Survive the Night

22

Victoria flung herself off the bed and wrought her shovel, which was leaning against the door. It slumped heavily on her shoulders and she adjusted it to place again.

"What are you doing?" Ashley asked.

Victoria didn't respond. She turned back and walked over to the table. Snatching an apple, she bit into it feverishly. Her mouth snapped open and close vulgarly, tiny chunks of saliva-riddled apple escaping in bursts through her teeth. In less than a minute, the apple was stripped to its bony core. She slammed it on the table and turned toward the door again.

"Victoria!" Kevin shouted, so loud it made everyone in the room start. Victoria, however, didn't flinch a bit. She only turned slowly. "What?" she said.

"Where are you going?"

The flesh on her throat pulled up as she swallowed. "To the house."

"Are you insane?" Sasha cried.

"You don't have to come, Sasha," Vicky said. "None of you do. I swore to protect Icarus-that's why I came here in the first place, remember? If Mr. Habernal says I'm supposed to fix this, then I'm going in there. I'm going to confront Abner."

"You'll die in there!" Kevin roared.

"He's right," Habernal said. "If this friend of yours-Icarus-is already lost, finding him would be too dangerous. Truthfully, I don't think you'll want to find him."

Victoria gripped the shovel tightly and then loosened her hold. "I should be dead already. And if I don't do this, we all die a slow and torturous death regardless."

"But what are you going to do to stop him?" Ashley asked.

"I don't know," she said. "I'll figure that out when I see him."

"By then it might be too late," Habernal said. "Come. Let's at least be smart about this."

Edwin spun around, his eyes searching, until he found his candles, snuffed and blackened. He rolled them into his hands and situated them around the room. Then he took the Ouija board and moved to the center of the room. The kids briskly moved out of his way. Edwin tossed the bags of fruit onto the bed and slid the table to the center of the room. The table whined and cried hollowly as its legs scratched the wood-paneled floor. Once centered, the Ouija board was placed in the center of the table. Habernal stuck out his hand to Geo and pumped his palm open and closed.

"The planchette," Habernal demanded.

Geo fished into his pocket and brought it out, thinking to himself that he hadn't remembered putting it in his pocket. When it was handed, Habernal placed it on the board.

"What are we doing?" Victoria asked.

"We're going to need more information if we're to do this right," Habernal said, lighting the candles around the room. Their tiny flames sparked to existence and wiggled about in a flickering dance. The lamps were shut off, and now the candles were the only things visible in the room. They made the walls splash with dim orange light.

"If we can all reach the spirits together now, perhaps they'll show us more. Let's sit in a circle," Habernal said. They did.

"I'm sorry," Winston said. "But what are we expecting to hear?"

"Well," Habernal said. "Now that we know about Icarus, we can ask the spirits more specific questions. We may get a better lead on where he might be, or why Abner has decided to do this now. You see, that house has been under renovations in the past, and yet the workers in there never had this sort of problem. Some complained about strange noises upstairs. Or cold drafts. But nothing like this.