But what kind of ghost would be invisible here? Ollie wondered. She was on the bad side of the mirror. She should be able to see the ghosts. Ever since she’d come through the mirror, Ollie had seen all the ghosts. Mother Hemlock. The dead skier. This trembling girl.
Ollie thought she heard Gretel speaking softly to herself from the shadows. “Don’t listen,” she was saying. “Don’t listen don’t listen . . .”
That was when Ollie heard the beeping.
She stiffened. That soft, steady beeping was definitely the sound of her mother’s watch. But how could her mother’s watch be here? The last time she’d seen it, her watch had been dangling between Seth’s fingers. Was Seth here? All Ollie’s muscles were tense, ready to run. But she kept still, listening hard.
The sound was coming from the open space right next to the oil lamp. Where the invisible person’s footsteps had stopped.
“Hello?” Ollie whispered, her voice almost too low even for herself to hear. And, a little louder: “Hello? Mom?”
Silence. She waited, trembling.
Still nothing.
Then, in front of Ollie’s startled eyes, Seth’s Ouija board tumbled out of nowhere and hit the stone floor with a clatter.
* * *
—
When the watch started beeping loudly, Coco’s first instinct was to clap her hand over it and muffle the noise so it wouldn’t give her away. But as she did, she forgot about the Ouija board under her arm. It fell with a crash. Coco jumped back from the noise, breath coming panic-fast, wanting to run, not sure where to run to. The watch was still beeping. Why was it still beeping? Was it betraying her after all? Was this it?
The watch fell suddenly silent.
For a few seconds, there was no sound at all.
Then Coco heard footsteps. Soft, sneaking footsteps. They came out from behind a pile of dusty lockers. Coco strained her eyes into the dimness until they watered, but she couldn’t see who was making the noise. The steps came nearer. Nearer. Coco started to back away, imagining cold, invisible ghostly hands reaching out.
But instead the footsteps paused. Right next to the Ouija board. And then, all by itself, the Ouija board turned right way up. It floated up and came down softly on the table, right next to the oil lamp.
Somehow, Coco didn’t think it was Seth. “Is it the smiling man?” Coco whispered to the watch.
One beep. NO.
Silence fell again. A thick, expectant silence. There were no more footsteps. Coco, on sudden impulse, pulled the planchette out of her pocket, put it on the Ouija board, took a step back, and waited, heart beating fast.
Immediately the planchette started to move.
Don’t trust it, Coco reminded herself. Last time the Ouija board had tricked them, tricked Ollie. This was probably another trick.
She was so busy reminding herself to watch out for tricks that she didn’t notice the first couple of letters.
O R U, said the planchette, and stopped.
Huh? Coco had to think about that a second. She combed through her memory for the letters she’d missed. Oh. WHO R U.
Okay, Coco thought. Even if the invisible person was out to trick her, Coco might still learn something, if she talked to them. She’d just have to be on her guard for lies.
But her hand trembled when she put it down on the planchette. COCO, she spelled out. WHO U.
* * *
—
COCO, signed the planchette.
Ollie didn’t know who she’d been expecting. It wasn’t Coco.