The Invited(120)

“Have you been getting messages, too?” Riley asked.

“From Mama?” Olive was confused.

“No! From Hattie. Your mother found the treasure because of Hattie. Hattie would send her messages. Sometimes in dreams. You said you’d been dreaming about Hattie. What has she shown you?”

“I don’t know. I—”

“Think!” Riley demanded.

Olive tried to squirm away, but Riley held her tight, pulling her closer, her arms now wrapped around Olive.

    “Don’t you get it? How special you are?” Riley said, tightening her grip even more. “Your mother didn’t understand, either. Not at first. But she was chosen. Chosen by Hattie. Hattie gave her powers, gave her the ability to see things beyond what any normal person can see. I didn’t understand at first. I kept asking myself why. Why Lori of all people? She didn’t even want the gifts Hattie gave her. I thought it was so unfair, infuriating. But now I finally understand. It was right there under my nose the whole time, but I never put it together.”

“Put what together?”

“They’re related! Lori was Hattie’s great-granddaughter.”

“What?”

“It’s true. You and your mother have Hattie’s blood running in your veins. Do you understand how special that makes you? That’s why you’ve been dreaming about her—you’re connected by blood. Tell me what you’ve dreamed, Ollie.”

“I…I don’t remember,” Olive said.

“Think, dammit!”

And as Olive tried to squirm out of her aunt’s grasp, she did think.

She thought of how her mother had pulled away from Riley in the last days before she left, had refused to go out with her and how they’d fought.

She thought of her mother’s diary, of the final entry, how the writing was messier, more hurried. Was it possible that her mother hadn’t written it? That someone else had?

She thought of looking through her mother’s closet and how the only pair of shoes missing was the beaded ivory slippers. Of how that meant she’d been wearing them when she left the house for the final time.

“How did you get my mother’s shoes?” Olive asked.

Riley looked at her a second, her face tense. Then she smiled, but it was a sickening I’m about to tell you a big lie and you’d better believe it sort of smile. “She gave them to me.”

Olive kicked at her aunt, dug her fingernails into Riley’s arms.

“Help!” she screamed, thinking if she screamed loud enough, Helen and Nate would hear, would come running.

Riley pulled Olive closer, spinning her, wrapping one arm around her neck, holding her other hand over her mouth.

“Shh, Ollie. Calm down. You’re okay. Everything’s going to be okay.”

    But as she spoke, her arm tightened around Olive’s neck.

“Please, Aunt Riley.” Olive wheezed out the words with what little air could get through.

“Shh, my special, special girl,” Riley cooed, pulling her arm even tighter.





CHAPTER 50



Helen





SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

Hattie Breckenridge was choking Olive.

Not the faint ghost of Hattie, but an actual, physical Hattie.

They were standing not twelve feet away from Helen, by the wrecked foundation of Hattie’s house, and Hattie was behind Olive, holding her, the crook of her elbow against Olive’s throat.

The moon cast a bright light, fully illuminating the scene in the bog.

They’d been following the doe, jogging along behind it through the woods. It would get far ahead of them, nearly out of sight, then stop and wait for them to catch up before moving on. When Olive’s scream pierced the silence, the deer broke into a run, Helen and Nate right behind her. She’d heard Nate stumble, fall to the ground with a “Shit!,” but hadn’t turned back. Helen followed the deer to the bog, and as she stood at the tree line, she saw Olive and Hattie about four yards away. A man was crumpled on the ground beside them.

Helen sprinted up behind the figure in the white dress with the long dark hair. She got to her, grabbed her hair, screamed, “Let her go!”

But the dark hair came off in her hands.

A wig.

And under it, a bare neck with a circular snake tattoo.

“Riley! What the hell are you doing?”

Helen grabbed Riley’s shoulders, pulling her back. Olive dropped to the ground, gasping. Olive looked up and Helen saw she was wearing the necklace: Hattie’s necklace, the circle, triangle, and square glinting in the moonlight.

“You!” Riley screamed at Helen. “Why couldn’t you have just gone away? Left before it was too late?”

Riley swung at Helen, catching her right in the bridge of the nose, sending her reeling backward, the pain bright and blinding. She sank down to her knees on the bed of wet, spongy moss.

    “Helen!” Nate yelled. He sounded far away.

Riley stood over Helen. “Why couldn’t you have just given up? Gone back where you came from!” She kicked Helen hard in the side, sending her toppling over from the pain and force of it.

“Hattie,” Helen said, half in answer to Riley’s question, half calling to her, hoping she would come and save them.