Souls Of The Innocent

Chapter Twelve: The other side

" Very funny Logan!", Stacy said turning towards Logan but she was surprised to see that Logan's hands were not on the table, but on her lap. 

She glanced at Debra, then at Amber and they all look at each other with wide eyes. Logan looked at them and put a finger to her lips indicating to them that they have to be quiet. They heard the sound of the planchette moving again and they all looked at the ouija board. The planchette moved and they spelled out what was being written.

I am here, Amber.

Goosebumps crept up on Amber's arms, her throat dried up, she didn't know how to react to what she was witnessing. The lights in the room flickered as the planchette moved again and everyone looked at the board. 

I can see you.

"Logan what's going on?", Amber whispered.

" Pick up the planchette and look through the small round glass", Logan told her.

Amber hesitated before she picked up the planchette and looked through the round glass, but she didn't see anything. Logan told her to keep looking through it and move it around the whole room. Amber did exactly what she was being told to do. 

" I cannot see anything", she whispered as she turned towards Logan and her whole body froze as adrenaline flooded through her body shutting down her ability to think straight. She held the planchette tightly until she could feel that  it was hurting the palm of her hand. Her friends looked at her,  her pale face indicated to them that Amber was looking at something that made her white as a ghost. 

They turned in the direction of where she was staring but they couldn't see anything. Amber took deep breaths so she could come back to her senses. She composed herself and removed the planchette in front of her eyes.

" Can you see her?", Amber whispered and the others looked at her. They could sense fear in her tone as they turned to look at what she pointing at.

" See who Amber? You are scaring me?!", Stacy said as she couldn’t see anything or anyone else in that room.

" She's standing behind Logan", Amber whispered again and her words nearly made Stacy and Debra run out of the room. 

" Stop kidding Amber! It's not funny, I'm scared!", Stacy said and Logan asked her to calm down.

" Is it Nora", Logan asked and Amber turned her gaze towards Logan and she gently nodded.

" I think so", Amber said as she slowly put the planchette in front of her right eye again. 

She wished it wasn't her, but the girl standing there was wearing the same outfits that her sister was wearing on the day that she disappeared, but the only thing was that her face looked different like she was older. Logan asked her to put the planchette down on the board. 

" Nora do you have a message for someone in the room", Logan said.

The planchette slowly moved on the board and they all read what was being written.

" Help", they all whispered and her friends looked at her.

" Nora, how can I help you? Where can I find you?", Amber anxiously asked as tears tickled her eyes.

The planchette didn't move it stayed on the letter p. Amber asked the question again but still, she didn't get a reply.

" Maybe she's gone", Debra whispered.

" We haven't said goodbye yet", Stacy said.

Amber quickly grabbed the planchette she wanted to see if Nora was still there, but the girl was no longer standing behind Logan. She looked around the room and she didn't see the girl anywhere. She checked behind Logan again and as she was about to put it down she felt like something was breathing close to her right cheek. Fear tickled her and her heart started to pound in her chest. She slowly turned to her left looking through the round glass and she came face to face with a woman who was standing next to her looking straight at her. She placed her left hand over her mouth so that she could muffle the scream that left her lips. The planchette fell to the floor, Logan quickly got up and picked it up from the floor. She quickly placed the planchette on the word goodbye, the candles and the light in the room started to flicker and they all felt that the temperature in the room had suddenly dropped. Steam came out of their nose as they breathed just like on a cold winter day. 

Amber rubbed her hands on her arms to keep herself warm, she turned and looked at the board and then she gazed at Logan. Everyone was wondering what was going on, why did they feel so cold. Slowly the coldness left the room and everything was back to normal. 

" Woh! What was that? What happened to you Amber tell us everything", Debra asked.

" I ... I saw this girl, she was dressed up in the same outfit as Nora but her face... she looked different. She looked older and then I saw this woman...", Amber said and she looked at her friends, they could see fear written in her eyes. 

" I felt the presence of something Evil in the room...that's why I quickly said goodbye. She must have taken Nora's place...", Logan said.

