Mischief Night Read online

  It wasn’t ours, though. Lady Azura owned it. We rented the top two floors. She lived and worked on the ground floor. I still couldn’t figure out why my dad chose for us to move here rather than one of the new town houses by the beach. It was a lot of house for just the two of us. Three of us with Lady Azura.

  I climbed the wide wooden steps to the wraparound porch and stared at the two pale elderly figures, side by side on the double porch swing. One woman, gray hair pinned in a loose bun, focused her lifeless gaze on her clacking knitting needles. The other old woman, her face similarly lined with wrinkles, flipped the pages of Vogue magazine. The muted hue of her camel shift dress with the wide bell sleeves emphasized her crimson lipstick and jet-black mascaraed lashes. Her eyes flashed with intensity.

  Of course, Lady Azura was alive. The woman with the bun next to her had been dead for decades. Her shimmery spirit would sit forever on the porch swing, knitting a scarf that had no end. There . . . but not there.

  “Girls!” Lady Azura cried, urgency in her raspy voice. “What do you think about polka dots?”

  “Love ’em,” Lily said, skipping to her side. She gazed at the magazine Lady Azura held open. A beautiful model wore a speckled coat with a high collar. “Oh, but not those tiny dots. Too dizzying. I like my dots bigger,” Lily pronounced.

  “I agree. Let life be your pattern, I say.” Lady Azura closed the magazine and rested it on her bony knees.

  I thought the coat was kind of pretty, but I didn’t offer my opinion. Lily and Lady Azura lived and breathed fashion and could probably spend hours talking about clothes and accessories. But not me.

  “What’s new?” Lily asked, walking in front of Lady Azura as if to sit next to her. But in doing so, she would be sitting right on top of the knitting spirit!

  Lady Azura’s arthritic hand with its long, oval-shaped nails reached for Lily’s shoulder and gently, but firmly, guided her to the floor. “Sit down here where I can see you,” she said. She caught my eye, knowing that I, too, saw that the swing was otherwise occupied. What a strange secret to share.

  I knelt next to Lily, looking up at Lady Azura.

  “New . . . something new, you asked.” Lady Azura pondered Lily’s question. She gazed over her shoulder at the wooden sign in the large bay window: LADY AZURA: PSYCHIC, HEALER, MYSTIC.

  In the afternoon sun, the dark purple lettering looked tired and worn. And for the first time since my dad and I had moved into her house, I thought Lady Azura looked tired as well. I knew she was really old—probably in her eighties, according to my dad. Most days, she matched my energy. But not today.

  “Nothing is new,” she said. “It’s been a strange fall. I usually get a lot of business this time of year. But here I sit alone. No one interested in knowing what the future holds. I suspect the cause to be an odd planetary alignment.”

  “What does that mean?” I asked.

  “When two planets form an angle with the sun in the middle, it’s not a good time for any business.” She shrugged her thin shoulders. “And that’s not good for my piggy bank.”

  “If people’s businesses are bad, then they should definitely see you to find out what’s coming next. To plan for their future,” Lily said. “You could read their palms or tea leaves.”

  “I agree,” Lady Azura said. “My art, and it is an art, does have a practical side. But it is a different world today, girls. People no longer look within for answers. They want to press a button on their phones and have the answers sent to them. But from whom? I ask. From where?”

  “If people knew how cool you were, they’d come to you,” Lily said loyally. She was a true, devoted follower since she’d gotten to know Lady Azura.

  “Thank you, my dear. But they are not coming. Not at all. My tarot cards are dusty.”

  “Halloween is almost here,” I said. “I’m sure people will want to get their fortunes told then.”

  “Yes! Halloween!” Lily cried. “You’ll have lots of customers then.”

  “Clients. They are clients,” Lady Azura corrected her. “And I fear that is not in the cards for me. Not this year.”

  “Well, then you need a new deck of cards,” Lily declared.

  I smiled. Lily never thought there was a problem she couldn’t fix.

