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She went to the kitchen and reached into the refrigerator for a cold can of soda She looked around the roo Fear Disco She s ination of an architect

With her soda in hand, she walked up the stairs to her bedrooain This was her house And everything would be okay, because…

Caleb would be staying there with her At least, she was pretty sure he would be

She ju fro What the hell?

Had the sound come from inside the house--or outside?

Another question: had she remembered to lock the door?

She looked around for her purse--and her cell phone--then realized she’d left them in the kitchen She had a landline from the cable company, but she hadn’t bothered to have them run it into her bedroom

Of course, even if she had her phone, as she going to do? Call the cops and tell the downstairs? And maybe it hadn’t even come from downstairs It could have come from the street

She walked over to the wardrobe, determined not to be a total coward She reached in, past her clothing, and found her old softball bat It was good and sturdy--and she kne to use it

Cautiously, she started down the stairs When she reached thein the house She looked out the front , then stepped out to the porch--relieved to find that she had remembered to lock the door A couple of tourists waved to her, and she waved back For a second she thought they were going to ask about the house, even ask for a tour, but then they turned away and kept walking

She went back into the house, feeling like an idiot This was her home She wanted to be comfortable in it Deserved to be coh the library-to-be, the dining room and, finally, back to the kitchen

The base ajar It hadn’t been open before…had it? Could someone--maybe Gary--have come back for some reason?

"Hello?"

She walked over to the open door and looked warily down the stairs

There was a light on down there, a lone naked bulb hanging fro Over the years, the base space for a totally different kind of spirit--booze during Prohibition Noas prettythe tremor in her voice

She told herself that she wasn’t actually going to go all the way down the stairs, just a few steps so she could look around And if sohtail it back up She could just i her that in bad horror films, only fools went down into dark basements alone

She started down the steps, but all she could see were shadows cast by the stark light of the naked bulb

Okay, that was it She’d been determined not to be spooked out of her own house, but she wasn’t about to be an idiot, either Tirab her purse and head over to Hunky Harry’s Later, with Caleb beside her, she would coure out if anyone had even been there, or if it had just been the drafts coht and opened the door

If Caleb returned It wasn’t as if he’d pro

If he didn’t…well, she had Will and her friends She wasn’t alone here

She had descended four steps, her softball bat in hand, when she heard the door above her creaking

She looked up just as it slahtbulb below her flickered and went out, turning the world around her to black

11

T he Cassadaga Spiritualist Cae Colby It wasn’t an actual cas had once been referred to as camps, and the term had persisted There were only fifty-some homes in town, and at least half of them were inhabited by mediums

Caleb had never been there, but he knew that Adam respected many of the inhabitants and had once explained to Caleb the way legit mediums, not the sideshow posers, operated First, s didn’t zero in on soiving a person guidance to help forge his own future And because mediums communicated with the dead, they didn’t always have instant answers--even the dead had to think about a question sometimes

Martha Tyler was not just a roup called The People Faith, and she saw people at her hos Caleb found the house without difficulty, a char ashed Victorian As he shut his car door, he realized with an inner s ho, beautiful flowers in planters and vines twining through the railings, and two cushioned rocking chairs