smiling. Neither am I.
âLetâs ask her something easy,â Starla said. âLily, will Raine get a date for the Midsummer Nightâs Ball?â
Y-E-S.
âOh, wicked! Who is it?â
P-E-T-E-R.
âWicked!â Starla says, squealing. âSee? I told you it would all work out! Lily, what about Natalie? Who is going to ask her to the ball?â
My cheeks burn and I canât look up at Lucas. Not because Iâm thinking about the dance or anything. But because Iâm staring at the words being spelled out.
D-O-N-O-T-A-S-K .
âWhy not?â Raine asks, shocked.
D-O-N-O-T-A-S-K .
My stomach hurts. And I donât think itâs because of the alcohol. This isnât real. Itâs all a game. Oh God. Iâm starting to feel myself freaking out. What if it is real? I really think I saw a ghost in the curtains.
Starla sighs and leans back. âAll right. What else should we ask her?â
I refuse to look up, even though I can feel everyoneâs eyes staring at me. Whatâs so ominous about the dance that the ghost doesnât want to talk about it? Or maybe she just doesnât know. Lily is only five, after all.
âI think we should thank her and close the board,â Raine says. She sounds like sheâs getting uncomfortable. Possibly a little tired. Everyone looks a little spooked now. Except Lucas.
I try to focus on his calm face. How the hell can he be so calm right now?
Thereâs a loud crash behind us and we all jump back. One of the flats tips over, landing on top of the spirit board and the candle. Luckily the candle blows out and rolls away. I donât know what would have happened if the flat had caught on fire.
Colton is now sitting practically in Davidâs lap, his eyes wide with fear. Raine and Starla look shaken. âSomeone didnât want us to make contact tonight,â Colton says.
I help Lucas put the flat back up as we hear the back door open. I hope he doesnât notice my fingers shaking.
âKids? Whatâs going on in here?â
Raine hides the candle in her purse before Mrs. Green can see. Thereâs nowhere to hide the spirit board. âUm, hi, Mrs. Green,â David says, shoving Colton off of him. âWe were just trying to talk to the ghost we keep hearing about.â
She frowns, sniffing the air. I know she can smell the burnt candle. âOh, I could have told you about the ghosts. What do you want to know?â
âJeez,â Colton says. âHow many are there supposed to be?â
âLetâs see. I know of at least three of them. Thereâs the Russian actress and her baby. And the little girl.â
âWhat little girl?â I ask, terrified now that my hallucination from last week has a name.
âBack in the 1800s, there was a circus troupe that performed vaudeville acts in the theater. Il Diabolo Malevolo was a Romanian gypsy whose two daughters, Lily and Rose, performed the high wire act. Lily fell and broke her neck onstage one night. Itâs her laughter you hear up in the rafters sometimes.â
Everyone looks up above the stage and shivers. Raine and Starla couldnât have known about Lily, could they? Maybe theyâve already looked up the theater history and were just trying to scare me. I have a sickening, twisty feeling in my stomach.
âShe plays her little tricks, and can be naughty at times,â Mrs. Green says. âWhat else would you expect from a five-year-old?â
CHAPTER 7
âNone of that was real,â Lucas tells me, driving me home. I donât even know how I ended up alone with him in his car, with David and Colton and the girls going Lord knows where. But I have a midnight curfew. And Lucas said he needed to get home, too. âOuija boards arenât real,â he says.
Iâm shivering, despite the fact that itâs a steamy 90 degrees outside tonight. The air conditioner in Lucasâs car isnât even
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