Chapter Forty-Six Hanna
Chapter Forty-Six
Hanna
Panic could wait. The fear of falling through a hole in the steps vanished. If I crashed to my death, fine, so long as I freed
Jeremy first. “I knew it!”
“What is it?” Stella asked.
“Jeremy!” I screamed his name as I bounded up the stairs two at a time. The wood creaked and the wobble of the structure beneath
me turned into a slight swinging. All I needed was to get up there. I’d figure out how to get back down later.
“Hanna!” Marni kept yelling for me to stop.
A pounding sound echoed around me. Above me. Below me. It wasn’t until Stella popped up at my side that I realized I had reinforcements.
A reluctant one, but she followed me. I grabbed on to her hand for a second in gratitude . . . and for support before gliding
down the gloomy hallway.
The lights flickered again as if someone had purposely partially unscrewed the bulbs for effect.
A toppled desk blocked most of the easiest path to the bedroom.
The musty smell continued up here. I swear something scurried across the floor and into the bathroom.
I blocked out visions of giant spiders and rabies-carrying rats and pushed forward, crawling over the desk and what was once a chair.
“Jeremy!”
A strange sort of haze covered the second-floor hallway. I didn’t smell fire and after the café I’d never forget that acrid
punch. This was more like a smoky mist of dust. It made the air feel thick, the hallway almost impassable.
I kept going. Walked straight to the end of the hall and pushed open the partially closed door. Without thinking, I lifted
my hand and flipped the switch just inside on the wall. So much blue. A shade that repeated on the comforter and pillows.
Shelves lined with trucks and cars. A basketball sitting on the desk.
A space preserved in reverence to a missing boy.
On closer look I noticed the open drawers. Clothes tossed in a pile on the rug. A ripped curtain. A lampshade covered in a
thick layer of dust. I opened the door to my left and it nearly came off in my hand. I had to scramble and push to keep it
in place as I peeked into the connecting bathroom at the bottles scattered all over the floor. The brown stain in the tub.
The steady drips of water, playing an eerie melody in the sink.
The closet door was off its hinges and balanced against the wall. All the clothes had been thrashed and laid in pieces on
the floor. Two lone hangers hung on the rod.
“This is the creepiest thing I’ve ever seen,” Stella said. She moved farther into the room. Picked up a book abandoned on the floor before staring at the stickers on the ceiling. “Xavier refused to let us upstairs. I understand now. This is a travesty. Why didn’t he hire a cleaner?”
“He said being in this house made his temper rage out of control.” Aubrey spoke from right behind me.
Her words scratched against the back of my neck. I spun around, ready for whatever she had planned, but she just stood there.
Her voice and face lacking genuine emotion, as usual.
“He’s not here.” I’m not sure why I said it or what I even meant. Jeremy. Noah. Anyone.
“Others have been here but not recently, to my knowledge.” Aubrey leaned against the chipped paint on the wall. “The police
probably searched the rooms repeatedly and did their forensic thing on and off for years.”
Stella answered even though Aubrey hadn’t phrased the comment as a question. “Yes.”
“No one is in here now.” I spun around in a circle. Scanned the walls, searching for another exit. Looked at the scattered
pieces of a lost life strewn all over the floor. “I want to search the entire property.”
“Fine.” Aubrey nodded. “I suggest you wait until the daytime because the property is filled with health hazards. I almost
stepped on a knife this morning. There it was, next to the fireplace.”
It felt like she was sending a message but I couldn’t figure out what. “You’re lying.”
Aubrey didn’t look upset or even surprised by my comment. “About what, exactly? If Jeremy came here, then he made a mistake.
He wouldn’t be the first person to disappear from this house.”
That’s it. I lunged but Stella caught me and dragged me back.
“I’m stating the obvious. I’ll fix it up. Run the vacuum. Buy some paint. But right now, it’s a dangerous place to be.” Aubrey
looked at a model spaceship. Through all the years and trespassing, destruction, and decay, that stood tall. Untouched on
the nightstand. “It’s as if people come here, then fade into the woodwork, never to be seen again.”
A scream ripped through the hallway and ricocheted off the crumbling walls. A chilling sound that cut off as quickly as it
started.
It took me a second to place the voice, then I did.
“Marni!”