The Missing- Volume II- Lies (5 page)

I put down my fork with a clatter. Mother’s head snapped up and she leaned across the table and swatted my hand with her butter knife. “It’s dinner time, Nora! Behave yourself!”

My skin stung but I didn’t cower. I continued to look at my foster sister in horror. “You can’t stay here,” I told her, my voice cracking.

Mother sighed in exasperation. “This is her home as much as it’s yours.”

“No, it’s not!” I sounded slightly hysterical. I was making Mother mad. I should stop. I needed to force these defiant words back down my throat. I knew the consequences for speaking out of turn, for questioning Mother in any way. But the thought of sharing my home with this nasty woman gave me a voice that was otherwise buried underneath so much fear.

Rosie couldn’t stay with us!

My former foster sister continued to eat. Continued to watch me. Continued to assess everything.

“It’ll be nice to be at home again,” she said, her eyes blazing with a fire that frightened me.

A fire that would burn everything to the ground.

“It’s not your home!”

My head hurt again. My vision faded in and out. I felt dizzy and disoriented.

Mother slammed her hands down on the table. “What is wrong with you, Nora? You’re talking nonsense! Go to your room! I won’t have you my ruining dinner with your insane behavior!”

Insane behavior?

I didn’t get up. I didn’t move. Rosie and I were locked in a silent battle of wills that I had no hopes of winning.

I watched Rosie twist the ring on her finger.

Mine.

“I know you have it!” Rosie seethed.

I was waiting for Dad by the front door. He was taking me to the barn again. Rosie was angry because she wanted to come too. But Dad told her that she couldn’t this time. It felt like a victory. A small but important one.

“I don’t have anything,” I argued, knowing exactly what she was talking about. But I’d never admit it to her. She’d never know.

It was mine now.

“Are you ready, Nora?” Dad asked, coming into the hallway from the kitchen, pulling on his coat. I didn’t acknowledge the look of disgust he threw my way. I pretended not to see how he recoiled when I reached out to take his hand. I tried to ignore how Dad looked at me less and less.

Because today he was taking me with him. He wasn’t taking Rosie. He had told her no. And that made it a good day.

“I’m ready, Dad,” I said, wishing I could smile because, for once, I really wanted to. I wanted to laugh in Rosie’s pretty face and stick out my tongue.

I hated her.

But I could also hurt her.

“She took my ring!” Rosie complained, pointing at me.

I widened my eyes innocently. Dad wasn’t listening anyway. He was already opening the door and leaving the house. I had to follow him.

“Bye, Rosie,” I called over my shoulder. Her face was red and she looked so, so mad.

I climbed into Dad’s car and buckled my seat belt. Dad turned on the radio, the volume so loud it rattled my eardrums. So loud that we couldn’t talk to each other. If I had really thought about it, I would have known that was the point.

I sat in the backseat, watching Rosie as we pulled away from the house. She’d make me pay. I had no doubt. But right then I didn’t care. Because I had won.

I pulled the ring out of my pocket and slipped it on my thumb, hardly able to believe what I had done.

But I was tired of her owning everything. My family. My home. Clothes and jewelry and friends.

This time I was taking what belonged to
me.

I pushed the chair out from the table. Rosie was enjoying herself. She liked to see me upset.

I turned my ruined face away so she wouldn’t see me as I rushed out.

I had to get to my room. There I could be locked away. Safe. Alone. It was strange how the thing I despised, being closed inside, now seemed like my savior.

Rosie was going to live here again.

So many feelings pushed their way inside of me.

Depression

Fear.

Confusion.

But murderous rage was the one I could most identify with.

She was back. And I knew this time it would be harder to make her leave.

Of course she followed me. I should have known. She didn’t knock. Rosie entered my room without waiting for permission. She knew I’d never give it. She didn’t need it anyway.

“You seem upset, Nora,” Rosie remarked, picking up my notebook from the dresser and thumbing through.

