Read Online Satan's Mirror by Roxanne Smolen - Free Book Online Page A

stairs, her gaze never leaving the landing. Something moved in the darkness, making soft thumps.
    They reached the top. Light flooded the hall.
    “What is that?” Emily gasped, pointing at a small animal scurrying away.
    He pointed the video camera, and light caught the creature. “It’s a rabbit.”
    “A what?” She glanced at him in disbelief—but he was right. A small, brown, lop-eared rabbit hopped along the baseboard. She motioned again. “There’s another.”
    “What are rabbits doing on the second floor of an abandoned house?”
    Emily couldn’t imagine an answer. She looked toward a candlelit doorway. With halting steps, she moved toward the room and looked inside.
    A pentagram covered the floor. Stubby candles marked each point. Joey was not around. Where had he gone?
    Careful not to scatter the pentagram, Emily walked across the room. She was aware of Dan’s camera upon her. On hands and knees, she touched one of the lines drawn on the floor. The powder was dense and gritty. The center of the drawing held a mutilated rabbit.
    On the wall across from her, she saw a shimmering patch. It reminded her of the play of light upon water.
    She stood, mesmerized. “Are you getting this?”
    “Whatever this is.” He stepped behind her.
    “Is it the Mirror?” She moved closer to the wall. “I don’t see Satan.”
    As if on cue, the patch of light wavered, and an image coalesced. It was like a caricature of a devil—triangular face, red skin, two little horns atop its bald head.
    Emily laughed. She glanced about the ceiling, looking for a projector or, more likely, a team of projectors.
    “Hologram?” Dan asked.
    “Looks like it.” Emily waved her hand over the wall, hoping to disrupt the light.
    “You are fragile,” the image said, “yet you come to me willingly.” Its lips didn’t match the words.
    “Not a very professional job,” she said.
    From her pack, she pulled out her ELF meter, a palm-sized instrument that detected and measured electromagnetic fields. It was part of what she referred to as her ghost-busting equipment, which she utilized to keep her detractors from claiming she wasn’t thorough.
    She tapped the meter face. “Is this thing broken? The readings keep fluctuating.”
    “That explains the interference I’m getting.” He set the camcorder in the corner of the room, propping it with his backpack so it wouldn’t record only their feet, and took out his Olympus digital. “Pose for me.”
    With a solemn expression, Emily stood to the side and held her meter toward the shimmering image.
    “Do you fear me?” asked the devil.
    “We need to find the projector,” she said.
    “That doesn’t make sense,” Dan said, frowning. “If these electrical spikes are affecting my equipment, they must be affecting theirs, too.”
    “Could their stuff be shielded somehow?”
    “Maybe. I think we should find out what’s causing the field.”
    Louder, the devil said, “Do you fear me?”
    “No!” Emily snapped, surprising herself by answering a projection on the wall. “I’ve seen better hoaxes than this, and I will expose you and the man responsible for this fraud.”
    The devil smiled, showing pointed teeth.
    Emily turned her back. “Perhaps if we knock down a few walls—”
    “This house is protected,” Dan said. “The Preservation Society would never allow it.”
    Emily snapped her fingers. She rushed to the door and gazed into the hallway. “What if the equipment is out here? No, stay with me for a moment. They project the hologram through a fake wall—”
    Dan yelped.
    She looked around and gasped.
    A second Mirror had formed. It hung in mid-air, shimmering like a vertical pool of water directly behind Dan. A creature, a red, horned demon thing leaned out of the Mirror as easily as from an open window. Its oversized claws wrapped about Dan’s chest. His feet left the ground.
    It was pulling him into the Mirror.
    “Help me!” he cried. His eyes bulged. “Oh God. Oh