The Burning (14 page)

“Every town has a house like that!” Daniel scoffed, shaking his head.

My grandfather's house certainly
looks
like a cursed place, Daniel thought. I wonder why the villagers tell such stories about it.

“I would not venture near it, even for sightseeing,” the girl remarked with a frown.

“I will take your advice,” Daniel told her. “Would you care to show me around the rest of your town?”

She blushed. A coy smile played over her full lips. “Why, sir, I do not even know your name.”

“It is Daniel,” he told her eagerly. He started to reveal his full name, but stopped. He realized he didn't want her to know yet that he was a Fear.

“Daniel? I like that name,” she replied, her eyes lighting up. “I was once going to name my dog Daniel.”

They both laughed.

“And may I ask
your
name?” Daniel asked.

“Nora,” she said, pale circles of pink forming on her cheeks. “Nora Goode.”

“Q
uick—someone's coming!” Nora whispered. She grabbed Daniel's arm and pulled him off the road into the trees.

Daniel laughed. “It's just a rabbit. Look.” He pointed to the large brown rabbit that scampered over the carpet of dry leaves at the edge of the woods.

Nora laughed and pressed her forehead against the sleeve of Daniel's jacket.

I love her laugh, he decided.

I love everything about her.

As they walked hand in hand toward the river, Daniel found it hard to believe they had met just five days earlier. He had never felt this way about anyone.

Each afternoon he had waited around the corner from her father's store for her to finish work. Then, trying to make it appear that they weren't walking together, they would make their way up the broad Park Drive to the Conononka River, which flowed through the woods north of the village.

There they would sit side by side and hold hands under a shady tree. As the sun lowered itself behind the cliffs across the river, they talked quietly, getting to know each other, discussing whatever popped into their heads.

Daniel had explained to Nora that he was visiting his grandparents. But he still hadn't worked up the courage to tell her that his grandparents were Simon and Angelica Fear.

“Do your grandparents not wonder where you go every afternoon?” Nora asked. Her dark hair shimmered in the patches of sunlight that filtered down through the tree leaves.

“My grandparents show little desire for my company,” Daniel told her. “Most days they do not come out of their rooms. When I do see them, they ask me little. In fact, they hardly speak to me at all.”

“How strange,” Nora murmured thoughtfully.

“My grandmother lives in a world of her own,” Daniel said sadly. “I am not sure she even knows I am her grandson. And my grandfather … he spends his days in his wheelchair by the fire, muttering dreamily to himself.”

“You must be lonely,” Nora remarked, squeezing his hand.

“Not when I see you,” Daniel replied boldly.

She smiled at him, her green eyes catching the light of the lowering sun. He realized that Nora must be lonely, too.

Her mother had died in childbirth. Nora was an only child. She spent her days working in her father's general store. She spent her evenings cooking and caring for her father. They lived in rooms above the store.

“My dream is to move away some day,” she had revealed to Daniel. “To a town with wide, paved streets and buildings as tall as the trees, a town filled with people I don't know.”

As the red sun flattened against the dark cliffs above them, Daniel worked up his nerve, leaned forward, and kissed Nora.

He expected her to resist. But when she returned the kiss with enthusiasm, he realized that perhaps she was as in love with him as he was with her.

I have to reveal to her that I am a Fear, he thought, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her again. But will she react with horror? Does she believe the frightening stories about my family? When she learns I am a Fear, will it drive her away?

The thought made him shudder. Daniel knew he couldn't bear to lose Nora.

As they walked holding hands back to her father's store, Daniel decided he had to learn the truth. Before he revealed his identity to Nora, he had to find out if there really was a curse on his
family, if the terrifying tales the villagers told about the Fears were true.

Once I know they are
not
true, once I know they are all silly fairy tales, then I will be able to tell Nora that I am a Fear with a clear heart, he decided.

He said good night at the edge of town, reluctant to let go of her soft, warm hand. Her eyes glowed happily as she whispered good night. Then she turned and ran to the store, her silky dark hair trailing gently behind her.

Her heart fluttering, the taste of Daniel's lips still on hers, Nora brushed through the dark store, humming to herself. Thinking happily about Daniel, she started up the narrow stairs that led to the rooms she shared with her father.

Nora gasped, startled to find her father waiting for her at the top of the stairs, an angry expression on his face.

James Goode, Nora's father, was a short, wiry man with shiny slicked-down black hair and a black pencil mustache beneath his long, pointed nose. He was normally quiet and good-tempered. But when his anger got the better of him, he would explode with rage and lose control so that he frightened Nora.

Now she hesitated halfway up the stairs, staring up at his angry frown, his blazing eyes.

“Where have you been?” he demanded, struggling to keep his voice low and steady.

“Just out for a walk,” Nora told him blankly.

He glared at her, his face set in an angry scowl. He motioned for her to come the rest of the way up the stairs. Then he followed her into the small sitting room.

“Just out for a walk with
whom?”
he demanded, crossing his thin arms over the chest of his undershirt.

“With a friend,” Nora replied uncomfortably.

“He is no friend,” James Goode said through clenched teeth. “The boy you have been sneaking out with is no friend at all—he is a
Fear!”

