Free Echoes of the Dead by Aaron Polson Page B

in a hidden trailer out in the woods?” Sarah asked.
    “Nothing of the sort. I’ve arranged to have our meals brought in from town. A mom and pop café called the Harvest House down in Muskotah was more than willing to have a solid week of consistent business.  Three squares a day, right here in the dining room, all together like one happy family.” He looked up and away from the table. “Oh, here’s Erin and Daniel now.”
    Kelsey watched as a tall, athletic blonde—a striking young woman with honey brown skin—rounded the table’s far edge and stood behind a chair next to Sarah. The young man, shorter than Ben with a dark complexion and lost look in his deep brown eyes, followed her but paused before sitting. He looked from the blonde to Sarah and Kelsey and chose a seat next to the blonde. 
    “Sarah, Kelsey, this is Erin Connolly and Daniel Pinto.”
    Nods were exchanged.
    “Well. That leaves our friend John. I assume he’ll be fashionably late.” Ben pulled out his chair at the table’s head and sat.
    “Didn’t he call?” Sarah asked.
    Ben touched the side of his nose with an index finger. “Now how would he be able to do that? Or have you forgotten?”
    “What do you mean?” Kelsey asked.
    The blonde, Erin, spoke. “What he means is no service. No cell phones. No land line. Nothing. I’m Erin Connolly, by the way.  Junior at UCLA and willing guinea pig.”
    “Sarah Mansfield. Nice to meet you, Erin.” Sarah smirked. “You’re a long way from the beach.”
    An icy glaze slicked over Erin’s eyes.
    “Kelsey Sullivan,” Kelsey blurted as an attempt to diffuse the tension she felt. Sarah and Erin had already thrown down the first cards in a game of alpha female, and she wanted none of it. “I’m studying psychology at Kansas State, graduate school—what is it you do at UCLA?”
    Sarah leaned back in her chair. The ghost of a smile played at her lips.
    Erin turned to Kelsey, and the ice-glaze melted. “Small world. I’m studying psych, too. I’ve changed majors once… So far. Makes me a bit of an oddity, I suspect.”
    “You two can swap notes,” Sarah said.
    The slight curl of Sarah’s lips had grown into a sneer, one which caused Kelsey to feel a twinge of discomfort. Her gaze dropped to the table.
    “What about you—Daniel isn’t it?”  Sarah tilted her head forward.
    “Yes.” Daniel spoke with a heavy accent. “Daniel Pinto. I come from São Paulo, in Brazil. I’m here working on my graduate degree in computer engineering.  Also at UCLA.”
    “You and Kelsey could swap notes, too. She’s attempting to finish her PhD, aren’t you Kels?”
    Sarah was the odd one out, and she was feeling it, taking a defensive stance and snarking at each person at the table. Kelsey glanced at the others for their reactions. When her eyes fell on Ben, she knew this was the type of drama he’d been hoping for. The cameras rolled, and Sarah played right into Ben’s hands. They hadn’t even been in the house for three hours, and tension sprouted like weeds—tension which had yet to be tainted with their surroundings.
    “So, Kelsey, what are you working on, if you don’t mind?” Erin asked.  She’d turned away from Sarah, physically shutting her off from communication.
    “Me? I’m working on my dissertation. Fear and anxiety.  I’m trying to study how fear and anxiety affect performance on complex mental tasks.”
    “She runs rats through mazes,” Sarah said.
    Erin didn’t acknowledge Sarah, but continued. “Sounds tricky. How do you get around the ethical concerns?”
    “Non-human subjects. Like Sarah said, I run rats through mazes. Only I give them something to think about first. Electric shocks cued by lights or sounds. It’s pretty simple, really.”
    “I’d like to hear more,” Erin said. “Maybe we can—”
    A loud buzz cut into the room, and for a moment, Kelsey felt as though she’d been stung with a shock from her own experiment.
    “That would be our dinner