Despite the stares and mockeries from earlier, Stella became the chief attraction of the Old City Jail. The girl who heard spirits, they said. People jumped on her, asked questions about the prisoners, inquired if she saw anything. Some even begged her to read their palms, to predict their futures, to peer into their auras.

She pushed through the bulky crowd that had formed around her. "I'm not that kind of medium, folks!"

The tour guide eventually had to evacuate her and Arielle—and he wasn't pleasant about it, either. "This is not some spotlight you can steal, Miss," he said, snarling as he led them out a back door to escape the sudden onrush of visitors. "I appreciate how you... woke the spirits—though I told you not to—but I'd rather you not take over my visits and curse the halls of this place more than they already are. We'll reimburse your tickets."

Arielle snorted. "No need." She grabbed Stella's arm and tugged her from the grim structure. "We got everything we needed here. If not more. You can keep your money."

Scared as she'd been lately, worried about herself and her emotions and their worsening trip... this cheered Arielle up.

Stella, the medium—not a circus freak, but a full-blown, spirit-seeing, voice-hearing medium.

Driving towards the hotel, they laughed, released their tension, turned the music up and sang so loud their ears hurt. And they didn't care how bad they sounded—it felt good.

A few blocks from the inn, Stella took a sharp—and unexpected—left turn.

"Hey!" Arielle sat up straight in the passenger seat and pointed to the right. "The hotel was that way."

"Yes, I remember." Stella rolled her shoulders and slowed the car's pace as they cruised down a well-lit but deserted street. "I want to make a pit-stop."

"Where are we going?" Arielle peered left and right. "Do you know your way around Charleston, Stel?" If she'd been in the car with anyone else, Arielle would have freaked out; but Stella had hunches. Stella sensed things. Maybe she was steering them towards... activity.

A chill stirred Arielle's senses, causing her to grit her teeth.

Do we need more activity today?

"I don't, but I remember seeing this earlier, when we drove into town." She jutted her chin at a sign to her left, and Arielle squinted at it, too.

"A... middle school? Why?" Arielle crossed her arms. "Is it haunted? How are you aware of it? And are we authorized to be here?"

Stella turned into the parking lot. The building itself loomed a few yards away, surrounded by fences and bushes and a few dimmed street lights. "The school isn't what I'm interested in." She parked, shut off the car, and spun to Arielle. An eerie glow gathered in her eyes, but whether it came from the nearby lights or if they shined, Arielle couldn't tell. "It's this parking lot. I... read stuff about it. I read that... a murder took place here."

Arielle gasped. "Dude, what the hell?" She paused halfway into unbuckling her seat-belt. "No way. Why would you bring us here? Haven't we dealt with enough negative energies for the past few days?"

Peeking at the dashboard and emitting a deep sigh, Stella fiddled with her hands. She was nervous.

Why is she nervous? What's going on?

Stella wouldn't hurt her. They were friends. Best friends. And yes, there were secrets between them, differences in opinions, a few arguments about Jade—

Shit. Did she do something to Jade? Is she... coming clean?

A phantom itch on Arielle's cheek—a remnant of her imagined drizzle of bloody tears down her skin—prompted her to lean from Stella and gulp. "What is going on?"

Stella sneered. "Girl, chill. I'm searching for the best way to ask you this." She sucked in her lips and inhaled, then expelled her breath and grimaced. "To... bring up the Ouija board."

Arielle winced. "Stella!" She tapped the blonde's shoulder. "We said we wouldn't use that word!" She hunched and lowered her voice. "And not here, where there might be murderous ghosts and shit!"

"Oh, stop it. The spirits here won't hurt us, I'm sure." Stella perked up. The street-lamp basked her face in hues of yellow and blue, turning her platinum locks to silver and gold. She was a modern witch, a spirit-whisperer, a gorgeous girl with abilities and intuition. "I want to use the board... here. Tonight. Yeah, we agreed on tomorrow, but... we're pumped with adrenaline now! With what happened at the Jail, the stuff the spirits said... I still worry those ghosts lied. Since they were prisoners... but it was a perfect introduction. Here, now... this is the ideal moment."

Arielle scoffed. "Oh, and you think the ghost of a murderer will be any better? Come on, Stel."

"But what if we contact the victim?" Her cheeks puffed up as she smiled; an ominous, mischievous grin Arielle hadn't seen in a long time. Not since their last outing as a trio, sneaking sips of booze in a metallic flask before swooping into a fancy upscale party they weren't invited to. Stella wore an all black, tight-fitting number that accented her voluptuous curves, outlined her figure. Arielle sported a shorter dress she hated, as it amplified how skinny she was, how small her boobs were, how scrawny her legs were—

But Jade? Jade... was exquisite. That night, she looked like a goddess. Also in a dress, but one with a slit up to her mid-thigh, exposing her bronze skin, luminescent in the overhead car light. The gold fabric shimmered, brilliant as treasure from a sunken ship. And her hair, curled and voluminous and smelling like raspberries and Chanel—

"... and maybe the victim can tell us, yeah?" Stella's pleading tone seized Arielle from her golden goddess fantasies.

