Ghost House Revenge (28 page)

She thought it was possible that Gary’s theory about Alicen might be correct, but
she couldn’t be absolutely certain. Until there was definite evidence against the
child—and Melanie doubted there ever would be—she had to keep herself ready for the
worst. No matter how much Gary objected.

The studio door opened wide just then.

“Hi, mom!” Gina cried.

“Hi, honey,” Melanie said, taking her in her arms and giving the child a tight hug.
For a moment she didn’t want to let go.

“Mom, you’re squashing me,” Gina protested. She pulled away and smoothed her hair.

“I’m just glad to see you, Gina,” Melanie said. She noticed her son now. “Hello, Kyle.”

“Hi, mom,” Kyle said. He kept his distance, having witnessed the bear hug Gina got.
He was at an age where gushy affection made him shy.

“What’s Nancy doing in here?” Gina asked.

“Well, I just figured she shouldn’t be alone in this big house,” Melanie said.

“Since when?” Kyle wanted to know.

I’m too protective
, Melanie thought.
Even the kids see it
.

“Hey, I don’t have to explain myself to you,” she said in a warning tone. “Nancy’s
fine here. By the way, where’s Alicen?”

“She went to her room,” Gina said.

“She’s not ill, is she?”

Gina shrugged. “Who knows? She didn’t talk to me at all today. Sometimes she’s just
weird.”

“I told you to be nice to her,” Melanie reminded her.

“I am!” Gina cried. “But how can I be nice to her when she doesn’t talk to me?”

“I know you do your best, Gina,” Melanie said. “But everyone gets into moods. Just
let Alicen’s pass, and she’ll be nice as ever before you know it. Now, why don’t you
kids go out to play? But stay in the yard where I can see you. It’s going to rain
soon, and I don’t want you caught in a downpour.”

The children left the room. In the hall Kyle turned to his sister and said quietly,
“Mom sure is acting funny lately.”

“Yeah,” Gina said. “Just like last year, when daddy was hurt. I hope nothing is going
on.”

“Oh, it’s probably okay,” Kyle, the eternal optimist, said. “Say, I know something
we can do. We can look for Lad in the woods.”

“Good idea,” Gina said, forgetting her mother’s orders to stay within her sight.

They ran from the house, hand in hand. Melanie watched them cut across the lawn and
smiled. They were such nice, normal kids. If only Alicen could be that way, too. Then
Gary wouldn’t have any cause to be suspicious of her.

But Alicen wasn’t normal at all. Normal children didn’t become liars, thieves, or
murderers just out of obedience to a disembodied voice. And they didn’t sit in their
rooms, staring at walls, waiting for that voice to come again. That was exactly what
Alicen was doing at this moment. All during the bus ride home from school, she had
heard her “mother” calling her.

The room grew cold, but Alicen didn’t mind. She looked around and saw a cloud hovering
near the door. She smiled.

“I wish you’d let me see you just once, mommy,” she said.

“No,” the vision snapped. “Not yet. There is something I want you to do today. The
boy Kyle—he’s next.”

“Am I going to kill him, too?” Alicen asked, with innocence that would have alarmed
a sane person.

“Not today,” the vision said. “I want him to suffer first. I want them all to suffer,
the way I do.”

“What do you want me to do, then?”

“Get him up to the attic.”

“The attic?”

“Yes,” was the reply. “When you get there, you’ll know what to do.”

Melanie looked out her window and noticed her two oldest children were nowhere in
sight. Thunder sounded in the distance, and a breeze blew up through the trees. Very
firmly, she told herself not to panic. But she tore off her smock and threw it across
the room. Nancy looked up, startled.

“What’s the matter, mommy?”

“Nothing, dear,” Melanie said. “You go on coloring. I’ve got something to do.”

“I’m making a picture for daddy,” Nancy said.

“That’s nice,” Melanie said, leaving the room. She saw Alicen coming down the hallway
but ignored her. A few moments later she was yelling out the back door: “Kyle! Gina!”

She breathed a sigh of relief to hear their faint reply.

“Come where I can see you!”

Gina and Kyle appeared at the edge of the woods, then ran up to the house. They exchanged
confused glances to see the angry look on their mother’s face.

“Did we do something wrong?” Gina asked.

“Yes, you did,” Melanie said. “Didn’t I tell you to stay where I can keep an eye on
you?”

“I guess so,” Kyle answered, fidgeting. “We forgot. Can’t you see in the woods from
upstairs?”

