlight, the pool was a dark rectangle surrounded by a sagging chainlink fence. Then I saw something that looked like a long, dark tentacle snake from the fetid water and lurch up onto the cracked pavement.
“Y’all, we need to get out of here,” I said, backing toward the doorway.
From the darkest corner of the room, a figure began to slide toward us, a shadow with no one to cast it. It had the shape of a woman, with a long, flowing gown, and it was moving fast toward the door. Hundreds of cockroaches swarmed toward us like a living brown tide.
“Run!” Kell yelled.
Slam. Slam-slam-slam. The doors we had left open slammed shut as we ran past. Over our heads something in the attic stamped its feet. Sounds filled the empty house. I heard a child’s laughter and a woman sobbing, then the muted echo of a gunshot.
Cockroaches covered every surface, wiggling out of the walls along the baseboard, dropping down from holes in the ceiling, emerging from beneath the wallpaper and crunching beneath our feet as we ran. We brushed them out of our hair and off our clothing, but no matter how many we trod underfoot or slapped away from us, the swarm closed in behind us.
When we had entered, the old house smelled of mold and decay, mildew and dust. Now, the stench of rotting meat was unmistakable, strong