Alara appeared on the landing upstairs, out of breath. “None of the salt lines are broken up here, either.”
My aunt kicked back the corner of the braided rug on the floor and worked one of the floorboards free. A modified assault weapon, right out of a video game, was nestled inside. When she flipped a switch near the trigger, a series of green lights illuminated across the top of the barrel.
Priest’s eyes widened with awe. “That’s a masterpiece of badassery.”
“It’s a crowd control—” Faith started.
“A semiautomatic, airburst crowd control weapon, with a laser rangefinder,” Priest finished. “In the military, they call it ‘the Punisher.’ ”
Jared wiped his eyes with his sleeve. “I don’t care what they call it as long as it works.” Salt water continued to hiss from the sprinklers, flooding the first floor and coating everything in a sticky film.
“There’s nothing up here.” Lukas headed back down the stairs with Alara.
Bear leapt ahead of them. When the dog reached the bottom stair, he froze, and Lukas almost tripped over him. Bear stared up at the ceiling, transfixed, a low growl building in his throat.
“He probably doesn’t like the sprinklers,” Alara said.
Faith followed the dog’s gaze and raised her weapon. “That’s not it.”
Every light in the house switched on simultaneously.
I shielded my eyes from the sudden brightness, expecting the bulbs to flicker at any moment. Instead, the light changed from a dingy yellow to a deep crimson.
“What’s happening?” Elle whirled around, her skin bathed in the same bloody tint as the rest of the room.
Red bursts bled into my peripheral vision like a strip of film removed from the darkroom too soon. Between the flashes of color, I caught glimpses of the room. Cherry-stained streaks ran down the walls like blood. My stomach lurched, and I stumbled back.
Priest caught my elbow.
“Is it a poltergeist?” I remembered the way my house had come to life a few months ago.
“No.” Alara shook her head, without tearing her eyes away from the walls. “A visual haunting.”
The room seemed to tilt, and Faith gripped the banister. “This house was clean before the six of you showed up. What did you bring in here?”
“Nothing.” My body swayed.
The sprinklers spluttered, as the last of the salt water choked its way out.
“A vengeance spirit couldn’t make it through my door unless it attached itself to one of you.” The words had barely left my aunt’s lips when a clock chimed upstairs. A second later, an oven timer went off in the kitchen, and the doorbell started ringing over and over.
“Did you come straight here from the museum?” Faith shouted over the din.
Lukas pressed the heels of his hands against his eyelids. “Yes.”
“What about inside? Did you touch anything?”
Jared backed away from the bleeding wall. “Of course we did. How do you think we found the map?”
My aunt splashed through the ankle-deep water in the hallway. “The map can’t be haunted. I made it. Anything else?”
Priest shrugged. “A giant bottle cap, and I might’ve touched a few of those dead squirrels with the swords.”
“But you didn’t take anything from inside?”
“No.” Priest sounded annoyed.
“Um…” Elle stalled. “I didn’t take anything. But I did find something on the floor.” She pulled up her sleeve. A gold art deco cuff clung to her wrist.
“Take it off.” Faith held out her hand, and Elle complied.
All at once, the doorbell stopped ringing and the cacophony of sounds fell silent. The color flashes subsided, and the red hue blanketing the rooms faded, working its way down from the ceiling.
Elle let out a long breath. “It’s over.”
Jared, Lukas, and Alara seemed less convinced, scanning the room along with my aunt.
“You never remove crap from a place like that,” Alara said. “Museums are almost as bad as yard sales. I bet half the junk people buy at those things is haunted.”
I didn’t realize objects could be haunted, which meant Elle definitely had no idea. My experience was limited to dybbuks, demonic entities trapped in sealed containers—the real version of Pandora’s Box.
By now, the ceiling and upper two-thirds of the walls were completely white again, as the crimson stain filtered toward the baseboards. Bear growled, his gaze fixed on the waterline along the baseboards. Within seconds, the stain seeped into the water, turning the flooded hallway into the Red Sea. The stain spread across the surface like an oil spill in the ocean, moving unnaturally fast—and headed straight for my aunt.
“We need to burn the bracelet. It might not be enough to destroy the spirit, but maybe it will banish it.” Jared sloshed down the hall until he found a steel bowl full of batteries and emptied it.
Faith’s eyes widened in terror. “The windows are salted, and there’s a salt circle around the house. It’s trapped in here with us. We need to get out of the house.”
A crack snaked its way down the wall next to the front door, the moment she spoke the words, and Bear’s growl turned feral. The drywall exploded, and a thick, black wire ripped itself out of the wall.
“Get out of the water!” Lukas yelled.
Priest caught Elle around the waist and hurled his body against the stairs, taking her with him. Jared stood in the hallway and scanned the room, his muscles tense, until he saw me standing safely on the stairs. He jumped and caught the banister, letting his body hang over the side of the staircase.
Faith splashed toward us.
“Take my hand.” Alara reached for her.
Just as their fingertips touched and my aunt’s boot hit the step, the wire reared back like a viper. It struck the water and a spray of sparks erupted from the point of contact.
Electricity splintered through the water, the salt providing the ultimate conduit.
The force threw Faith forward, and her body slammed against the wooden staircase. She moaned and rolled onto her side, cradling her wrist.
Alara knelt down to help her sit up. “We have to get that bracelet out of the house.”
The wire hovered over the water then struck again.
“I need your pouch.” Faith pointed at the bag of salt tucked in Alara’s tool belt.
Alara dumped out the salt and handed it to her. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m not sure if it will work.” My aunt dropped the gold cuff from the museum into the bag and tied it closed with her good hand. “Bear. Come.”
The Doberman darted to her side, awaiting my aunt’s next command.
Faith glanced at the window covered in trash bags. “We need to shoot out the glass.”
Alara slid a paintball gun from the waist of her cargo pants. “Done.”
My aunt turned to me. “Are you a good shot?”
“I can hit the window if that’s what you’re asking.”
She gestured at Priest. “Give Kennedy the Punisher.”
He lifted the heavy weapon. “I’ve got it. This thing’s gonna have some hardcore kickback.”
Faith threw him a hard stare. “My mother used to say that girls should be seen and not heard. I say we should be seen and feared. Give her the gun.”
Priest handed me the weapon, and my aunt explained the basics. The ammo was packed with holy water and rock salt. To ensure an accurate shot, I had to lie on my stomach sniper-style and fire from the landing.
The wire jabbed at the water again, only a few feet from the staircase.
“On three,” Alara said, as we aimed together. “One. Two. Three.”
I squeezed the trigger. The butt of the Punisher rammed against my shoulder, round after round. Glass exploded from the panes, sending sheets of black plastic fluttering into the air.
“That’s enough,” Faith called out.
Even after I stopped firing, my muscles continued to vib
rate and the sound from the shots echoed in my ears.
Lukas grabbed the back of Jared’s jacket and hauled him over the railing. Jared looked at me, his expression full of awe.
Faith bent down and offered Bear the pouch. The dog took it in his mouth and waited. She slid a small metal flashlight out of her pocket and shined the light on the bench in the hallway. Bear snapped to attention, his eyes locked on Faith.
“Jump.” The moment she said the words, the Doberman leapt from the stairs. He landed on the bench and turned toward Faith, awaiting the next command.
This time, she shined the flashlight on the dining room table, in front of the window we had just destroyed. “Jump.”