challenge. I didn’t feel like telling the truth to a stranger.” Lenora looked at James. “So, what are you gonna tell your friends?”
He sighed. “I’m not sure. It’s like nothing happened but everything happened,” he mused. “I did…sense…something. And you thought you saw something.”
“And felt something too.” Lenora gaped at him. “Look me in the eyes and tell me you felt nothing when you saw that painting.”
James cast his eyes upward and shrugged.
“Yeah, I thought so. And what about the statues? Is that nothing? And that…party room?” She sighed. “I barely came out alive.”
The corners of his mouth twitched. “Could you repeat that for the guys?”
“Only if you go along with it,” she said, her lips curling into a faint smile.
James didn’t say anything for a while.
“What if we told my friends,” he said, leaning toward her, “that the statues…moved.”
“You mean like, chased us? That they’re possessed?” She shuddered, her eyes wide.
“No, not so obvious. I mean they just kept showing up, wherever we were. Like, if we’d gone upstairs and seen the piano man in that rocker.” He waggled his eyebrows. “To be honest, I…half expected that to happen.” He shook his head. “Crazy.”
Or was it, he wondered.
“That’s worse! I think I would have crapped myself.” She stomped her feet and rubbed her arms.
The wind blew again, and they heard the creak of the front door. James pulled it shut harder this time but didn’t try to figure out how to lock it. He sat back down, close enough so that their shoulders touched.