When they arrived at River Street, they were surprised to find that only Noah was there waiting for them, sitting on the steps of the abandoned house.

  “Where’s Alicia?” Jesse asked him.

  He shrugged. “She said she was gonna be late because of some cheerleading thing. I didn’t ask for details.”

  “Let me text her real quick,” Siobhan said, pulling out her phone. While she did that, Jesse took his first real look at the supposedly haunted house.

  It was large, definitely more like a manor, at three stories tall, and had an old architectural style about it. Most of the surrounding houses had probably matched it at one point, but over the years had received many renovations and remodelings, leaving the abandoned house looking out of place. In fact, living up to its status as abandoned, it looked like nobody has so much as touched the house since it was first built, whenever that was. Jesse could see holes in the roof and cracks all along the blue paneling on the outside. He could only imagine what it was like on the inside.

  The saving grace of the house’s dilapidated state was that the yard surrounding it was likewise left unattended, with overgrown trees and bushes. Perfect for blocking the view of any neighbors who might be wondering what a bunch of kids are doing breaking into a house in the middle of the night.

  Siobhan frowned. “Huh, she’s not responding.”

  “Here! I’m here!” Alicia’s voice called from down the street as she jogged over to them. Through the darkness, Jesse could just barely see that her eyes looked puffy, almost like she had been crying.

  He wasn’t the only one who noticed. “What happened?” Siobhan asked. “Are you okay?”

  “What happened?” she laughed bitterly. “Your sister happened. I swear, Siobhan, one of these days I’m going to-!” She strangled the air in front of her and let out a frustrated yell.

  “You’ll have to get in line for that.”

  “What did she do?” Jesse asked.

  “Tryouts were today. Cheerleading tryouts. This morning, I showed up at the football field, did my routine flawlessly, and everything was going great. I thought, there’s no way I’m going to get kicked off the team, right? But I forgot something crucial. It’s not the coach who decides who’s on the team, the captain does. AKA an eighth-grade girl who is subject to the whims of middle school popularity contests, And guess who’s thumb our oh so valiant captain just happens to be under?”

  “Adrienne’s?” Noah hazarded a guess.

  She ran a hand through her hair, frustrated. “I’m so stupid. I didn’t even check the list that was posted afterwards to see who had made the team, I just walked away because I knew my name would be up there. I thought I knew my name would be up there. And it was only when I showed up at the after party that the captain always hosts that I found out, because as it turns out, I wasn’t invited. But you know who was?”

  Siobhan’s eyes widened. “Adrienne said she was going to a party tonight.”

  “And she’s not even on the cheer team!”

  Noah whispered to Jesse. “I think I see the appeal of all those drama shows my foster mom’s always watching now.”

  Jesse agreed. “Yeah, this is better than anything on TV.”

  “I was just going to pop into the party, I wasn’t even going to stay for that long, but it looks like I get to spend the rest of my night hunting some stupid ghosts!”

  Noah held a hand out. “Hey now, the ghosts aren’t the ones who are stupid.”

  She took a deep breath, willing herself to calm down. “You’re right, I’m sorry to all the ghosts. I’m just ticked off.”

  “Maybe ghost hunting will get your mind off of all of that,” Jesse suggested. “Siobhan, are we ready to start?”

  When they had first decided to go ghost hunting, Siobhan practically jumped at the opportunity to run research, a role she claimed was a necessity for any self-respecting paranormal investigator. Jesse tried to remind her that they weren’t technically paranormal investigators, nor did they have much self-respect, but she ignored him.

  She pulled out her phone, where she had compiled all her notes on the River Street House. “Okay, so I know that I volunteered myself to find out information on this ghost that we’re hunting, and you all think I’m super smart and talented-”

  Jesse cleared his throat.

  “-But it was actually really hard to find anything on this house. All I could piece together is that it was built sometime in the 1850’s and once belonged to a man named Joseph Waylor.”

  They crowded around as she showed them a picture of the man on her phone, which looked like it had been taken from a news clipping or some other old document. To Jesse, he looked like any other white middle-aged man from that time period, with a three-piece suit and a carefully groomed mustache that made up for his receding hairline.

