“What are we doing in here, Aubrey?” My nerve endings kept firing. My brain screamed to bolt. Jeremy needed me and I truly feared this house might swallow me up and never spit me out again. Like its owner, it vibrated with dark energy, all pissed and ready to strike.
“The bones are good. That’s what they say on those house hunting shows, right?” Aubrey laughed at her own joke. She was the only one.
“While we’re here, why don’t you tell us what happened to your family. Where were you for all those years after boarding school? Where are they?” I knew she wouldn’t answer. She’d likely provided as much information as she intended when she’d showed up unannounced at Xavier’s house, but I needed something to keep my mind moving as I searched for Jeremy. A mix of dread and terror threatened to freeze me in place. “Start anywhere.”
She barked out a laugh. “Why don’t you three go first? What did you see that day?”
The lights flickered, then pulsed to full power. The entire downstairs, or at least the parts I could see, lit up in a bath of harsh yellow.
I blinked against the unexpected flash.
Stella swore under her breath. “What the hell?”
“The electricity is on?” Marni asked at the same time.
“Ladies, please.” Aubrey’s singsongy voice didn’t match the crumbling surroundings or the tension wrapping around us as she moved her hand away from the light switch. “So many questions. One at a time.”
I shifted my feet. Something compelled me to look down. This time I saw it. Faded but still there. The stain had been there that day and never removed despite the industrial cleaning done by the company Xavier hired to stamp out the bad memories.
Blood on the floor. Dishes on the table. The knife balanced on the bottom step. I picked it up before I saw Marni. She walked into the entry hall with blood on her hands... then ran. Panic fueled every move after that.
Something terrible happened here.
Those were the words I used when I called Xavier to come to the house fifteen years ago. The words I said to him instead of the police. I called the wrong person first. The person who wanted me to mess up.
I couldn’t let my fingerprints be found, so I wiped the knife. Destroyed potential evidence. Forever.
I ruined the scene. My actions potentially let a murderer go free. That was my haunting secret.
With Jeremy missing and so much at stake, I refused to keep playing these ridiculous games. “Aubrey, that’s enough.” Withevery word she pushed me closer to my breaking point. “Where’s Jeremy?”
Aubrey’s smirk vanished. “We’ve talked about this. I have no idea.”
“Then who’s upstairs?” Stella asked.
Aubrey frowned. “Uh, no one?”
“Wrong.” That breaking point? I stormed right past it.
Ignoring all of them, I bolted. Pivoted around Aubrey and headed straight for the stairs and the hiding place, or whatever purpose the room upstairs served at this moment.
“Hanna?” Concern filled Marni’s voice, but she didn’t move from the relative safety of the entry.
“I wouldn’t—”
The wood groaned under me before Aubrey could finish the sentence. I hadn’t reached the first landing. I’d jogged up six steps. Each one felt squishy under my sneakers, likely the result of more water damage. The whole staircase wobbled as if it could crash to the floor at any moment. I froze, not sure whether to go up or down.
“I’m not an architect or an engineer, but I’d stop moving around.” Aubrey hit the light switch next to her a second time and the floor above me burst to life.
“Have you been upstairs?” Stella asked.
“Yesterday. I reconnected the water and electricity, too, or Hanna would be fumbling around in the dark physically as well as metaphorically.” Aubrey smiled. “You’re welcome.”
“Is the floor safe?” Marni asked.
“Does it look safe?” Aubrey laughed. “How about you, Hanna? Do you feel secure, balancing up there?”
“This isn’t funny.” It was terrifying and also my own fault. I should have known the house would be an obstacle course of potential disasters.
