The Waiting: A Supernatural Thriller(50)

Shaun shivered against him, and Evan hugged him tighter. With a shaking hand, he reached out and touched the woman’s shoulder.

“Becky, come back to the house—”

Her head snapped around so fast Evan expected to hear her spine break. Her eyes were wide, unseeing, looking through him, and her lips peeled back from her teeth even further, in a rictus. Evan yanked his hand back as though touching a hot burner.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.”

The sound came from behind Becky’s teeth, and her tongue darting wildly between the gaps in them. With slow movements, he retreated up the hill, clutching Shaun.

“Da,” Shaun said, into Evan’s neck.

“It’s okay, buddy, it’s okay.”

He kept walking backward, his eyes locked on Becky, who continued to stare at the spot where they’d been. “I’ll be right back,” Evan called down to her, and jogged to the house. Once inside he set Shaun on the couch and began to pile blankets on him.

“What happened, honey? Did she hurt you?”

Shaun gazed at him, his teeth chattering while another shiver coursed through his small body. Evan dug into his pocket for his phone, wondering who he should call. Becky’s employer at the hospital? The police? An ambulance?

The sound of a boat engine starting made him look up from his phone.

“No way,” he said, walking to the front door.

Becky wasn’t standing in her spot near the lake anymore. She was in her father’s boat, and as he watched, she cut a short swath and turned the craft toward the opposite side of the lake, accelerating more and more.

Evan stepped out of the house. “Hey! Becky! Becky!”

His yells did nothing to slow her. She piloted the boat away, a V of water gliding in the wake, her back turned toward him. Soon the craft was only a speck dotting the gray waves.

Evan shut the door and walked to the couch, his eyes unfocused. “Let’s get you in the tub, buddy.”

After checking Shaun’s body for marks and welts of any kind and finding nothing, Evan gave him a bath, warming him up. As Shaun splashed and played in the soapy water, he kept replaying Becky’s behavior in his mind. What the hell had happened? When he’d left that afternoon, she’d been a normal young woman, capable and trustworthy. What could possibly alter someone so much in a matter of hours?

“Ow?”

Evan came back to himself and realized that the water in Shaun’s bath had begun to cool. “Sorry, honey. Let’s get you out of there.”

After drying him off, Evan set him on the couch, rewrapping him in the blankets again. He sat and stared at his son for a long time, taking in his features. Shaun looked back, grinning from time to time. It was like seeing glimpses of Elle behind a fluttering curtain when he smiled, her lasting gift to him.

“You got your mom’s smile, you know that, buddy? I’m so glad I still get to see it.” Tears filled his eyes. “I’m sorry I left you.” His voice became hoarse, the horrible ideas of what could’ve been flowing through his mind. “I didn’t think anything would happen. I’m sorry you got cold, I’m so sorry you got cold.”

“Ky?” Shaun said, his brow furrowing.

“I won’t cry,” Evan said, wiping at his eyes before leaning forward to kiss him on the brow. As he sat back, he glanced over the back of the sofa.

The basement door was open a few inches.

Evan stood and took a step toward it, waiting for it to fly open all the way, pushed from something behind it. But it stayed motionless. Had it been closed when he left? Yes, he was almost sure.

“I’ll be right back, honey,” he said over his shoulder.

After grabbing the flashlight from the kitchen, Evan went to the basement door and opened it fully. He flicked the flashlight on, then went down the stairs, playing the light off the treads and walls. Reaching the bottom, he flipped the light switch on, but nothing happened. He tried a few more times, toggling the switch up and down, as fear rose in his guts. Evan illuminated the doll, still facedown where he’d left it, and swept the beam around the space. Nothing looked out of place. He pointed the flashlight at the ceiling, panning it across each of the dark light bulbs. It looked like they’d all blown.

He moved down the last few steps and stopped, turning in a circle. Slowly he swung the beam toward the clock, its darker shade already drawing his attention. It was as he’d left it. Knowing more of its history didn’t make him any more comfortable in its presence. Someone once said fear was the result of not understanding something. Standing in the cloying darkness with the clock only feet away, Evan didn’t agree.

“Hello?”

The sound of his voice startled him. He hadn’t meant to speak. Now he waited, stomach churning, dreading a response.

Silence.

“Da?” Shaun called from the living room.

“Be right there, buddy,” he yelled, then turned and headed back up the stairs.

~

Evan made dinner for Shaun and then called the hospital and told the woman in the PCA department about Becky’s strange behavior.

“I’ll check to make sure she made it home okay,” the woman whose name he thought was Marissa said.

“Could you please give me a call back after you talk to her?” he asked, feeding Shaun a bite of hot dog.

“I will, sir.”