"Huh? Tell us what?"

"What happens after death! Isn't that your big go to? If we can't talk to Jade, at least we can use that. Maybe we'll get more than secret this time."

"But Jade..." Arielle struggled to return to the real-world, to pry out of her imagination. To yank herself out of Jade's light eyes and her pouty lips, colored in a mahogany shade. To erase the image of her kissing a napkin, to smooth out the texture and even the surface. Then she saw Jade kissing her, not the napkin. Holding her with her soft hands, not the lipstick—

"Arielle, hello? Are you there?" Stella's huff blew through Arielle's hair and whipped against her skin, breathing life back into her.

"Huh? Fuck, I'm sorry, Stel, I..." she peered out at the street-light. At the gloomy school building nearby, at the thick bushes and faded grass lining the area. "Contact Jade here? She'd come to us in a parking lot in Charleston, South Carolina, you think?"

"Why the heck not?" Stella opened her car door. "We have to try, right? If it doesn't work, I'll put the board away and we won't talk about it again, okay?" She didn't wait for an answer and grabbed the keys as she slipped out into the night air.

It was breezy but muggy when Arielle finally joined her. Stella had opened the trunk and gazed down at it.

The Ouija board.

The board was cracked at the edges, worn-out, wooden and glossy. And the letters were painted in heavy black ink, a bit faded in places. Mrs. Sullivan had carved out the planchette herself—a mix of ebony and ivory marble, swirling with gray and navy.

"Uh..." Arielle tipped away from the sight, angst coating her insides. "You sure we're allowed to use this?"

Without hesitation, Stella picked up the board with one hand, and clasped the planchette with her other. "Duh. Mom knows I have it." She glanced around the tranquil, near-obscure patches of grass to the side of the lot. "Over there should work. Grab my bag, would you? We'll use the blanket from the other day."

Suppressing her fiftieth frozen chill of the evening as it raced down her spine, Arielle did as asked, and followed Stella to the area she chose. They spread out the quilt on an even part of the grass, then sat cross-legged across from each other, the board between them.

"You ready?" Stella's excited smirk would be contagious to anyone else—but not to Arielle. Not considering all they'd endured, and all she'd experienced in the past with such occult objects.

"Uh... yeah?" Not that she had a choice; they were settled, and Stella was stubborn as ever. "Let's... get this over with."

Reminiscent of her mother, infused with the same courage, the same determination, Stella deposited her fingertips on the planchette. With an arched brow and a pout of her lips, she urged Arielle to mimic her. "I'll ask the questions, for now." She inhaled a large breath, held it in for a few seconds, then released it, slow and controlled. "And when I say so, you can jump in, okay?"

Arielle nodded as dread drowned her gut, drenched it in fear, confusion, anticipation.

Here we go.

"Hello," Stella purred, confident and wise. "I am Stella, and this is my friend Arielle." Her tone didn't quiver. She had no hesitation, no lapse between words. As if she'd been born to do this... and accepted it. "Is anyone here?"

She'd barely said here when the planchette launched to the "yes". Arielle gasped and clenched her jaw and fought against removing her hands—which would be dangerous, she recalled.

Stella's brows shot up and her smirk returned. "Oh wow, hi. Hi there. Who are you?"

The planchette again moved almost instantly, skidding towards the letter P.

It's not real. It's fake. A subconscious motion, spirits don't move the planchette, they can't—

"E. Okay, P, E, keep going!" Stella's excitement grew, Arielle's worries intensified.

Okay... specters exist, I admit, but this thing isn't the real deal, it's a game—

"N! P, E, N... Pen?" The planchette swerved, rushed to the N again, then ended with Y and ceased all movement. "Okay, so... P, E, N, N, Y. Penny. Penny, is that your name?"

Arielle's heart thrummed inside her rib-cage. It banged against her chest, clawing at its linings, digging a hole to burst out and scream, to run.

Penny! It's her, right? The chick who talked to Jade? Too coincidental—

She'd tried so hard to repress the memories. The Freshman slumber-party that scarred her, the ways her seance with Jade had petrified and horrified her. Penny was mean, violent, saying things only Jade seemed to understand but wounding her deep, damaging her within.

