Dead Air by Michelle Schusterman (best books under 200 pages txt) 📕

said in a low, conspiratorial voice. “And the planchette spelled out J-A-R.”

“And you found the watch in a jar?” Oscar said. To his credit, he seemed to be making an attempt at not sounding too disbelieving.

“Nope.” Hailey’s eyes sparkled. “We looked in all the jars we could find, but no watch. And then we realized Grandpa just hadn’t finished the word.”

“Our mom interrupted us,” Jamie added. “She got really freaked out when she saw us using the Ouija board—she hates these things. She made us get rid of that one, actually. Anyway, she walked in right after we got to the R.”

“So what word did you think your grandpa was trying to spell?” I asked.

“Jared,” Hailey said. “Our uncle—Mom’s brother. Turns out he was going to sell the watch.”

Oscar looked dubious. “He actually had it?”

Jamie nodded. “Yeah. We told Mom, and . . . Well, like I said, she hates Ouija boards, so at first she didn’t want to listen to us. But Jared was at the funeral, obviously, and that was the last time we saw the watch, because Mom had laid it out on a table with some family photos and other stuff of Grandpa’s, and . . .”

“It wasn’t the first time Uncle Jared did something like that,” Hailey said sadly. “Mom always calls him the black sheep of the family.”

“He and Mom don’t exactly get along,” Jamie finished. “So she went and confronted him about the watch. She got it back, but they haven’t spoken since then.”

“You see?” Hailey said, sitting up straighter. “Proof. Grandpa told us where to find the watch.”

I exchanged a glance with Oscar. I had to admit, it was a good story. But I wouldn’t call it proof.

“I don’t think they’re convinced just yet,” Jamie told Hailey with a sigh.

“Not quite.” Leaning forward, I placed my fingers back on the planchette. “But I’m getting there. Convince me.”

Grinning, Jamie reached for the planchette. Hailey and Oscar did, too, and we fell silent.

This time, I focused on Sonja.

I pictured her dark hair, her pale face, her delicate smile. I imagined her swapping her dress for her brother’s clothes, tucking her hair up into a cap and hiding a knife under her coat. Sitting on a bar stool, fake-sipping a drugged drink, pretending to pass out, getting thrown through a trapdoor, sliding down, down, down until she hit the dirt floor, then whipping out her knife and running through the tunnels, sprinting toward this very cell—

The planchette twitched.

I barely managed to stop myself from pulling my fingers away. No one said anything, but I could tell they all felt it, too. Hailey leaned forward, staring intently at the board. Jamie closed his eyes. I glanced at Oscar, wondering if this was another prank. If so, it was a pretty mean one, considering how seriously Jamie and Hailey took this.

The planchette twitched again, then slid over until the lens magnified the letter H. I squinted at Oscar’s fingers—it didn’t look like he was moving the planchette, but I couldn’t tell for sure. An E followed, then L . . . It slid away briefly before heading back to L. Then, slowly, the planchette scraped across the board to the left side, stopping on O.

“Hello.” Jamie’s voice, though soft, made me jump. “Is this Sonja?”

As the planchette crept across the board to YES, I glanced over at Oscar. His brow was furrowed, no trace of a smile on his face. Leaving two fingers on the planchette, Hailey reached over and picked up her pen.

“Hi, Sonja,” Jamie said calmly. “Thank you for joining us. How many spirits are present right now, including you?”

The planchette moved down to the line of numbers, where the lens settled over 3.

Jamie nodded. “Three. Thank you. Can you tell us who they—”

The planchette jerked violently, and Jamie fell silent. Our hands all moved quickly across the board as the lens magnified letters: G–A–T–H–E . . .

“Are you doing this?” I whispered to Oscar. He just shook his head without looking up.

Hailey carefully wrote down letter after letter, whispering each one under her breath. The planchette fell still at last, and she held the paper up for us to read:

G A T H E R T H E W O M E N

“Gather the women . . .” I chewed my lip. “That’s what Sonja did, right? She gathered a bunch of women to—”

Before I could finish, the planchette jerked beneath my fingers again. The four of us stared as it scraped across the board. F–R–E–E–T–H–E–M—NO.

Jamie cleared his throat. “Sonja, are you still there?” The planchette twitched, then slid back over NO. “Who are we speaking to?”

The little green light on the circuit board started to flicker. I held my breath as the planchette began to move again.

L–E–E–R

“Wait, hold on,” Hailey breathed, her handwriting getting messier as she scribbled down the new letters. “Ask about the third ghost. Sonja said there’s three here.”

Jamie nodded. “Is there another—”

The planchette jerked up to YES, then immediately zoomed over to NO before heading back to the letters. F–R–E–E–T-H . . . It paused, twitching.

“What’s the deal?” Hailey asked, pen still poised over the paper.

“I think they’re both trying to answer,” Jamie said quietly. “Red Leer and whoever the third ghost is, they’re both trying to control it.”

Oscar and I shared a look. He wasn’t buying this any more than me, I could tell. Not that I thought the Coopers were moving the planchette on purpose to trick us. They clearly believed they were communicating with ghosts  . . . but that didn’t make it true. If Jamie and Hailey knew their uncle was the kind of guy who’d steal his dead father’s pocket watch, maybe spelling out their suspicions on a Ouija board had been easier than admitting it out loud.

I glanced down when the planchette lurched again.

K–E–E–P–H–E–R–A–W–A . . .

“Keep her away,” Hailey said excitedly, still scribbling. “From . . . Kat, this is the same message that printed the other day! Keep her away from the medium!” She waved the paper at me, and I let go of the planchette to take it.

The green light flickered faster . . . then stopped. The planchette