Nora gasped. She dropped down onto the straight-backed wooden chair by the fireplace. “He never told me, Father.”

“Of course he didn't!” Mr. Goode snapped. “He knew that no decent girl would be seen walking with a Fear in this town!”

“But, Papa—” Nora's mind whirled in confusion. Why hadn't Daniel been honest with her? Was he afraid?

“Papa, Daniel is wonderful,” she said finally. “He is kind and gentle. He is intelligent and considerate and—”

“He is a Fear,” her father interrupted with a scowl. He stood over Nora, his hands tensed awkwardly at his sides. “I will not have you seeing a Fear. You know the history of that cursed family. Everyone in Shadyside knows.”

“I don't
care
about that!” Nora cried, “They are just wild stories.”

“Wild stories?” James Goode exclaimed. “Wild stories? Why, Simon Fear's own daughters were
murdered
when they were about your age. Murdered!”

“Papa, that was so long ago!” Nora cried. “No one knows what really happened—”

“The two girls were found in the woods with their bones removed!” James cried. “They found only their skins. Their bones were gone! Gone!”

“You know that's just an old story,” Nora screamed. “No one but silly children believes that, Father!”

“Maybe not, but Simon's wife, Angelica, she is mad, Nora. She practices evil magic. People have disappeared in the woods behind the Fear mansion. They were Angelica's human sacrifices. They—”

“Papa, stop! These are all wild tales! Gossip and rumors! You
cannot
believe such insane stories!”

James groaned in exasperation, running both hands back through his slicked-down hair, scowling at his daughter. “I
do
believe them,” he said, his voice trembling. “I believe them all. This is why I cannot allow you to see that Fear boy again, Nora.”

“No!” Nora shrieked, jumping to her feet, her eyes wild. “I
love
Daniel, Father! I
love
him! You
cannot
forbid me to see him!”

“Nora, listen to me,” James insisted, his pencil mustache twitching in anger, his slender face reddening. “Listen to me! For your own good, you cannot see him again! I forbid it!”

“No!” Nora shrieked, her anger matching her father's. “No! No! No!”

James Goode's eyes narrowed angrily. His words came out slowly, deliberately, through clenched teeth: “Then, Nora, you have given me no choice….”

T
hat night Daniel waited until the house was silent and dark. Then, carrying a candle, he crept downstairs to Simon's library, determined to learn the truth about his family's history.

Holding the candle high, Daniel could see that all four walls were covered from floor to ceiling with books. The air smelled musty, almost thick with dust from the old volumes.

The floorboards creaked under Daniel's shoes as he crossed the room to get a closer look at the books. To Daniel's surprise, the first shelf he examined held books about magic, the dark arts, strange scientific journals, and volumes about astrology and foretelling the future.

How strange that Simon should possess books of this nature, Daniel thought, moving the candle
along the shelves. Did he and Angelica have a
scientific
interest in such matters?

Daniel searched the library shelves for another twenty minutes but found nothing of interest, nothing that would reveal his family's history to him.

Suddenly hungry and thirsty, he made his way to the kitchen with his candle. The old house creaked and groaned as he walked through the darkness. As if warning me away, he thought, feeling a chill.

A glass of water satisfied his thirst. Then, moving the candle in front of him, Daniel made his way to the pantry behind the kitchen. “Where are those ginger cookies we had at dinner?” he whispered to himself.

He heard the soft scrabble of padded feet. The kitchen cat, no doubt, chasing after a mouse.

He moved the candle over the shelves of tins and jars. No cookies.

Something beyond the pantry shelves caught his attention. A crack in the wall formed a shadow in the flickering candlelight.

Curious, Daniel pressed on the crack, and the wall slid back.
A hidden doorway!
Daniel realized.

His heart beating excitedly, he pushed the door open farther and slipped inside. He found himself in a low-ceilinged narrow room. Holding the candle high, he saw two pillows on the floor, stained by dark mildew, a bundled-up blanket, a girl's doll.

How strange, Daniel thought, bending to pick up the doll. Its dress was covered with dust. Its round blue eyes stared up at him in the candlelight.

Whose doll was this? Daniel wondered, setting it down on one of the pillows. Who used this hidden room? Judging from the dust and mildew, it hasn't been occupied in many years.

He kicked at the blanket, raising a cloud of dust. His shoe hit something solid underneath. “How strange. How strange,” he muttered to himself.

He pulled the blanket away and lowered the candle. The light fell over a large dark-covered book. Bending to examine it, Daniel saw that it was an old Bible.

The spine was cracked. The tattered pages smelled of mildew and decay.

This Bible looks as if it has been in the family for many generations, Daniel thought. Why has it been hidden under a blanket in this secret room?

Kneeling on the dusty floor, he began searching through the pages with his free hand. In the back of the Bible he found what he was searching for—a family history.

Tattered, brown-stained pages held the scrawled handwriting of his ancestors. Daniel's eyes eagerly rolled over names and dates, births and deaths.

He saw the date 1692 and read the names Matthew and Benjamin Fier. Wickham, Massachusetts Colony.