Sydney’s parents had sprung awake at the sound of Kianna’s screaming and had come running into the room in their pajamas. Once they realized that nobody was hurt, and Kianna was just screaming because a glass of water had spilled, they immediately turned from concerned to annoyed. “Go to bed,” they told us. “It’s late.” But Kianna wouldn’t stop shrieking. “There was a ghost! This house is haunted!” There seemed to be a part of her that was relishing the drama. But I was furious with her. Kitty had been here. Kitty had come to see me. And Kianna had ruined it all by breaking the circle and panicking. If she’d just stayed still, maybe Kitty would have told me something useful. Maybe I could have begged for her forgiveness. To Kianna this was all some big game. But it was my life. All the commotion woke Sydney’s sisters, and they started crying, so their parents left us to comfort them.