  “You need to advertise,” she continued. “My dad manages all these strip malls. When a business leaves, my dad can’t have an empty store, ’cause he says an empty store doesn’t make any money. So he posts ads to get new stores to take the space. Even my aunt Dolores puts up ads to get new people to buy the clothes in her store, the Salty Crab. That’s the one on Beach Drive with the dresses that look like tablecloths. Ugly, but lots of women go in there.” Lily stood, excited by her speech. “Advertising! That’s what you need.”

  Lady Azura swung gently back and forth on the swing. “It’s like a dog chasing his tail. Advertising may bring in money, but it costs money. And money I don’t have.”

  “I could make you flyers,” I offered. She’d been trying to help me since I’d moved in. I suddenly realized I wanted to help her. “Really graphic ones that people would notice. We could even post your ad to some websites that don’t cost money.”

  “Totally,” Lily agreed. “It can be like a pre-Halloween special. Uncle Lenny does that at his pizzeria for holidays . . . half-price pies to celebrate the holidays or whatever. You could do half-price readings for the rest of October to celebrate Halloween!”

  “You girls can really do all that?” Lady Azura asked.

  “Of course we can! Sara’s great on the computer. It’ll be fun. We’ll start now,” Lily said, talking a mile a minute. “We’ll get so many people coming in and out of this house you’ll need a second crystal ball. Or an assistant. Hey, I could so be that. Your fortune-telling room is so amazing.”

  “Thank you, Lily. But I do more than gaze into a crystal ball, you know.” An amused smile played across Lady Azura’s dark-red lips.

  “Oh, I know.” Lily nudged me up from the porch. “Sara, in the ad, wouldn’t it be cool if we say that this house is haunted?”

  “Haunted?” I blurted out loudly before I could stop myself. I bit my lip and tried not to stare at the shimmery gray figure on the swing. Knitting. Haunting.

  “Yeah. That there are ghosts here, brought back from the dead by Lady Azura’s powers. That would totally bring kids here. Adults too.” Lily pushed her oversize sunglasses up onto her dark hair. Her brown eyes glinted with excitement.

  “But that’s not what we’re advertising. I mean, it’s supposed to be fortune-telling.” I could hear the tightness in my voice. “We can’t just make things up.”

  “We’re not lying. We’re setting the scene,” Lily said. “Besides, who’s to say it’s not true, right? Maybe there are ghosts in this house.”

  “Maybe there are,” Lady Azura said breezily. “What do you think, Sara?”

  My gaze wandered up to the second-floor windows. Spirits lurked behind the white curtains. Dead men, women, and children. They lived among us. Here. At school. At the arcade. Everywhere.

  But they were a secret. My secret. I glared at Lady Azura. Our secret.

  Lily couldn’t know. She might tell Miranda, and Miranda would tell the whole school. I’d be called weird. Abnormal.

  “There are no ghosts,” I said firmly.

  Chapter 3

  “Do you hear that?” Lily asked.

  “What?” I wiggled the mouse, trying to position the crystal-ball clip art around the text. Lady Azura’s flyer filled the oversize computer monitor in my craft room. It hadn’t taken too long to design.

  Lily perched on the edge of a huge yellow table. “Listen,” she whispered.

  I stopped and listened. Autumn leaves on the maple tree outside the window rustled slightly against the house. “What did you hear?”

  “I’m not sure,” Lily admitted. “A banging noise, I think.” Her eyes darted around the large third-floor room. Stacks of my crafting materials covered the table
and lay piled in the corners. My dad had strung old Christmas lights around the window for me, framing the view out over the bay. The tiny white bulbs blinked on and off.

  I shrugged. “This big old house always makes noise. I put this photo I took of Lady Azura on the flyer. Okay? I added a mystical aura around it.”

  “Definitely.” Lily’s shoulders relaxed, and she flipped through a stack of colored paper. “Let’s print them on this sparkly paper.” She fed a stack into my printer.

  I love my craft room. My dad created it for me as a surprise right after we moved here. I think he knew I was bummed out about moving, and he did it to cheer me up. My dad is amazing like that.

  The only other room up here on the third floor is empty, still coated with the dust of the last decade. Dad and I can’t even find a way to use all the rooms on the second floor, where our bedrooms and family room are. He worries, though. He thinks I spend too much time up here alone, fiddling around on Photoshop and making frames and trays with the shells I collect on the beach.

