The dead are here.
Andrew appears in the doorway. His face is flushed with anger, a dull, brick red. His eyes are slitted, lips drawn away from his teeth.He looks murderous as he picks up the drill and unscrews that long metal tip. Downstairs, the banging has stopped, but now there is something else, something that drives a nail of ice right into my chest. The click of the front door opening and a familiar voice calling out.
“Hello! Anyone here? I’m looking for my sister!”
Andrew’s head snaps up. As soon as I open my mouth to respond, he presses a finger to his lips, showing me that needlelike bone drill in his hand.
“Not a word, Hazel,” he growls, shaking his head. “Or I’ll put it through her fucking eye.”
He closes the door and I hear the lock turning before I can even take a breath. Hearing Cathy’s voice had made my heart soar, but almost immediately I am overwhelmed with desperation and fear. It’s the strangest feeling, that high-low sensation. Like jumping into a lake only to discover blooms of jellyfish just beneath the surface.
I start tugging at the rubber hose tying my ankles to the chair, straining my ears to listen. I can hear voices in the hallway, a babble of sound but no words. It doesn’t sound confrontational, but it’s hard to tell. With Cathy, there’s a very fine line between friendly and combative, and oh God, I miss her so much. I have to get down there.
I have to get down there.
“Stop it,” I mutter.
My other sister has always been able to guess at my thoughts, more so when I was a little girl and my intentions were always impossible to conceal. It’s irritating, but not new. Then I realizewhat she is saying and I snap my head up, letting the rubber tube fall away from my hand.
“No.” This time I say it out loud, firmly. “No, no,youdon’t go down there. You stay here, you leave her alone!”
For a moment, there is only that ominous sensation of being watched. It has a heaviness, like the pressure in deep water. I twist my head around, scanning the room. Her voice is very clear, but of course, she has changed so much these last few days. I’m not sure I can contain her anymore. She is unchained, feral. More adept. I feel the tickle of hair on the back of my neck and groan with dismay as I look directly upward into a vast sprawl of knotted hair encompassing the entire ceiling. In the center of it is a golden, gelatinous eye. It blinks.
I have to get down there.
Cathy stands in the hallway, looking at the man coming down the stairs. He looks amused but not welcoming, and as his eyes slide to Suzie hovering behind her, he seems to nod as if satisfied.
“Cathy! Third time’s the charm, right? And you’ve brought your friend along.” He peers at his naked wrist in a pretense of checking the time. “But it’s late to be out, girls. Especially on a snowy night. So, you want to tell me why you’re here?”
Cathy wishes she’d smoked a cigarette before coming inside. Her heart feels like it is drilling out of her chest.
“My sister was last seen getting into your truck the day she went missing. You knew I was looking for her, and yet you never told me about it. You never said a fucking thing.”
Andrew nods, taking a step downward. His gaze shifts pastCathy to where Suzie is standing. “Hey, I know you! You work in the pharmacy. You know, one thing about Idless is that you can’t move without bumping into someone you know. It’s fuckingdreadful.”
Suzie draws up beside Cathy, her chin lifted. If it wasn’t for the tremor in her voice, Cathy thinks, you’d almost believe she wasn’t afraid.
“That’s right. You brought her receipt into the shop. We’ve got it on camera. We’ve also got witnesses who saw her getting into your truck.”
“Witnesses?” His gaze switches between the two women. To Cathy, he looks to be on the verge of laughing. “Well, if that’s the case, how come you’re here now but the police aren’t?”
Cathy swallows. “They’re on their way.”
“Now?”
“Soon.”
“Okay. You want to come inside and wait for them?”
Panic is soaking into Cathy like acid. It’s corrosive, eating away at her resolve. She’s starting to feel out of her depth. Does he know they haven’t called the police? He seems to. She’d expected Andrew to be surprised to see them, frantic with denial. But he looks almost amused that they have trekked all the way out here, standing in this dilapidated ruin with their faces harrowed with cold. For the first time since they’d left the car parked up in the wood, Cathy understands the gravity of their situation. She should’ve listened to Suzie, she knows. Shouldn’t have come out here unarmed, shouldn’t have been so stubborn. It’s going to get them killed.
“I won’t, if you don’t mind. We’ll stay right here.”
“Then at least close the door behind you. You’re letting in all the cold.”
They hadn’t planned to just walk inside the house. It was onlyafter knocking and knocking that Cathy had tried the handle and it had swung right open in front of them. Now the thought of closing it again makes her feel like choking. It would cut off the only escape route they have. Andrew takes another step down, another step closer to the two women. Behind him, the landing light goes out.
“Is there someone else in the house with you?” Suzie asks.