Nocturnal Meetings of the Misplaced Read online

  We made it down to the basement. The stench was worse and only a dim light poured in from a small block window. I looked at Tommy. Altering expressions of fear and determination registered on his face. My eyes began to follow the beam of light. I caught a glimpse of a mouse. The light continued searching, flashing methodically on a bare cement floor and walls of the huge room. The light found an inch of murky water pooled in one corner, and from there, the light stumbled over to a pile of dirty blankets in the far corner of the room.

  Tommy crept over to the snarl of old blankets, hesitating briefly before jerking them out of the way. The beam of light flickered all around as he did. Seconds later, he steadied the flashlight, illuminating a heap of empty chains and shackles that had been hidden underneath those covers. Next, the light shot up the cement block wall, revealing a dirty mattress, soiled and stained leaning against it. A sick feeling formed at the base of my stomach.

  “I can’t believe it,” Tommy said. “All these years and they didn’t bother to get rid of it. Lazy, evil slobs.” I can’t be sure, but I think he said, “The haunted lady. This is where they kept her.”

  He was scaring the shit out of me.

  Chapter 54

  The House of Cards

  Tommy

  After a few stunned moments, Finn starting snapping pictures of the shackles and chains with his cell phone, and the mattress. That was smart of him.

  “Now we have evidence,” he said.

  I again pointed the light at the bare mattress. It was stained in old blood. “There’s probably still DNA all over the place.” I felt hot tears attack the corner of my eyes. “We’ve got em’.”

  “Now, let’s get out of here,” Finn squeaked.

  “Yeah,” I agreed, inhaling as little as humanly possible, to avoid becoming overwhelmed by the putrid smell. It was the stench of rot and filth wafting up together.

  Just then the stairs began to creak, and I heard the whisper of a female voice. I turned around and pointed the flashlight at the stairway. I discovered Annie leading the way down the stairs. I hadn’t seen her in person since the breakfast at Reese’s. Silence stood behind her on the stairs. Once they made it to the basement, Silence pushed ahead of Annie running, colliding into me, almost knocking me over with a whirlwind hug.

  Here we stood in a dungeon of torture and despair. I wanted to have this uncomfortable reunion somewhere else. What if my grandparents came home and locked us all in? Grandmother had locked me and Izzy in the attic for hours earlier today.

  Silence’s arms were still wrapped around me as I heard Finn say, “Come on, Si! Let’s go.” He was edgy about what we just discovered more than anything, but he also seemed annoyed, maybe jealous. I recycled whatever initial spark I felt for Silence into a brother-sister affection. Maybe she hadn’t?

  “I know now, Tommy, I know,” Silence told me.

  “Let’s all go upstairs and talk.” I pointed the flashlight at the staircase.

  Silence said, “Let’s go, it’s rank down here!” and held back a gag, before plugging her nose and starting up the stairs. Finn tailed her.

  Annie stayed back. “Hi Tommy,” she said with an undertone of emotion.

  “Hey.” I felt it, too.

  Even with everything going on, Annie filled every spare corner of my head. She had this talent for making everything else go away. We slipped into a quick embrace, and I felt the shock of her cool fingers on the back of my neck before we parted.

  “It really does smell bad down here.” Annie’s hand flew up to cover her nose.

  “Yeah,” I agreed, and breathed into my soft cotton shirt as I followed her up the steps, needing to get back to my sister.

  Once in the kitchen, my eyes landed on Izzy at the table where we left her. I made sure to keep my voice extra calm and gentle. “Go upstairs, Izzy. Get a few things because we’re leaving.” I didn’t want her to hear the phone call I had to make.

  Izzy nodded nervously and darted off.

  “Finn, I need to use your phone.”

  He handed it to me, saying “Call Deputy Bennet, he was the one working on my case. He seems pretty good.”

  Silence and Annie stared at me, and Finn paced back and forth in the kitchen. I saw he had put Bennet on speed dial, but it went to voicemail.