  Thump.

  That time I heard it too. The sound came from the closet in the far corner. A closet I hadn’t opened since we moved in. A closet that should be empty.

  Thump. Thump.

  “You heard that, right?” Lily whispered, her eyes wide.

  I licked my lips, stalling.

  Thump.

  I wanted to pretend I hadn’t heard anything. That we truly were alone.

  “It’s coming from that closet!” Lily scooted toward my desk. “Sara, what’s in that closet?”

  I gritted my teeth, willing my eyes away from the closet door. Willing the noise to stop.

  “I don’t know,” I said softly. I didn’t know.

  But I had an idea.

  A bad idea.

  “Maybe we should show Lady Azura how it looks so far,” I suggested, trying desperately to change the subject. I clicked print. I have to get Lily out of here, I thought.

  The printer whirred to life, its motor unable to mask the thump, thump, thump from the closet door.

  “We can’t just sit here!” Lily whispered. Panic laced her voice.

  “So let’s go downstairs,” I urged. I stood, but Lily was faster. She lunged across the room, her hand twisting the tarnished brass knob of the closet.

  “Lily, no! Wait—”

  But Lily didn’t wait.

  She pulled at the doorknob. It didn’t open. She pulled again. The hinges stuck.

  “Lily, stop!”

  The door finally flew open. Lily dropped to the floor, her hands protecting her head from—

  Nothing. Darkness. Silence.

  Lily stood. I tiptoed beside her. Together we peered into the closet. Two wire hangers dangled on a wooden rod.

  “Sara,” Lily whispered faintly. She pointed to the hangers. “They’re moving.”

  I stared at the hangers. They were swaying.

  The windows were closed. No breeze. Something had moved the hangers.

  Something, or more likely . . . someone.

  My heart beat rapidly.

  “It—it was the force of—of opening the door.” I fumbled for an explanation. “Totally our imaginations making us freak out over nothing.” I smiled and tried to look completely calm.

  Lily nodded and backed away from the open closet.

  “Let’s go downstairs,” I suggested again. “My dad already stocked up on Halloween candy for the trick-or-treaters, and I say we go raid it!”

  But Lily wasn’t listening. She scanned the room. “That was so freaky!” She seemed to be calming down, though. “That was like some hidden camera reality show.”

  I let out the breath I’d been holding. “Exactly.”

  Lily returned to the big table. She flicked on my iPod. The upbeat tune of the newest pop hit blasted through the small speakers, filling the room.

  “I bet it was a mouse. We have them in our attic a lot,” Lily said. “Or even a squirrel.”

  “Definitely.” I inspected the flyer from the printer. It looked good. Professional. I didn’t want to think about the closet. I printed twenty more. “We should link this onto the school site.”

  “We need Principal Bowman’s okay.” Lily held the stack and lifted up the flyer on top, reading it through. Her eyes, thankfully, were on the paper.

  Not on the floor.

  I watched in horror as a spool of ribbon rolled along the floor. Then another. Careening toward Lily.

  My rolls of ribbon were no longer in a neat pile. One after another, they rolled across the floor.

  I jumped toward them. My foot kicked the ribbon aside, as a glass jar of colorful buttons mysteriously tipped over. Buttons skittered crazily along the floor.

  “What the—?” Lily started.

  “Oh, I’m so clumsy,” I said, pretending to trip. Let her think I spilled them, I prayed. Please.

  “But—”

  A container of glue dropped from the short bookcase. The top mysteriously loosened, and a thick white puddle blossomed.

  “Wow, everything’s . . . um . . .” I moved toward the bookcase as a handful of paintbrushes bounced to the ground.

  Focus, I urged myself. Focus. I stared at the bookcase. Focus!

  A glimmer. Something. A shape.

  A box of markers clattered to the floor.

  I narrowed my gaze. No blinking. Drawing it out. Toward me.

  A hand. A small hand shimmered into view.

  It grabbed the plastic tub of glitter. Twisted the top. Raised it. High. Higher.

