“Who is Sophia?”

  The simple question settled over the basement like a thick blanket, and once everyone got over their initial shock, they looked to one another uncomfortably.

  “You are... aren’t you?” Siobhan asked hesitantly.

  “I do not know.”

  Oh no. A horrible feeling washed over Jesse as he realized where this was going.

  “Hold on a second.” Alicia held her hands up in a time-out gesture. “Let’s take this one step at a time. What’s the last thing you remember?”

  “That man in the lab coat asking me if I wished to harm you all,” the doll answered immediately. “I do not, by the way,” she added, as assurance.

  Good, glad they cleared that up.

  “No, I meant before you woke up.”

  Sophia closed her eyes as she seemed to ponder the question. “Nothing.”

  “Nothing?” she repeated, like she didn’t believe it. “You don’t remember anything about the last house on River Street? Or Jospeh Waylor?”

  “Or sending us into messed up nightmares?” Noah asked.

  “Or dangling off the edge of a stairwell?” Siobhan added.

  She simply shook her head. “None of that is familiar.”

  “What about before all that?” Jesse pressed. “Before we showed up at your house?”

  “My memories begin here, in this basement, just a few moments ago. I remember nothing before that.”

  “Faszinierend...” Dr. Rotbart mused to himself. He snapped his robotic fingers. “This must be caused by the damage in her animation amulet.”

  Noah scowled. “You didn’t fix it?”

  “I sealed the crack as much as possible, but aside from completely replacing the gem, we can’t do anything.”

  Jesse looked to Bella to see if she would contest the doctor, but she shook her head.

  “He’s right. And replacing the gem would be like replacing her brain; the amulet is what makes Sophia, Sophia.”

  The doll pointed at herself. “I am Sophia?”

  “That’s what’s on the back of your brooch, so that’s what we’ve been calling you,” Jesse told her.

  “I see,” she looked thoughtful for a moment. “While I don’t remember any of the events you all have described, I am truly sorry for all I have put you through.” She bowed her head in respect and Jesse was once more struck by how different the doll before him now was from the one he remembered from the haunted house, her sincerity a far cry from the vicious mockery of the other Sophia.

  He exchanged an awkward glance with his friends. “Uh, don’t worry about it.” If she truly didn’t remember anything, then there wasn’t much point in holding it against her.

  “Sophia, may I ask you a question?” Bella asked suddenly. “Something hasn’t sat right with me since Siobhan told me about your encounter.”

  “I will do my best.”

  “Can you create illusions?”

  Sophia closed her eyes once again, as if searching deep within for an answer. “I do not believe so.”

  Bella let out a sigh. “That’s what I was afraid of.”

  “But wait,” Siobhan said, frowning. “I thought it was Waylor who caused all those illusions we saw?”

  “No, ghosts can’t do that. Not even the most powerful ones. And if Sophia can’t either, then that means there’s two possibilities; one, the power was linked to her amulet, and now that it’s broken, she can no longer access it-”

  “-Which, in all my years, I’ve never heard of, I might add,” Dr. Rotbart interjected. “An amulet with enough magical energy to create what’s basically a sentient being is rare enough, but one that also bestows supernatural abilities? Such a thing might be the first in history.”

  “What about the other possibility?”

  Bella and the doctor exchanged glances as they both arrived to the same conclusion. “There was another party involved at the haunted house.”

  So I was right, Jesse thought. Not that he was happy about it. The presence of a third party complicated this mystery further, as if it wasn’t already bad enough. Still, it was nice to have two of the smartest people in Gravewood validate his hunch. From what he could gather the full picture looked something like this; some unknown person was controlling Sophia via the animation amulet, and in doing so, awakened the reckless spirit of Joseph Waylor, since she was also his source. That explained why it felt like the ghost of Joseph Waylor and Sophia were odds with each other. Waylor must have been trying to protect that strange lighter they found, while somebody else wanted to take it, and used Sophia as a tool. Somebody who was also most likely responsible for enchanting the scarecrow to attack them on Halloween.

