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They traipsed downstairs The kitchen was tidy, thanks to her efforts the night before There was a last garbage bag waiting to go out, but that was it

In the parlor, the boxes rehost ants to unpack for host at all Besides, if anyone was haunting this place, it would be Gran, just as they’d said last night And she would be a stern but kindly ghost

But of course there were no such things as ghosts, she told herself

"So has anything been stolen?" Jed asked "Or even moved?"

"No, I don’t think so"

She couldn’t help but wish that her hair wasn’t sporting blades of grass, and that her cotton sleep shirt wasn’t da?" There was a dry note in his voice, she noticed

"No," she said, increasingly upset

Looking more disturbed than amused, he said, "Christie, if so would beor you would have been followed out and attacked on the lawn"

She glanced around the parlor, and then she frowned

The Ouija board

It had been moved; she was certain of it

She had set it on top of soht before, but now…

Noas back in the center of the floor

"That moved," she said suddenly

"What?" Jed asked

"The Ouija board"

He groaned

"I’m serious!"

He was so silent that she could have sworn she could hear every breath either one of them took and even their heartbeats

"Sit down, Christina," he suggested

She looked at hi to be patient and had reverted to being a cop trying to calht citizen

"Christina, I ad, but I never heard of anyone breaking into a house just to lance and stiffened, refusing to give hi you, when I went to bed last night, that box wasn’t there"

"Sit down," he said again "I can get you a glass of water or put so fun of her, she knew He was just treating her the same way he had when they’d all been kids and he had five years’ advantage over the you--"

"No Letwing chairs and hunkered down in front of her, taking her hands "It’s hard Trust ?"

"Christie, you have Dan and Mike, but other than that, you’ve lost your entire family" His face hardened for a moment, and she knehy He occasionally talked about his late wife, and soh when he talked about so fun they had done

But he never, ever spoke about the months of her illness or her actual death

"I’m really not sure you should keep this house," he told her

"I love this house"

"But you’re dangerously close to being haunted by it By the house itself, by the ood and bad, of all the years here When I lost Margaritte, I stayed in the house for a while I couldn’t part with any of her belongings They even sentto charities that could use it and only kept a few special mementos And I sold the house andto stay sane"

She stared at hies of grief: shock, disbelief, anger…no, fury Then, soh tiive And then…not peace, as soratitude for those who tried to help you, and an ability to function and side the survival instinct

But she had already accepted her grand life, and every ood