But to react, to show recognition in front of Stella... would be admitting she more than knew about Jade's Ouija board, hiding somewhere in her mansion of a house. She'd touched it, read it, watched it animate. And this was not the appropriate time to come clean.

"Penny, hi! Nice to meet you." The planchette came to life again—H, then I. Stella squealed in delight. "Oh, it's a friendly one!" But then it rumbled and moved again. A, then R, then I. "A... Ari..." E, L, L, E were quickly visible under the planchette's window. "Arielle? Hi Arielle, she says. Hey! Wh—what about me?"

Shit, shit, shit! She remembers me, doesn't she?

"You can spell Stella, right?" Oblivious, Stella waited the being to answer. But it—Penny—was done. "Uh... okay, so..." She narrowed her gaze at Arielle, then returned to the board. "Are you saying you know Arielle?"

Arielle shrugged. "I don't know any Penny chick, Stel," she whispered, but Stella refocused on the planchette as it swished towards the "yes."

She groaned. "Oh, she says she doesn't know you, Penny. Are you confusing her with someone else?"

The planchette quivered—briefly, like a quick hiccup. Then it zipped to the "no."

Stella looked up again, a silent fury brewing in her eyes. "Got something to say?"

Arielle shook her head. "Uh... no? Spirits can lie, right?"

Fuck, fuck, fuck—

How could she keep her secrets if sly specters like Penny swept in and divulged them?

"Fine." Stella's shoulders tensed as she blew out a breath and concentrated. "Anyway, Penny, where are you from? Are you—" The planchette's brusque movement cut her off. "Oh, okay..." She flinched, but remained serious, allowing the carved device to swerve between letters. "J, A, D, E... shit, she spelled Jade... Jade... says... hi." She froze and her chin dipped down, but her eyes shifted upwards to meet Arielle's. "Jade says hi?"

Bile edged up Arielle's throat. Her heart yammered on, tightening, agonizing. "This... this isn't cool, Penny," she mumbled, sensing her fingers numbing, her legs becoming limp. A cold sweat trickled down the sides of her forehead and fled under her shirt.

"Well... that's what we wanted, no? Jade?" Stella re-positioned herself, but Arielle could tell by her fidgeting that she was uncomfortable. The confidence oozing from her pores earlier had disappeared, and her arms jerked as she stretched them. "Where is she? Do you know, Penny? Do you know where Jade is?"

As the planchette blasted over more letters, a dreary vibe discharged around them, like a bubble of foreboding forming, locking them in. Arielle shivered, again fighting the urge to remove her fingertips.

"Long word. She says... unavailable." Stella cleared her throat. "Jade isn't here, then?"

The planchette went to the "no".

"And can you, uh... get a message to her? From me? From Arielle?"

Another "no".

Her demeanor torn between fright and irritation, Stella grunted. "Why? We'd like to speak to her."

"Stel..." The words formed in her mouth, but Arielle couldn't say them. She couldn't warn her friend how fickle Penny had been with Jade, too. How she seemed to hold some weird grudge against her, said cruel things that nearly brought Jade to tears.

She's a bully... a demon? Do demons exist?

She wouldn't dare utter the d word in the middle of a Ouija board seance—that would be deadly.

"Right..." Stella arched her back and peeked at Arielle through slitted eyes. "She responds best to you, like she knows you... so shoot your shot, friend. Ask her your million dollar question."

"I-I..."

Stella clicked her tongue, her tone snippy. "Ari, we'll chat about this later, but we don't have time. This chick is... unpleasant. I feel her, she's looming around here, and she's... I mean, I wouldn't say she's E-V-I-L, but she's not friendly as I first thought, either. So ask, while we got her."

"O-okay." Arielle filled her lungs with oxygen—toxic and leady as it was in this area—and relaxed, shoving her fears away for a moment. "Penny, hi... could you... could you tell us what happens after death?"

The planchette vacillated, trembled, looked ready to shoot up and explode. Then it zoomed over letters so fast both girls struggled to keep up, their arms yanking right and left, up and down.

"You... must... die." Stella let out a shrill gasp and braced to retract herself from the planchette, but it swooshed about once more, whipping and whirling in the breeze that fizzled to life around them. "To... find... out."

"You must die to find out?" Arielle's heart stopped. She couldn't feel her skin, became numb to the pounding in her temples, and lost track of space and time.

Stella regained herself and took control of the situation, but she'd turned pale as a sheet of paper, as a blanket of snow. "Thanks, Penny. We're leaving now. Goodbye." The planchette spelled something out again, but Stella yanked her hands away and shoved Arielle's off the device, too. "Oh boy. Ooh, boy."

"Stel, are you—"

"—no, I'm not okay. And we have a lot to talk about, Arielle Daniels."