  My face was still boiling hot after what I saw. “My name’s Tommy Walker. I found chains and a blood-soaked mattress in my grandparent’s basement. I also found the dead lady, Sarah Evan’s driver’s license. Please come get me and my sister. We’re at 150 Wolf Road.”

  I was going to call 911, but Silence broke in, saying, “Sit down everyone, please,” as if she was calling some official meeting to order.

  I told her, “We don’t have time for this. We have to go.”

  Silence’s eyes filled with tears as they burned into me. “This is important, and it won’t take long.” She wasn’t taking no for an answer. She went and took a yearbook from the table. We all sat around the kitchen table, except Silence who stood there. Her eyes glittered, as she casted meaningful glances around the table.

  “Why do you have that yearbook?” Finn asked.

  “Be quiet Finn,” Silence snipped, and paused, her eyes narrowed in concentration. Little pieces of torn notebook paper marked certain pages. “It’s all here.” She opened to a page and handed the book to me. “Look, Tommy.”

  A class picture of a girl was circled with blue ink. She was gorgeous, but I didn’t recognize her.

  “Now read the name, Tommy,” Silence instructed, sounding serious.

  “It says,”—my eyes got big— “Elaine Harper. Wow, she was beautiful,” I said, my voice laced with despair.

  “Yeah,” Silence snatched a shaky breath before pressing on, “And I know now, my mom’s Laney.”

  Confusion set in as I passed the yearbook to Finn and he looked at it, too, asking the same question, I was thinking. “How can your mom be Laney?”

  Silence reached across Finn and turned to the backsignature page. She positioned the book between me and Finn. Everyone signed their yearbook message to Laney. But her short finger nail pointed to an entry that wasn’t addressed to Laney. It read:

  Princess,

  I want you to be my girl forever. I want to make you happy. We will be married one day. (Sooner than later) Laney Serel, that name flows. I am going to take you to a real restaurant with cloth napkins and foods we can’t pronounce and travel the world. We will just have a small guest with us.

  Love, Johnny

  “Princess,” I mumbled.

  Finn said, “And she had a boyfriend.”

  “His last name was Serel. They must have eloped before they were kidnapped. She became Laney Serel, only my grandmother and I didn’t know it.” I looked up and Silence’s solemn gaze met mine.

  I said, “And they had the bad luck of renting a cabin from my grandparents.”

  None of us said a word for a few seconds.

  Finn glanced over at the yearbook. “She even looked like you, Si.”

  “No. She wasn’t like me,” Silence said, flipping to another page. This time when we passed the book around, we all got to see a picture of her mom on the yearbook committee. The name and photo of Elaine Harper again circled in ballpoint ink. Silence turned to a page with a group photo of her mother on the cheerleading squad, and back to the page with her mother’s class picture. “Look at all these clubs she was in, and she was even on the honor roll.” She gushed, deeply impressed and admitted, “My class picture usually reads Silence Harper, photo not available.” Becoming thoughtful, she said, “She was the Hailee Palmer of her time.”

  Flipping to yet another page, she showed us Johnny Serel. He was a handsome kid with a half-smile. “I bet she loved Johnny the way I love Finn.” She sat down next to me and a blushing Finn, and they started holding hands.

  I wiped a tear away. Annie did, too. It had fallen like a house of cards, one after the other. Elaine Harper was Laney Serel and Princess. She was the haunte
d lady kept in my grandparents’ basement, and then held captive, in some strange cabin in the woods. My grandparents took her baby. Who was that baby? The truth dormant for so many years stirred in my gut, until it rushed to my consciousness and made my head spin.

  “The doll your mom obsessed over, its name is Jenny, isn’t it?” I asked, but I already knew.

  Silence leaned in, her face looming so close I could see every perfect pore. She sounded emotional. “Yeah.”

  I said it out loud. “Jenny’s my mom’s name. My mom’s the baby that was taken from her.” The story my mom had been writing all those years was a true and terrible story. It was her story. She’d witnessed a crime she was too young to understand. It was why she’d felt so lost all those years.

  Silence’s eyes grew calm. “I think so, too,” she said.

