Vivien was impressed by how far he’d come. He now at least admitted ghosts were real, even if he didn’t share the same enthusiasm for talking to the dead that the three friends had. And he no longer flinched and felt compelled to denounce Julia as a con artist every time someone mentioned his grandmother. That in itself was genuine progress.
When no one readily answered, he added, “It’s okay. You can talk about it in front of me. What happened last night?”
Heather gave Vivien a pointed look.
“Lorna didn’t lie. We have no reason to believe that a demon crossed over into our world,” Vivien said.
“But?” William insisted.
“It didn’t go very well. We did everything right, but…” Vivien struggled to put her feelings into words. This was definitely a new problem for her. Typically her psychic senses made her sure of herself. Half the time she couldn’t shut up. Now she felt like she was fumbling around for what to say.
“Sam didn’t leave like Glenn did,” Lorna said. “He passed through the circle and broke the vases in the front room.”
“I felt him inside me,” Vivien added. She studied the half-eaten donut, suddenly not hungry. “I smelled him. I had forgotten how he always smelled like the beach. But there was so much pain there too. Even now I can feel the ache, the burning. I think he needs our help. I don’t think he’s in a,” her voice caught, “in a good place.”
“Burning? Was he on fire when you saw him last night?” William asked, confused. “Is that why you went to the ocean? To put out the flames?”
“No, later last night he wasn’t burning, he was,” Vivien gestured helplessly, “friendly?”
“A friendly ghost?” William seemed even more skeptical. He looked at Lorna. “I thought you said you weren’t drinking last night.”
“We weren’t,” Lorna said. She rubbed William’s arm. “Let her tell it.”
Vivien took a deep breath and then attempted to tell them everything that had happened after she woke up to the motion alarm. The story was stunted and inarticulate, but she managed. There was no point in hiding anything. When she’d finished, William was frowning, Heather gave her a sad smile, and Lorna nodded her head.
“So, you didn’t see his face,” Heather concluded. “Just light. You can’t say for sure that it was Sam.”
“Who else could it have been?” Vivien asked. “Does it make sense that we called Sam, but another ghost just suddenly showed up and wanted to take me for a romantic stroll by the water?”
“Into the water,” William muttered.
Vivien ignored William’s comment. “We all saw Sam in the living room, so we know he’s here. It had to be him leading me to the water.”
“We called Glenn and got Glenn and a demon,” Lorna said.
“This ghost didn’t attack me,” Vivien insisted. “I didn’t feel scared.”
“But he did try to lure you to your death,” William reasoned. “What if it’s another kind of demon? Lorna and I went up against a devil dog-man. Maybe this one is more like a pied piper.”
“I never said he tried to lure me to my death. I said he led me to the water.” Vivien frowned.
Sam had urged her to go into the water, even forced her to walk into the depths. She remembered feeling like he wanted her to see something. As a psychic, she had to trust her feelings and instincts on this. It wasn’t what it looked like from the outside. Sam wasn’t trying to kill her. He’d tried to communicate with her. She was sure of it.
“I think I would know if someone meant me harm.” Vivien had squished the glazed donut into a flat, uneven ring. She set it on the countertop. “I mean, this is me we’re talking about. If there is one thing I know, it’s to trust my instincts when it comes to people.”
Heather pressed her lips tightly together and stared at the floor.
“Like now. I know you want to say something, so just say it.” Vivien gestured at Heather, urging her to speak.
“We need to talk to Julia,” Heather said.
“That is not what you wanted to say,” Vivien said in exasperation. Sure, now her gift decided to give her perfect clarity into what her friends were thinking. Where was that clarity when she was following a spirit, or when she was talking to Troy? “You want to tell me that my reading ghosts might not be the same as my reading humans. You want to tell me I’m naïve if I don’t believe that walking into the ocean in the middle of the night is ill-conceived at best, and at worst, the ghost was trying to kill me.”
“Well…” Heather gave a small nod.
“You don’t think I know that?” Vivien exclaimed. “You think I don’t know I sound like a crazy person? I know there is a chance it’s not Sam, but what if it is? What if he is trying to tell me something? What if he—?”
She shut her mouth.
“What if he what?” Lorna prompted.
Vivien shook her head. “Nothing. I don’t know what I was going to say.”
Lorna and Heather reached forward at the same time, each woman grabbing one of Vivien’s arms. They held tight as the transfer of emotions began to flow. Vivien felt a shiver as the static charge lifted her hair. She felt Heather and Lorna’s concern for her. No, it was more than that. They were concerned about her.
Lorna gave a small gasp and whispered, “Oh, no.”
Heather was a little more vocal. “Dammit, Viv.”
“What?” William reached for his sister’s shoulder. A loud snap sounded as the contact shocked him. He jerked his hand back in surprise. “Whoa.”
Lorna let go of Vivien. “William?”
“I felt…” He looked around at the women and waved his hands to encompass them. “You all have a lot of feelings going on in there.”
“It’s intensified because we’re touching and—” Lorna began.
“Like you’re not full of feelings?” Heather interrupted. “You think I want to sense what you think about Lorna?” She gave a small shiver. “I need brain bleach and a lobotomy.”
“Vivien?” Lorna asked, keeping them on topic. “Did you think you could bring Sam back from the dead?”
“You séanced Glenn,” Vivien said.
“We séanced Glenn.” Heather didn’t take her eyes from her. “We didn’t bring him back for good.”
“Wait, you’re trying to make a Sam zombie?” William inquired. “No offense, but won’t that be gross? Why? Have you thought this through?”
“Ew, no.” Vivien curled her lip in disgust.
“Viv, tell me bringing him back from the dead wasn’t our intent when we were doing the séance,” Heather stated.
Vivien bit her lip.
“Vivien!” Heather insisted.
“I can’t tell you that. I mean, yeah, maybe that was my intent. I miss him so much, and you said it yourself, Julia told you that we were meant to use our new magic to help each other get over our pain. So why can’t that mean we get to bring Sam back? Can you imagine if it works? If we can do that?” Vivien stopped short of mentioning Heather’s son, but she could see her friend was thinking of the possibility.