“Like us. But older. She was fourteen.”
My brother’s gaze moved to the words on the wall. I wondered what had happened in this house while I was out, what Charlotte had found. What Vail was thinking about as he stared at those words.
“She killed him,” I said.
“I know,” he replied.
We were silent. Nothing happened. I had said the words aloud, and nothing happened.
“Did your ghost hunter find that book?” I asked.
Vail nodded. “In the attic. Then Anne Whitten came down the upstairs hall, screaming, and I got Charlotte out of the house.”
“Screaming?”
Vail’s expression went hard. “It wasn’t good. I could hear her walking, and when I left the house, I saw her in an upstairs window. Charlotte is never coming back.”
“Some ghost hunter,” I said sourly. I couldn’t help it.
“I told her the same thing.”
“And how did she take it?”
“Not very well.”
Vail’s gaze stayed on the wall as he spoke again. “I came back in to look for her. For Anne. I shouted. I banged open all the doors and the closets. I yelled at her to come out, but she didn’t. I think she leaves this house sometimes. Her presence isn’t here. But where does she go? She’s gone.”
“For now.” The words were automatic. Sister could leave, but never for long. Never for good.
Vail looked at me again. “How many times have you seen her?”
The words stuck in my throat, because I’d had a lifetime of notspeaking about Sister. Then they came, like painful shards. “Too many times to count.”
“Since you were a kid?”
“Yes.”
I dropped into the chair. My brother didn’t say anything stupid, likeWhy didn’t you tell me?He was Vail. He knew why.
“What does she do?” he asked instead.
“She used to stand next to my bed with her back to me. Nothing else, really. That was all she needed to do.”
He nodded.
“Did she hurt you?” I asked him.
He gave an annoyed scoff. “As if she could.”
I opened my mouth to argue, to tell him that Sister was more dangerous than anyone could know. Then the silence of the house hit me again. “Where’s Dodie?”
“Gone,” Vail replied.
“Gone where?”
“I don’t know. Violet, we have to talk about this. We have to focus.”
“Gone where?” I repeated. A pulse was starting to pound in my neck again, the panicked pulse that always had to do with Sister. “Vail. Where’s Dodie?”
