After the beep, Grant left his name and Sophie’s cell.
“You warm yet?” he asked her.
“Getting there. What now?”
“We sleep. Then first thing tomorrow, we’ll call every resident on that list. We’ll find out what happened to Ms. Williams, have Stu dig up her death certificate, whatever it takes.”
“And Rachel.”
“What?”
“We call Don’s wife. No matter what.”
“Yes. Absolutely.”
Her skin was beautiful in the firelight, and in that moment, if Sophie had asked him to let her go, he probably would have done it.
# # #
Grant crawled onto the sofa and under a blanket.
He took out Sophie’s phone—the battery charge had dropped to thirty percent—and powered it off.
Then he rolled onto his side, faced the fire.
The movement of the flames was mesmerizing.
He shut his eyes for a minute, and the next time he opened them, the fire was low and Paige was lying on the mattress below him, staring up at the ceiling.
“What if she’s right, Grant?” she said.
“Who?”
“Sophie.”
“About?”
“About me.”
He wasn’t following. He’d been sleeping too hard.
“What are you talking about, Paige?”
“About all of this having to do with me. What if it’s not the house that’s haunted?”
“I don’t believe that.”
“Because you don’t want to?”
“Look, I don’t know what this thing is, but I do know you, Paige.”
“Do you really?”
Chapter 32
It is the strangest sensation, the closest thing to a lucid dream she’s ever experienced.
She is aware of herself asleep on the recliner.
She feels the leather cushions beneath her but also the sensation of existing outside of herself. Like being in the audience of a play while she’s also onstage.
There is another, more ominous sensation.
Someone standing over her.
She can feel their presence.
Hovering.
Watching.
She wants to turn her head but won’t, thinking that whatever is standing next to the chair is waiting for her to look, and that as soon as she does, it will do the thing it wants to do so badly.
This must be limbo, she thinks.
This is what forever is going to be like for me.
But that idea is somehow worse, and she’s already turning her head.
Sophie looks up and opens her eyes.
The fire is so low that the room stands in virtual darkness.
Rain drums against the windows.
It stands beside the chair, staring down into her face.
Not Paige. Not Grant.
Just a pure black shadow shorter than either of them, with long, skinny arms that nearly touch the floor.
She tries to speak, but her mouth won’t open.
Tries to turn away, but she has lost the mobility of her lucid dream, now locked in a stare with the shadow.
That she cannot see a single detail of its face is somehow worse.
Her mind runs in terrible directions.
The next time she blinks, the shadow has changed.
Replaced by a profile she knows.
The dying fire even lends this face a glimmer of color.
Paige Moreton says, “Why won’t you talk to me?”
Her eyes are shining, and she is smiling.
Chapter 33
Grant woke from a troubled sleep to the sound of someone whispering his name.
It was still night.
The fire had burned itself down to a bed of embers, and despite the blankets that covered him, he was shivering violently.
“Grant.”
It was Sophie.
He pulled the covers tighter around his neck.
“What’s up?” he whispered.
“Come here.”
“Something wrong?”
“Just come here.”
Grant kicked back the covers and swung his legs off the sofa.
The hardwood floor was ice under his feet.
He moved quietly over to Sophie’s chair which he’d positioned at the foot of Paige’s mattress.
Knelt down beside her.
“I had a dream,” she said.
“A nightmare?”
“Yeah.”
“What happened?”
“I was sleeping in this chair, and there was this presence beside me. I could feel it so clearly. It’s like I was half-awake. I tried not to look, because I knew that’s what it wanted me to do, but I finally gave in. It was just a shadow and I couldn’t see its face. Then suddenly Paige was standing there instead.”
“Paige was in your dream?”
“And she was smiling. Something about it was off, though.”
Grant glanced back at his sister sleeping peacefully in the ember light.
Sophie said, “She asked why I wasn’t talking to her. Then I woke up. What do you think?”
“Honestly? Sounds about right considering the day we’ve had. My dreams sucked too.”
“It was more than a nightmare, Grant. I know what a dream feels like.”
“What was it then?”
“Communication.”
“Oh. You think our friend upstairs wants a word?”
“You’re mocking me.”
“I promise you I’m not, but would we be having this conversation if it had told you to come up and crawl under the bed?”
“Of course not.”
“That’s what it wants.”
“How do you know?”
“Because that’s what I see in my dreams. It wants me in that room. Under the bed.”
“So it’s talking to you too.”
“I don’t know. Maybe. But I’m not going in there to find out.”
“We don’t have to. What if we just stay in the hall? Try to talk to it through the door.”
“You really think that’s a good idea?”
“What’s the alternative? Do nothing while our little world in here continues to fall apart?”
“We’re not doing nothing, Sophie. Tomorrow, we’re gonna track down Janice Williams and find out what happened to her. Maybe that blows everything open for us.”
“And maybe it doesn’t. The clock is ticking. It’s a matter of time before you and I are officially MIA. And what about Don? You know Rachel has already reported him missing.”
“Look, I’m aware of the stakes, okay? But I’m not ready to start chasing dreams. I say we stick to whatever shreds of reality we still have left. That’s where we’ll find our answers.”
“You don’t know the first thing about what’s going on here so don’t pretend you can tell the difference between what’s real and what’s not.”
“Fine,” he said. “What if it is trying to talk to us, and all it really wants to say is ‘I’m gonna torture and kill you assholes.’ Then what?”
“Then we confirm what we already know. And I’d rather know—good or bad—than remain in this state of total darkness we’re in right now.”
She had a point.
It wasn’t the first time.
Their options were exhausted, and the idea of waking up in this house, of spending another day in this prison, was more than he could face. A time would come when it would be too much. When it would break him. He could feel that moment fast-approaching.
“All right,” he said. “I’ll wake Paige.”
“No.” Sophie grabbed his arm.
“Why not?”
“Just let her sleep.”
“This is a big decision. She deserves to be involved.”
“Let’s just you and I go up.”
“Is it because of your dream? Because you think she’s playing some part in this?”
“I don’t know. Just a gut feeling that it should only be you and me.”
# # #
Grant unlocked the bracelet around Sophie’s ankle and gave her a hand up out of the chair.
“No cuffs?” she said.
“No cuffs.”
She lit a pair of candles while he went to the sofa and pulled the Glock out from between the cushions.
He waited until they’d reached the foyer before digging the magazine out of his pocket, driving it home, and jacking a round into the chamber.
Sophie went up first, the steps creaking under her bare feet.