Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3 "What?!" Daniel and Lydia shouted at the same time. Their voices always sounded most alike when they were startled. Wallis walked over to the table. She squatted next to Abbi to see the screen. "Inside where?" Wallis asked. Abbi zoomed in on the map. "I can't tell for sure, but see this blue dot? That's where the sound came from." The dot was inside a square on the map. She pointed at the shape. "And this is the castle. So the sound definitely came from somewhere in or near the house!"

Wallis stood and took a sip of her fresh tea. "Emory Scott strikes again," she said in a dramatic voice. "Who?" Daniel asked. Abbi rolled her eyes and returned her attention to the app. "He's the one who built this place. Mom thinks his ghost still lives here." Lydia squeaked, "That sound was a ghost?" Wallis laughed and gave Lydia a gentle pat on the shoulder. "More likely there was just something wrong with Abbi's recording app." Abbi frowned. "There's nothing wrong with my app!"

Wallis shrugged. "Then it was a plane. Or maybe…" She headed toward the living room, where Barkley was still hiding from the scary noise. "Maybe Emory just wanted to say hi." She grinned and went back to her office. The three kids were left in the kitchen with Wallis's words and the memory of the haunting noise echoing around them.

After finishing their fruit, they settled in Abbi's room. It was originally a guest room, so it was smaller than the other bedrooms. But it was the only one on the first floor! And since the elevator broke so often, it was easier for her to sleep down here. She liked her room. It was cozy. The blue walls were covered with posters and framed drawings of animals. Leafy plants dotted the shelves around the room. And strings of twinkling fairy lights hung above her bed!

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But sometimes she wished she could be on one of the upper floors like her mom. She wanted to have a nice view of the forest on one side or the ocean on the other. Down here, all she could see out her window was the driveway. "Do you really think that sound we heard was just a plane?" Lydia asked. Daniel sat down next to his sister on Abbi's bed. "You're still thinking about that?" he asked. "You aren't?" Lydia shuddered. "I'll probably have nightmares about that sound!" Abbi looked at her phone. She'd been thinking about the mysterious sound, too. "I guess it could have been a plane," she said uncertainly. "But an airplane would have created nonstop sound over a much longer period of time." Lydia hopped off the bed. "Then it is a ghost!" Barkley startled at the outburst. He was curled up on his doggie bed next to Abbi's desk. Daniel laughed. "The only options are plane or ghost?"