As I Descended. Robin Talley

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СКАЧАТЬ Lily’s eyes were fixed on the planchette, but they looked empty, vacant. Across from her, Maria’s entire body trembled except for her hand. Her hand, resting on the planchette, was perfectly still.

      This was all getting a little too intense for Brandon.

      “Hey,” he said, leaning over the board. The planchette started to move again, slowly this time, in plodding figure eights. “Hey, ghostie, hey, Casper, buddy, what about me? Why does Maria get all the love? I’m doing all this work writing down your fancy foreign poetry. Don’t I get a fortune cookie of my own?”

      The girls didn’t bother to chastise Brandon this time either. He wondered if they could speak at all.

      That idea scared him. He was about to suggest they stop playing when he heard a strange sound from above.

      Brandon looked up.

      He was the only one. The girls were both bent over the planchette. It had come to a sudden stop in the center of the board.

      The cats were still staring at something in the corner of the ceiling that Brandon couldn’t see.

      What he did see was the chandelier. Swinging on its cord, hard, as though someone invisible were pushing it. Or riding on it, pumping their legs, like a swing.

      The planchette swerved so fast it almost skidded off the table. Brandon leaned over the board again. He didn’t bother trying to write anything down this time. He couldn’t possibly keep up. The board went to H, then A.

      Lily and Maria both had their eyes closed now. The chandelier was rocking harder.

       HABRA TRES PRESAGIOS

      There will be three . . . something. Brandon had never seen that last word, “presagios,” before.

      There wasn’t time to dwell on it. The planchette was still flying over the letters. He didn’t realize it had switched to English until it had already spelled out the same set of words twice.

       THIS IS HOW IT ENDS

       THIS IS HOW IT ENDS

      “How what ends?” Brandon whispered.

      The planchette jerked in the girls’ hands and shifted back to the middle of the alphabet. Moving just as fast as before, it spelled out:

       MEMENTO MORI

      Brandon rubbed his forehead again. That wasn’t Spanish, but he knew that phrase. He’d seen it before. It was Latin. He tried to remember what it meant. Something about—

      A jagged piece of glass flew past Brandon’s face, missing his eye by an inch. A split second later the chandelier crashed down onto the table, smashing the Ouija board into shards.

      Brandon screamed. Pieces of glass whizzed around him and tinkled onto the floor by the hundreds, the thousands, smashing against the wood and shattering into jagged slivers.

      Brandon waited to feel the first one slice into his skin. He burrowed his head into his arms to protect his face.

      Then it was over.

      The room was pitch-dark and silent. Brandon shook so hard he could barely breathe.

      It took him half a minute to realize he wasn’t hurt. The glass crunched thick under the soles of his sneakers when he dropped his feet to the floor.

      Then he remembered the girls.

      “Maria?” Brandon peered into the dark. A blurry shape was huddled in the chair where Maria had been. “Ree? Lily? Are you all right?”

      One of the girls made a sound like a whimper.

      “Hey.” Brandon crept toward Maria, trying to avoid the biggest chunks of glass, afraid of what he’d find if he got too close. One of the cats brushed against his leg, its back arched, hissing. Somewhere far away, footsteps pounded down the hall. His vision was adjusting to the darkness. “Talk to me, Ree. Say something.”

      Maria was still sitting in her chair. Her eyes were closed. Brandon’s heart leaped in his chest.

      “Maria!” He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her.

      “What?” Maria blinked.

      Brandon exhaled. He wanted to slap her for scaring him so badly.

      Maria’s eyes were empty, but she could sit up, so she must be all right. Brandon went to the other side of the table to check on Lily.

      It was a miracle the table hadn’t collapsed. The chandelier looked like it weighed about a thousand pounds.

      Lily was on the floor, but she was sitting up too, rubbing at the dust in her eyes. “Did it work?” she said when Brandon reached her.

      “I don’t know what the hell it did,” Brandon said. “But we are never, ever playing that game again.”

       Bang. Bang. Bang.

      Brandon’s heart sped back up. Then he realized this sound was normal, not whatever that bizarre knocking had been before. This time, someone—a human someone—was pounding on the door to the staff kitchen.

      “Open up!” It was Ross, the first-floor dorm monitor. “Guys, open this door right now or this will be a lot worse for you!”

      Wait. Wasn’t that door unlocked? Didn’t the cats come through it earlier? How did—

      Never mind that. Brandon had bigger problems.

      He stepped gingerly over the broken glass, cracked the door, and peeked through the gap. Ross pushed past him, slamming the door open wide and flicking on the overhead switch. Brandon blinked against the sudden light.

      The shadows that had clung to the corners of the room were gone. All he could see were dust and cobwebs and some revolting fungus creeping along the edges of the rug.

      This was it for Brandon. He’d been caught out after lights-out once already this year. Tonight would be strike two. And the empty wine bottle would mean an automatic phone call to their parents, which meant he could count on being grounded all summer long.

      But Ross didn’t care about any of that. He hadn’t even noticed Brandon yet. His eyes were locked on Lily.

      All the Acheron staff, even the twentysomething dorm monitors like Ross, who just worked here for the free housing, were obsessed with Lily. If the disabled girl got hurt on their watch, there’d be hell to pay.

      Ross texted for backup and helped Lily to her feet. Brandon gathered up her crutches from where they’d fallen and passed them to Ross. Lily glared at both of them.

      “See who all’s out there and get rid of them, will you?” Ross told Brandon, gesturing toward the main door. He picked up the wine bottle from where it had rolled under the table and shook his head.

      Brandon wondered how much this would cost to clean up. Not to mention the priceless antique that had been destroyed. Antiques, if you counted the СКАЧАТЬ