  Then does that mean we were also being used? Or did we just stumble into this fight and mess everything up? Jesse wasn’t sure which answer he preferred, but set those thoughts to the side for now as he still had one more piece to the puzzle to ask the doctor about.

  “Did you make any progress with the lighter we gave you?”

  “Ah yes, that.” He adjusted the goggles he was wearing before looking over at where the lighter was on a separate examination table. “Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to discern anything from analyzing it; only that it possesses even more magical energy than Sophia’s brooch does.”

  That’s what Jesse had been afraid of, and he tried not to let his frustration show. Now, with Sophia’s amnesia, the ghost of Waylor having passed on, and zero headway on the lighter, it looked like all of their leads have reached dead ends.

  “Speaking of, I’d like to take a look at that lighter,” Bella said. “If you don’t mind, I’ll take it back home with me for further research.”

  She started reaching for the lighter, but Dr. Rotbart suddenly moved between her and it, blocking her way. “As a matter of fact, I do mind. What makes you think you can figure it out if I couldn’t?”

  “Uh, maybe the fact that I was the one that revived Sophia?” She narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms.

  Rotbart scoffed. “That was just a fluke, nothing more.”

  Noah rolled his eyes. “Here they go again.”

  “Fight, fight, fight!” Brom chanted. The jack-o-lantern had been uncharacteristically quiet, and Jesse had almost forgotten he was there. It was like he was just waiting for the opportunity to stir up more trouble.

  “If I may interject.” Everyone turned to Sophia, who didn’t seem nervous at all with so many eyes on her. “You say that you were the ones who revived me? Before I woke up, I felt a surge of energy course through me, but it wasn’t enough to completely power the amulet.” She brought a small hand up to gently touch her brooch. “I could think, and vaguely sense my surroundings, but I couldn’t move; not until the second wave of energy.”

  Siobhan’s eyes widened. “Oh, I get it. Dr. Rotbart was able to revive Sophia part of the way with his machine-”

  “And Bella finished the process with her magic,” Alicia concluded.

  “So, it was a team effort between them,” Evelyn said.

  Adam nodded. “It would appear so.”

  Dr. Rotbart looked away awkwardly. “Well, maybe just this once.”

  “Doctor, how about you let Bella take the lighter with her?” Jesse suggested. “It wouldn’t hurt to have her double check your work.”

  “I suppose having her peer review would help.”

  He stepped to the side, allowing her to grab the lighter and slip it into the pocket of her skirt.

  “Now that that’s settled, are we done here?” Alicia said, adjusting her grip on her brother. “I have to get Ashton home soon.”

  “There is still one matter left,” Dr. Rotbart said. “What are we going to do with Sophia?”

  She cocked her head to the side. “With me?”

  Jesse had gotten so caught up with the mystery that he had almost forgotten; they had just brought Sophia back to life. Now where was she going to stay?

  “We can’t just like turn her back off again?” Noah asked.

  “I would prefer if you didn’t.”

  “Not without completely destroying her animation amulet,” Rotbart said. “Which would mean we wouldn’t be able to bring her back. Though I suppose we could just separate her amulet from her, but...”

  “We’re not doing that.” Siobhan glared at Noah.

  He raised his hands in surrender. “Sorry, just throwing out suggestions.”

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  The doctor hummed. “She could always stay here with me. I could use another assistant.”

  “No,” Evelyn and Adam said at the same time.

  “Never mind then.”

  “How about you come live with me?” Bella said.

  “Are you sure about this?” Jesse asked her. Even though it seemed like Sophia was telling the truth about not having any memories, there was still a small part of him that screamed they can’t trust her. And he was especially worried if Bella was also taking the lighter with her, as whatever had been possessing Sophia had wanted it badly enough it was willing to hurt them. What if it tried again?

