Scintillate (Scintillate Series Book 1) Page 8

  “Kate, I…”

  “Hey, are you coming?” Reese yelled and popped his head back in through the doorway. “We’re going to check out the upstairs.”

  I blushed, keenly aware of Nick’s arms around me. “We should probably stay together. In the movies, people always start to die when they split up in the haunted house.” I laughed and tickled his waist through his coat.

  “Very funny.” He smiled. “I’m surprised you believe in ghosts,” he said as he held me close.

  Behind’s Nick’s back, a shadow flit from one end of the room to the other. “I don’t,” I whispered back, confused. What could it have been? I was relieved he still held me; his arms felt so strong. “Come on. The creep factor of this house is off the scale.”

  “Okay. Let’s go see what’s upstairs.” He released my waist, but kept my hand in his. When I looked into his eyes, the butterflies fluttered their wings and the house wasn’t that creepy.

  We caught up with everyone at the foot of the dilapidated grand staircase. The guys were deciding who should lead the way. Ravi’s hand rested on the elaborate newel post. “I’ll go first,” Ravi said. “We’ll see if the stairs can hold my weight.” Ravi’s thin frame definitely made him the lightest of the guys.

  “That sounds good to me,” Rylee announced, her arms crossed defiantly. “I’m not going first,”

  Lauren shook her head back and forth. “Ditto.”

  “Ravi, I don’t want you to get hurt, but if you think you want to go up there, I support you.” Meghan patted him on the back.

  “Go for it, Ravi,” Matt said.

  Ravi placed his right foot on the worn-out tread.

  “Wait, be sure to hold onto the handrail in case the step breaks,” Meghan cautioned. “Don’t forget, you’re very special to me.” She stood on her tip-toes and gave him a kiss on the lips. “Don’t forget that.”

  “I’m not dying. I’m walking up stairs,” Ravi replied. “I walk up stairs every day. This is no big deal.”

  Meghan gave him another pat on the back. “Well, we’ll see about that.”

  The step creaked as he put his weight on it. He lifted his left foot and placed it on the next tread. It groaned, as if waking from a long nap. Ravi then moved to the next step.

  Reese called to him, “Hey, try to bounce a little on the step. Give it some pressure. See if it will hold before you get too high.”

  “What?” Ravi shrieked back in disbelief, his voice an octave higher.

  “I want to make sure it will hold our weight.” Reese bent his knees and bounced a little for demonstration.

  “You get up here and bounce on it. ‘Bounce on it’, you got to be kidding me,” Ravi mumbled and shook his head.

  Lauren spoke up. “What did I say earlier about being in a broken down house with a couple of morons?”

  I laughed. “I think your point is being proven. Hey Ravi, do a couple of jumping-jacks while you’re up there on those rotten stairs.”

  “Very funny. You do some jumping jacks on that rotten floor you’re standing on.”

  I looked down at my feet. The rotten wood and floorboards were creaking and groaning. What would happen if I did start jumping on them?

  “Ha, ha, it’s not so funny now, is it?” Ravi taunted. “There’s a basement under us. You’re not exactly on solid ground either.”

  “We’re not, are we,” I replied as my smile disappeared.

  Ravi continued, “There’s probably at least a nine or ten foot drop to the basement below us.”

  “Hmm, I didn’t think about that,” I admitted. My mind raced as I pictured us lying on the basement floor with broken bodies, unable to help ourselves. We probably wouldn’t even get cell reception in the basement.

  “Don’t worry. I won’t let anything happen to you.” Nick’s breath swirled in my ear.

  “This floor could fall through!” Meghan gasped. She stared down at the rotten floorboards.

  “Yep, I guess we’re all a bunch of morons.” Lauren laughed. “We could fall ten feet, break our legs, and have to crawl through snow to find help.”

  “You see, you’re no safer than I am. I’m going up.” Ravi took another step, now with more confidence. Reese followed after Ravi, ignoring the moaning stairs. Matt followed Reese, never standing on the same step at the same time for fear that their combined weight would be too much for it to bear.

