Chapter 5
Hugh made the sad moan he had used to great effect in Ireland, but he had to pause to force his hand to take form again. It should not be so difficult. He clenched his jaw, and his moan turned into a growl. When he grasped the door’s handle, the sound changed yet again.
Shaking his head, he tried to make the sound ominous. If he did not believe it, those upstarts would not. Frustration welled up inside him. His moan turned howlish.
“Will you boys cut it out?” boomed the father’s voice from his sleeping room next door. “You sound like someone’s torturing a cat.”
Even as Hugh’s hand lost its form, the boys’ door flew open.
“Gotcha!” a young voice shouted and something sailed through the opening.
Hugh transformed into a misty ball of pale light and swirled from the open doorway. He stared at the white net that lay on the ground near his feet. If he had not lost control and his substance with it the thing would have caught him in it.
The indignity of it.
“What’s that blue light?” the same voice whispered.
Fuming, Hugh retreated down the hallway. He had been proud to haunt using the same blue field of his beloved Irish regimental colours. Those hellions and their dastardly traps. They’d nearly had him that time.
“We need another plan,” the other lad said.
“Yeah,” his evil twin responded.
“Joel. Eli.” The father’s door opened so hard it bounced off the wall. “Bed. NOW.”
The boys scurried back into their room.
On second thought, Hugh decided he preferred another floor and beat the retreat.
Lia
GLAD THE RUCKUS HADN’T WAKENED Mellie, I slipped down the hallway to the boys’ room. I pressed my ear to the door and heard whispering. A soft tap might not be loud enough for the boys to hear, but I didn’t want to make Dad any angrier. Their whispering stopped. I tapped again and opened the door a crack.
“It’s me. Lia,” I whispered. I didn’t move any farther into the room in case they took me for the ghost and threw something.
“Come in,” Eli hissed.
Once inside, I shut the door behind me. After the moonlight from the hall, the darkness blinded me. Their alarm clock didn’t even shine. I closed my eyes to let them adjust.
“What?” Joel finally asked, his lingering hurt still strong in his voice. “You gonna yell at us too?”
“I saw a hand turn your doorknob.” I opened my eyes and glanced between the still forms on the two beds. “Justa hand—and the blue light.”
“You believe us.” Joel rose to his knees, making no effort to keep down his excitement.
“Shh.” I pointed to the wall that separated their room from our parents’. “That’s stone, but the door isn’t.”
“All right. All right,” Joel muttered.
“It glowed,” Eli whispered.
“Yeah, it did,” I said.
“I don’t get it,” Joel said. “That light was bright, and it went right past Dad. Why didn’t he see it?”
“Ez came out for a sec and walked right into it,” Eli added. “He didn’t act like he saw it either.”
I hadn’t noticed Ezra. So he hadn’t seen the ghost and neither had Dad. What did that mean? The boys had shifted to quietly arguing about something, so I returned to my room.