“You can’t look at that!” I snarled, snatching it from her.

“There are no secrets between us, Nora, you know that.”

I shivered.

She was right.

“Why can’t you just go away? Why do you have to keep coming back?” I demanded. I was finally standing up for myself. Just a little bit. With Mother. With Rosie. It was long past due.

Rosie walked across my room and stood in front of the window, looking out towards the Somers’ house. She seemed thoughtful. “I know you think you have it so badly, Nora, but there are others out there who have it so much worse than you do.”

Goosebumps rose on the back of my neck. Something about her sad, simple statement filled me with dread.

Was she talking about Bradley?

Was she talking about herself?

Was she just messing with my head because she could?

“I’m not comparing myself to anyone,” I argued, trying to shake off the apprehension.

Rosie chuckled, still looking out past the gnarled tree. “You always compare yourself to everyone. You think you come up short, but is that how it really is? Maybe you should think about that. Really look at your life and the people in it. There’s a reason you’re always alone. That you’re so isolated and cut off. I’m not sure it has anything to do with Leslie or that sad excuse for a father you had. We both know why I really had to leave. Isn’t that right, Nora?”

“Stop it!” I pleaded. I just wanted her to go.

Rosie shrugged. Wasn’t Mother wondering where she was? Would she come looking for her? I didn’t want to deal with my mother right now. Rosie was bad enough.

“It was so long ago. Memories become skewed. They fade and warp and rearrange to fit the view of the world that makes us most comfortable,” she murmured, more to herself than to me.

I frowned, not understanding. Something was different about my former foster sister. Something about her had changed since she had reappeared in my life. Her cruelty was the same, but there was something else just below the surface that I couldn’t quite put my finger on.

“What are you talking about? You know what happened! Please, just leave me alone!” I felt like crying. If I were capable of tears, I’d be sobbing.

Finally Rosie turned away from the window and made her way back towards the bedroom door, not bothering to acknowledge my statement.

“I’m just here to get what’s mine,
sis,”
Rosie warned.

Her clear, sweet voice sliced me open with dark promises.

“There’s nothing here that has ever belonged to you!” I retorted defensively. But I wondered . . .

“Soon I will be the one left standing. And
you
will be sent away. That’s the happily ever after that I’m waiting for.” Rosie laughed and I hated the sound. “See ya later, Nora.”

She closed the door softly behind her, and I couldn’t hold in the scream. I grabbed a pillow from the bed and held it over my face.

I screamed.

And screamed.

I let it all out. I couldn’t contain it.

“What are you doing here? You weren’t supposed to come!” I was so mad at her for following us! For once again trying to take something that was mine.

Rosie shoved me and I stumbled backwards. “You took it, you little thief!” She grabbed my hand and tried to wrench the ring off my thumb. I pulled away and knocked into the wall, kicking over a container of gasoline.

“Stop it!” I begged, trying to fend her off.

“What do you think Leslie will do when I tell her you’ve stolen from me?” Rosie threatened.

The matches.

The gasoline.

The chance to finally be free of this horrible, horrible girl.

Fire.

Smoke.

Watching it all burn.

I had escaped her once; I would escape her again.

I had to.

I wouldn’t survive Rosie Allen this time.

She’d make sure of it.

The Present

Day 7

T
here was a lady all skin and bone

Beep. Beep. Beep.

“She looks dead.”

I wanted to scream. I wanted to cry. I just wanted her to stop talking. Her voice was like icepicks digging into my brain. But I couldn’t say anything. My lips were fused shut. My eyes wouldn’t open.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

“She’s going to die like this . . .”

I was cold. So damn cold. I wanted to snuggle underneath a pile of blankets and hibernate forever.

But I stayed just how I was. Because I deserved to be cold. I deserved to be ignored. I deserved to be forced into this purgatory with her. She would be my only companion. Vile. Hated. Disgusted.