  Nick started up the stairs and held out his hand for me. “Are you coming?” There was no fear or hesitation in Nick’s eyes. He had confidence in everything he did. His smile encouraged me, and I took his extended hand. It felt like I channeled his confidence, and all my fear and hesitation drained from my body. I placed my foot on the worn tread, and it hardly creaked under my weight. “You’re doing great,” Nick encouraged. “Don’t worry. I’ve got you.”

  I followed him, and we climbed four steps like this. Then a dark shadow breezed past me. A sour stench filled the air in its wake, and a chill settled on me. Wood groaned, gave way, and a shriek pierced our ears.

  “OW! My leg!” Ravi cried out. “I’m stuck!” He clung to the spindle with clenched teeth and furrowed brow as one leg was swallowed by a rotten tread. Sweat broke out along his hairline as he balanced precariously on a rotten stair tread. “Oh man, don’t let me fall!”

  “Don’t worry! We’ll get you,” Reese exclaimed. Reese and Matt slowly climbed the stairs. “Matt, don’t get on my step. We don’t need to get stuck, too.”

  “Right, hold on Ravi,” Matt said. “Just keep holding on.”

  “If I’m going down, I’m taking this spindle with me,” Ravi promised as his grip tightened on the spindle.

  Nick and I slowly backed down the stairs during the rescue. There was nothing we could do to help.

  I looked around, but I didn’t see Lauren, Rylee, or Meghan. They must have gone off to explore the first floor some more. It was good they weren’t here to see this because there was nothing they could do to help.

  “I’m going to find the girls,” I told Nick. “We should bail.”

  “Yeah, I’ll stay here in case they need my help.”

  I took off down the hallway. Dust motes floated around me. I cringed as I thought about what I was breathing in. Who knew what kind of animal dander and molds existed in this dump?

  “Rylee! Meghan! Lauren!” I called out.

  “Kate! Kate!” It sounded like Rylee. I followed the direction of her muffled voice. “Kate!” The voice called from inside a room at the end of the hallway.

  I rushed in and said, “Rylee, where are you?” The door slammed shut behind me. An ornate turn of the century toilet was in the corner of the room. A rusty pull chain and porcelain water closet hung high on the wall. “Come on. We need to get out of here.” I walked over to the claw foot tub and looked over the edge. Rust lined the chipped drain. Twigs and dirt lined the bottom.

  “Ravi got hurt on the stairs. This isn’t funny,” I shouted. I walked past a clouded mirror that hung above the sink and opened a narrow door. It was an empty closet, in which mouse droppings lay scattered on the floor. I was alone in the room. Where did the voice come from?

  “Rylee, where are you?” I shouted and headed towards the door to the hallway. In my periphery, I noticed a dark shadow flit through the mirror above the sink. I stepped back and stared into the mirror. The dark shadow’s movement resembled a ping-pong ball as it bounced from side to side. Suddenly, the mirror slowly stretched and bubbled towards me, and its glassy surface looked more like liquid metal than a mirror.

  I poked the bubbling mirror. It dented for a moment, and then popped back and continued to stretch and come closer to me. How is this possible? Again I slowly poked the bubble. I felt the tension in the expanding surface as my finger pressed against it. Would the mirror eventually burst? Could I put my finger through the bubble?

  A third time I raised my finger to the mirror and slowly poked at the surface. My finger broke through, and my hand was sucked into the mirror. I tr
ied to pull my hand free, but it was stuck. The mirror continued to crawl up my arm. Terrified, I realized too late that a fire on the other side of the wall was causing the mirror to bubble and expand.

  Intense heat scorched my hand and arm as the mirror engulfed them. Flames licked at my flesh and burned my skin away.

  I repeatedly screamed as I tried to pull myself free from the torturous mirror. Even as it continued to melt my flesh, I could not free myself from its clutches. The nauseating smell of sulfur and burning flesh filled my nostrils. I couldn’t escape the smell or the pain.

  Panic and fear flooded my body, and my adrenaline surged. I pressed my foot against the wall and pushed with all my might. My arm broke free from the mirror. I fell backwards and landed with a thud on the floor.

  The mirror was perfectly normal. No bubble, no hole where my hand had been, just a cloudy antique mirror hung above a dirty old sink.

