Sam stood at the top of the steps staring down at us. His pupils were completely dilated, black coins in a too-pale face. He wasn’t blinking. I’d never seen a child so utterly still.
“Hey, Sam,” Max said. “These are a few more friends of mine from the city.”
“She should go. Go! They both should.” His voice was high and thin, a little boy’s voice, but it was inflected with an ugliness that brought us all up short.
Max gave us a nervous smile. “That’s not very polite, Sam.”
“You shouldn’t have brought them here. You shouldn’t have brought anyone here. It’s a bad place!”
“Sam, honey?” an even fainter voice sounded, high above. Grandma Creepy and her sixth sense of Sam. The little boy turned and trudged away from the stairs, and Claire looked at me with big eyes. “Oh my God,” she breathed. “Is hepossessed?”
I didn’t have the heart to tell her all of it. Not yet.
“Let me show you around,” Max offered. The tour lasted a little longer than mine had, mainly because Claire was obsessed with the bric-a-brac in every room. At one point, Mrs. Graham drifted in and, noticing Claire’s enthusiasm for the crap the family had collected over the past century, took over the tour. Max moved back to me, and I was shocked to feel his fingers entwine in mine as he tugged me back a few steps from his mom, Steve, and Claire.
“You okay?” he asked.
“I guess.” I was still bleeding, but…less. “I’m not sure what to do next, though. I feel like it’s going to happen tonight, but why? Why not in the middle of the day, like we did things at the cottage?”
He made a face. “Do you think everyone needs to be here? Right now, we’ve got Sam and Mom, but Emily and Dad aren’t in the house. Grandma is, but she always is, so that’s not saying much.”
“How do you know they’re not in the house?”
“Well, we would have been introduced to Emily by now. She wouldn’t be able to resist saying hello to the newest pretty girl to come to the house.”
Something in his words hit me the wrong way, and I frowned. “What do you mean?”
He looked down at me, startled at the edge in my voice. “Nothing, just that Emily’s never been much one for competition. You managed to escape it?—”
“No. Before that. ‘The newest pretty girl to come to the house.’” The phrase resonated with me, cold and sharp. “Mr. Bell said Carol Ann got possessed right after Emily arrived—she didn’t want a new pretty girl stealing attention.” I bit my lip, looking ahead to Claire. “Now we’ve got another one. What if that’s a trigger?”
Max frowned. “You don’t think Claire’s in any danger, do you? I mean, no one’s been hurt-hurt here.”
“Except the horses.”
He winced. “The horses. That was bad.”
“And Joe.”
“Well, Joe was pretty fucking unhinged to begin with. Claire seems pretty solid.”
“Yeah.” We’d moved to the back porch, and Claire’s bright voice carried back to us.
“Oh! Youdohave horses!”
Max and I exchanged a look, then hurried out. Mr. Graham stood at the paddock railing, along with Mr. Bell. Sure enough, there was a horse in the paddock. Only one, a sway-back mare that looked a hundred years old.
Mrs. Graham smiled. “Frank just hated there not being horses here. John brought one of the neighbor’s horses by. She’s on her last legs, poor thing, and the other horses are bothering her.”
“Won’t she be lonely?” This question was from Claire, and Mrs. Graham turned an approving smile on her.
“They brought some pals along for her as well. A couple of sheepdogs who’re friendly with John.”
“The horse is going to stay here? Overnight?” Max’s concern was evident. Claire crooked him a worried glance, but his mother stiffened.
“She’s going to stay here. She’ll be fine. John said he’s going to bunk down here for a few nights to make sure she settles in okay and see how things go.”
“Oh—of course he is.” Max squeezed my hand, but there was nothing more I could do than squeeze it back. Part of me was glad that Mr. Bell was on the premises. Part of me rejected that as being anywhere close to a good idea. There were too many people in the house, suddenly. It felt as stuffed as Joe’s lake cottage, with nowhere for anyone to go.
