Page 115 of Looking for Love in All the Haunted Places
Xander struggled to find a question before settling on, “What color nail polish were you wearing the first day we met?”
“Why would you ask me that?”
Lucky frowned. Still no insults. If anything it soundedhurt.
Xander held firm, saying, “Answer the question, please.”
“I’m sorry, baby. I didn’t hear you. Ask me again?”
Lucky coached, “You have to use repetition or it will outthink you. When you don’t play along it drops the façade and you can kind of speak to the house. Ask questions, butdon’tpush it too hard.”
He nodded, seemingly understanding. “Why Brightly?”
“You missed me.”
“I missher. Not you.”
“Xander,” Lucky warned.
“That is not true. You miss family. I am family.”
Lucky and Xander exchanged a look—that was the house answering. He asked, “You think you’remyfamily?”
“She called me Hennessee. You are Xander Hennessee.”
“Me?” Lucky asked. “Or Brightly?”
For the first time that night, Specter-Brightly turned the full weight of its blank gaze to Lucky. “Youwillstay.”
Lucky stopped herself from flinching. She’d said she wasn’t leaving multiple times. The house believed her, that’s all. That wasn’t a command. That wasn’t a threat.
“Hey,” Xander snapped. “You didn’t answer me. Why are you wearing Brightly’s face?”
“My name is Brightly.”
“No, it’s not.”
Lucky touched his arm, shaking her head. “Don’t do that.”
But he pressed on, “Why Brightly? Why are you doing this to me?”
“Close your eyes, hold your wish in your heart, and blow out your birthday candles,” Specter-Brightly said.
Xander’s eyes went wide. She watched as his fierce expressioncrumbled into sorrow. “Howdareyou. You’re not real. You have no right to do this to me. You’re a fuckinghouse. You are notBrightly.”
Inky black darkness filled Specter-Brightly’s eyes like a whirlpool, save for that familiar single star.
“You should’ve listened to me,” Lucky said, bracing herself to hear the voice like she always did. “Ask the house one last question—hurry, the connection won’t last long.”
Xander swallowed hard, the most distressed she’d ever seen him. He reached for Lucky’s hand, squeezing it tightly. “Why Brightly? That’s all I want to know.” He began searching the room, a bewildered expression on his face. “Where is that voice coming from?What is that?”
But Lucky couldn’t hear it! She breathed a sigh of relief before squeezing his hand back. “It’s in your head,” she said calmly. “It’ll fade. Breathe through it.”
“No.” Xander sounded horrified as Specter-Brightly disappeared.
“What did it say?”
He blinked in disbelief, struggling to speak before managing to. “It said, ‘are you not happy, will you stay, will you run, are you not happy,’ I think. What was that?”