  The old lady acted like I owed them something. They weren’t really my grandparents at all. They were my grandmother’s and mother’s tormentors. I owed them something alright. My mind churned. I said, “I also heard my grandmother say, they kept her until she gave them a boy.” Another piece of the puzzle fell into place. “That boy was Holden. He had been a victim, too.” The room went silent. It was a lot to take in.

  Annie got up and went over to Silence. She put her hands on Silence’s shoulder saying, “That makes Silence, Tommy’s aunt, I think.”

  Silence let out a nervous laugh. “Better behave punk.” A tear fell down her cheek and Finn wiped away with his thumb.

  Wow, Silence was my aunt. I steadied my voice. “You always felt like family.” She reached for my hand. We briefly touched fingertips, until she raised her hand and softly punched me in the arm, which seemed more genuine coming from her.

  We all sat there for a long moment, not sure what to say or do next. It was Annie who asked, “What’s taking Isabella so long?”

  Chapter 55

  The End Game

  Tommy

  I sprinted toward the staircase, panic slowly circulating throughout my body. The others were on my heels. I quickly scaled up the stairs, taking several steps at a time.

  I rushed to the attic. Izzy was on the floor, and a feeling of instant relief came. Izzy struggled to close a suitcase which was overstuffed with clothes and toys.

  “Izzy!” I happily called out, but my heart was continued to drum hard and fast.

  A second later, Silence came in the room. “There you are, Izzy.” She looked around and asked, “What is this? Freakin’ Pennywise’s room?”

  Annie hurried in the room with Finn beside her. Then her eyes darted from side to side. “This room would freak me out! I’m scared of clowns,” she admitted.

  Silence looked at her weird. “Isn’t everybody?”

  “I think in the olden days, clowns were friendly, and vampires were bad,” Finn added.

  We were wasting time. “We need to get out of here,” I said.

  “I could call my mom to pick us all up,” Annie suggested.

  I told her, “I think we need to call 911 first, so the evil Grandparents don’t have the chance to clean things up.”

  The attic door slammed shut. Water poured in from underneath the door. Immediately, I grabbed Izzy and picked her up.

  Finn dropped to the floor, putting his fingers in the water, for some reason. He brought his fingers to his nose. “It’s gasoline. Move back!” His eyes focused in on the single, stained glass window. “We got to go!”

  “It doesn’t even open,” I told him.

  “It does now.” Finn picked up the big clown and crashed it head first through the window. The shattering of the glass was muted by a loud explosion that shook the attic, hurling down plaster and dust from the ceiling above us, as I wrapped my arms around Izzy, trying to shield her. Part of the attic shot up in furious flames!

  We all hovered close to the broken window.

  “I’m scared of heights. And we’re three stories up,” Silence said, suddenly shaky, teetering on her long legs. We didn’t have much time. The smoke billowed toward us. I snapped into action, handing Izzy to Silence, saying, “Please take her,” and reached back to grab the bed sheets and started tying them together in a quick and sturdy knot.

  My little sister shrieked out my name and started crying.

  I willed my heart rate into a steadier rhythm. “You’ll be fine, Izzy. I promise.” I didn’t feel panicked, but just focused on us all getting out alive.

  “You got this, Si,” Finn told Silence as he used the clown’s head to clean away more broken glass and flung the sheet out the window.

  Annie and I grabbed onto the end of the sheets as Silence climbed down, with Izzy’s arms and legs wrapped tightly around her. I watched them, until Silence dropped the rest of the way to the lawn, yelling, “We’re good,” once they landed, and she put Isabella down.

  Worry animated Annie’s face as I put my hand on her arm and urged her forward. Finn and I held the sheet for her. She didn’t hesitate but started her climb down. She made it safely to the ground with a yelp, and I briefly smiled, seeing the three girls were safe. Finn and I both started to cough. I became light-headed. Swirls of smoke filled the

  room. It felt like a sauna. Suddenly, sweat dripped off us.

  He coughed out, “Your turn.” His voice barely audible under the roar of the flames.

