When we returned to the living room, the rain was coming down harder than ever, and the thunderclaps were almost constant, making everyone on edge.
By now, Mike had kept us confined in the villa for most of the day.
While Chaz and the others seemed to handle it okay, Sam was becoming restless. He got up, pacing back and forth, venting his frustration.
“What’s going on here? Are we prisoners now? If Zoe knew how you were treating her friends, she’d come back from the dead just to haunt you!”
As if on cue, all the lights in the house suddenly went out, plunging the room into darkness.
Almost immediately, another crack of thunder shook the windows.
The timing was so sudden that Sam screamed and threw himself into Chaz’s arms.
“Don’t scream, Sam,” I tried to calm him down.
“Tara...” Casey clung to me, her voice trembling. “Did you hear that? That sound…”
“What sound?” I asked, straining to listen.
In the pauses between the thunder, I could just make out a faint, rhythmic thudding.
It sounded like footsteps – someone was slowly descending wooden stairs, one step at a time.
But we were all in the living room. The only person upstairs was… Zoe.
Could it be Zoe?
She was dead, though!