  “Lily!” I whirled about and grabbed her arm, my fingers pressing into her flesh. “Let’s get out of here!” I pulled her out of the room and down the narrow stairs. Down. Down two flights, through the red foyer and out the front door. Onto the porch. Away.

  We stood side by side, panting.

  “Sara! Your house is haunted!” Lily was panting so hard she could barely get the words out. She clutched the stack of flyers to her chest.

  My mind twisted in circles. I had to say something. But what? What could I say?

  “Of course it is.”

  We both spun around. Lady Azura sat on the swing. The knitting woman was still beside her, unseen by Lily.

  “I was just trying out some scares for my Halloween party. I have a party every year, you know.” Lady Azura smiled reassuringly at Lily. “Sara’s dad rigged everything up for me up there. I take it from the looks on your faces that it’s all working as it should be?”

  For a moment, I actually believed her. For a moment, I thought maybe my dad was in on it.

  Then I caught Lady Azura’s eye.

  Saw her wink. At me.

  “Oh, wow! You so got me!” Lily laughed, relief flowing through her. “Sara, were you in on it too?”

  “Nope, it was a total surprise for me,” I said. And that was technically the truth.

  With that, Lily said good-bye and promised to text me later. She had to get home and help babysit.

  I wanted to hug Lady Azura as I watched Lily walk toward her house, the flyers tucked under her arm. Lady Azura had saved me.

  What was happening on the third floor? I wondered. I’d never had a spirit throw things at me.

  I turned to ask the questions multiplying in my mind, when Dad drove his car up and parked in front.

  My questions would have to wait, because my dad didn’t know.

  He didn’t know we lived with ghosts. He didn’t know I could see them.

  Lady Azura placed her veiny hand on mine. “Later,” she said.

  I nodded, as Dad climbed the porch steps. “Hey, kiddo. How’s everything? All good here? I saw Lily leaving. Sorry I missed her. I’ll have to catch up with her the next time she’s over.”

  There’s never going to be a next time, I thought. My heart was still beating unnaturally fast.

  I’d lied to Lily. We did have ghosts in our house. But there was no way to tell her the truth. I bit my lip. Lily could never come over again.

  Never.

/>   Chapter 4

  Will you get an A on the test, or a D?

  Is someone crushing on you?

  Will you make millions? Will you be famous?

  Take a look into your future with Lady Azura!

  Heads bowed together, two girls whispered in front of the flyer posted on the school’s main bulletin board by the office.

  “I wish I knew what they were saying.” I slowed, forcing Lily to stop and circle back to me. She always darted through the hallways, leaving me scrambling to keep up.

  “That’s easy. They’re wondering if they’ll be invited to the big eighth-grade party on Mischief Night,” Lily answered. “They want to know if the all-knowing Lady Azura knows.”

  “You can hear them?” The school hallways were so loud, I had trouble understanding the person next to me.

  “No. But trust me, that’s what every girl is thinking about.”

  “I’m not. And what is Mischief Night?” I didn’t even know what Lily was talking about. I might have been crowned Harvest Queen, but I was still clueless about life in our school. I’d figured out my classes and teachers okay, but that was baby stuff. Who kids were friends with or who they hated or who they were friends with but secretly hated. What the cool activities, the cool clothing brands, and the cool parties were. That info was at a level I hadn’t yet achieved. At my old school, I’d never been able to crack that code. Here, though, things were looking up. I’d actually made some friends.

  But Lily had already moved on to the next subject. I’d have to ask about this party later.

  “Just be really into it,” Lily was saying. “Upbeat. Like you live for journalism.” She stopped in front of a classroom. “Mrs. Notkin is kind of tough, but you’ll like her.”

  I hesitated and peeked into the room. About thirty kids filled the desks, staring up at a teacher with thick black hair twisted into a side braid. I slid into one of the last empty seats and watched the woman drum her fingers against her desk, staring impatiently at the clock on the wall.

  At exactly three, she began the after-school meeting of the school’s web newspaper, the Stellamar Wire. Lily had convinced me to join. She was a reporter. I had a plan for a different job. A plan that had started with Jayden.