Maybe it had just been my own reflection.
I started walking backward. My heart was pounding. Every part of my body was telling me to run. To get out of there.
“Where are you going, Jax?” my father asked, standing up.
“To the Quick Stop. To get more light bulbs,” I said. “It’s so dark in here.”
“It’s nice and cozy with the candles.” He reached out, wrapped his fingers around my wrist. They were cool, damp, tight as a vise. “Stay with us, Jax.” His eyes flashed me a desperate look.Don’t go. Don’t leave. Please. Not now.
“Okay.” I lowered myself back down into my seat. My father released my wrist but stayed standing. “To Lexie,” he said, raising his glass. “May we all one day catch up with her again.”
Pig had come into the kitchen and was crouched about a foot away from the closed-off door, staring at it, yellow eyes glinting in the candlelight. His ears were back, and he was growling.
Diane put some cheese and crackers on a plate and brought it over to the table. My father walked over to the sink and looked out the window, toward the pool. I could see the reflection of the candlelit room, of my father’s frown turning into a wide smile. “She’s out there,” he said. “I see her.”
I knew I should stand, should go and look, but I felt too afraid to move. It’s Ryan, my logical mind told me. Ryan or maybe Terri. They’re just fucking with us. Trying to scare us.
But then I pictured what I’d just seen: Lexie’s face in the widow, smiling in at us.
Why don’t you all come out and join me for a swim?
My father turned to us and said, “It’s her! She’s here! She said she’d come. She promised.” He turned, looked right at me. “She came back for you!”
She was my wish.
And I was hers.
I shook my head. It wasn’t possible.
He started walking, practically running, out of the kitchen.
“Ted, wait!” Diane jumped up, started following him out of the kitchen at a steady clip. Their footsteps echoed down the hall.
“No,” I yelped, getting up to follow them.
“Ted!” Diane called. “Be reasonable.”
I heard the dead bolt on the front door click as he opened it. “You’ll see,” my father said again. “It’s her. She’s here. She’s here!”
He flung open the door and stepped out. Diane and I followed him into the cool night. The air was still, the sky scattered with clouds that filtered the light from the stars and moon.
The gate gave a loud rusty screech as my father pushed it open, called her name. “Lexie!”
I followed.
The pool smelled dank, rotten.
“There’s no one here,” Diane said. “Let’s go back inside, Ted. Please.”
In the dim blue light, I could make out the flat surface of the water, the rough shapes of chairs on the patio like hunched-over figures lying in wait. I looked back into the house, saw the candles flickering through the kitchen windows, casting strange, dancing shadows.
“She’s in the water,” my father said, looking down longingly. “It’s Lexie. Don’t you see her? I told you!” He grinned so wide his teeth glowed.
Then he jumped into the water. I saw only ripples as the pool took him.
“Ted!” I screamed, running forward like it was still somehow possible to stop him.
Then he surfaced, gasping, “She’s down there. In the water!”
