VANISHED (#1 in the VANISHED series) #NaNoWriMo2019 ✔

f i f t e e n ✔

"Ari, why did Penny seem to know you?"

Stella's pallor didn't subside, even after they burned the Ouija board—a trick Mrs. Sullivan told her about if a seance got out of hand. She assured Arielle her mom had plenty of other homemade boards, and she'd prefer them to be safe than for one of her many occult devices to be salvaged.

"I don't know. Because of Jade? Seems like she knew her, right? Maybe she mentioned me." The words tumbled out of Arielle's mouth, but she had no notion how they got there. Her brain was mush and her insides swarmed by discomforting waves of nausea. Her lies continued to bite her soul away.

Penny... it had to be her, the same one from that night. Why would she do this? What does she want?

For years, Arielle had tried to suppress those memories. Jade's winces, her fingertips trembling on the planchette, her beautiful bright eyes brimming with tears when Penny issued her threats.

Watch out... I remember... do not betray...

This spirit, whatever or whoever she was, had bruised Jade beyond belief. And here she was again, attempting to do the same to Arielle, and to some extent, to Stella.

Unless Stella had heard the entire thing from Jade, and this was her sick way of torturing the truth out of Arielle.

She glimpsed her best friend, who glared at the flames swallowing the board, their flicker reflecting in her darker-than-usual chocolate eyes. Her lips fixed into a straight line, and she was tense; Stella was mad. But... would she go through such measures to see if Arielle would cough up the reality of events that happened years ago?

Jade swore she'd never speak of it; Arielle did the same. Could it all be coincidence?

"Right, and Jade was friends with both of us. So why you?" Stella blew out her cheeks and threw chunks of the planchette into the flames. She'd had to jump multiple times on top of the marble thing before it finally crunched and broke, Arielle recalled.

Marble doesn't burn... but at least it's shattered and can't be rebuilt.

"I conducted the seance. I led the questions, I spoke. Mom... never mentioned something like this happening. A spirit ignoring the one talking to it and targeting someone else right off the bat." She squinted at Arielle, brows hesitating to inch up or droop down. "I don't like it." She stormed to the car.

"Hey!" Arielle ran up to her, after ensuring the fire wouldn't spread to the grass—they'd started it on the pavement, on the opposite side of the lot. "Hey, wait!" Her heart had been through so much that night that she was breathless by the time she caught up. "Are we okay? Did I... did I do something wrong?"

Stella tipped forward and looked at her boots, covered in ash and dirt. "We're fine. You... you didn't ask for this." She spared a quick side-glance at Arielle before opening the door. "But I... I need a break from all this stuff. That chick spooked me. Her presence wasn't good. I couldn't grasp her intentions... and yeah, I'm new at this, at channeling spirits, but I've seen Mom do it enough times and... I'm not cool with how this went down." She slid into the driver's seat. "I'm going to change our tickets for the Lighthouse tomorrow, okay? We should take our time driving to St Augustine, see the sights, relax... go to the beach? We'll do the tour another day."

Arielle wouldn't disagree. The past few days had been strenuous, full of things they couldn't explain and probably didn't want to. Populated with answers they didn't understand and were now fearful of pushing too hard to obtain.

You must die... to find out...

Gulping down the angst clogging her throat, Arielle slipped into the car and they drove off from the haunted school parking lot.