  But Bella was unperturbed. “Positive. If worse comes to worse, I can take care of myself. I am a full-blown witch, after all. And who knows? Maybe with a little time, she could regain her memories.”

  But would that be a good thing? Jesse decided to keep that thought to himself.

  She bent over to be eye level with Sophia. “What do you say?”

  “It doesn’t sound as though I have many options. Very well, I accept your offer. Thank you.”

  “Hey, wait a second,” Brom interrupted. “How come you’ve never asked me to move in with you?”

  Noah raised an eyebrow. “Is that a serious question?”

  “I thought you liked your patch,” Jesse said.

  “I do, but I’ve been around way longer than this oversized toy has. What gives?”

  “Maybe it’s because she’s not constantly trying to stir up trouble,” Alicia pointed out.

  “She literally tried to kill you!”

  “Yeah, but she apologized though. Something you’ve never done.”

  “She wasn’t trying to kill us, just scare us...” Siobhan faltered. “Right?”

  “I do not know,” Sophia said. “It’s possible. I promise I won’t try to kill you now, if that makes you feel better.”

  Bella grinned. “That’s good enough for me.”

  Brom scoffed. “Oh, come on.”

  “You can stay here if you want,” Dr. Rotbart suggested, and Jesse was quick to notice the wicked glint in his eyes. “I would love the opportunity to crack you open and see what makes you tick. And I’m reasonably certain I can put you back together again.”

  “Never mind, take me back to my patch.”

  “That’s our cue to get going,” Jesse decided, picking up Brom when nobody else moved to.

  “We’ll be going as well. I want to get started on cracking this lighter as soon as possible.” Bella helped Sophia down from the operating table. Jesse half expected to see the doll wobble once on her feet, considering she might as well have been born just a few minutes ago, but she gracefully followed Bella up the stairs.

  As Jesse and his friends made to leave, Evelyn waved them goodbye enthusiastically. “See you all at camp tomorrow!”

  The second day of the summer camp revolved around arts and crafts. The counselors had set up tables next to the pond underneath a couple of tents for shade. Each table had a different craft for the campers to do and while there wasn’t a time limit, everyone was encouraged to rotate through them to get a chance to do each one. The crafts were very basic and similar to what you’d find at any other summer camp, like friendship bracelets and tie-dye shirts, but Jesse was still enjoying himself. So far, it seemed like Siobhan’s question of if monster day camp would be any different to regular camp was a resounding no.

  It was while at the “vegetable painting” table that Jesse and his friends filled the Vanderwebb spiderlings in on what they learned from Dr. Rotbart yesterday.

  “The plot thickens,” Charlotte said seriously.

  “So, what happens now?” Jeremy asked.

  “Now, we wait to see if Bella can figure out anything about the lighter.” Jesse dabbed the tip of his paintbrush in white to finish the fang he was painting on his carrot. When he first got to the table, he’d decided to give a carrot a face and he didn’t know why, but the idea of a vampire carrot was funny to him.

  “And if she can’t?”

  He didn’t want to admit it, but he told the kids, “Then we’re out of leads.”

  “She can do it,” Charlotte insisted as she went back to finger painting her potato with Mason. “Mommy’s always talking about how smart Miss Bella is. I believe in her.”

  Jeremy nodded. “I think so, too. By the way, where’s Alicia and Ashton?”

  Jesse exchanged a glance with Siobhan and Noah sitting across from him. The siblings hadn’t been there when they’d met up that morning for the start of the day, which he thought was weird since Alicia was normally so punctual.

  “We don’t know,” Siobhan said truthfully. “But I’m sure they’ll be here soon.”

  “Just in time to see your ugly squash,” Noah commented, peering over her shoulder to look at what she was painting. “What are you doing to that thing?”

  “How dare you. My squash is way better looking than your turnip, anyway.”

  “Yeah, but aren’t you supposed to be good at this sort of thing?”