" What if it wasn't Nora. What if it was just some spirit ... what about that woman?! Who is she, why do I always see her!?", Amber asked. 

She was more confused than she was before. 

There was something supernatural that was going on, that was a fact. But how do they find answers to something that they could barely understand? 

" The only way of finding answer  is by digging deeper into this", Debra said and everyone turned to look at her. 

" Are you kidding Deb?", Stacy said. 

She was glad that this frightening seance was finally over so that she could finally breathe properly and there goes Debra saying that they should put their nose deeper into this world of spirits and ghosts. 

" We started this, we cannot just turn our back and pretend nothing happened Stacy!", Debra said with a serious tone, and Stacy was surprised with her friend's answer. All of those years that they had been friends, Debra had never shown any interest in supernatural things.

" I think Debra is right. We need to find out what is going on. Things might get spooky ladies", Logan said and Stacy looked at all of them with a frown. 

" Hello... is anyone listening to me! This world of ghosts and occult things is not ours. Let's get help from someone who can understand these things. For instance a priest", Stacy said.

Amber who had been sitting down quietly listening to her friends' conversation, stood up and walked towards the small wooden shelf where different colored candles in different sizes were properly displayed. She picked up a red one and smelled it. The fragrance of roses filled her nostrils, she slowly placed it down and turned towards her friends who were sitting there in silence and looking at her.

" I'm ready to dig deeper. I'm tired of those nightmares and of that woman", Amber said and she noticed a smile curving on Logan's lips and she nodded yes.

" I'm in as well and Stacy before you say anything. Since you like to read, so maybe you can be the one to do the research work", Debra suggested.

" Research? Like what?", Stacy asked with a serious tone.

" Like about the other girls who had mysteriously gone missing and if there has been any lead on their cases", Amber answered and everyone else agreed, even Stacy. She was glad that everyone had understood that all of this was not her cup of tea, they had clearly understood that she was scared even if she didn’t put it into words.

“ Now where do we go from here?”, Logan said as she blew out the candles.

They silently walked out of the seance room towards the sitting room  , what was certain was that no one wanted to speak about what had happened in that room. The conversation would have to be for another day, Amber was still digesting everything and she was glad that the others didn’t push her to talk about that girl that reminded her so much of Nora. She silently wished that it wasn’t Nora, that what had happened in that room happened because it was what was on her mind, everything that she had been experiencing just crawled out of her imagination and into that room. That her thoughts had been transformed into some sort of vision just like the many nightmares she had. In her mind, she was trying to invent all sort of justification for what happened during the seance, but she wasn’t alone this time. Her friends had also experienced certain things in that room. The thought of her sister is dead and her soul was stuck somewhere made her head spin. She didn’t want to believe that Nora was dead, but what can she do now?  If it was true that Nora had crossed over to some other world, it was clear that her soul was not at peace and what she would have to do is gather all of her strength to let her sister’s soul Rest In Peace and found out who did that to her. The thought of her neighbor crossed her mind and she stopped walking.

“ Is something the matter Amber?”, Logan asked she stared at her friend’s serious face.

Stacy glanced around her hoping that they were not about to experience a new episode of what happened back there in that room. That some spirit had followed them from some other world. Goosebumps crawled up her arms, all she wanted was to go back to her home. 

“ I’m thinking about something... about my neighbor”, Amber replied to Logan’s question.

Stacy breathed a sigh of relief as she listened to what Amber had to say regarding her neighbor.

“ There’s something not normal  about her”, Amber said and she told them about the only time that she had seen her close up and how she had resembled Nora but a more mature version of her sister and the day she saw the little girl standing by the windows with holes where her eyes supposed to be. Debra and Stacy looked at Amber with their mouth half-opened.

“ I want to go inside that house”, Amber said with a determined tone.

“ What?!”, Stacy exclaimed. She was thinking that her friend was going crazy wanting to go into that house. 

“ I’ll come with you. We have to start somewhere. If Amber is suspicious of her neighbor ,maybe checking her place up is a good idea ”, Logan said.