  He had already been through too much. “Go, Finn!” I exclaimed.

  Finn knew there was no time to argue, and he climbed out the window, as I held onto the bedding with all my might. The feeling of heat became more like an oven than a sauna, painfully hot. Each nerve was tingling, as I looked down at the girls helping Finn out of the way.

  There was no one left to hold the sheets for me. Hulking flames closed in and the smoke curled around me. Dizzy now, I threw myself out the window, holding the window frame. It felt hot and a few tiny shards of glass went into my palms. I let go with my right hand and then my left a second later.

  The ground rushed up to meet me. I landed on my right foot first. My ankle snapped on impact. I heard the pop, which felt like a small explosion. I called out in agony and fell over, catching myself with my hands.

  Finn asked, “Are you okay?”

  Annie dropped to the ground next to me. “Tommy!” she cried out. “Are you hurt?” I sat up, choking on the air I desperately needed. Annie attentively rubbed my back while I fought to take in gulps of breath, holding my hands out. They were burnt raw where I had touched the window and felt like they were on fire, but my ankle hurt even more.

  I heard Annie telling Finn, “Call 911,” as we all watched, dazed, as a tall older man ran past us toward a black van. I looked at Finn, whose eyes widened in recognition. “Hell, no. That’s him! The guy who attacked me!”

  Next, we all heard, “You can’t leave the evidence, you idiot!” my grandmother scuttled past us, holding a can of gasoline.

  I tried to scream for Annie to take a picture, but my voice came out as a strained whisper. She fumbled for her phone and snapped a couple quick pics.

  Once in the van, the old lady’s brother Earl started the engine and slammed the van in reverse, crashing over and demolishing the Walker family sign without even stopping!

  The old lady veered in with alarming speed, grabbing Izzy by the hand, and yanking her jaggedly across the lawn.

  Silence ran toward the old lady and pulled her back and slapped her across the face, as Izzy broke free and called for me!

  At the same time, I stood, wanting nothing more than to get to my little sister, but my ankle made a crunching sound. It felt disgustingly mushy and wet, as I cried out in pain. My ankle just gave way and Annie flew to my side and became my crutch. She looked down. “Tommy, you’re bleeding!” she yelled.

  Silence and the evil Grandma fell to the ground wrestling, the gasoline spilling on the lawn. Izzy watched the two, paralyzed in terror.

  A ribbon of red followed me. Each step I took hurt more than the last, but with Annie’s help, I kept going.

  Izzy seeme
d to come alive and ran toward me, her small shoulders straight and determined. “Tommy!” she called with outstretched arms, for me to carry her.

  I reached down and picked her up. My little sister wound her legs and arms tightly around me.

  As Finn made it over to Silence, he was on his cell phone with 911. He sounded like a guy calling up from the bottom of a coal mine to me. His face streaked in sweat and soot.

  Then Grandmother was suddenly on top of Silence, banging her head on the ground, screaming, “My brother should have killed Laney and her demon seed like I told him!”

  Finn reached down and lifted the old lady off Silence and tossed her to the ground.

  “Another high school girl getting knocked up when I tried to have a baby for years.” The old lady sniffled and held her hand to her chest.

  I groaned because my ankle flared up, and at the same time the old lady started screeching out in pain. Of course, she always cried for herself. Her humanity didn’t amount to a puddle.

  It went down fast. Silence’s face flushed, and her features twisted in anger as she got up and poured the last of the gasoline on the old lady, taking out a book of matches.

  Izzy jaw shot out, and she closed her eyes as if bracing herself for the worse.

  There was a bright flash of panic in Annie’s eyes as she yelled, “No, Silence!”

  I attempted yelling too, my voice was ruined, and I just kept leaning on Annie.

  Finn cried, “Stop Silence!” He grabbed her hand, but her lips pulled back in a snarl, and she jerked away.

  Izzy opened her eyes as if she woke from a dream. She looked over her shoulder at Silence, and a startled sob tore its way out of her throat.

  I couldn’t let her see this! “Close your eyes, Isabella!” I demanded, my voice finally audible.