“What’s new there?” Harriet spat back. “I regret everything that’s happened since I came to Mulcture Hall.”
“What did you do to Greg, Harriet?” Felix asked. “The Shells might have been a mistake, if you got misled by the Tricksters. But what happened to Greg?”
Harriet rolled her eyes. “Should he be allowed to discuss this?” she said to Rima, gesturing at Felix derisively. “We all know he hates me because he’s obsessed with—”
Felix made a noise of panic, but before he could cut her off, Kasper got there first.
“Harriet!” he shouted, furious.
Felix jerked his head around, shocked. Rima shouted at people out of love. Leah, to make them leave her alone. Kasper, though. Kasper only told people off when he was very, very angry. And it took a lot to rile Kasper.
“Just stop, OK! Stop it.” He let out a furious gust of breath. “You can’t talk your way out of this. You made a mistake. You have to deal with the consequences.”
Harriet tilted her head to one side. She touched his elbow. “Kasper, babe, don’t be like that.”
He jerked his arm away. “I think you should leave. Please. Until we’ve all had a chance to calm down.”
She looked surprised. “But…” She touched his elbow again, frowning hard like she was concentrating.
Kasper shrugged her off. “What are you – are you trying to make me…? Never mind. It’s not going to work. Yeah, I liked you. No, that’s not going to change anything. Not now, not ever.”
Harriet squared her jaw. Her fists were clenched, braced like she was about to start shouting. Then she visibly backed down. She nodded her head, twice in quick succession.
After she left the room, it took a long time for anyone to speak to fill the vacuum she left behind.
HARRIET
It hadn’t worked. It had worked on Greg. Greg had scurried off to do everything Harriet wanted with a little push of love and desperation. He’d been so desperate to please her that he’d literally walked out of the building, after he realized there were no humans inside. He’d let himself disintegrate for her.
When she’d used the same power on Kasper, he’d shrugged it off. He’d acted like the love she’d made him feel for her was nothing. He had felt the emotion she’d pushed into him – he’d even commented on it – but it hadn’t changed his actions. He must be so used to ignoring his emotions that it didn’t affect him.
How was she going to convince him to help her leave this place now? Her plan had failed completely.
Seething, Harriet marched up the stairs, pushing her way past a crowd of idling ghosts. She’d thought this power was useful, but if people could ignore what she made them feel, then what was the point? She’d have been better off with Felix’s power of hypnotism. At least then people couldn’t use their common sense to ignore the compulsion.
Once again, she’d been left with a useless power. And lost Greg, who might have been stupid, but knew more about the ins and outs of Mulcture Hall than she did. He had been valuable, in his own way.
At least she’d acted sensibly when talking to the others this time. That was the only positive outcome from the last few hours. Harriet had been absolutely furious, listening to them discuss sending her to the basement. It had taken all her self-control not to reveal herself and immediately start shouting.
But instead of yelling, she had purposefully kept her cool, trying to copy the quiet control Rufus always had. That was the way her gran spoke to people too – keeping her distance and intimidating them with long pauses. She would sometimes knit whole rows between sentences, eyeing Harriet over the top of the wool in disappointment.
Harriet had embarrassed herself during the argument after Kasper’s possession. She’d attacked Rima and Felix like a toddler having a tantrum. The energy overdose had burnt the surface off the inside of all her nerves, taking her common sense with it.
She was going to have to wait for a human to appear on their own. Surely someone would come soon – maybe a caretaker, unable to resist nosing around the crime scene. When they did, she would get Kasper and try this again. This time, she wouldn’t fail.
RIMA
Rima felt cheated. Harriet really had been using them from the very beginning. Surely deep down, below the panic and desperation that her death had created, Harriet must be a good person. Or was Rima just delusional, like the others said?
Harriet’s energy glowed brightly inside her, so strong that it must be hard for her to keep it under control. What if her erratic behaviour was because that extra energy was influencing her? Rima’s mind kept returning to the vicious way Harriet had spoken to Qi, hours after her death, because she’d been given one little rat. If only there was a way they could bleed some of the energy out of her. Then she might calm down.
Rima was at a loss for what they should do next. There were too many missing pieces to the puzzle. Had Harriet knowingly killed the Shells? Was she connected to Greg’s disintegration? Why had she been fighting with Rufus?
She was acting so randomly that it would be hard to stop her. They needed more information. It was time to ask Leah for help, even if the thought alone made Rima hate herself.
“Look, I didn’t want to do this,” Rima said. “But, Leah, I think we need to know what happens next. Don’t you?”
Leah dropped her head, hair falling in front of her face so that Rima couldn’t see her expression. Rima rubbed her nose once, twice, three times, trying to hide her desperation. Leah’s power let her see the past and future, but using it drained her. It was a big risk. But they had to stop Harriet, before she could hurt anyone else.
“Please, Leah? We can’t do anything unless we know what Harriet is planning to do.” Felix and Kasper were quiet, leaving this to Rima.
Leah ran her finger down the side of Claudia’s cheek as she thought about using her power. The baby watched her, blinking leisurely. She opened her lips and made a small, soft burble.
Finally, when Rima was about to take back the request out of sheer awkwardness, Leah nodded. “OK. I’ll look for you, Rima. But you should know that I’m very low on energy. And Claudia may – overreact.”
Rima swallowed. Leah looked … scared. It was a new expression on her face.
Rima suddenly regretted asking at all. “What does that mean?”
“The last time I used my power, I didn’t wake up immediately afterwards. My energy was too low. Claudia thought I was going to disintegrate, and she panicked.” Leah looked up at the ceiling. “She took energy from someone nearby and pushed it all into me.”
“What?” Kasper looked horrified.
Rima looked aghast at Claudia. Could a baby do something like that? Surely Leah was mistaken. It wasn’t possible. She was only a few months old.
Leah explained, “When I woke up, the person had disintegrated. It was … unfortunate. I’ve explained to Claudia many times that she shouldn’t do that again. When it’s my time to disintegrate, she can’t stop it. She seems to have accepted that now, but you should keep your distance. Just in case.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t do this,” Rima said, trying to keep her horror off her face. Leah made it sound like Claudia was … developed. Perceptive. Communicative. That couldn’t possibly be right.