The Summoning by J. P. Smith

Author:J. P. Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2021-06-22T00:00:00+00:00

36

Three hours later, Jackie opened the door after buzzing Kit into the building. “What’s happened?” she said when she saw Kit’s face.

Jackie listened as Kit told her about the piano incident.

“You’re sure you didn’t dream this…?”

“Definitely. I woke up, I went into the room and found the lid open, the one over the keyboard. It’s always closed. Always. And then this morning I found this message on my phone.”

She took out her phone and scrolled through her voice messages. She said, “I wanted you to hear it for yourself.”

She scrolled through it again with growing frustration. “It was here this morning. I swear it was.” She looked up at Jackie. “The same voice I heard during the séance. She keeps asking for my help, begging me to save her.”

Jackie looked at her. “Go on.”

“That’s it. It was here earlier.”

“Okay,” Jackie said. “So who is she?”

Kit shook her head. “I don’t know. I don’t know where she came from, what her name is, whether she’s real or not. But I heard it.”

“And now it’s gone.”

Kit nodded.

“So she’s a dead woman,” Jackie said flatly in the voice you use to placate a child who insists there’s a monster under his bed. “Do you trust it?”

“I don’t know,” Kit said after a pause.

“Are you afraid…?”

“Part of me is, at least since I had what I was told was one genuine summoning with a dead girl.”

“But the dead belong to time past. Logic tells us they can’t come back.”

Kit remembered what she’d tell clients: that the dead can see all, past, present, and future. She knew all about the power of suggestion and saw it now for what it was: she was talking herself into this zone of dread.

“And so there was a message on your phone. Same voice?” Jackie asked, and Kit nodded.

“That’s why I called. I wanted you to hear it. I wanted you to tell me that I’m not going out of my mind. I didn’t want to be the only one who heard the voice.”

Jackie said nothing. As if she were hoping something sensible and sane might sink in.

“You think I’m losing it, don’t you,” Kit said.

Jackie said, “What’s this really about, Kit? What’s going on with you?”

“I’m scared. I mean, it wasn’t supposed to be like this. The whole medium thing was just an act, and then I saw that I could maybe help some people, and now…somehow I’ve touched this place, this…I don’t know, other place, where the dead are.”

Yet part of her knew that was impossible. It was where survivors spent too much of their time, remembering, regretting, unable to forget and always willing to forgive.

“So do you think your apartment is haunted?”

“My life is. I’ve carried death with me ever since I lost Peter. And then there’s this man I’ve been seeing. That I’m interested in. Who makes me want to just move on, think about someone else other than me and Zoey,” and she told Jackie as much as she knew about David.

“And you’re in love with him?” Jackie asked.

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