Haunting in the East Wing

[Jacinda Blake]

Cullen's School
Girls dorm rooms

Over the last week an increasing number of students, and a few faculty members, had witnessed strange phenomena. Tess and Jacinda had been among the first to have an encounter, but not the last. Several people had experienced strange goings on, and for a school for mutants, that was saying something. During their free time, and whispered during some classes, the students compared experiences with what they just callled 'The Ghost'. Reports of sightings, unexplained noises, lights going off and on for no reason.

Jokingly, Jacinda had said someone should perform a seance and see what the spirit wanted. She should have just kept quiet. Once the other students found out that she knew a little bit about the paranormal, she had somehow gotten elected to host the affair. Her parents had had a very extensive library and Jacinda loved to read. She and her sister, Lucy had spent long hours there. Even finding that their parents had a section on the uppermost shelves set aside for paranormal and metaphysical books. So of course, Jacinda had read them all and decided to experiment.

It had been a miserable failure, she had told the students that. A certain amount of energy was required for most spirits to manifest phenomena; bumps, tapping.. It was also best to have a medium, but in this case they would just have to make due with a high school girl who knew a little bit about what she was doing.

Jacinda and Tess had eaten their dinners quickly and left for their room early. Tess and Carlos were both helping Jacinda set up the room for the seance. Professor Rhee had given them permission, so long as they acted accordingly and responsibly, to use an older classroom that was not being used for their group. Tess hadn't been specific, but she had distinctly given the impression that she had not told Professor Rhee the whole truth..

They had moved a round table in earlier and Carlos was rounding up some chairs and meeting them in a few minutes to finish setting up. The interested students would be meeting them in the room in about an hour. Jacinda had spoken with many of the students with supposed encounters. A couple students who seemed honest and interested had been invited to join them.

She grabbed a book bag off her bed and shoved the last few items inside, things she had collected for tonight. She exchanged a look with Tess. They were both a little spooked, but Jacinda was pretty sure she could handle it.

She gulped and headed downstairs..

[Carlos Calaveras]

Downstairs, things were coming together nicely. Whilst the girls mentally prepared themselves, Carlos had been left to do the grunt work. He hefted chair after chair, assembling them into a loose circle. He'd been given strict orders by Jacinda as to how the room was to look – which included but were not limited to the placement of scented candles, the strategic draping of scarves and scattering of charms. To Carlos, it felt a lot like decorating for Christmas.

He looked up at the sound of the girls coming down the girls and smirk. Jacinda in particular looked like she was about ready to jump out of her skin. She was taking the whole thing really seriously, which in turn only made Carlos more skeptic. He was convinced that his being there would only jinx the night, and that any unusual happenings would be attributed to his natural bad luck, but the girls had insisted – quite vehemently – that he be there, to protect them, if nothing else.

He folded his arms over his broad chest and raised a dark eyebrow.

“Everything as you wanted it?”

[Jacinda Blake]

Jacinda grinned big. She had felt bad leaving Carlos to go fetch chairs. So she had asked him to do a couple more ritualistic things. Atmosphere and intuition went a long way for paranormal workings. He had done perfectly.

The room already seemed tranformed from a classroom to a scene from a Vincent Price movie. The windows had been shut to keep the night wind from prematurely dousing the candles. Some of the easier to obtain supplies were exactly as they should be. Paper and pens for automatic writing sat on the table. Small bells, stolen from an art bucket, were strung on yarn and draped here and there around the room. There was a tape recorder, to record the event and any otherwordly voices that might get picked up. The candles were lit, natural beeswax tapers that burned clean and had been annointed with oil.. Perfect!

"Thanks, Carlos. It looks awesome." She gave her fellow mutant a quick hug on the way by, plunking down her bag on the table. She removed a bundle of what looked like long dried blades of grass, but smelled more earthy. Then she pulled out a feather.

"Alright, so who wants to smudge?"

[Tess Abrahams]

"My turn to be useful." Tess said with a nervous smile, taking the bundle and feather from Jacinda. Weeks earlier she might have shared Carlos' obvious skepticism, but after the hair-raising encounter in the dorm room she was on board, in uniform and chanting the motto.

Jacinda had explained the ritual purification and, after a quick skim online, the teenager thought she understood the process. Removing a packet of matches she'd stuffed in her pocket on the way down, Tess struck the head against the side of the box. With a hiss and gasp of sulphur, the match lit and was held against the first bundle of dried stalks. She let it burn for a moment before gently blowing out the flame; still smoldering, the sage (supposedly able to drive away negative forces) sent up a steady stream of scented smoke.

Tess methodically carried the smudge stick around the room, using the feather to fan smoke into each corner and hard-to-reach cranny. When the entire room had been covered, the girl returned to her friends and fanned them. Jacinda took the bundle from Tess and did the same to her. The next bundle, sweetgrass for the attraction of good spirits and energy, was dealt with in the same manner and then set next to the sage in a low dish, where they continued to ferment the room.

A bump out in the corridor - no doubt a student stumbling on the stairs - made Tess jump sharply. Her knee knocked a chair askew, sending one of the scarves to the ground. With a relieved giggle she righted the draping. It was going to be an interesting evening.

[Jacinda Blake]

All in all there were six of them. Three more students had arrived. Christy, Jessica and Marty who were all in the same classes as Jacinda, Tess and Carlos. It was just before midnight. Jacinda had wanted to do it earlier, twilight being a good time for the veil between worlds being thin, but there was just too much noise and commotion going on in the school. So they had decided to wait for the so-called witching hour. After chatting for a little while to break some of the tension, they decided to start. The lights were dimmed. The sweetgrass continued to smolder, scenting the room. Jacinda sat first, with Tess on her right and Carlos on her left.

"First, anyone who feels freaked out at all by the prospect of encountering this ghost should leave now. Screaming, running out the door or more bluntly just plain, wigging out could actually frighten the spirit away." She started the tape recorder.

"Okay, we'll start by joining hands." She gave the three interested students a no nonsense look. There was not going to be any giggling about holding hands. Everyone seemed to be behaving so far, their linked hands forming a circle around the table.

Taking a deep, bracing breath, she started..

"We are here to listen to the person that has been trying to communicate with us." At this point she didn't use the word ghost or spirit on the off-chance that this person might not know they were deceased.

"We are aware of your presence and would like the chance to find out how we can help you."

Here goes nothing..

"If you are with us now, could you make your presence known by either making a noise, or by some other means?"

[Tess Abrahams]

There was a nervous shuffling amongst their little group, as they waited for something, anything to happen. One could practically taste the baited tension, coiled and heavy on the tongue. Was there really any chance of something appearing?

A brief noise out in the hall made Tess jerk. It hadn't really sounded otherworldly--more like someone dropping a sheaf of papers--but who was to say what a spirit sounded like? The girl eyed the door for a moment, waiting for the knob to turn or a silvery mist to glide beneath the space at the bottom.

Nothing happened.

Tess found herself somewhat disappointed. While she didn't necessarily want to come face to face with a ghost, she'd much rather have it appear here than in their room. That was loads creepier.

She squeezed Jacinda's hand in encouragement. Maybe if they all wished for this to work...