The Haunting Season Read Online Free Page A

really good replica.
    As strange and elusive as Jess found Allison, she drew comfort knowing the other participants would each have some strange experience to share, some line of connection.
    “Just ghosts, huh?” Allison asked, as they walked out into the stifling heat of the early evening.
    The mosquitoes were already out, and Jess swatted one on her arm. She flicked the body of the dead insect off and rubbed at the blood. “Yeah. Not for a while, though. I’ve been trying to get them to show up again, but nothing’s happened since...since my dad died right after the holidays. My mom thinks I made everything up. She thinks it’s my way of coping with his death, that everything I experienced can be explained some other way.”
    “I believe you,” Allison said, taking a step off the front porch, apparently unfazed by the swarm of insects.
    “I hate summers in the South.” Jess swatted at another mosquito that had decided her legs made a safer target. “There’s got to be millions of these little vampires.”
    “ Run!” Allison darted across the lawn, leaving Jess to chase her.
    Jess glanced behind her, seeing nothing but the hovering swarm of insects. She ran after Allison, following her down the length of the yard and around the house’s corner, finally drawing up alongside her where she’d come to a complete stop.
    “I don’t think we outran the mosquitoes,” Allison said.
    Allison’s observation was probably an understatement. But, either they’d managed to outrun a few thousand or this side of the house had fewer hordes.
    Jess waved away one of the bugs buzzing at her ear. “How come you’re not being eaten alive?”
    Allison shrugged. “Bad blood, I suppose.”
    Her voice sounded distant, far off. Jess stopped swatting her arms and legs long enough to see what Allison was staring at. It was a garden. Nothing like back home in Asheville, probably because the hot summer sun scorched the flowers here. Small plants with tiny red flowers, a white hibiscus and several pots with ferns lined the garden pathway.
    At the end of the path was a tall iron fence, complete with arched gate. Inside the gated section was a gravesite with an elaborate monument in the shape of two young girls, carved from marble in amazing lifelike detail. Both girls wore their hair long and loose across their shoulders, with bows at their temples. Both wore matching dresses and ankle-high, lace-up boots. At the base of the monument were more flowers, one sporting soft pink blossoms.
    “Wow!” Jess said. “This has to be the most amazing gravesite I’ve ever seen. Come on.”
    Decorative, spear-like posts sat atop the iron fence. Jess pulled on the arched service gate, but it didn’t budge. “Damn. It’s locked.”
    “It keeps people like us out,” Allison replied. “But wow is right. I wonder who they were? It’s amazing! You can even see their boot laces.”
    Jess pointed to the base of the monument. "Emma and Grace Siler. April 3, 1899, died August 1909. Twins! But there’s no actual date of death, only the month. Kind of weird, don’t you think?”
    “It’s because they’re still here.” Allison tugged at Jess. “We made a mistake coming out here. We need to go. Now.”
    “What? We just got here.”
    “They’re here,” Allison said.
    “I thought you don’t see ghosts,” Jess said, confused. If ghosts were present, she’d like to see them. She tried to imagine cute little girls with white dresses, each holding dolls or teddy bears. She scanned the area. Nothing.
    “There, in the woods.” Allison pointed to a section of trees a hundred or so yards from where they stood. “They want us to follow them.”
    A whitish, shadowy object moved behind a range of trees—or so Jess believed. It didn’t look like a person, much less two girls, but she had seen something. Hadn’t she? Adrenaline raced through her, but she tried to remain calm. Still, it might be the first step in finding her way back to seeing