I slow down, then step inside. The cold settles on my skin again. My gaze drops to the floor. There are wet trails across the floor. I step to the right and move quickly up the staircase. Water drips somewhere in the right wing.
At the top, I stop. There is a shadow on the right. No, a woman.
She’s standing by the window, her hair pulled into a neat bun.
She is still watching me.
I freeze.
Lily’s fingers wrap around my hand and she pulls me fast into the bedroom, then shuts the door behind us.
“Lock it,” she says. “Hide the bones and go to sleep.”
“What is happening?” My voice barely makes it out. I turn the key. “Who is she?”
I hurry to bed. I shove Lilibeth’s bones inside the box that is on the right side, and I snap the lid closed.
“She’s the lady of the house,” Lily says, urging me toward the bed.
I drop onto it and pull the blanket over my head, squeezing my eyes shut. My heart won’t slow. My breath becomes thinner.
I can feel the mattress dips.
Someone is above me.
Pressure presses into the bed, like someone is leaning onto it. I keep my eyes shut. If I open them, I know I won’t be able to close them again. I try to count, to calm myself, but she doesn’t move.
I’m starting to believe I see the dead.
I once heard that if you face death, you might carry something back with you. A gift. But this feels like a curse. It feels like a door I can’t close, like something is pulling me closer to becoming one of them. Another ghost, trapped in this house under her rule. The only ghost here that makes my blood run cold, that holds me still with fear.
The pressure lifts.
The cold eases, but I stay where I am, eyes closed, too afraid to move.
Fifteen
THE CALLER
January 11th, 1993
Maybe the worst idea I ever had was pretending I was dead and hiding from the living. But maybe it had also been the best one I have had so far.
I had heard where they were taking her, so I walked to one of the houses and knocked until someone answered. The man who opened the door looked at me for a long second, taking in the state I was in, then nodded before I even finished asking. He drove me to the hospital without asking questions.
When we stopped, I pulled my wallet from my pocket and pressed it into his hand.
“If anyone asks,” I said, “you found it on the beach. Near the accident.”
He hesitated, looking down at the money, then back at me.
“You’ll be rewarded,” I added.
When he nodded, I closed the car door and stepped into the hospital. Dasha was already at the reception desk, leaning forward, her hands gripping the edge as she spoke quickly to the nurse.
“Dasha,” I said, my voice catching as I reached her. “How is she?”
She turned to me.
