Page 37 of The Silence of Hell

I stood there shaking and terrified.

“Lavender?” Dan inquired.

“It was Aunt Aggie. She was looking at me,” I whispered.

“A ghost?” Emory demanded, sounding thrilled.

“Ravenberry doesn’t have ghosts. It’s not haunted, and I don’t believe in them,” I murmured.

“Lavender, we both saw a face staring out at you,” Jinx insisted.

“Did you know the mirror is fixed?” Dan fiddled with it. “I can’t remove it.”

I frowned. “What are you saying?”

“Maybe someone was behind it. You mentioned secret tunnels,” Dan suggested.

“That would be fine as an explanation. Except Aunt Aggie’s been dead for years!”

“Ah, good point!” Dan agreed.

“If Jinx hadn’t seen it, I’d swear I was going mad!”

“Well, Aunt Aggie might have been trying to send you a message. We should have a seance!” Harriet exclaimed.

Heidi baulked. “Not a chance in hell. You don’t mess with shit like that!”

“I agree.” Dan nodded.

“If your Aunt Aggie is dead, then how do you explain seeing her if she’s not a ghost?” Harriet demanded, and Emory agreed.

I opened my mouth and shut it again and repeated the actions twice before snarling, “Go back to work!”

Harriet and Emory sent me a knowing stare, but they scarpered.

I held Jinx’s gaze. “What the fuck did we see?”

Jinx

Something strange surrounded Ravenberry, and, like Lavender, he didn’t believe in ghosts. But he’d heard rumours that Rage MC had a mystical person who saw events before they happened. He tended to stay away from things like this, but he had an odd feeling in his stomach.

“Jinx?” Chance said, and he looked up, surprised. “Spoke to you three times, candidate. Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, trying to figure out a puzzle,” he replied.

“Do it on your own time. You need to restock the bar before heading to the Manor tonight,” Chance responded.

Jinx nodded and carried on with his task, but his mind was working overtime. He knew that Lavender had explained about her parents, grandparent, and cousin. Jinx couldn’t put his finger on it. There’d been the groans and footsteps. He and Lavender had both heard them, and now this scary image. Although, to be honest, the woman hadn’t appeared too scary when he’d glimpsed her.

In fact, she’d seemed more interested in Lavender than scaring anything. Her eyes had followed Lavender when Lavender had backed out of the bathroom.

Jinx frowned. He had no doubt Lavender was the centre of everything happening, and something inside told him that it was just beginning.

“Jinx!” Chance roared as something crashed into his office.

And there went his bad luck again!

Lavender

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