Graveyard Slot, Michelle Schusterman [top novels to read txt] 📗

“Yeah, I didn’t know that, either! When did we decide that?”

He met my gaze steadily. “Well, Jess and I talked about it, and she—”

“You suggested it to Jess?” My voice wasn’t so light anymore, but I didn’t care. “Even though . . .” I stopped myself before saying the rest. Even though I didn’t want to. I didn’t want Jamie and Hailey to know I’d rejected Oscar’s idea because of my stupid camera aversion.

“Look,” Oscar said quickly. “Jess mentioned the network liked the first video, and all I said was it’d be a cool regular feature, and then she said she’d talk to you about it.”

“Which she hasn’t.” I pointed at his screen. “And yet?”

“Right.” Oscar was starting to look more exasperated than guilty. “Okay, I guess I shouldn’t have mentioned it to Shelly without talking to you. But this will be good promotion for the show, and I’ll do all the on-camera stuff, and . . . and Jamie and Hailey can help with the research! Do you guys want to maybe be in the next one?” he asked them, turning away from the evil eye I was giving him.

Hailey gasped. “Are you kidding me?” She grabbed her brother’s arm and shook it frantically. “Do you think Dad would let us? We could convince him, right?”

“Um . . . possibly. If Kat wants.” Jamie looked at me for an answer, but I was still too busy glaring at Oscar. He was doing his best to look contrite, but I could tell he was equally annoyed with me. If the Coopers weren’t sitting right there, I knew exactly what he’d say.

Get over it already.

“Can we, Kat? Please, please, please?” Hailey begged, bouncing up and down on the bed. I tried to smile at her, but inside I was seething. I didn’t want to do a web series. But now Hailey was all excited about the idea of being a part of the show.

Jamie, however, obviously knew something was up. “It’s a lot of extra work for Kat,” he told his sister. “She already writes all those posts, and it takes a lot of time—”

“But we can help, like Oscar said!” Hailey cried. “I’ll find a place to hold a séance and do all the research, I swear! Oh come on, it’ll be so much fun!” She clasped her hands together, giving me her best puppy-dog eyes. Exhaling, I smiled at her.

“Yeah, let’s do it.”

“Yes!” Hailey pumped her fist in the air, then snatched Oscar’s iPad out of his hands. “Okay, I’m gonna start looking up places right now.” As she began swiping away, I got up and headed over to the laptop set up at the desk. I was too angry to look at Oscar. Seriously, what was the deal with his weird new attention-seeking thing? He was obsessed with reading about himself on the P2P forums. All it took was this Rumorz reporter telling him she’d love to see more videos of him, and he’d gone and committed me to doing a web series on my blog. He’d obviously planned this out before his interview—he’d even come up with a name for the series, the Graveyard Slot. He must have known I’d be furious, but he just did it anyway. For what? More fan comments gushing about how cute and funny he was? Ugh.

“Are you sure this is okay?” Jamie asked quietly, startling me. He’d moved over to sit on the edge of the bed right behind me. I turned in my chair.

“Yeah, it’s fine. Just caught me off guard.”

“Okay.” He smiled at me, and as always, I couldn’t help but smile back. Part of me wanted to tell him the real reason I was so upset. That a web series just meant more camera time, which meant more nausea and stress. And, undoubtedly, more horrible comments from kbold04.

But I wasn’t sure he’d understand, because nothing ever seemed to bother Jamie. His parents were often too busy to spend any real time with him and his sister, but Jamie just shrugged it off and got on with stuff. It did seem like the smart thing to do. Self-absorbed mom wants you to be in her wedding even though the idea clearly makes you miserable? Who cares! Being on television makes you want to jump out of your own skin and hide under your bed forever? Whatever! Get over it.

I wanted to get over it. All of it. But it just wasn’t that easy for me.

CHAPTER EIGHT . . . BUT WORDS CAN ALWAYS HURT ME

Post: Brunilda Cano, el fantasma de la Catedral de Nuestra

Señora de la Encarnación

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Over the next few days, we’re going to be filming in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Incarnation in Nueva Pompeya, a neighborhood in south Buenos Aires. The church, built in 1756, isn’t anywhere near the largest one in the city, but it does have something that makes it pretty unique: catacombs. Yesterday, we took a tour of the underground tombs. I don’t want to spoil too much of the episode, but:

1) the walls are made from thousands of human bones and skulls, and

2) yes, it was hands down the coolest and creepiest thing I’ve ever seen.

Of course, plenty of people believe the catacombs are haunted. Because—HUMAN BONES. But over the last year, someone has actually been trying to prove it. With SCIENCE. Hunting ghosts: It’s not just for nutjobs anymore! (If anyone is offended by that, please know I officially consider myself a nutjob.)

Professor Emilio Guzmán teaches psychology at the University of Boedo, and he’s especially interested in parapsychology. Last year, he started bringing a group of students down to the catacombs once a month to hold a séance and record the results. They’ve been focusing on one spirit in particular—Brunilda Cano, who was a nun at the cathedral in the nineteenth century. She’s an ancestor of Professor Guzmán. AND . . . wait for it . . . she was POSSESSED. He says he has records of an attempted exorcism, but it wasn’t successful, and