Scaredy Kat Read Free Page B

for the hundredth time, of being gifted with spirit sight when half of the time the very glimpse
     of a ghost freaked me out half to death? I hated that about myself. It was like being a fisherman who was afraid of the water,
     or a weatherman afraid of lightning.
    And if I fled the house now, that would only make it worse. I took a deep breath and started up the staircase, clutching the
     banister a lot more tightly than I needed to. The stairs led to a rectangular landing with three doors. The sound had come
     from the room at the front of the house, facing the street. I tried to focus on something cheerful as I walked down the hall,
     and settled on an image of Max’s face. My mother had said something once about certain types of spirits who could sense fear
     and drew their energy from it. I didn’t want to be the Red Bull fueling some crazy spirit with a surge of power.
    The door to the front bedroom stood open, and I walked inside. I could see part of my house through one of the windows. The
     glimpse of home made me feel a little more comfortable. I took a shaky breath, closed my eyes, and opened my mind. It’s diffi-cult
     to explain what that means. It’s not like there’s some Internet chat room where psychic people hang out and discuss these
     things. Actually, there probably is, but I haven’t stumbled upon it yet. I don’t know what other mediums do to establish contact
     with a spirit. I’m not even sure exactly what it is that
I
do. I start by sort of visualizing myself as a giant satellite dish scanning the sky for a radio signal. I think I took the
     idea from images of the Very Large Array in New Mexico, where dozens of these huge antennae are pointed out into the galaxy
     to search for signs of astronomical events.
    I wasn’t picking up anything I could identify, but I had a growing sense of un-ease. And suddenly I knew I was not alone.
     I opened my eyes and looked around cautiously. A voice in my head told me to turn around. The feeling in my stomach told me
     not to. My heart pounded so hard I felt faint. Wasn’t anything better than standing here hyperventilating?
    I whirled around.
    And shrieked.
    He was standing so close behind me we were practically touching. I took a step back, pressing one hand to my chest. The man
     was very old, but still cut a towering figure. His shoulders were bent but broad, and his neck was thick and muscled. His
     face was deeply creased and lined, and his hair pure white. But what paralyzed me were those ice-blue eyes fixed intently
     on mine, and absolutely glittering with hatred.
    “You,” he hissed at me.
    I gulped, speechless.
    “A Living One who sees the dead,” he said. “You.” Then he raised a finger and jabbed the air, pointing at me. His image rippled.
    I shook my head and took another step away from him. It was wrong to show fear, wrong to feel it. This was an earthbound spirit.
     I was a medium. I could help him, if he wanted it. It’s what I was supposed to do. It’s what my mother would do without question.
     But there was incredible anger coming off of this spirit. I didn’t want to have anything to do with it. Plainly put, I was
     scared of him.
    I didn’t offer.
    “See me,” the man said.
    Was it a command? A question?
    He took a step forward, finger jabbing in the air again.
    “See me!” he shouted.
    Almost as a reflex, I stuck the camera between us, and pushed the button. The white blue light of the flash bathed the room
     and just as instantly disappeared.
    So did the old man.
    I hightailed it out of the room, slamming the door behind me.
    I ran to the top of the stairs, then paused.
    The door I had closed remained shut. Nothing came through it. The angry old man was not coming after me. And I suspected that
     if I opened that door and looked back into the room, I would find him gone.
    But I didn’t look.
    I was pathetic. Kat, the scaredy-cat medium.
    I’d only felt this scared once before, when I had gone to the library at dawn