  “How is that possible?” I whispered. There was nothing unusual about my glove. No scorch marks or damage of any kind. I tore off my glove and looked at my hand. It was fine… I was fine. The smell of sulfur and burning flesh was gone.

  Nick rushed in and knelt beside me. “Are you okay? I heard you scream.” His eyes scanned my body and then stared into mine.

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” I panted, as I caught my breath. “I slipped and fell.” I felt bad deceiving Nick, but there was no way I could tell him that my hand was swallowed up by a mirror.

  He took my right hand in his and tenderly felt the bones. “Does this hurt?”

  “No.” I pulled my hand away. “I’m fine, really.”

  “Hey, what’s going on?” Lauren asked. Her tall frame stood in the doorway. Rylee and Meghan poked their heads around Lauren as they tried to see into the bathroom.

  “We heard you scream,” Meghan said.

  “It’s nothing.” I put on my glove. “I slipped.”

  Nick helped me up. “We should leave. This place is dangerous,” he said.

  Floorboards creaked and groaned under us as we headed back to the staircase to join the guys. Ravi sat on the bottom step and massaged his knee, while Reese and Matt hovered by him with their arms crossed.

  “Let’s bail,” Matt said.

  Now I realized the house had warned us all along not to enter. The door tried to keep us out. The floorboards declared danger with every step. We had been fools to come into this deserted and dilapidated place.

  We took turns exiting through the narrow doorway. The slipperiness of the stone steps also slowed our escape.

  “Ouch!” Rylee cried out as she landed on her butt at the bottom of the steps.

  “Are you okay?” Reese took Rylee’s arm and helped her up.

  “Yeah,” she said.

  We stomped through the snow and left the manor behind. When we finally made it to the ATVs in one piece, we began laughing.

  “That was awesome,” Matt bellowed. He bent over and rested his hands on his knees.

  “Uh, what did I say about being surrounded by morons.” Lauren said.

  “What? No one got hurt,” Matt replied. He stood upright and shrugged his shoulders with a laugh.

  “Uh, no one?” Ravi asked and pointed to his knee.

  “What happened to you?” Meghan asked.

  “I’ll tell you all about it,” Ravi said. He sat on the ATV and offered Meghan his hand.

  Nick grabbed the handgrip of the ATV. “Well, I’m having an awesome day. We’ll look back and remember this as an exciting day filled with adventure. Overall, I’d give this day a 10.” He smiled his crooked smile as I took a step closer to him.

  I felt my pulse quicken under his gaze. “I have a feeling adventure follows you.” I took Nick’s hand in mine and hoped I’d have more adventures with him.

  Once again I didn’t mention that my hand was swallowed by a bubbling mirror. Who would believe me? I wasn’t even sure what to believe about that. I needed time to think about it.

  Reese sat on the ATV and said, “Hey, we should head back and get some dinner.”

  “I second that.” Rylee scooted up close behind Reese.

  Meghan grabbed her helmet. “I say we eat and then get in the hot tub.”

  “That sounds great,” I said. I could just imagine Nick without a shirt. This day could only get better. I swung my leg over the seat of the ATV and sat down.

  “I bet the warm water would probably help my knee,” Ravi said. “Plus, who wouldn’t want to hot tub next to a fire with their hot babe?” He turned and kissed Meghan.

  Nick slid up close to me. His legs pressed against mine, and he wrapped his arms around my waist. “I’m trusting you with my life,” he whispered. “I hope you know what you’re doing.” The warmth of his breath tickled my neck and ear. I shivered and raised my shoulder as his words circulated through my head.

  I turned, and his face was inches from mine. I couldn’t think of a clever response. I got lost in his extraordinary eyes. He held my gaze as if we were having a staring contest.

  “Kate, it’s time to move on,” he whispered.

  I startled as the other ATVs roared to life. Nick and I donned our helmets, and I started our ATV. The ride back to Matt’s was amazing. Not only was the scenery outstanding, trees bedecked in winter’s fresh garment of snow and crystals, but I was being embraced by a guy whose beauty rivaled that of the nature around us.

