Chapter 4

"Don't... please don't! Ms. Rodriguez, don't do it, I'm really scared, this has nothing to do with us, let's not open the coffin, I'm begging you."

"But something's wrong. This doesn't look like Hilary."

"How could it not be her? She looks exactly like Hilary! And she's already dead. The dead don't come back. Let's stop messing around!"

Ina was crying with fright, over and over telling me not to touch it, and then the sound of an electric scooter came from outside. There was nothing I could do but let it go.

After Hilary's family got back, they checked the meter and found the electric bill hadn't been paid. Once they settled it, everything went back to normal.

Near where the accident happened, they found Hilary's phone-watch in the pond. They pulled the SIM card out, put it in a phone, and called mine and Ina's numbers.

When the screen showed the same number that had called me yesterday, every hair on my body stood up.

The self-styled medium drifted around beside us, still explaining, insisting Hilary really had called us last night.

"Like I said, this child loved you two teachers very much, so she used water as her medium, hiding in the water to call you!"

"It's fine, don't be afraid. The child doesn't even know she's dead. She only knows she found something fun and wanted to share it with you."

Hearing that didn't put us at ease. It only made us more afraid.

A dead student, laughing while she called us, for over an hour. Nobody could stay calm through that.

That night the medium set up in the main hall, said it was a rite to send Hilary's soul on, so she wouldn't cause any more trouble, so the children in the house and the village would all be safe and free from fright.

Ina and I were taken back to Hilary's room, where her parents brought out two documents and asked us to sign.

They were applications for accident settlement, and they needed us, her teachers, to sign so they could collect the payout on Hilary's accident insurance.

One was a year-long student accident policy, still within the coverage period.

The other was an accident policy the family had bought for Hilary on their own, also still in effect.

"Ms. Rodriguez, Ms. Henson, don't worry, it's just the normal procedure. If you sign, it makes everything simpler, and it won't affect either of you. It only shows you were aware of it."

Ina couldn't grab the pen fast enough. She was nearly at her breaking point.

"So if we sign, can we leave?"

"Of course you can leave. It's just that it's dark now, driving isn't safe, and the medium is still setting up his rite, so we shouldn't interrupt. Wait a few more hours until dawn, then we send off the body and you can go."

"Fine, fine, we'll sign, we'll sign and leave the moment the sun's up. It's just that some things at home piled up all at once and held us here."

Ina signed both documents with shaking hands, then handed the pen to me, pressing me to sign quickly too.

I gripped the pen and was about to sign when I heard the strange noise from the ceiling again.

It was an odd sound, chaotic, and only when I listened closely did it register: someone kicking a shuttlecock.

Hilary's mother lifted her head grieving at the ceiling and choked out a line.

"It's late. Vivi's come back. She always loved kicking her shuttlecock upstairs."

Ina went white with fear, but the more I listened, the more wrong it felt.

A person is dead, and can still make that much of a racket?

I didn't quite believe it.

"I'll go up and take a look. Say a few words to Vivi."

I tested them, deliberately moving to run upstairs, and Hilary's mother caught me in one grab.

"No, you can't go up! The medium said Vivi would come back tonight, we can't frighten her, let her stay a while longer before we send her off."

I didn't listen. I was set on running up there.

When I reached the foot of the stairs, Hilary's father and several of her uncles blocked the stairway and surrounded me!

I hadn't even meant to look up the stairs when a white figure flashed past...

And then the shuttlecock dropped down through the gap in the stairs!

"Someone's there? There's someone upstairs?!"