Chapter 8
EIGHT
The noise didn’t register as unusual at first. It was the house settling.
That’s what her mom had said. There were all kinds of bangs and creaks in old homes.
She wasn’t used to the discordant symphony of this one, but her nervousness had fallen away with each mile they put behind them.
This was the first place she’d felt safe in a long, long time.
Here, in a different house, where her mother was carefree, he felt like something from a bad dream that faded with each hour.
Maybe they could live like this from now on.
They could just never go back. Stay, and be who they were in these moments they shared.
The sound came again. A small creak followed by a scrape.
The scrape of furniture dragging over hardwood. The chair she’d wedged under the knob no match for his steady pressure. It always gave. He always took.
She sat up straight and looked across the room at her mother. “Do you hear that?”
The light, happy smile on her mom’s face made her heart ache in her chest. It wouldn’t last. It never lasted. The monsters always came back. They followed. They stalked. They ruined everything.
“That noise,” she said over the thick ball of saliva forming in her throat. “It sounded like—”
The unmistakable rattle of a doorknob cut off her words. Suddenly her mother’s spine was ramrod straight. “That’s the back door.”
Had he gone to the front first? Dragged some of the patio furniture away from the big window so he could peer in? Had he tried the door only to realize it was locked up tight?
She swallowed and it felt like a thousand razor blades going down her throat. “It’s not—”
“Oh no,” her mother said quickly. “Definitely not.”
The hinges of the back door squeaked.
“Definitely not,” her mother repeated, sounding so sure of herself. “It can’t be. He doesn’t know where we are.”
Taking her mother’s cue, she stayed in place even though every cell in her body screamed, DANGER! DANGER! DANGER!
There were heavy footfalls now. “Mom, I think we should leave.” Her hands shook. “Or hide. We should hide.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Everything is fine. It’s probably just the neighbor. I’ll go see.”
Her mother stood just as a shadow fell across the room. There he was, blocking their way to the kitchen, blocking them from any kind of normal life.
She didn’t miss the full body shudder that rocked her mother’s frame. He did, though.
“Why are you here?” asked her mom. “You shouldn’t be here.”
He stepped inside and her mom stumbled backward, almost losing her balance. The small show of fear made him laugh. Even as he crowded her mom, his eyes found hers, burning with a perverse anticipation. One of his hands shot out, curling around her mom’s upper arm.
“Did you forget?” he whispered into her mom’s ear, never breaking eye contact with her. “I go where you go.”