The hole was big enough to pass an arm through, but no wider. I dropped
the pot as I stepped back. “I can’t believe this. She’s sealed us inside.” I
thought of the great owl we’d buried. It had snapped its neck on an upstairs
window, but the glass hadn’t shattered. I wondered if Shreya had always had
such control over the house, to protect it and strengthen it.
Ruby bent close to the broken pane and cupped her hands around her
mouth. “Help! Help us, please! Help!”
I pressed my forehead against the glass and scanned the street. The chair
in Penny’s window stayed empty. Mr. Korver was no longer in his garden,
but his hose lay on the lawn, forgotten.
“Help!” Ruby screamed, slamming her open palm against the window.
“We need help!”
They’re not going to answer. People always used to avoid Marwick
House, but now it’s worse than ever. We need to contact someone who’s
outside of Shreya’s reach.
“Where’s your phone?” I shook Ruby’s shoulder. “We’ll call Lucky.”
She dashed into the hallway and grabbed the handset off the table.
“Here.”
I had Lucky’s number memorised. I dialled it and held the phone to my
ear. All I heard was static. I swore and redialled the number. Then I smackedthe phone and checked its batteries. I couldn’t see any reason for it not to
work.
Ruby chewed on the corner of her thumb as she watched me. Hope was
fading out of her face. I tried the number a final time and held the phone up
to my ear.
There was something in the static. I frowned and pressed the phone
closer. It sounded like breathing.
“What is it?” Ruby whispered.
I held up a hand to ask for silence. The static crackled. And inside,
muffled by the distortion but unmistakable, a woman sighed.
Chills raced up my arms. I slammed the phone back into its cradle.
Ruby’s expression was tight. I rubbed my sweating palms on my pants.
“We’ll get out of here. I just need to… to think for a bit. Yes. We’ll sit down
and talk it over. I’m sure we’ll figure something out if we approach it
rationally.”
“Jo…”
I patted her arm and turned towards the living room. “We’ll be okay.
Come and sit with me.”
“Jo, no.” She grabbed my sleeve and tugged me back. I felt a swell of
frustration. Didn’t she see I was trying to help?
“Let go, Ruby.”
She gripped my shoulders and shook me. Hard. “Jo! Snap out of it!”
The cobwebs had been accumulating over my mind without me even
noticing. I blinked as they melted away. The world had begun to blur, but as
the cobwebs dissolved, it swam back into focus. “Uh…”
“Wake up!” Tears ran down her face. “We don’t need to sit. If we sit,
she’ll trap us in our minds again, and we’ll never get out. We need to keep
moving.”
My heart lurched. I rubbed shaking hands over my arms. “I’m sorry. I
wasn’t thinking—”
“I know.” She sniffed and rubbed her hand over her nose. “It’s so easy to
fall back in. You just need to stop thinking for half a minute, and she’ll dig
her claws into you.”
“That means we can’t leave each other alone. Not even for a moment.” I
squeezed her hand. “We’ve got to stay alert and look out for each other.
Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“All right.” I turned to face the house. My mind felt sluggish, but I forced
it to think through our situation. “We can’t get out through the doors or the
windows. And no one outside is going to come looking for us. What else can
we do?”
“We still have the herbs and salt from the cleansing.” Ruby shot me a
frightened glance. “Henry said not to try it again, but…”
“But I don’t think he expected us to become trapped like this,” I agreed.
“It’s worth a shot. Where is it?”
“In the storage cupboard. This way.”
I followed her towards the music room. As we pushed the door open, the
curtains shifted. I tried not to stare at them as we went to the vast cabinet in
the back of the room.
A soft, barely-audible twang came from the piano. The dark wood shone
in the lights. A small puff of dust swirled off its top.
Ruby wrenched open the cupboard doors. The space was empty except
for dust and the abandoned cleansing instruments: the sprig of sage, box of
matches, and plastic container of salt. We shared a look, simultaneously
dreading trying to use the items and clinging to hope.