Dark Reunion

broken and an indefinable tension filled the air. Everyone sat up straighter and looked at each other with speculation. Even Vickie looked intrigued on top of her scaredness.

'Would it work?' Meredith said to Bonnie.

'Should we?' Sue wondered aloud.

'Do we dare? That's really the question,' Meredith said. Once again Bonnie found everyone looking at her. She hesitated a final instant, and then shrugged. Excitement was stirring in her stomach.

'Why not?' she said. 'What have we got to lose?'

Caroline turned to Vickie. 'Vickie, there's a closet at the bottom of the stairs. The Ouija board should be inside, on the top shelf with a bunch of other games.'

She didn't even say, 'Please, will you get it?' Bonnie frowned and opened her mouth, but Vickie was already out the door.

'You could be a little more gracious,' Bonnie told Caroline. 'What is this, your impression of Cinderella's evil stepmother?'

'Oh, come on, Bonnie,' Caroline said impatiently. 'She's lucky just to be invited. She knows that.'

'And here I thought she was just overcome by our collective splendor,' Meredith said dryly.

'And besides—' Bonnie started when she was interrupted. The noise was thin and shrill and it fell off weakly at the end, but there was no mistaking it. It was a scream. It was followed by dead silence and then suddenly peal after peal of piercing shrieks.

For an instant the girls in the bedroom stood transfixed. Then they were all running out into the hallway and down the stairs.

'Vickie!' Meredith, with her long legs, reached the bottom first. Vickie was standing in front of the closet, arms outstretched as if to protect her face. She clutched at Meredith, still screaming.

'Vickie, what is it?' Caroline demanded, sounding more angry than afraid. There were game boxes scattered across the floor and Monopoly markers and Trivial Pursuit cards strewn everywhere. 'What are you yelling about?'

'It grabbed me! I was reaching up to the top shelf and something grabbed me around the waist!'

'From behind?'

'No! From inside the closet.'

Startled, Bonnie looked inside the open closet. Winter coats hung in an impenetrable layer, some of them reaching the floor. Gently disengaging herself from Vickie, Meredith picked up an umbrella and began poking the coats.

'Oh, don't—' Bonnie began involuntarily, but the umbrella encountered only the resistance of cloth. Meredith used it to push the coats aside and reveal the bare cedarwood of the closet wall.

'You see? Nobody there,' she said lightly. 'But you know what is there are these coat sleeves. If you leaned in far enough between them, I'll bet it could feel like somebody's arms closing around you.'

Vickie stepped forward, touched a dangling sleeve, then looked up at the shelf. She put her face in her hands, long silky hair falling forward to screen it. For an awful moment Bonnie thought she was crying, then she heard the giggles.

'Oh, God! I really thought—oh, I'm so stupid! I'll clean it up,' Vickie said.

'Later,' said Meredith firmly. 'Let's go in the living room.'

Bonnie threw one last look at the closet as they went.

When they were all gathered around the coffee table, with several lights turned off for effect, Bonnie put her fingers lightly on the small plastic planchette. She'd never actually used a Ouija board, but she knew how it was done. The planchette moved to point at letters and spell out a message—if the spirits were willing to talk, that is.

'We all have to be touching it,' she said, and then watched as the others obeyed. Meredith's fingers were long and slender, Sue's slim and tapering with oval nails. Caroline's nails were painted burnished copper. Vickie's were bitten.

'Now we close our eyes and concentrate,' Bonnie said softly. There were little hisses of anticipation as the girls obeyed; the atmosphere was getting to all of them.

'Think of Elena. Picture her. If she's out there, we want to draw her here.'

The big room was silent. In the dark behind her closed lids Bonnie saw pale gold hair and eyes like lapis lazuli.

'Come on, Elena,' she whispered. 'Talk to me.'

The planchette began to move.

None of them could be guiding it; they were all applying pressure from different points. Nevertheless, the little triangle of plastic was sliding smoothly, confidently. Bonnie kept her eyes shut until it stopped and then looked. The planchette was pointing to the word Yes.

Vickie gave something like a soft sob.

Bonnie looked at the others. Caroline was breathing fast, green eyes narrowed. Sue, the only one of all of them, still had her eyes resolutely closed. Meredith looked pale.

They all expected her to know what to do.

'Keep concentrating,' Bonnie told them. She felt unready and a little stupid addressing the empty air directly. But she was the expert; she had to do it.

'Is that you, Elena?' she said.

The planchette made a little circle and returned to Yes.

Suddenly Bonnie's heart was beating so hard she was afraid it would shake her fingers. The plastic underneath her fingertips felt different, electrified almost, as if some supernatural energy was flowing through it. She no longer felt stupid. Tears came to her eyes, and she could see that Meredith's eyes were glistening too. Meredith nodded at her.

'How can we be sure?' Caroline was saying, loudly, suspiciously. Caroline doesn't feel it, Bonnie realized; she doesn't sense anything I do. Psychically speaking, she's a dud.

The planchette was moving again, touching letters now, so quickly that Meredith barely had time to spell out the message. Even without punctuation it was clear.

CAROLINE DONT BE A JERK, it said. YOURE LUCKY IM TALKING TO YOU AT ALL

'That's Elena, all right,' Meredith said dryly.

'It sounds like her, but—'

'Oh, shut up, Caroline,' Bonnie said. 'Elena, I'm just so glad…' Her throat locked up and she tried again.

BONNIE THERES NO TIME STOP SNIVELING AND GET DOWN TO BUSINESS

And that was Elena too. Bonnie sniffed and went on. 'I had a dream about you last night.'

TEA

'Yes.' Bonnie's heart was thudding faster than ever. 'I wanted to talk to you, but things got weird and then we kept losing contact—'

BONNIE DONT TRANCE NO TRANCE NO TRANCE

'All right.' That answered her question, and she was relieved to hear it.

CORRUPTING INFLUENCES DISTORTING OUR COMMUNICATION THERE ARE BAD THINGS VERY BAD THINGS OUT HERE

'Like what?' Bonnie leaned closer to the board. 'Like what?'

NO TIME!

The planchette seemed to add the exclamation point. It was jerking violently from letter to letter as if Elena could barely contain her impatience.

HES BUSY SO I CAN TALK NOW BUT THERES NOT MUCH TIME LISTEN WHEN WE STOP GET OUT OF THE HOUSE FAST YOURE IN DANGER

'Danger?' Vickie repeated, looking as if she might jump off the chair and run.

WAIT LISTEN FIRST THE WHOLE TOWN IS IN DANGER

'What do we do?' said Meredith instantly.