Page 145 of The Demon's Spell

“Why isn’t the salt working?” Mandy demanded.

“These aren’t spirits.” Miles had ducked behind the bed, but he looked a little relieved as he slowly stood. He waved his hand, like he was trying to work his Seer magic on the ghosts, but they didn’t so much as look at him.

“It must be a residual haunting,” Talia said. “The events of that night imprinted through time. We’re witnessing what happened.”

The woman put one leg through the window in an attempt to escape, but the man grabbed her by the hair and yanked her back into the room. She stumbled to the side, and glass shattered as her hands went through the mirror. Blood trickled down her ghostly arms. She trembled and backed away from the man.

“Please, Leroy honey,” she begged. “Don’t do this.”

Leroy said nothing. He grabbed her by the hair again and shoved her toward the bed. She caught herself on the bedpost, and wood cracked as her weight snapped it in two. She stumbled, and Leroy yanked her onto the bed. The springs groaned as she landed. He jumped on top of her, moving faster than any old man should. He pinned her hips down with his body and lifted the knife above her head.

Mandy threw her hands over her eyes. “I can’t watch.”

Leroy lifted the knife above her. “No!” the woman screamed. Her voice seemed to shake the entire room, and a chill settled deep in my bones.

The window slammed shut, and the ghostly figures vanished in a wisp, like smoke disappearing in the wind. We all jumped, and for a moment, nobody said anything as we processed what we’d seen. The room returned to its disheveled state, and the items that had fallen from the dresser were gone.

Lucas broke the silence. “That must’ve been his wife.”

“That can’t be it!” Chloe insisted. “How did they banish the demon?”

Lucas didn’t have an answer. “If we can find more of these residual hauntings, we might learn—”

A scream sounded down the hall again, and we all turned to look as the door shuddered against the wall. Mrs. Pinewood came tearing through the room, heading straight toward the window. The haunting played out exactly as it had the last time, concluding with the window slamming shut and the ghosts vanishing.

Lucas shivered. “Legend says Leroy Pinewood killed his house guests with a steak knife during a dinner party. The murders must’ve started in the dining room. Let’s go back to where it all started.”

We left the bedroom and started down the hall, weaving our way through the mansion. Screams echoed from rooms all around us as residual hauntings replayed over and over.

When we reached the dining room, it was empty of a haunting, though the chill in the air made us all shiver. There were two entrances to the room—the one we’d come through, and another set of sliding double doors on the other side. A long table stretched from one end of the room to another, covered in a thick layer of dust. A skeleton sat slumped in an empty chair next to the head of the table, but there were no other bodies to be found. The table was still set from that night, but there was no evidence of food having been set out. Whatever had happened occurred before dinner started.

“It looks like we’re the first people who’ve been here in the last forty years,” Chloe said. I didn’t think anyone had dared enter this room to salvage the fine silver.

Mandy wrapped her arms around herself and shot a nervous glance around the room. “There’s no haunting here.”

My eyes roamed over the table, observing clues. Lightning flashed through the room, and thunder rumbled from outside.

“Maybe we don’t need a haunting to figure out what happened.” I pointed to a chair that had been knocked over. “Lucas, can you put that chair upright and sit in it?”

“Um, sure,” he said. He looked confused, but did as I asked.

“Chloe, can you sit in that spot next to him at the end of the table?” I instructed. “Talia and Grant, sit across from Chloe, and Miles and Mandy, I need you over here by this skeleton.”

I arranged my friends into various spots, then stood at the head of the table, running my finger over an empty spot at the place setting. “There’s a steak knife at each place setting, except for this one. This must’ve been Leroy’s spot. He must’ve taken his knife and stabbed this guest first.”

I turned to the skeleton that sat forgotten beside me. I made the motion of stabbing the man with an invisible knife. “The other guests witnessed what he’d done, and they fled. Lucas, stand up like you’re fleeing a murder.”

“Uh, okay.” Lucas shot out of his chair, and it fell backward, landing in the same spot it’d been when we arrived.

I pointed to him. “The guest in your spot took off running, but he knocked into the person in Chloe’s spot.”

Chloe got up to reenact what I was envisioning.

“Chloe’s character tripped and caught herself on the tablecloth,” I said. “That’s why the tablecloth is uneven and Chloe’s plate is shattered on the floor. One of the guests behind her must’ve tripped over her, and that’s why the rug is turned up. Miles, your character got up to run…”

Miles stood to play out the scene, and I rounded the table toward him. “But Leroy got to him before he could get away. He stabbed him…” I pretended to stab Miles and shove him up against the wall. “That’s where the blood stain on the wall came from. But Miles’ character must’ve taken off with the wound, because there’s a trail that leads to the end of the carpet.”

“You’re getting all this without being a Seer?” Miles asked.

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