The Haunted_Edit Copy 4-7-17
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Chapter Twelve<br />
Richard’s house wasn’t far from the Johanssons’. We pulled<br />
into the driveway of the white ranch style home in about ten minutes.<br />
I’d relayed the story to Ethan, who, as expected, had a lot of “What<br />
the hell?” and “No f’ing way!” responses. When we got out of the<br />
car, he immediately started inspecting Tucker just as I had done.<br />
“I’m fine,” Tucker insisted. He was definitely returning to<br />
normal; the glaze in his eyes had disappeared and his voice sounded<br />
the same as it usually did.<br />
Daisy opened the front door as we climbed onto their<br />
wraparound porch. “Hi, guys. I just got back from training.” When<br />
she saw the expressions on our faces, she immediately demanded,<br />
“Is everything okay?”<br />
“We think so,” I answered wearily. Even once the house had<br />
disappeared from view, the images of the walkie-talkie bursting into<br />
flames, the closet door nearly slamming closed on Tucker’s head,<br />
and the invisible force hurling his body against the wall, were still<br />
playing over and over on my brain’s film reel. Add in the sound of<br />
the eerie laughter on loop and there was pretty much a horror movie<br />
going on in my mind.<br />
<strong>The</strong> couple led us into their family room, which was barely<br />
big enough to hold all of us. Adrian, Ethan, and I sat down on the<br />
white couch, and I pulled Tucker onto it with us. Richard and Daisy<br />
sat down in the matching loveseat.<br />
In a matter of minutes, I had explained everything that<br />
happened in Timmy’s room. As predicted, everyone wanted to see<br />
for themselves, so they plugged the video camera into Richard’s<br />
laptop. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to watch it all happen again, so I<br />
watched Tucker’s reaction to it instead. <strong>The</strong>re was a barely<br />
noticeable smile tugging the very corners of his mouth upward. In<br />
spite of having been thrown into a wall, he was still enjoying this.<br />
Was the evidence of a spirit more important than his own safety?<br />
Once the footage had finished, the silence that fell over us<br />
was worse than anything they could have said. I wasn’t sure I wanted<br />
to know what they were thinking.<br />
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