No Ghosts, No Glory by Harper Crowley

Author:Harper Crowley [Crowley, Harper]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harper Crowley
Published: 2019-10-27T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

The third floor is eerily silent. Not that I expected any sound, but it almost feels like the building itself is holding its breath, waiting for us. As we quietly slip through the doors at the top of the stairs, Evan and Dawson’s panicked words echo through my head.

“We had to get out of there. It was going to kill us. There was...blood. So much blood.”

“Are you ready?” Russ asks, standing at my elbow. The concern in his eyes is nearly my undoing, and I almost admit to him that no, I’m not ready to face whatever’s in that room.

Instead, I take a deep breath and smile at both him and Jess. “Yup, let’s go.”

Russ reaches the door first. He holds his camera in one hand and his pepper spray in the other. I’m sure he has a voice recorder running in one of his pockets, just like Jess and I do. In fact, I’m the only one not carrying pepper spray, because I have a wriggling black-and-white dog tucked up against my side. Just in case there’s a demon waiting for us, I don’t want Bear to get hurt. Russ skids to a stop in the doorway so quickly that Jess and I run into him. Light flickers from inside the room, casting orange shadows on Russ’s gray hoodie.

“What’s wrong?” Jess says, her voice muffled.

I don’t have an answer to that, so I peek around his arm. The Ouija board rests in the middle of the floor, but there’s a big scorch mark in the center, as if someone put a candle there without a candle holder and let it melt down and burn the game board before putting it out. Most of the other tea lights have burned down into their metal cups. Weird. I thought they’re supposed to last longer than this. A few still flicker mightily, though, and I crouch down to pluck one from the ground on the outer edge of the circle near me. The candle’s fake. The thick, cloying scent of patchouli clings to the air, also laced with a fruitier scent. Weird.

A sticky red substance covers most of the circle and soaks the edges of the Ouija board, darkening the edges a deep brown. Huh. I thought blood was thicker than this. A cheap plastic gold chalice with garish gemstones adorning the edges lays on its side. I crouch down, simultaneously pulling Bear away as he goes for a lick, to get a sniff of the liquid. That doesn’t smell like blood. Gross, but I’ve watched enough cop shows to know what blood smells like. Not to mention the body you found in the house in Atopka. Oh yeah, thanks for the reminder.

Russ’s shoulders start shaking first, then he stuffs the pepper spray in his pocket and clutches his stomach, almost doubling over with laughter. “Those guys are idiots,” he says, wheezing.

“What are you talking about?” Jess pushes past us and stumbles into the room. Her eyes widen as she takes it all in in a minute, then her lips twist into a smirk as she comes to the same conclusion we have.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.