“ Stacy and I, we can stay outside on the lookout”, Debra said and Stacy had no choice but to agree. It was better to be outside than going inside that house.

“ But, we have one problem. I don’t even know when she’s there or not. I’ve seen her a couple of times early morning just standing there on her porch staring at my house”, Amber said.

As Logan was about to say something, there was a loud knock on the front door. Everyone turned towards the door and then looked at each other. 

“ At this time, who could it be?”, Amber whispered.

Logan put a finger to her lips asking them to be quiet as they listened attentively. Another knock on the door made all of them jump. Logan walked towards the windows and slowly drew the curtain enough for her to see outside, she checked on the front porch and didn’t see anyone. She glanced at her friends and shrugged her shoulders. The only person who she could think of who could be coming to check up on her was her  neighbor Mrs. Patterson. She always comes around whenever her mother wasn’t around to check if she was fine and didn’t need anything. Logan walked towards the front door and as she was about to open it Stacy stopped her.

“ Logan wait! you cannot just open the door at this time of the night like that !”, Stacy said.

Logan reassured her that there was a metal gate in front of the main door even if she opened it, the person will not be able to reach her or get inside the house. Logan took in a deep breath and opened the door and there wasn’t anyone there. She turned and looked at her friends and shrugged her shoulders.

“ Guess the person left”, she whispered. 

Stacy let out a shriek and pointed at something behind her. She noticed that the others were also looking at her with fear written all over their face. 

She could feel the presence of  something or someone behind her and she quickly turned around and someone was standing there on the porch.

“ Hey calm down. You want to wake up the whole neighborhood! “, that person said and Amber narrowed her eyebrows. She recognized the voice straight away.

“ Nathan what are you doing here!”, Amber said and everyone looked at her with a frown.

“ Nathan?!”, Debra said and looked towards the front door as the person removed the hood from his head.

“ Nathan Ricci!”, Logan said looking at the uninvited guest with a frown. Debra and Stacy couldn’t believe their eyes, what could he possibly be doing around this neighborhood and knocking on Logan’s door. 

“ What are you doing here?!”, Amber angrily asked.

“ May I come in?”, he asked as he anxiously glanced behind him and Logan glanced at the others before she unlocked the metal gate and Nathan quickly  walked in. He quickly asked Logan to close the door and they all could see that he looked anxious. 

“ You didn’t answer my question”, Amber said and Nathan turned his attention towards her.

He cleared his throat and ran a hand nervously through his hair before he spoke. He told them how he had been driving back home and saw  Amber creeping out of her home. He had decided to follow them and that’s how he had ended up outside Logan’s house. 

“ Are you spying on me Nathan?”, Amber asked and the three other girls crossed their arms over their chest as they waited for his answer.

“ Why would I spy on you Amber?”, he asked with a serious tone but to Amber, it didn’t convince her. She was pretty sure that Nathan was up to something.

“ Why do you look so anxious?”, Logan asked and Nathan turned his attention towards her.

It was the first time that he saw Logan without all of those black makeups and she looked like a different person.  

“ Whilst I was in the car... I noticed that the lights in your house were flickering compared to your neighbors and then I noticed this person standing there by the stairs looking towards the door, it looked like a woman with long black hair”, Nathan said and Amber felt dizzy and she grabbed on to Debra.

“ Amber what’s wrong?”, Debra worriedly asked and the others rushed towards her. 

“ It’s her ... she was here. She was actually here. I brought her to your home Logan”, Amber kept saying and Nathan wondered what was she on about. 

Amber took in a deep breath and then exhaled, she turned and looked at Nathan.

“ I cannot believe it ... You saw her... the woman from my nightmares”, Amber said.

Her voice sounded so serious that her words gave Nathan goosebumps. He wasn’t easily scared, but the look on everyone’s face in that room wasn’t making him feel at ease and he was wondering what the hell was going on. 

“ Whether you like it or not, we are all staying here tonight!”, Logan said as she walked up to the front door and removed the key.