The Haunting of Sunshine Girl

Chapter 39

Nolan's at the house, finally. He's supposed to talk about the interesting things he found out about. Of course, he looks— not necessarily bad, but definitely not great.

They're sitting at the dining table, Kat's holding the camera, and Nolan... well. His hair is ruffled and his eyes are darker than usual. He hasn't shown an ounce of humor or sarcasm quite yet, and to say the least, Sunshine is worried. He can hardly look at the camera.

"What was up with that voicemail, Nolan?" Kat asks suspiciously.

"Oh, well, I was uh—" He clenches his fingers together and his voice is softer and rougher than usual. Sunshine doesn't like this. He shrugs his shoulders back and hesitates. "Admittedly, I was a little over-emotional."

Sunshine nods.

"A little?" her mother remarks.

"Um, yeah, um, but— that's okay, y'know? People, people make mistakes, hormones, angst, uh." He clears his throat.

"You blame that on hormones, really?" Sunshine raises a dubious brow at Nolan.

"Uh, listen, I'm not— I'm not trying to cause any ruckus or anything, I just, uh— I just, I just don't know exactly what's going on... right now." He frowns and appears to be very serious. "You know?"

"No," Kat huffs. "Fill us in. What are you talking about?"

"Explain yourself," Sunshine says.

"It's, it's not— it's more difficult to process uh, with tables and chairs and... candles." He glances at the candles and rocks sitting in a long white plate. He picks up one of the rocks. "Stones, uh—"

Sunshine rolls her eyes.

"—the point of what I'm getting at is that I, uh.."

She nods impatiently.

"Am hearing— things."

Sunshine narrows her eyes. "Okay."

"Sometimes," Nolan goes on, "and, it's not that—" He grits his teeth, like he's trying to say something but doesn't want to tell them, "—and I want to, to make sense of them."

"Like you're— like, explain, you're hearing... voices..?" Kat questions.

"Yeah. I want to understand what they're saying. And I— I can almost—" He tilts his head, "get it, I just wanted to make sure when I left the message that you were okay, because, sometimes... they talk about— you."

Sunshine raises her brows. "The voices in your head talk about me."

He bites the inside of his cheek and looks at her. "Yeah."

She looks confused. "Okay.."

"I just— wanted to make sure that you were okay, and that you would remain okay, and I just wanted to— I just want to help." He looks down.

Kat sighs. "Okay, well I know one thing that'll help." She eyes Sunshine. "You thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?"

She puffs out a breath. This whole thing is coming full circle, just like Uncle Tommy said. "Possession test?"

"Oh yeah."

Nolan glares at the camera then it drops to confusion, like he doesn't exactly understand what they're insinuating. "Wait, what?"

"Do you have it still?" Kat asks.

"Yeah," she grunts.

"What's, uh— what's a possession test..?"