“I’m not blessed with X-ray vision,” Melanie snapped. She brought her hand to her
still-bandaged forehead and rubbed away an oncoming headache. “I can’t see through
a half acre of fir trees.”

“We’re sorry,” Gina said. “But we were looking for the dog.”

“Yeah, don’t be mad,” Kyle begged.

I must sound like an idiot
, Melanie thought.
They’re big kids
.

“Sure,” she said, smiling weakly. “I’m sorry I yelled. But Lad will come home in his
own good time, don’t you think?”

“I hope so,” Gina said. She turned to her brother. “Kyle, I’ve got some homework to
do.”

“See you later,” Kyle said.

Alicen was standing in the kitchen. Gina was tempted to
ignore her, but since her mother was at her side, she said hello. Alicen mumbled a
greeting as they passed her. She stared at Kyle for a few minutes before speaking.

“Your mother treats you like a baby,” she teased.

“She does not!”

“Then how come she has to watch you?”

“What do you care?”

Alicen shrugged. “I don’t know. Except that nine is kind of old to be listening to
everything your mother says, isn’t it?”

“No,” Kyle said. “She’s my mother.”

Alicen turned on him. “I’ll bet you can’t even cross the street by yourself!”

“I can, too!” Kyle cried.

“Then prove it,” Alicen said, her eyes thinning. “Take a dare.”

Kyle hesitated. But how could a little boy resist a dare?

“What?”

“Come up to the attic with me,” Alicen said.

“Oh, no,” Kyle said. “I’m not allowed up there. Some bad things happened there last
year. I’m not gonna get myself grounded just when summer starts.”

“No one’ll know,” Alicen said, “Unless, of course, you’re afraid.”

It was an old trick, but Kyle hadn’t been on earth long enough to be wary of it.

“Okay,” he sighed. “But let’s get it over with. And you gotta promise to stop teasing
me if I do.”

“Sure,” Alicen said.

The two children walked upstairs together. Melanie’s studio was not in the same hallway
as the linen closet, which led up to the attic, so no one saw Alicen climb its steps.
Kyle was close behind her, his heart beating. If his mother caught him . . .

Alicen pushed aside the cover and hoisted herself up over the ledge. She had never
been in the attic before, and she looked around in awe at its contents. There were
chests and toys and old furniture, all covered with a thick layer of dust. Mesmerized,
she moved into the room to inspect a full-length mirror. A vision in its glass, of
a blond-haired, faceless woman, reminded her of her task.

“Okay, I’m up,” Kyle said. “I’m going down again.”

“Wait a minute,” Alicen replied. “Don’t you want to see the neat stuff that’s up here?”

“It’s just a bunch of furniture,” Kyle said, stepping down to
the top step. He didn’t want to leave Alicen up there, so he stopped for a moment
to watch her.

She moved through the room, brushing cobwebs out of her path. She walked as if she
had been up there dozens of times. At its other end she found what she was looking
for.

“Hey, come here and look,” she said. “There’s a trapdoor in the ceiling.”

Of course there was. Her mother had told her so.

“So?”

“So I’ll bet you can see for a million miles if you go on the roof,” Alicen said.

“I’m not going on the roof!”

Alicen looked over her shoulder at him. “If you don’t, I’ll tell your mother you did,
anyway. And then you’ll get into big trouble.”

Kyle considered the threat.

“Maybe she’ll ground you for the whole summer.”

That was threat enough. Sighing, he walked across the room to Alicen and helped her
open the trapdoor. Alicen boosted him through it, then climbed out herself.

The loose tiles made a precarious foothold for them. Alicen sat down, putting herself
between Kyle and the door. The little boy clicked his tongue, having hoped to get
right back inside before his mother came looking for him. But how could he, with Alicen
in the way?

“It’s going to rain,” he said. “I felt a drop.”

“Just look at the bay,” Alicen said, ignoring him. “Isn’t it neat the way the wind
makes it so choppy?”

“Yeah,” Kyle said, studying her.

“You’re not looking!” Alicen cried.

Kyle turned his head and pretended to be interested in the faroff water. Moments of
silence went by, and then suddenly he heard a thud and a click. He turned and saw
that the trapdoor had been slammed shut. Alicen had tricked him.

“Hey, open up!” he shouted.

Kyle pounded at the door, unable to pull it open. No reply came.

“Alicen, this is stupid!” he cried. “Let me in!”