  She puffed out her cheeks. “It’s not as easy to paint on a vegetable as it is on a face. Leave me alone.”

  Just as Jesse was trying to crane his neck to see what she was doing over there, Alicia arrived at their table, Ashton in tow. She slid onto the seat next to Jesse, sitting her brother down in between them.

  “Sorry we’re late. It took a bit longer to get ready today.”

  “Why did you bring him?” Noah pointed at where she was holding Brom in her arms.

  She sighed, setting him down on the table in front of her. “He’s part of the reason why.”

  “Hey, I’m not the one who spends hours putting on makeup and styling my hair,” he said defensively.

  “Apparently, he’s been feeling left out, and Ashton begged me to take him with us.”

  It was hard for Jesse to imagine Ashton begging, since he’s still never heard the kid speak before, but it was a lot less hard to imagine a lonely Brom sitting grumpily in his patch.

  “You haven’t missed much,” Siobhan said, shielding her squash from view so no one could see it. “We were just telling the Vanderwebbs everything we learned.”

  “Which is nothing,” Jeremy complained. “You’ll promise you’ll keep us updated, right?”

  “We will,” Jesse said. “But we don’t know how long that will take.”

  “And as long as you remember to keep your end of the promise,” Siobhan reminded them. “You haven’t told anyone, right?”

  The three kids shook their heads eagerly.

  “We didn’t tell mommy, or any of our other siblings either.”

  “So, Kaitlyn doesn’t know?” Noah looked over to where the brooding girl in question was reluctantly fiddling with the straps for a friendship bracelet.

  Jeremy scoffed. “We wouldn’t even if you said we could.”

  Alicia raised an eyebrow. “Do you not get along with your sister?”

  “Join the club,” Siobhan muttered.

  “We used to be super close,” Charlotte informed them. “She used to play with us all the time.”

  “Now she’s all lame ‘cuz she’s grown up,” Jeremy said. “Says she doesn’t like baby stuff anymore. She didn’t even want to come to camp this year, but mom made her. A lot of our older siblings are like that; they get lamer as they get older. You guys are cool though.”

  “Thanks.”

  Jesse was starting to understand why Cynthia had wanted them to come to the day camp. She must have been hoping that they could show Kaitlynn that older kids could still enjoy “baby stuff.”

  If that’s the case, she’s going to be disappointed, he thought dryly. Kaitlyn seemed like the kind of girl would go against the grain just for the sake of being contrarian. Besides, if the cool counselors like Ricky and Tyra couldn’t convince her, then there was no way they could.

  Speak of the devil...

  “Just checking in to see how you’re doing over here,” Tyra said, as she plopped down on the other side of Jesse. “I see you’ve brought your own materials.”

  She nodded at the jack-o-lantern sitting on the table.

  Alicia perked up. “Ooh, that’s actually not a bad idea. What do you say Brom, want a makeover?”

  “I have some paints over here that would go perfectly with his complexion,” Siobhan said, smirking.

  “Just try it,” Brom growled.

  “What are you gonna do, bite us? Alicia, I’ll hold him down, you get to work.”

  He struggled in vain as she set upon him with an evil glint in her eye and Noah winced in sympathy.

  “Good luck buddy, I’ve been on the receiving end there plenty of times.”

  Jesse ignored the pumpkin’s protests and turned his attention to Ashton sitting next to him. Almost as soon as he and his sister had sat down, he had immediately grabbed some paint and a paint brush, apparently understanding the assignment at a glance.

  “What are you drawing there?”

  The little boy didn’t answer, but he angled the small watermelon (Jesse guessed the counselors ran out of vegetables that could be suitable for painting) he was working on towards him so he could get a better look.

  “It’s...” He struggled to find the words to describe what he was looking at. The truth was, he had no idea; it just kinda looked like random splotches of color to him. Ashton was five, after all. “A cloud?” he tried.

