“Okay, then. Rest your fingers on the planchette. No, that’s too heavy. Do it lightly, so that you’re just barely touching it.” As Jake complied, Dana said, “Good. That’s much better.” She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. Sam glanced around and saw everyone else staring intently at the board. He exchanged a humor-filled glance with Jake and was about to follow the others’ lead when Dana said, “Sam, why don’t you come over here and take my place? I don’t have to be using the board in order to provide a spirit channel for them to work through. I know you and your friend are most likely skeptics. This way neither of you can claim I was moving the planchette myself.”
Sam enthusiastically agreed.
“Do I have your word that neither of you will consciously move the planchette?”
“Sure,” said Jake.
Sam nodded as well.
“Okay. Everyone close your eyes. Clear your minds of all extraneous thoughts; let the outside world wash away. Pretend your mind is a television set, and the only thing you are receiving is static. When you feel you’ve reached the proper state of awareness, you can open your eyes again. Casey, why don’t you read out the letters as the planchette lands on them?”
The woman seated to Sam’s left agreed.
Sam let his eyes slide shut and tried to follow Dana’s instructions, a little thrill of excitement growing in his stomach.Imagine if we really manage to contact someone, he thought to himself.Wouldn’t that be something?
Someone gave a small gasp, and Sam opened his eyes to find Jake and everyone else in the room staring in Dana’s direction.
Sam followed suit.
Dana’s eyes had rolled back in their sockets, so all that was visible were the whites of her eyeballs.
Neat trick,Sam thought, a bit disappointed at the theatrics.
Voices murmured somewhere on the edge of the room.
“Silence,” Dana hissed, and quiet instantly returned. In a soft voice that was oddly lilting, she began speaking. “Is anyone out there? Can anyone hear me?”
Sam started to close his eyes again. As he did so, he caught a glimpse of the clock on the wall and noted in the back of his mind that it was one minute to twelve.
“Is anyone out there? We are trying to reach Father Castelli. Can you hear me, Father?”
Suddenly Sam felt two things happen at once. Across from him, Jake stiffened, and the planchette twitched beneath their fingers. Sam glanced up at Jake, but his head was lowered, and he wouldn’t meet his gaze.Did Jake move this thing?
“Is anyone out…” Dana paused, and in a whisper spoke to the group. “I can feel the spirits. They are all around us, clamoring to speak to us. I sense a great urgency among them. Everyone concentrate on reaching out to Father Castelli. Let him know we wish to speak to him. Casey, would you please read the letters off the board once contact is made?
“Can you hear me, Father?” she continued.
Beneath his fingers, Sam felt the planchette move again. He eased up on the pressure, until his fingers were barely touching it. He wanted to make sure that he wasn’t causing it to move. He saw the rest of the group leaning forward eagerly to watch the proceedings, and this time he kept his eyes open like the rest of them.
“Father? Are you there, Father Castelli?”
The planchette began making slow lazy circles around the board, and Sam felt a slight tingle in his fingertips, as if a mild current was passing through his flesh. The planchette began to move quicker, then abruptly slid across the board to the top left hand side, centering itself over the word “YES.”
The group gasped collectively.
“Who are you?” Dana asked aloud.
The planchette swirled aimlessly for a moment and then dropped to the double row of letters in the center of the board.
“M,” read Casey, and then “A… T… T… H… E… W.” The planchette paused and so did Casey. After a moment, as if to signal the start of a new word, it continued. “C… A… S… T… E… L… L… I.”
“This is Father Castelli?” Dana asked, just to be certain.
The planchette immediately moved back to the “YES.”
Dana said, “The contact is strengthening now. The spirits have broken through the barrier, and their message will be clearer to us.”
Before Dana could ask her next question, however, the planchette began spinning aimlessly around the board for a moment before moving on to spell another new word.
“B… E… W… A… R” Casey called out in response, her voice shaking slightly.
Stupid spirit can’t even spell,Sam thought to himself.
As if she’d heard him, Dana said, “Often a spirit will misspell something, it’s a pretty common occurrence, especially if the subject has been dead a long time.”
“Is that your message?” she asked the board. “Beware?”
YES.
“Beware of what?” she asked.
A cool, whispery chill ran lightly up Sam’s spine.
The planchette was moving faster, as if guided by an unseen hand filled with urgency. Casey called out the letters in a voice filled with excitement. “E… V… I… L. —E… V… I… L.—E… V… I… L. It’s repeating the word “evil” over and over again.”
The planchette came to rest in the center of the board. Sam shifted his position slightly to get more comfortable.
“Don’t remove your hands, Sam! You’ll break the contact,” said Dana.
Her warning was unnecessary, however. Sam was too engrossed in what was happening even to consider it.
Dana went on. “What is evil? Can you tell us what evil we are to beware of, Father Castelli?” Her voice was a quiet whisper in the otherwise silent room.
Immediately: B… L… A… K… E… S… B… A… N … E.
“Bane?” someone asked.
This time it was Jake who answered, his voice low but steady, “It means a cause of death or ruin.”
Another voice could be heard from the back of the room. “It says Blake. Do you think it means Hudson Blake?”
No one had an answer.
Dana decided to ask for clarification. “Can you tell us what that is, Father?”
The planchette fell still. Dana repeated her question twice, slower each time. After what seemed an age to Sam, the planchette moved again. This time it was different instead of the smooth, circular motions, it moved in fits and starts, spasmodically jerking across the board.
“B… E… W… A… R… I… T… C… A… N… S… E . . ,” Casey called out for those who couldn’t see the pointer.
Sam stared down at the board. The planchette was still moving helter-skelter across its surface, jerking left and right like a puppet on a string. The tingling in his arms had become almost, but not quite, pain. He wanted to tear his hands away and break the contact, but something compelled him to keep them in place. He tried to reassure himself.Jake must be doing this, he thought.Jake’s just spelling out messages to scare everyone.
“Father Castelli? Are you still with us, Father?” Dana asked. A strange expression ran across her face then, part grimace, part bewilderment. “Who’s there?” she asked. “Do you wish to speak with us?”
Beneath his hands, Sam felt the planchette slow down, then move with deliberation.
He watched in shock as it spelled out a message directed specifically at him.
R.E.M.E.M.B.E.R.M.Y.W.A.R.N.I.N.G.S.A.M.M.Y.
Sam sat there, stunned. The others around him who could see the board gasped in surprise, then looked at him rather oddly, as if they had just discovered something mysterious in their midst.
The planchette began moving again.
GOODBYE, SAMMY, it read.
That whispery touch of fear turned into a fist clenched savagely around his spine.
Then, with the suddenness of a striking snake, the planchette spelled out another message.
FOOLS! NEITHER YOU NOR THE OLD ONE CAN STOP ME NOW! I WILL SLAUGHTER YOU LIKE THE CATTLE YOU ARE.