No answer.

“ALICEN!”

A clap of thunder made Kyle jump. Crying, he grabbed for the door frame to keep himself
from slipping. He held his breath and waited for the downpour. It began to drizzle.

“ALICEN YOU STUPID SHIT-HEAD! OPEN THIS FREAKIN’ DOOR!”

He was so frightened that he didn’t know what he was saying.

“I’LL KILL YOU, ALICEN! LET ME IN! LET ME IN!”

He pounded on the door, his soft young hands scraping over the shingles. A loose nail
caught the side of his fist, opening the skin. Kyle’s hand flew to his mouth. Praying
someone would find him, he sucked on the wound while rain pelted heavier and heavier
against him.

“HELP! HELP!”

His words were so muffled by the downpour that no one heard him. Fighting tears, Kyle
lay down and drew himself into a ball. One hand held fast to the door frame while
the other remained in his mouth. He could only wait.

“Look at that rain,” Melanie said to Nancy as she put the finishing touches on her
work. “I hope daddy and Derek get home okay.”

“Are they coming soon?”

Melanie looked at her watch.

“In about an hour,” she said. “Except this rain may delay them a bit.”

She took off her smock and laid it across a stool.

“It sure is loud,” Nancy said.

“I can’t even hear myself think,” Melanie answered.

“What are you thinking about, mommy?”

“Nothing,” Melanie said, laughing. And that was true. She had been so ashamed of yelling
at Kyle and Gina for no good reason that she had forced herself to stop worrying and
concentrate on her painting. For the time, it had worked.

“Well, I’ve got to start dinner,” she said. “You be sure to wash your hands and clean
up nice for me.”

“Okay.”

Melanie went downstairs to the kitchen. She opened the refrigerate, and pulled out
chopped meat for hamburgers, and a package of fries. Seeing a bag of unshucked corn
on the counter, she decided to have that, too. That would show her children she wasn’t
mad at them.

She could hear all the windows of the house rattling from the terrible storm as she
walked out into the hallway and called upstairs for Kyle. Her son didn’t answer her.
But then,
the storm was so loud that he might not have heard. She called again and this time
heard a door open upstairs. But it was Gina who appeared on the top landing.

“Find your brother and tell him I need some corn shucked,” Melanie said.

“Sure,” Gina answered.

Melanie went back to the kitchen. She sat at the wooden table, took some meat, and
began molding it into patties. The rain pounded the roof above her, and the wind blew
furiously as she worked on dinner. A chill went through her—Melanie hated dark, rainy
days.

After she had finished making the hamburgers, Melanie suddenly realized Kyle hadn’t
yet come downstairs. Melanie felt her heart jump to her throat but controlled herself
as she went upstairs. She met Gina in a hallway.

“I can’t find him anywhere,” she said. “I looked in every room.”

“Oh, God,” Melanie whispered. “Did you ask Alicen and Nancy?”

“They don’t know where he is, either,” Gina said.

“He must be downstairs, then.”

“I already looked.”

“Look again,” Melanie ordered. “Then come and get me if you find him.”

If you find him
. . .

Gina hurried downstairs. Melanie walked down the hallway to Kyle’s room. She checked
his closet and even under his bed, to no avail. He had to be in here somewhere, though.
He couldn’t have gone out in that storm.

“Kyle?”

The rain had subsided, so there was no reason he couldn’t hear her—unless he was in
some kind of trouble.

He has to be okay
, Melanie told herself as she rounded a hallway. She passed the linen closet and noticed
the door was open. She wouldn’t have given it a second thought if she hadn’t felt
an icy wind rush out of it. Melanie stepped inside and looked up. The trapdoor had
been left open.

What’s he doing up there?
she asked herself. But she didn’t stop to think of an answer.

She hurried up the stairs, calling her son’s name. The attic was hot, which made Melanie
wonder why she had felt such a freezing blast a moment ago. Again, she didn’t give
herself time for an answer. She moved through the half-light offered by the clouded
sun, looking behind the chests and pieces of
furniture. She hated this place, with all its cobwebs and dark shadows. Had Kyle come
up here on his own, or had someone made him do it?

Every time she looked behind something, only to find he wasn’t there, she couldn’t
help breathing a sigh of relief. Her heart was pounding in anticipation of what she’d
find. But at last, after a very thorough search, she realized he wasn’t up here. The
trapdoor had been left open by accident, of course. She’d find out about that later.