Witch - By Fiona Horne Page 0,7

were around me, and it honestly felt like time was standing still. I had to get a grip.

‘I’m fine.’ I pulled away from him and took a step, so that I was out of his reach. Then I turned away and started walking ahead. ‘I believe in ghosts, too,’ I called over my shoulder.

He laughed as he caught up with me. ‘Oh, good. I was worried you were thinking I was crazy.’

‘No, I’m totally interested in paranormal stuff. I like scientific things, but I like things that can’t be proven, too. I’ve never seen a ghost, but on a scientific level they make sense. Einstein said that energy can never be destroyed. So it has to go somewhere and do something when we die.’

He nodded, and we stood there for a moment before we started walking again. I could see my house through the trees at the end of the road. He put his hand on my arm to stop me again.

‘You know how I started to tell you in class the other day that my great-grandmother was a Spiritualist? Well . . . I am, too,’ he said quietly.

‘But what does that mean?’ I asked.

‘It means my family believes the living can communicate with the spirits of the dead, and the dead can give us guidance and help if we ask for it.’

He looked at me warily. If I’m honest, what he was telling me was spinning me out a little. The idea of talking to ghosts was pretty far out of my comfort zone, even though I theoretically believed in them. But I didn’t want to scare him off, so I kept my expression placid.

Reassured, he continued, ‘It’s actually a religion, I guess. We don’t really practise it formally now, but like I said the other day, my great-grandmother was one of the original settlers here in the early eighteen hundreds, and she was a medium – one of the people the dead would communicate through. In those days it was a really big deal. Instead of a town hall there was a community séance room. Hundreds of people would come to see my great-grandmother channel the dead. The spirits would tell them things about the afterlife and answer their questions.’

I couldn’t keep my face blank any longer. I scrunched up my forehead as I contemplated what he was telling me.

‘What, are you saying everyone in town would come to talk to ghosts with your great-grandmother?’ I asked incredulously.

‘Uh, yeah.’ He smiled and looked down, looking a little embarrassed and a lot cute. ‘The town séance room is gone now, though. It was knocked down when they ploughed Highway 101 through the centre of town. But once it was like a church to people – everyone went there. My whole family did for years.’

I couldn’t say anything as I tried to picture a whole town wanting to talk to dead people.

‘My great-grandmother died a few years ago – she was a hundred and eight,’ Bryce said, filling in the silence between us.

‘I’m sorry, Bryce,’ I said. I empathised with his loss, but I couldn’t resist adding, ‘That’s a really impressive age, though!’

‘Yeah, she was amazing. Her name was Elizabeth, but I called her Bessie. We were really close. I was the last to see her before she passed. I’ll never forget the way she looked at me when she said . . .’ His voice faltered.

‘Go on,’ I said gently.

‘She said, “I will see you soon.”’

I was silent for a moment, contemplating the meaning of these words.

‘And I did see her soon after that,’ he said after a minute.

‘What happened?’

‘She came to me in a dream. Well, I don’t know if I was actually dreaming – it felt like I was awake and sitting up. She was standing at the foot of my bed. She looked a lot younger than when she’d passed. She said, “Bryce, I’ve been having trouble learning the ropes – coming back this way instead of going over – but I’m starting to get the hang of things now.” And then she disappeared.’

I was beginning to understand why I felt such a strong connection to this boy. He was different and interesting; I could talk to him seriously about this stuff. This wasn’t make-believe, like dressing up on Halloween and reading fairytales. I felt drawn to him, and maybe he felt drawn to me for the same reasons.

Oh, who was I kidding? He was super hot, and I was . . . Fish Lips.

He