Dusty lounged in her seat below the window. She rolled onto her back to
expose her belly and pink paws. One eye peeked open as I neared her, then
lazily drifted closed again. I gave her belly a scratch. She was getting fat. I
couldn’t help myself. I’d been giving my cats a constant stream of treats to
make up for the stress I’d put them through with Marwick House.
“Be good,” I told her.
She kneaded the air with her front paws as a deep, rumbling purr echoed
from her chest.
I snagged my jacket off its hook on the way out. Even though it was a
bright day, the early-spring air was chilly. I jogged down my front drive,
turned left, then turned left again to enter Marwick’s property .
Ruby had only been working on the garden for a month, but the change
was dramatic. The grass was starting to regain its colour in patches. Flowers
and bushes were taking root along the fence. She’d planted a tree, and
although it was only small, I knew it would have a great impact on how the
place looked once it had grown a bit. It also had the double bonus of
obscuring Penny’s view a little. I didn’t need to turn to know she was
watching me from her window seat.
The front door had been left open, so I rapped on the wood as I entered.
“Hello! Just me!”
“Out the back!” Ruby called.
The house’s air felt still and cool. I followed the familiar path, past thecurving staircase I’d once hated and the music room that had tormented me,
through the kitchen, and into the backyard. Ruby had set up a patio table and
chairs. A platter of finger foods and a pitcher of juice weighed down the
tablecloth. Lucky was already sitting at her side. I shouldn’t have been
surprised. He practically lived at Marwick House lately.
Ruby stood to give me a hug. She seemed so much happier than before. I
sometimes wondered how long she’d been under Shreya’s thrall—perhaps the
first threads had been planted as early as her first week in the house. She
smiled and laughed a lot more following the leap from the blue room.
The final tally from that night had run to: one broken rib, two fractures,
and a punctured lung for Lucky, as well as a broken leg and a serious
concussion for Ruby. I escaped with my stab wound, which needed eight
stitches and a blood transfusion. We had all spent a couple of days in
hospital.
“Sit down, have a drink.” Ruby ushered me into a chair. “Lucky was just
telling me about the new script he’s writing.”
“Oh, he was, huh? Let me guess: he’s finally accepted your fate as a
director of haunted house documentaries.”
Lucky scratched at his stubble. “No, actually. It’s a film about the search
for bigfoot.” I sent him a confused stare, and he winked. “A mental search for
a metaphorical bigfoot.”
“Oh, good, pretentious garbage. For a moment, I was worried you were
actually going to make something good.”
He laughed. I snuck a glance at Ruby’s hand. No ring yet, but I didn’t
think it would take much longer. Not when they were so clearly enthralled
with each other. They’d set their chairs as close as they could and even then
leaned towards each other. Lucky smiled more often, too, and his barbs were
a little less caustic than normal. Ruby’s presence seemed to be gradually
filing down the rough edges.
Ruby poured me a drink then resumed her place at Lucky’s side. As he
rambled about his new project, my eyes drifted to the tree at the back of the
yard. While Shreya had been haunting Marwick, it was the only plant that had
managed to survive. It had started shedding its leaves, and the bark was
turning black. It wouldn’t survive much longer.
I couldn’t stop my eyes from dropping to the patch of dirt below. Rainfall
was steadily levelling the raised ground, and grass was covering the bare dirt.
Neither Ruby nor I ever mentioned what was buried below. We bothpretended we didn’t remember it, though I certainly did, and I was sure she
did, as well. It was our secret—Ruby’s, Shreya’s, and mine—and we would
never breathe a word to anyone.
“Jo?” Lucky flicked my arm to bring me back to the conversation. “Stop
spacing out. You’re not an astronaut.”
“Sorry, what?”
“Ruby was saying she’s going to make you work twice as hard after
lunch. She’s going to be an absolute tyrant.”
“I never said that!” Ruby squeaked. “I just meant that we have a lot of
work today! Eight dolls to mail and two new custom orders!”
I grinned and turned my back to the grave. “I’m looking forward to it.
I’ve been practicing my miniature hand-stitching.” I mimed the motion in the
air. I wasn’t artistic enough to paint the faces, but as it turned out, I’m pretty
good at sewing miniature clothes.
“Good. I want to get as many dolls made as possible before this little lady
throws my world into chaos.” Ruby patted her belly, where the bump had
started to show. “Do you think, if I beg really hard, Lucky will stay to take
the mail to the post office?”
I laughed. “Oh, I think you’ll have to beg him to leave.”
As Lucky refilled Ruby’s cup, I let my attention wander. Marwick House
creaked behind me, but the sound didn’t carry the menace it once had. The
building was harmless without its dead guardian. It now stood as an elaborate
monument to the blood that had been shed under its shadow, and as a
reminder that I had, for four brief years, lived next to a haunted house.