Page 63 of A Very No Strings Halloween

“In the steam! On the mirror! I watched her write it!”

“Donna…”

I do not like his tone.

“Donna, there’s nothing written on the mirror. Look.”

I turn to look. The steam has cleared. In the room and on the mirror. Which of course it did, because the door was open. “It saidTell him.”

He shakes his head, grinning. “Babe. You’re just seeing things again.”

Boiling hot blood heats my face and my ears. “Oh, of course I am. I’ve just been imagining everything, haven’t I?”

“You’re just hungover, that’s all.”

“But it saidTell him—I saw it!”

“I’m sure you think you saw it,” he says, so loudly I am sure he has awoken my ancestors in Germany.

“Don’t yell at me.”

“I was very much not yelling just now, which is my point exactly. You’re hungover, so all is not what it seems.”

Yeah. Exactly.

And then I hear a knock. Or a thud. Another knocking thud. Like someone’s banging against the walls from inside the walls. I suppose I’m imagining that too, but I look over at Billy, and his eyes widen. It’s so loud. Metallic clanging now. Everywhere. And Iknow it’s not my imagination that it soundsangryand Billy hears it too, and he’s scared.

“We gotta get out of here,” he says. “Put your clothes on.”

“What do you want?!” I cry out.

“It’s just the pipes,” he says. “I’m gonna hire a contractor, and we are not coming back here until everything’s fixed.”

I cover my ears and close my eyes. I am so tired. “Why is this still happening?”

I can hear Billy’s muffled, loud voice telling me to get dressed.

I do. He helps me get dressed again. I hear him tell me he’s getting an Uber.

The lights are flickering. All of the lights. “The lights?” I ask.

“Yeah,” he says. “There’s a water pressure issue, probably. There might be a leak somewhere, affecting the wires. We gotta go.”

“My hair is wet” is all I can say.

“Keep the towel on!”

He tosses me my bag and my coat, takes my hand, and leads me downstairs.

I stop on the landing, let go of his hand, and say, “I have to use the Ouija board! I have to ask her what she wants me to tell him!”

“Are you out of your fucking mind—we are leaving this house right now!” heyells, and before I can run away from him he’s lifted me up into his arms and he’s carrying me downstairs and out the front door.

“What do you want me to tell him?!” I yell out to the house.

“Donna. Stop yellin’. There’s no ghost. It’s just you and me, all right?”

I guffaw at that. “Yeah. Sure. Just you and me and my colonial parents sleeping in the other room!”