  Ashton shook his head, then picked up the watermelon to hold aloft over his head, and after a few seconds of confusion it clicked.

  “A hat,” Jesse said, and he was satisfied when he nodded. “Oh, and those dots there are the eyes, so that it looks like the watermelon is wearing the hat. That’s pretty cool.” He actually wanted to say cute, but in his experience, little kids didn’t like it when you called them cute.

  He turned back to keep working on his own vegetable, but when he glanced to the side he saw Tyra had been watching them intently.

  “Oh, I get it now,” she said. “You’re not just content with stealing my babysitting gig, you want my counselor position as well. I see how it is.”

  He’d completely forgotten, but her words reminded him that Tyra had been the go-to babysitter for the Vanderwebbs.

  “Uh, that’s not what- I mean, we were told-”

  She broke into a grin. “Relax, I’m just teasing you. I’m actually impressed you four managed to handle these kids. I know first-hand how much of a hassle they are.”

  Jeremy paused in his painting, squinting all eight eyes at her. “Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Exactly what you think it means.”

  She made a face at the spiderlings, sticking her tongue out at them, which they all returned like some kind of secret handshake.

  “Well maybe we want Mr. Jesse and his friends to babysit us from now on,” Charlotte said.

  “Looks like they like us more,” Alicia smirked, and Noah nodded.

  “Shouldn’t have been gone that weekend.”

  “Except I wasn’t gone.”

  “What?” Jesse frowned. “But Hank told us you were busy and couldn’t babysit.”

  “That was a lie that Cynthia made up,” she revealed. “I only found out after the fact.”

  “But why would she do that?”

  She glanced around before leaning in conspiratorially. “You didn’t hear this from me, but she was trying to test you.”

  “Test us?”

  She nodded. “See how well you handle responsibility and that junk. Why do you think she came home earlier than she said she would?”

  Alicia gaped. “Oh my god, and Hank was in on this?”

  “Yep.”

  “Hank, how could you?!” Jesse demanded, and from the other side of the tent, Hank flinched, a guilty look crossing his face. He had clearly been listening in on their conversation with his super werewolf hearing.

  “I’m sorry, Cynthia made me do it!”

  “We will never forgive you for this!” Siobhan said in an overexaggerated way that let him know she’d already forgiven him.

  Jesse turned to the spiderlings. “Did you three know about this?”

  Charlotte shook her head. “No, but I did think it was weird we were getting new babysitters we’d never met before.”

  “Unbelievable,” he muttered to himself. To think, that whole babysitting ordeal had just been one giant test concocted by Cynthia. He was suddenly extra glad that they had worked out a deal with the spiders to keep the haunted house mess a secret from her.

  “I think it’s actually a good sign,” Tyra told them reassuringly. “You passed her test and now you’re in her good book. That’s not an easy feat for her.”

  Noah scowled. “Yeah, but what if we had failed?”

  “Hmm, I think one of the other tables needs my help. Talk to y’all later.” She quickly retreated from the conversation, heading over to help the Abernathy kids at the other end of the tent.

  “You’d tell us if your mom wanted to like eat us or something, right?” Jesse asked the spiderlings.

  Jeremy laughed. “Mom wouldn’t eat you, she only eats normal food like pizza and mosquitoes.”

  “Right, normal,” Noah muttered.

  “And, done!” Alicia announced, finishing Brom’s makeover with one final flick of her paintbrush. “What do you think, Ashton?”

  Ashton giggled and Jesse also had to fight back a laugh, while Noah didn’t even try to hide it. The girls had given the jack-o-lantern a full glam makeover, with red paint lined around his mouth to look like lipstick and black strokes extending from his eyes as cat-eyeliner. Alicia had even used a combination of yellow with white flecks for eyeshadow to give the illusion of sparkly gold. The effect was as impressive as it was embarrassing for the pumpkin.

  “Aww, you look so pretty,” Siobhan cooed.

  “Serves me right for ever leaving my patch.”