“I-I-I’m n-n-not doing-g-g anyth-th-thing,” Savannah whispered but her voice broke. I’d never seen her not confident and strong and it rattled me to my core.
“Guys…” Gigi whispered in a rush, “guys, who is touching my feet?”
I looked to her feet but there was no one there.
“GUYS.”
“No one, G. There’s just us here.”
“Someone is touching me. I feel hands on my feet – and my ankles and —” she gasped and her eyes widened so far I saw the whites all the way around them. “My head. Hands-hands-in m-my ha-a-a-air.”
“There’s nobody here, G.”
I’m not so sure about that.
Bright blue light shot through the cracks in the hardwood floor then shot up to the ceiling. My fingers felt glued to Gigi, like I couldn’t pull them off even if I wanted to.
“Stop chanting then!”
“We’re not!”
But someone was. I heard those words in chorus around me, the voices harmonized into one, yet echoing through my soul.
Light as a feather, stiff as a board.
Light as a feather, stiff as a board.
Light as a feather, stiff as a board.
Gigi lifted up until she was floating level with my face. Warmth spread from my palms into my fingertips. The air around Gigi’s body turned gold and glittery, swirling around her like her own personal tornado. She rose higher and higher.
“SAVANNAH!”
“I don’t know what’s happening!” Savannah looked to me as Gigi rose up to the ceiling. “We have to get her down!”
“HOW?”
“I don’t know!”
I craned my neck back and watched her lift up until the ceiling fan was only inches away. A cold chill slid down my spine. NO! I threw my hands up. LET HER GO!
A cold gust of wind ripped through the room and every candle flame turned to smoke in an instant. Gigi dropped in a free fall from the ceiling. She screamed and flailed her arms around to try and stop herself. Savannah and I dove forward but she fell too fast.
NO!
That golden glittery mist shot up from the ground. The blue light shined through the cracks again – and Gigi froze a foot off the floor. She gasped for air. I lunged forward and put my fingers under her, like they’d been before. Savannah shook herself then followed my lead. Once we both had her I felt that same tingle in my fingertips. Pressure pressed down on my hands…and then she slowly lowered to the floor.
None of us moved.
I wasn’t even breathing.
We just looked at each other with our jaws dropped and eyes wide in silence.
Then Savannah squealed and smacked her palms on the floor. Gigi scrambled up onto her knees. We looked at each other then burst into laughter. It was terrifying yet I couldn’t stop laughing. For a few minutes, we just sat there holding on to one another and giggling.
Gigi sat back and pushed her hair out of her face. “What just happened?”
“I have no idea, but that was awesome!” Savannah pointed to me. “You’ve got some crazy energy, ma’am. Holy hell. What was that? I am here for it.”
“Did that just happen?” Gigi leaned over and breathed heavily. “Did I dream that?”
I shook my head. “I will be dreaming of that for many nights, I fear.”
Savannah clapped and laughed. Then she gasped and sat upright. “OH MY GOD. I have the best idea.”
Gigi frowned. “What now?”
“Something we haven’t tried yet to get some answers.”
I narrowed my eyes. “What’s that?”
Savannah grinned. “A séance.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Saffie
“Oh, Saffie, check this out.”
Gigi grabbed my hand and dragged me off the main street onto a bricked pathway. We passed a dark wooden house then she stopped us in front of a small grassy field with trees lining the edge and a gray stone wall about three feet tall surrounding it.
“See these stones sticking out from the wall like little benches?” Gigi led me down the narrow gravel sidewalk that wrapped around the grass section to the first of the stone slabs. She pointed. “This is a memorial for the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, what this town is sadly infamous for. Each of these benches has one of the victims’ names on it.”
Oh. I leaned forward, squinting through the darkness to read the names carved into the stone. I walked along the gravel, reading name after name. Giles Corey. Sarah Good. Wilmot Redd. Susannah Martin. Sarah Wildes. John Willard. Ann Pudeator. Elizabeth Howe. George Burroughs. The strangest sensation came over me, one I didn’t know how to explain. My chest grew tight and hot. A lump formed in my throat and my eyes burned. It was sadness but it was anger. It was rage searing through my veins…and…helplessness. Each name I read was a stab to my heart. It felt personal. I felt like I knew these people, which was ludicrous. There was no way I could.
It must have just been because I’d only just learned about the trials. It still felt new to me. But then I spotted a name that took my breath away.
Bridget Bishop.
I heard Dr. Troy’s voice in my mind saying, the Bishop name is famous here. I shuddered.
Savannah squeezed my arm. “Don’t worry, this isn’t where they were hanged. That’s across town, we can bring you there another time to see it.”
I’ve seen it.
I frowned. Why did I think that? I’d only just learned about the trials a few days ago. I didn’t even remember all the victims’ names or know the details of how the trials happened. I sure as hell had never been to the site of the hangings nor did I know where that occurred.
Yet even as I thought that images flashed through my mind. Images of feet swaying in the sunlight. Images of tears streaking down dirt covered faces. Soundless images of screaming rage in my peers and women shielding the eyes of young children. I smelled dirt and the stench of unwashed bodies. I felt heat barreling down on my back and sweat covering my body.
“Safferella?”
I jumped and found both of them watching me. I cleared my throat. “Um…are we doing this here?”
Savannah grimaced. “God, no. That would be both dangerous and horridly distasteful.”
I sighed with relief and nodded. “Good.”
“I just wanted to show you.” Gigi hooked her arm around mine. “Come on, let’s do this.”
I let them lead me back up the brick pathway to the main street then around the old wooden house to our left. The two of them were talking about something but I couldn’t focus on their words. I was too shook up by my own thoughts. I’ve seen it. It left a bitter taste in my mouth and tightness in my chest.
“All right, we’re here.” Gigi tugged on my arm, pulling me out of my own troubled thoughts.
We’d stopped on the sidewalk in front of a black iron gate that wrapped around some kind of park. Right in front of me was a large white sign with writing on it.
“The Burying Point – wait.” My stomach rolled. “Is this a cemetery?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Savannah said with a grin and dreamy eyes as she stared off into the dark. “Isn’t it beautiful?”