Page 45 of The Sisters of Crimson House

“Then you’ll be kidnapped inside your own body for as long as they want to keep you there. So.” Miranda raised her eyebrows and smiled. It was terrifying. “Do you want to find Sadie?”

Charley looked to Zavier, who gave her a thumbs-up. It didn’t help.

“We’ll be right here,” said Astrid, who gave her a reassuring smile.

“Easy for you to say,” said Charley. She flexed her hand, looking at the little half-moon her nails imprinted behind. She hadn’t realized she’d been digging them into her palm. “I guess I’m as ready as I’ll ever be?”

Miranda took a deep breath and exhaled, then slowly began rubbing her hands together. They made a soft brushing sound that instantly made Charley’s blood pressure lower. “Let me see your hand.” Miranda held out her hand to Charley, who let her sister gently take hers, palm up. Miranda’s hand was warm, comforting as she traced the two lines of the Seeker’s Star on Charley’s palm. “Close your eyes.”

Charley did as told. The room settled, Charley aware of the sound of her heart beating in her chest.

“Think of something that connects you to Sadie. Picture that in your mind.”

A flash of blue-and-white wings. The contour of a jay carved into the floor.

“Hold that in your mind,” said Miranda. “Let that guide you down the path.”

They settled into silence, and her mind’s eye was dark. Charley could never meditate. The onslaught of self-doubt was immediate. This was a terrible idea. They were sitting mere feet from where a monster had killed Sadie in the bathroom, and now Charley was opening the same door. She was desperate for Sadie to tell her what to do, for Miranda to guide her there, for anyone else to be opening up their body and their mind to a dangerous void. Certainly anyone else was more qualified.

The shrill cry of a blue jay sliced through the chatter, so immediate that she opened her eyes in surprise, fully expecting to see a winged creature perched in front of her.

What she did not expect to see was that Miranda was no longer seated in front of her. No one was seated in front of her, as Astrid and Zavier were gone as well. She was alone in Sadie’s bedroom, except for the silhouette of a woman standing in the doorway.

“Sadie?” Charley said, her voice a hoarse whisper in the silence.

The woman slowly turned and vanished into the stairwell. Through the candlelight, she couldn’t get a clear image of the person standing there. But she was not afraid, she realized as she stood to follow her.

“Sadie?” Charley whispered, peering into the stairwell. And her heart seized like it was broken and made whole in an instant.

Not Sadie.

From the bottom of the stairwell, Nicole Bryde smiled up at her, her long red lace dress quietly swishing as she turned and disappeared down the hallway.

“Mom?”

After a few frozen seconds, Charley felt her legs unlock. She stood, hurrying to the door just in time to see her mother disappear onto the second-floor landing. Charley crept down the stairs behind her, her heart in her throat with fear, and was that hope she felt, mixing with the terror? She was desperate not to lose sight of her again. She reached the landing, and Nicole was making her way down the grand staircase, the red lace of her dress a train that swept down the steps behind her. With a jolt, Charley realized that her mother was wearing her favorite Halloween costume from the Spectacular, her take on Lady Ligeia from the Poe short story. Reaching the ground floor, Nicole didn’t slow, making her way with purpose into Sadie’s study. She was barefoot, a trail of wet footprints winding serpentine behind her. This was real. Her mother was here.

Charley tentatively stood at the door to the study. Her mother was waiting for her at the far wall, looking out the window. Charley wasn’t frightened of her, but she knew in her bones that one wrong move could send the whole thing up in smoke. Her mother’s dark hair fell about her shoulders, her red lace dress a signal flare in the moonlight.

“Mom?” she whispered again. She crossed the threshold of the study, stopping in surprise as something wet hit her fingers. She looked at her hands, then up at the ceiling, puzzled by the source of the water. She felt a few more drops tap her underneath her chin, prompting her to look down. She struggled to understand what she was seeing. It was raining, but it was not coming from above. It was raining from the floor, upside down, pouring its way up from the bottom of the study. A column of water shot up on either side of her, and before she could even think, she sprinted her way through the sudden torrent until she was in her mother’s arms, safe from the incomprehensible rainstorm behind her. She marveled at the miracle she felt in her hands, her mother’s solid, corporeal form, the rough feel of the lace against her fingers.

“Mom?”

Charley carefully stepped back so that she could see her mother’s face, the silver that glinted through her soft brown waves. She slipped her hand into her mother’s. It was warm, always a little calloused from the scarred palm with the Seeker’s Star. It felt vibrant. It felt alive. Her mother smiled at her then, so crazy beautiful. Charley began to cry. She felt insane—water flying up from the floor while she held her dead mother’s hand.

“Can you see her, baby?”

“Can I see who?” Charley said through tears.

“Can you see her?” her mother repeated, pointing out the window with her other hand. “It’s all for you.”

Charley didn’t want to look. She just wanted to stay in this moment with her mother forever, holding her hand. But she had always done what she had been told. Charley looked to where her mother was pointing. It may have been raining inside, but it was blindingly bright outside, where Charley could just make out the large tree with toilet paper streamers swaying in the breeze. The light grew unbearably bright, and she shielded her eyes, lowering them to find that she was now standing in the street in front of the tree. Disoriented, she looked around for her mother, who had vanished.

“Mom?” she called.

“Here, darlin’,” came the voice.

Standing at the base of the tree was Sadie, a vision in a copper-colored dress, Athena the warrior. She raised her hand in greeting before resolutely walking toward the tree, disappearing into the streamers that now engulfed it.