The Form of Things Unknown by Robin Bridges Page B

smiling. Neither am I.
    â€œLet’s ask her something easy,” Starla said. “Lily, will Raine get a date for the Midsummer Night’s Ball?”
    Y-E-S.
    â€œOh, wicked! Who is it?”
    P-E-T-E-R.
    â€œWicked!” Starla says, squealing. “See? I told you it would all work out! Lily, what about Natalie? Who is going to ask her to the ball?”
    My cheeks burn and I can’t look up at Lucas. Not because I’m thinking about the dance or anything. But because I’m staring at the words being spelled out.
    D-O-N-O-T-A-S-K .
    â€œWhy not?” Raine asks, shocked.
    D-O-N-O-T-A-S-K .
    My stomach hurts. And I don’t think it’s because of the alcohol. This isn’t real. It’s all a game. Oh God. I’m 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. “All right. What else should we ask her?”
    I refuse to look up, even though I can feel everyone’s eyes staring at me. What’s so ominous about the dance that the ghost doesn’t want to talk about it? Or maybe she just doesn’t know. Lily is only five, after all.
    â€œI think we should thank her and close the board,” Raine says. She sounds like she’s 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?
    There’s 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 don’t know what would have happened if the flat had caught on fire.
    Colton is now sitting practically in David’s lap, his eyes wide with fear. Raine and Starla look shaken. “Someone didn’t want us to make contact tonight,” Colton says.
    I help Lucas put the flat back up as we hear the back door open. I hope he doesn’t notice my fingers shaking.
    â€œKids? What’s going on in here?”
    Raine hides the candle in her purse before Mrs. Green can see. There’s nowhere to hide the spirit board. “Um, hi, Mrs. Green,” David says, shoving Colton off of him. “We were just trying to talk to the ghost we keep hearing about.”
    She frowns, sniffing the air. I know she can smell the burnt candle. “Oh, I could have told you about the ghosts. What do you want to know?”
    â€œJeez,” Colton says. “How many are there supposed to be?”
    â€œLet’s see. I know of at least three of them. There’s the Russian actress and her baby. And the little girl.”
    â€œWhat little girl?” I ask, terrified now that my hallucination from last week has a name.
    â€œBack 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. It’s her laughter you hear up in the rafters sometimes.”
    Everyone looks up above the stage and shivers. Raine and Starla couldn’t have known about Lily, could they? Maybe they’ve already looked up the theater history and were just trying to scare me. I have a sickening, twisty feeling in my stomach.
    â€œShe plays her little tricks, and can be naughty at times,” Mrs. Green says. “What else would you expect from a five-year-old?”

CHAPTER 7
    â€œNone of that was real,” Lucas tells me, driving me home. I don’t 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. “Ouija boards aren’t real,” he says.
    I’m shivering, despite the fact that it’s a steamy 90 degrees outside tonight. The air conditioner in Lucas’s car isn’t even