  The ride also gave me time to contemplate the strange events that happened at the manor. What troubled me the most was the bathroom mirror incident. My mind replayed it, and I tried to come up with an explanation for it. First of all, who was calling out my name? Maybe I misjudged where Rylee was due to the echoes bouncing off the vacant rooms. Sound travels in strange ways in large empty spaces. Perhaps I did hear Rylee, but I just couldn’t judge where she was in the empty manor.

  Second, what would cause a mirror to expand or bubble like that? Perhaps there was a heat source expanding the gases trapped behind the mirror that caused it to bubble and stretch. But nothing in the manor functions that would cause heat, so that really doesn’t make sense.

  Then, finally, my hand being trapped inside the mirror and feeling like it was on fire. Was there any explanation for that? My senses told me that my hand was on fire, but when I pulled my hand free, there was no evidence of anything unusual happening in the mirror, not even the dark shadow flitting around. Everything appeared normal once my hand was out of the mirror. Why wasn’t the mirror broken or cracked?

  “Oh,” I gasped and inhaled sharply.

  “You okay?” Nick yelled over the hum of the engine.

  “Yeah, just thinking,” I shouted back.

  The answer was obvious. There was a perfectly logical explanation for the events in the bathroom. Relief washed over me as I realized I wasn’t going crazy. Thanks to Mr. Parker’s history class, I’d solved the mystery.

  Some of those dust motes that floated through the air must have been mold spores that caused hallucinations. The Salem Witch Trials was an unfortunate example of Ergot poisoning that was misinterpreted as witchcraft. The mold spores caused the hallucinations and bizarre skin sensations. I’d hallucinated and felt the fire on my hand because I breathed in a bizarre fast acting mold spore that affected my mind. Hopefully these effects won’t last long.

  Nick’s arms tightened around my waist and left no room for concerns about hand-eating mirrors or mind-altering mold spores. His energy flowed through him and entered me at every point where our bodies touched.

  Nick was everything I ever wanted in a guy. He was chivalrous, brave, and intelligent. I thought about our interactions: the exchange of words and looks between us, the way he held me when we danced, the way he rushed to help me in the bathroom, the feel of his fingers as they grazed over my hand, and the way his touch and look aroused sensations in me I’d never felt before.

  Now, to feel his arms wrapped around my waist and the way he held me tight, was too much. I wanted to stop the ATV and turn around to kiss him, but I w
ould never do that. I’ll just have to fantasize about it.

  We slowed down as we scaled the backyard. The Wager’s wooded property made speed difficult. Meghan led the way around the side yard and into the garage where we dismounted from the ATVs.

  Nick removed his helmet and said, “What an amazing day.”

  “Yeah, that was sick!” Ravi grinned and looked down at his knee.

  I grabbed Nick’s hand as we walked towards the house behind the others. “Kate, did something happen back at the mansion?” he asked and playfully squeezed my hand.

  “I fell. I’m fine.” I shrugged. My gut twisted as I lied to him.

  We reached the front steps. “After you,” he said. He extended his hand towards the open doorway.

  “Thank you.” We stomped our feet on the front porch and then stepped into the warm house.

  After dinner everyone agreed it was time to relax in the hot tub. Nick walked me to the room I shared with Rylee.

  “I’ll meet you in the sunroom.” Nick’s thumb caressed my hand and sent tingles of pleasure through my hand and up my arm.

  “I can’t wait. This should be fun.” I slowly opened the door.

  “Everything with you is fun,” he said.

  I smiled and closed the door behind me.

  “I was wondering when you’d finally show up,” Rylee said. “Enjoy those sweet nothings. You’ll have to work for them later.” She grabbed her swimsuit.

  “There you go again with your words of encouragement. You always have Reese eating out of your hands. How do you do it?”

  “Please, it’s hard work. I have to keep him wanting more. You can’t give a guy everything he wants. Don’t forget that!” Rylee wagged her finger at me. “They like to feel manly. They’re hunters. It’s part of their DNA.”

  “Hunters, huh,” I scoffed. “I can’t imagine Nick hunting much of anything. I think he’s more of a lover, not a hunter.”

  “Yeah, well the chase is always the best part, or haven’t you noticed that yet?” She walked into the bathroom and closed the door behind her.