And the Trees Crept In(58)

Cath-the-child is hissing the final words, her eyes leaking tears that she doesn’t seem to notice.

I watch her fury with understanding. “You did this,” I whisper. “Auntie Cath, you did this.”

The image seems to freeze

and when I blink I am back in the cave and I finally, finally understand.





“He’s a demon.”

Gowan shakes his head. “What?”

“The Creeper Man. He’s a child-stealing demon. I saw Cath summon him. She thought he was a protector, but she was wrong. She probably had no idea what she was doing, but she dared him to come. She rhymed, like a spell or something, and I got the weirdest feeling he could hear.”

Gowan opens his mouth and then sighs into his fists. “Silla—”

“I saw it.”

“Where?”

“In the cave. It’s some kind of… I don’t know. Portal. I just… I saw it. And this is his weird lair or something. It sounds insane, but somehow this is all real. He took Nori here into this—place—but we found a way in, too. I don’t think he expected that. So we can save her.”

“I don’t know, Sill. This sounds too… out there.”

His casual use of my name like that—Sill—sends a jolt of uncomfortable familiarity through me. And I hate him.

“Well, look around,” I snap, gesturing. “Does any of this seem normal to you? You can either accept it and help me, or deny it and keep trying to find a rational and completely useless explanation. But I need your help.”

He sighs, long and low, taking me in. “What can I do?”

“I need to find out as much as I can about this demon. Cath had a doll. She made it when she and Mam were little. I know she still has it. She wouldn’t have thrown it away. It’s a doll of him… the Creeper Man. I think that if I could destroy it, it might kill him. Maybe it’s his vessel or something.”

“So we have to find our way back to the house.”

“Yeah.”

Gowan glances around. There is no straight path anymore. “We could try…”

“We have to leave a trail. Like Hansel and Gretel. We’ll find it eventually.”

Gowan doesn’t believe me, I can see that. But he follows me anyway.

We walk with purpose for the first time in… how long have we been here?

We walk straight, and reach the cave.

We walk in zigzags, and reach the cave.

We split up and walk in opposite directions. And end up facing each other.

I run up a rise in the floorboards, leaving Gowan at the bottom, and end up looking up at him. He runs away from me, and crashes into me from the other side.

And every

single

time

we end up at the mouth of the cave.





26


told you i was crazy



Round and round the halls we go

running from the shadows.

up and up and up we go,

when he gets you, he swallows!



1980: Catherine goes to check on Pamela and Anne as usual. Ever since Mama’s passing, Catherine has taken the role of carer. She holds the position with pride, and takes it very seriously. Pammy is fast asleep, legs splayed, blankets in disarray on the floor, mouth open—as usual. Cath smiles.

Wild child.

One day, she is beginning to realize, Pamela Grey will break the hearts of many boys. Many men.

One day she will run away.

The last thought is unexpected. She pushes it away, but an icy chill has taken hold of her spine, like a cool hand, and won’t let go.

She takes the blankets off the floor and covers Pammy up, then bends to kiss her hot cheek, and whispers, “Be careful, little nut.”

When Catherine goes to check on Anne, she finds the bed empty and the window open. Moonlight flickers into the room as the wind blows the curtains back and forth.

Dark, light, dark, light.

Flickerflickerflickerflicker.

“Anne?” Cath rushes into the room. “Anne?”

No, no, no…

She runs to the window and leans out, scanning the garden. Anne wouldn’t be that stupid, surely.… Python Wood looms in the darkness and Catherine senses its grin. She wants to scream Anne’s name into the night, but Papa would wake. It is her job to protect him from things like this. He needs to work so they can eat, and to work, he needs to sleep.

She swallows. I’m going to have to go out there.

She realizes this with a rising sense of dread. It is a cold, murky feeling inside her. She will have to go out there… at night. Out in Python Wood with the trees dancing in the wind with their long, leering shadows.

She has one leg out the window already when she hears it.

A sniffle from inside the room.

“Anne?”

Another one… and a soft whimper. It is coming from the wardrobe. She walks over to it slowly and opens the doors. Anne sits huddled at the bottom, wrapped in too many blankets to count, hugging her red-scarfed penguin doll tightly.

“Cathy?” Her voice is tiny in the expanse of the room.

“Anne! What are you doing in there?”

“I’m hiding. It’s safer.”

Catherine laughs, breathless in her relief. “Hiding! Hiding from what?”