  “I couldn’t find any record of what happened to Waylor,” she continued. “Only that he died in 1893. The house sat unoccupied for a while until a family moved in in 1945, but they left not long after due to ‘mysterious happenings.’ A couple other people tried to move in over the years, but had similar complaints, until relators just gave up trying to sell the house.”

  “Why haven’t they torn the place down, then?”

  “I don’t know. I found a few articles where members of the town council talked about bulldozing the house, but apparently, they never got around to it. I read they never even removed all of Waylor’s old stuff from the place. Most of it is still in there.”

  “So, it’s this Waylor guy who’s haunting the house?” Alicia asked, looking a lot better after composing herself and focusing on the task at hand.

  “Most likely. But I couldn’t find any record of him being a serial killer or dying a tragic death, so I have no idea what’s keeping him here.”

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  “Great.” Noah climbed to his feet. “We’ll just have to ask him ourselves.”

  “It probably won’t be that simple,” Jesse said.

  “Why not?”

  “Because nothing ever is with us.”

  “Well, we won’t solve anything by just standing out here. Let’s get a move on.” The front door to the house was unlocked, and Jesse had a feeling it had to do with one of the first kids who had been dared to spend the night in the house, but it saved them the trouble of having to pick the lock themselves.

  The inside was definitely more eerie than the outside had been. Most of the furniture that must have once decorated the place was gone, and anything that did remain was covered under white sheets, removing any indication that someone had once lived here. All paintings and photographs had been stripped from the walls, leaving behind only a faded floral wallpaper. It felt empty, but at the same time suffocating, like he could choke on the darkness if he wasn’t careful.

  They lit their way through the house with their phones, finding what was probably the living room, if its layout was any indication. After trying the light switch, they found, surprise, there was no power. At least that was a point against Joey M. or whoever had claimed the lights were flickering when they visited.

  “So...” Jesse said hesitantly. “How do we start a ghost hunt?”

  Siobhan was already on it, pulling a big bottle of salt from her own backpack.

  “First, I’m going to make us a safe space.” She started tracing out a large circle of salt as she explained, “This is just in case things get crazy and we need to get away from the ghost. If we’re inside the circle, it won’t be able to hurt us. The next step is to determine what type of ghost we’re dealing with.”

  “Right,” Alicia said. “Like a regular ghost would be like the Abernathy’s; still possessing their memories but not trying to kill us right away.”

  Noah cupped both his hands around his mouth and yelled. “Hey, Joseph Waylor! Are you home?”

  A beat.

  “I don’t think he’s a regular ghost,” he reported. “He would have appeared to kick us out by now.”

  “Which leaves apparition and spirit,” Siobhan said.

  “What about that fourth one?” Alicia recalled. “What’d they call them, a revenant?”

  “They said they’re certain this ghost isn’t a revenant,” Jesse reminded her.

  She shrugged. “Can’t hurt to leave it on the table.”

  “To help us figure out the type of ghost, I brought a super special tool for us to use.”

  He was already frowning before Siobhan had even pulled her “tool” halfway out from her bag. “Is that a Ouija board?”

  Sure enough, the tool in question was a flat wooden board, with the alphabet stamped across it in black letters, along with “HELLO,” “GOODBYE,” “YES,” and “NO.”

  “It’s a communication device for ghosts,” she defended. “It’s a respectable occult artifact.”

  “They sell those at Walmart,” Noah pointed out.

  “It’s still legitimate! Bella gave me this one when she heard we were going ghost hunting.”

  “Bella also uses deli hams in sacrificial rituals, remember?”

  “Okay, so just because it’s a little... simple doesn’t mean it won’t work.”

  “I’ve played with one of these before, at a slumber party,” Alicia spoke up. “We were convinced we were going to summon Bloody Mary or something. That was before I knew ghosts were real, of course.”

  “I’ve always wanted to try one of these,” she admitted. “But Jesse’s too chicken and, well, you know Adrienne.”

  “I’m not chicken, I just don’t like messing around with that sort of stuff. Besides, we now know monsters and ghosts are real, so I think I was pretty justified.”

