A chill shivered up Alex’s spine again, colder and darker than before.
They knew her. They remembered her. From when she was a kid.
On one hand, they were only little girls. She could see that. Of course they wanted to play, not that whatever they had in mind sounded playful. Not with Blaise Chambers’ name appended to it. They’d wanted to play with her, and now with Maeve. On the other…they were ghosts. Actual ghosts. She was looking at ghosts. She had the proof she’d always wanted.
Not objective proof. This could all be a hallucination. But she could see them, was talking to them. And they were talking back. Rationally. Clearly…
Her phone felt cold and heavy in her hand. She could take a photo. She could do it one-handed. Would they come out in a photo? If so…Gabe would lose his mind.
And she…she would finally have proof. The actual proof she had always wanted, demanded. She’d have it right there…
‘Just hold still a second,’ she murmured, and lifted the phone up, framing them as best she could. She pressed the camera button on the side, praying it would work. It had to work. That terrible fake shutter noise echoed around the attic room.
Maeve gave a cry of alarm, an abortive warning, and something hard slammed into Alex from behind. She fell onto her knees and another wave of impacts sent her face down into the floor. Weight piled down on top of her, layer upon layer of it, pinning her there, helpless.
The door opened behind them. ‘Alex? Oh, dear God, Alex. What happened? Maeve? What did you do?’
Nick was standing over her, hauling off magazines and boxes and whatever else had avalanched its way on top of her. Alex tried to stand up but her whole side protested. She coughed, clearing dust out of her throat and mouth and somehow that was even worse.
‘Maeve,’ she wheezed.
‘Did she do this?’ Nick looked horrified at the thought and his voice darkened as he turned his attention on his daughter. ‘Did you?’ The girl stood all alone now, awkwardly, one leg wound around the other, her hands knotted together.
Alex’s heart squeezed inside her. It wasn’t Maeve, and it wasn’t fair she got the blame either. ‘No. No of course not.’ How did she even begin to explain who, or what, had? She picked up her phone which she’d dropped when she went down and opened the screen.
And there it was.
Blurry, definitely not in focus, and mottled with flying dust and the weird half-light. But she could see Rose and Daisy flanking Maeve, both of them. Not quite there, not quite real…but she could see them.
‘Nick,’ she hissed and showed it to him. ‘Nick, look.’
He glanced at the screen and snorted. Like it wasn’t groundbreaking. Like it wasn’t anything special at all. But he wasn’t scoffing at the picture, Alex realised. Rather he was annoyed by what it proved.
‘Where are they?’ he asked the girl, his tone positively murderous.
Maeve looked up at him in horror, like she didn’t know him at all. ‘They’re gone, Daddy. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean?—’
‘It’s notmeyou should be apologising to.’
Her voice went up half an octave with anguish. ‘I’m sorry, Alex.’
Alex folded. She couldn’t help herself. ‘It’s okay, love. No harm done. But they – what were you doing with them? They could have hurt you, Maeve.’
‘They wouldn’t hurt me. They’re my friends. They’re just…they’re angry and they’re sad and they don’t have a proper mummy either and they want…they want a family.’
Alex tried to stretch her aching body and then froze. A mother? Did they see her as a mother? She certainly hoped not. Taking back the phone, she sent the photo to the team. And instantly regretted that. What would they say? They were going to be all over this. Gabe would definitely be on the first plane out now.
Downstairs the main door slammed and they both heard Patricia shouting for Nick, her voice frantic.
‘Shit,’ he said, his face suddenly pale. Well, Alex wouldn’t want to be on the wrong side of an angry Dr Patricia Neary either. Nick peered at her doubtfully. ‘Are you sure you’re okay?’
Just attacked by ghost children, she wanted to say but this was not the time. Just captured actual evidence of their existence too. The one thing every ghost hunter, no matter how sceptical they might be, has ever wanted. Something wild fluttered inside her, something that didn’t feel part of her at all, a sense of vindication. Which was stupid because her whole mission had always been to disprove the existence of the supernatural, to find rational explanations and yes, to unmask charlatans.
Not… notthis…
Not find proof. And at the same time that was all she had ever wanted. Actual proof.
Nick was still studying her, waiting for an answer, but anxious to intercept his mother-in-law as well. She nodded firmly and followed him down the servants’ stairs and out into the main hall where the local doctor was standing, her hands on her hips, the very picture of an enraged grandmother. Alex stopped in the door, not wanting to intrude. Maeve gave a little moan of despair, and shrank back behind Alex’s legs.
