The Hidden - Jessica Verday [65]
Chapter Seventeen
THE SÉANCE
… and haunted fields, and haunted brooks, and haunted bridges, and haunted houses, and particularly of the headless horseman, or Galloping Hessian of the Hollow …
—“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”
Caspian was finally awake when I got home, and I was thrilled to get the chance to tell him about everything that had happened.
I hid the white dress behind the red one in the back of my closet, and spent most of the night talking about Mom and Dad’s graduation gift and my shopping trip. I left out the part about what I’d found at the antiques store, but it was so good to just be able to lie in bed and talk with him again.
The only thing that didn’t come up was how long his sleep had lasted this time. And there was a moment of uncertainty when I rearranged a pillow to get more comfortable and it fell off the bed. He reached for it, but he couldn’t pick it up. Couldn’t grab on to it.
I quickly told him that it was fine where it was, and I moved on to a funny song that I’d heard on the radio at the store today, but his eyes were worried even as he agreed.
Since I stayed up half the night talking to Caspian, I woke up the next morning feeling like a zombie. Cyn must have noticed me dragging through the day at school, because she kept asking if I was okay. After lunch she waited by my locker, resting the back of her head against it.
“So, I’m thinking about having a séance,” she said abruptly. “You want in?”
I turned to her. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah. Haven’t you ever been to one before?”
“Yeah, right. Sure.” I snorted with laughter. “Séances are common occurrences around here.”
“They’re not? This is Sleepy Hollow, right?” She looked surprised. “I would have thought in a town like this it would be a weekly occurrence.”
“Nope.” Then what she’d said dawned on me. “What do you mean, ‘a town like this’?”
She made a gesture with her hands. “You know. Historical. Haunted. The mascot of the whole damn town is a headless ghost on a horse. Don’t tell me you can’t feel it. There’s an undercurrent of … something here.” Her eyes glazed over and she stared off for a minute. Then she blinked. “So, do you want to come?”
“Where and when?”
“We need someplace spooky. Know any spooky places around here?”
There was the cemetery. But that wasn’t really spooky. At least not to me it wasn’t. And it didn’t feel right to think about holding a séance there. It felt sacrilegious. “Not really,” I said.
“We’ll have it at my house, then. It has an attic. I’m at 24 Main.”
“Are you sure that’s …?” I didn’t know how to word it, so I just looked at her, hoping that she got my meaning.
“What? Spooky enough?”
I nodded.
“Oh, yeah.” She laughed derisively. “It’s spooky enough. Trust me. The deaths of a thousand dreams reside there. I can feel it. Hell, I die a little each time I have to go back there.”
She looked so unhappy that it actually made me uncomfortable to see her that way. “So, yeah, okay,” I said hastily. “When do you want to have it?”
“Tonight.”
“Tonight? That’s … soon.”
“It feels right. I generally go with what feels right and don’t question it.” Cyn shifted away from the locker and turned to head down the hall. “Be there at nine o’clock.”
She was almost out of earshot before I realized what I wanted to ask her.
“Hey, why exactly are we having a séance?” I yelled.
“To summon up the dark spirits and confer with them, of course,” she yelled back. “Mwahahaha!”
I told Caspian about the séance when he came to pick me up, and we talked about it on the way home from school. I thought he’d be against it, but he surprised me by saying that it sounded like fun.
“You’re going to come?” I asked, astonished.
“All séances need a ghost,” he said with a smile. “Isn’t that the point?”
It was nice to see this playful side of him. I thought that the incident last night with the pillow had really shaken him up. I smiled back. “Will you put on a good show?”
“I