“Well, we might as well start going through them.” She stared at my father’s key ring, which had almost fifteen keys on it. As she began trying each one, I stood back, watching. A weird prickling at the back of my neck troubled me. I shifted, twisting my head, trying to stop the sensation.
“What’s wrong?” Teran asked, pausing, looking up from the keys in her hand.
“I don’t know, but the moment you started trying to find the key it was like something started poking at the back of my neck. I feel prickly.” I paused, sensing that Esmara was near.
Can you tell me what’s going on?
After a pause, Esmara said, If you open that door, your life will change forever—
But it was too late. Teran had fit another key in the lock and this one worked. Even as Esmara was warning me, Teran swung the door open.
A rush of stagnant air blew past, almost as though it had a life of its own. I shivered as a laugh followed the breeze. “Crap. Did you feel that?”
Teran nodded. “I’m not sure what’s going on.”
“Esmara just told me that if we open the door, life won’t ever be the same.” I stared at the darkened room. It was more than a closet, that I could tell, but not terribly big. But it was so dark that I couldn’t see just how much space it took up.
“Do you want me to shut the door and lock it up again?” Teran asked.
I thought about it. Whatever was hidden in this room had been set loose. It had already been woken up, I thought. When the workmen found the door behind the wall, it must have started the process.
“I don’t know what we’re facing, but if there’s some secret here, I want to know about it. Better forewarned.” I glanced over at my aunt. “Is there a light inside the room?”
She brought out her phone and aimed the light toward the inner walls. There was a light switch, and as she flipped it, a bare bulb flickered to life, illuminating the storage space. It wasn’t small enough to be a closet, nor big enough to be just a regular room. The room was narrow and long, and made me think of an attic crawl space. The light showed a few pieces of furniture—what looked like spare chairs to my parents’ dining room set. It also had a couple coffee tables, and two large trunks.
As Teran and I stepped through the door I paused. A sound behind me set me on alert.
I whirled just in time to see the door swinging shut, and I managed to catch it before it slammed closed. Whatever was trying to shut it was strong and I fought, trying to force it open again. Teran jumped in and, together, we managed to pull the door back open. I held it while she dragged one of the tables over to set in front of it. But I didn’t trust whatever had been trying to close the door. If it could exert that much force, it could move the table.
I knelt, using the phone’s flashlight to examine the lock. “Bring me a chair, would you?”
She brought me a chair and I sat down. “Okay, we need to either break the lock or tape it so that the latch can’t catch.” I jerked my finger over my shoulder. “In the kitchen, in the junk drawer, you’ll find some duct tape. Can you get it?”
Teran slid past me, pale. “I don’t like leaving you here alone.”
“It’s only a few steps away. Hurry, though, because I don’t feel like fighting with whatever it is that’s messing with us.” I sat down on the table, giving extra weight to propping the door open.
My aunt hurried out, a worried look on her face.
While she was gone, I glanced over to where the two trunks were sitting against the wall. As I watched, one of them suddenly inched forward, as though some invisible person was shoving it. I tensed, my stomach knotting. Crap. What if whatever spook’s acting out decides to shove it my direction and try to pin my legs with it?
The trunk moved another few inches.
“Stop it right there—this is my house. You don’t get to mess with me or anyone in my house, be they human, animal, or anything else. So knock it off, creep.” I assumed my best tough-love voice, but apparently it didn’t impress the ghost because once again, the trunk slid forward, this time a little more aggressively.
Teran returned, a roll of duct tape in hand. “I’ve—wasn’t that trunk against the wall?” She stopped, staring at the trunk.
“Yeah, and whatever we’re dealing with seems to think it’s better off in the center of the room. Here, help me with the lock.” I turned the handle so that the latch bolt on the lock retreated inside the chamber, and Teran taped over it with several layers of duct tape.
“Duct tape fixes everything,” she said with a laugh.
“I agree.”
As I cautiously stepped away from the door, the chair I had been sitting on went sliding toward the opposite end of the room. As I jumped back, the door wrested out of my hands and slammed shut. Thanks to the duct tape, the latch couldn’t catch. After a couple times of the spirit throwing a temper tantrum—slamming the door again and again—the activity stopped as abruptly as it had begun.
“I think it’s sulking,” I whispered to my aunt.
“The question is, what the hell do you have here? I’ve never sensed anything like this in the house before. When did this start?” Aunt Teran was keeping an eye on the chests. “This has all the elements of a high-level haunting.”
“Nothing like this happened until I returned to the house yesterday. First, there was the box of things in the bathroom that tipped over, then the cupboards this morning, and now…this. The reno was far more than superficial. I wonder…”
“You think it stirred up something?” Teran asked.
I nodded. “That’s all I can think of.”
I found myself focusing on the trunk that had been scooting toward me. The more I looked at it, the more I felt my nerves shaking. “What’s in that trunk?”
“Let’s see if it’s unlocked.” Teran strode over to it, while I followed more slowly. I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something very bad inside.
She knelt beside it, examining the latch. “It’s padlocked shut. I think there’s a padlock key on your father’s keychain.” She shook out the keys, examining them. “Yes, this might be the one.” As Teran fit the key into the lock, I reached out to Esmara.
What’s going on here, Esmara? You know, don’t you?
Somewhat, but it was something I never would have told you. Apparently your renovations stirred up the issue and now you’re going to have to cope with the ramifications.
My stomach flipped. I feel like I’m about to inherit something I really don’t want.
That’s because you are. Please, though, don’t jump to conclusions. I don’t have all the facts or answers, but I do know there has to be a logical explanation for—
The key clicked and the padlock opened. Aunt Teran removed the lock from the latch and slid it inside her pocket. She glanced up at me. “Are you ready?”
“That’s not the best question. Honestly, Esmara’s scaring me about this.”
“Did she tell you what’s inside?”
“No,” I said. “She did tell me that she doesn’t know what all the facts are surrounding whatever’s going on, and she asked me not to jump to conclusions. But she won’t tell me what’s in there. I guess…we should find out—”