  “Well now we’re going to use this to help us find our ghost.”

  She plopped the board on the floor and sat cross-legged in front of it, the others joining her to form a circle. Jesse set his backpack down next to him to get more comfortable.

  “I’ll start us off,” she announced. “Everybody, place one finger on the planchette.”

  They followed her instructions so that all four of them were touching the plastic teardrop-shaped piece. It had a hole cut out of the middle of it so that they could see the letters underneath.

  “Now we say hello and spell out our names.” She explained as they moved the planchette, “If the ghost is a spirit, it’ll be able to communicate with us through this. If they're an apparition, then they won’t be strong enough to move the planchette. Either way, we figure out what we’re dealing with.”

  “That’s actually kind of smart,” Noah said.

  “Thank you. Now, if there are any ghosts living in the last house on River Street, will you let us know that you’re here?”

  The game piece was still for a long time, long enough for Jesse to nearly raise his suspicions about the alleged ghost again, until it started slowly and shakily moving.

  “Are you guys doing that?” Alicia asked breathlessly.

  They all shook their heads.

  It took about thirty seconds for the planchette to make its way across the board and come to a stop on the G. After a pause it started moving again.

  “A little faster, if you could,” Noah said.

  “Ignore him,” Siobhan swatted him on the arm before continuing encouragingly, “It’s okay, take your time.”

  “They’re a ghost, not a toddler learning to read.”

  Alicia’s gaze was transfixed on the planchette. “This is so much cooler than any cheerleader party.”

  They watched as it finally landed on the O, and Jesse didn’t like where this was going. Before he could voice his concerns, however, the piece suddenly shook violently and all of them retracted their hands.

  “Woah!”

  Without any of them touching it, the planchette jerked across the board over to “HELLO.”

  “...Hi,” Jesse said cautiously when nobody else said anything. “What’s your name?”

  The planchette sped across the letters, quickly spelling out, JOSEPH WAYLOR.

  “I knew it,” Siobhan hissed.

  “Are you the ghost that’s been scaring our classmates?” Jesse asked, before specifying, “Other kids our age.” It was strange talking to a game board, but not as strange as some of the other things he’d done over the past six months.

  It immediately crossed to the “YES.”

  “Can you... stop doing that?”

  It sped across the board again, almost too fast to keep up with, and Jesse thought it was spelling out a reply to his question, until it read something entirely different.

  UPSTAIRS LOOK TRUNK.

  “You want us to look for a trunk upstairs?” he clarified.

  It started to repeat its message, but only got as far as the “L” before it started shuddering violently again. It whipped back and forth, scratching the wood of the board, almost as if two unseen people were fighting over it.

  “Guys, I think maybe we should-”

  He was cut off by Siobhan’s scream as the planchette suddenly launched across the room, flying point first towards Noah. He moved his head just in time and managed to avoid being nailed in the eye, the piece instead hitting the window behind him with enough force to crack it.

  “Uh... I think we might be dealing with a spirit.”

  “Agreed,” Jesse said. “I also think it’s safe enough to say he poses a danger to us, so according to the Abernathy’s, our next step should be to locate his source and destroy it.”

  “Do you think that’s what he was trying to tell us with the trunk upstairs?” Alicia asked, biting her lip in thought. “Maybe that’s where his source is.”

  “Why would he tell us that, though?” Siobhan said as she gathered up the planchette and Ouija board. They’ve had enough of that thing for one night. “You would think most ghosts would keep their sources safe, like Walter and Barbara do.”

  “Besides, seeing as he just tried to tear me a new one, I’m not sure it’s a good idea to do whatever he says,” Noah pointed out.

  “Whatever the case, it’s our only lead right now. Might as well check it out.”

  Jesse swung his backpack over his shoulder, ready to head upstairs to continue their investigation, but a muffled yelp from within made him pause.

  Noah frowned. “Dude, did your bag just scream?”

  It better not be what I think it is.

  Jesse slid his bag off once again, unzipping it to find twelve pairs of eyes blinking up at him.