Free Out of the Depths by Cathy MacPhail

about it last night,’ Jazz said. ‘And we’ve decided we talked too much about the murder …’
    Aisha broke in. ‘We decided
you
talked too muchabout the murder, Jazz.’
    Jazz waved that away as if it wasn’t important. ‘Whatever …’ she said. ‘And then we shouldn’t have wound you up about the school being haunted.’
    â€˜
You
were the one who wound her up!’ Aisha said.
    Jazz rolled her eyes. Her pierced eyebrow shot up. ‘Anyway, your imagination did the rest. So … we’re going to forget about it. Start afresh. What do you think?’
    I wanted to tell her I had already decided that last night. Had even closed the whole affair up in my diary … and then … the cold feeling of someone sitting on my bed in the dark, the clock stopping at 12.01, the whispered words …
Help me, Tyler.
    I wanted to put it behind me. I wanted to start afresh. I didn’t think Ben Kincaid was going to let me.
    But I wasn’t going to tell them that. It would do me no good at all. They were giving me the second chance I wanted. I was going to take it. Whatever happened after this, I would keep to myself.
    But I knew it wasn’t over.
    Ben Kincaid wouldn’t let it be over.

19
    I had an awful day at school. Everywhere I went I had pupils laughing at me, or asking if I’d seen any more ghosts. The word had gone round the whole school I’d claimed Ben Kincaid had been sitting at the back of the class. I was a nutter. A weirdo. Mac had to be behind it. I was grateful Jazz and Aisha stayed beside me. I don’t think I could have borne it if they hadn’t.
    The day couldn’t be over quick enough; I longed to go home. Yet, as soon as I stepped inside the door of my own house, I knew there was another horror facing me. My bedroom.
    I didn’t dare go in it.
    Jazz called me that evening. I lay stretched across the sofa, dreading the moment I’d be expected to go to bed. Couldn’t bear the thought of going back into that room.I was miserable and scared too. Was I going mad?
    â€˜I’ve been thinking about you all day,’ she said. ‘I don’t think you’re crazy, like everybody else does, Tyler.’ She said it as if that would comfort me. ‘Now don’t tell Aisha I said this, because she’s made me promise not to mention it again … but … I think you’re psychic. Like a medium maybe.’
    â€˜No, I’m not,’ I told her, because that sounded really crazy. I was an ordinary girl, and things like that didn’t happen to ordinary girls. There was a reasonable explanation for everything that was happening. I was sure of it.
    Me, a medium? That really was nonsense.
    Jazz didn’t want to listen. She’d decided I was psychic, and that was that. ‘Tyler, I think we should have a seance.’
    â€˜No way!’ I almost shouted it. There was no way I was taking part in anything like that.
    â€˜I don’t mean we’re going to sit around holding hands and chanting. But we could use the ouija board, see if we can find out what’s happening. It’s worth a try, isn’t it?’
    â€˜This isn’t a game, Jazz.’ Jazz, none of them knew the half of it. I’d never told them about the statues that moved. Or …
Help me, Tyler
…
    â€˜I know it’s not a game. But it might help. Help you understand. It’s worth a try.’
    Would it help? I didn’t know what Ben Kincaid wanted of me. But I was sure he wasn’t going to let me go … unless … The thought came to me. Maybe she was right. Maybe this would help. ‘Have you done this before?’
    â€˜Lots of times,’ she said, at once. ‘It’s great fun … and it tells you things … but never anything bad,’ she assured me. ‘I don’t know how it works, but it does.’
    â€˜And you have a ouija board?’
    There was