I didn’t know what I wanted. I tore my gaze away from the water and looked into Vail’s eyes.
“It wasn’t all bad,” Vail said, his voice soft.
I nodded. The cake had been really good in the end. We’d baked it perfectly. Then we’d all devoured it.
“Can we do this?” I asked Vail.
He raised his gaze to the ceiling as he gave my question a moment of serious thought. He let out a slow breath, rolled his shoulders, and tensed his jaw.
“Yeah,” he said, looking at me again. “We can.”
Then he started down the stairs.
43
Vail
The water rose over my boots, my ankles, my calves as I descended. It was icy cold, and the surface was uncannily still, except where my body made it ripple. When I glanced down, I saw the reflection of something oily on the surface. The air was freezing, and I could smell something—probably more than one thing—that was rotten and dead.
I lifted the bat above the water’s surface as my knees, then my thighs sank into the water. I didn’t know where the stairs’ bottom was, so I slowed in caution. I didn’t want to slip.
Behind me, I heard Dodie say, “Screw it,” then sloshing as she followed me. Violet told Lisette to stay at the top of the stairs and hold the flashlight. Lisette didn’t argue.
I admit I winced when the icy water seeped to my waist, but I gritted my teeth and tried to adjust. My feet edged forward and found only floor. “This is the bottom,” I called out.
Lisette aimed the flashlight ahead of me, and I waded into the flooded basement. I couldn’t see anything floating on the water’s surface. I also couldn’t see the walls, because it was so big down herethat the beam didn’t reach them. It felt like I was in an endless underground cavern.
Behind Dodie, there was more splashing as Violet followed us down.
“Anne Whitten!” I let my voice boom as I rested the bat behind my neck, my hand ready on the handle. “I know you’re here. Come out, you coward.”
At the edge of the darkness, something splashed.
I stopped, and Dodie came close behind me. I could hear her ragged breathing. She bumped into my back, and I realized she had turned so that we were back-to-back. The best position if you don’t want to be surprised.
“Do you see her?” Dodie asked.
“No.”
We waited. I looked behind my shoulder and saw that Violet had made it to the bottom of the stairs, shovel in hand. The water was higher on her because she was shorter than me. She pushed forward, the water parting around her.
“You all right?” I asked her.
She looked at me, and then her eyes went wide in panic. It took me a split second to realize she wasn’t looking at me but at something past me.
Under the water, something slithered over my feet.
I shouted, but Dodie was louder. She screamed, and then she staggered, as if something had crashed into her legs. The golf club fell from her hands. She jerked as if something pulled at her. I didn’t have time to spin and grab her before she fell and disappeared under the water.
The thing under the water slithered over my feet again, and I kicked it. I dropped the bat and plunged down where Dodie had sunk, groping under the water. There was nothing—just icy emptiness where my sister had been. My numbing hands scrabbled overempty floor. I felt Violet submerge next to me, her hands searching, too.
My breath ran out. I bobbed up and gasped, ignoring Lisette’s terrified cries, and plunged again.
This time, I felt a calf. A knee. One of Dodie’s arms flung toward us under the water, and together Violet and I wrenched upward, pulling Dodie into the air with us.
“Fuck,” I shouted as I spit out foul, dark water. We had all dropped our weapons. “Lisette, be quiet,” I shouted to the wailing girl at the top of the stairs. “We’re okay. We need the light.”
Lisette got under control enough to aim the flashlight again. “Mom?” she called out.
