Unspeakable Things(80)

He hadn’t expected to discover me in this basement. He flicked his light to the finger near my feet, Gabriel’s finger, then back to my face.

I tried to blink away the yellow, but it pooled in my eyes.

My feet were glued to the dirt. I could only nightmare whisper help.

A sound like new leather being stretched told me Goblin was smiling.

I understood then that he was rotting from the inside, a jack-o’-lantern left outdoors after a hard frost. He was a man who fed his dark, and it had grown so ravenous that only entire bodies could satisfy it.

He shuffled close and touched my wrist, almost a caress, before twisting my arm behind me. The pain was excruciating. He didn’t know how to hold kids, not the right way. My skin slipped and burned under his grip and I thought of Charlie’s Angels and Sabrina and how she always escaped, but that was TV. This was real and I was going to die and all I could do was wet myself before crying like that baby rabbit I’d released from Meander’s jaws too late.

The memory gave me a burst of fight, but my arms and legs were aluminum foil to his steel.

He pulled me against his body.

He covered my eyes with his hot paw.

The other he used to squeeze my throat with something like curiosity.

That’s when I heard it.

cuk-cuk-cuk

My yell flooded the basement, each word exploding like a firework: You should have believed me.





CHAPTER 56

My vision narrowed as Goblin crushed my neck.

Cass, sweet lass . . . I will see you around, promise.

Gabriel had honored his pledge. The kindest boy in the world had kept his word, and he’d had to die in this basement, cold, with only a monster to witness.

And I was going to join him.

I felt okay with that, drowsy almost.

The popping fireworks disappeared. Everything shaded to gray, and then ink. I was beyond speaking. Just when I thought it’d be blackness forever, my brain did the sweetest thing and threw me a going-away party.

It showed me a movie of the best parts of my life.

Sephie and me putting sunglasses on a kitty butt and laughing until she snorted and I peed a little.

Mom reading books to little Sephie and me, making all the voices.

Aunt Jin showing me how to dance with my hips.

Sephie finding three boys picking on me on the playground and pushing them down, fierce as an Amazon.

And . . . my dad? I was surprised to see him in my final movie, but there he was, loud and angry. Before I could figure out how that fit, the earth rose up to hit me, smack on the side of the face.

It should have hurt, but I could breathe again, and suddenly I was frantic for it. I sucked in air, gasping and coughing so hard I threw up. The more air I got, the wider my vision grew, expanding so I could see beyond a pinhole. The edges grew fuzzy, then saffron colored. Dad was there, his hands around Goblin’s neck as Goblin’s had been around mine.

Goblin was punching at him, kicking, but Dad wouldn’t let him go.

Once Goblin didn’t fight anymore, Dad dropped him. Goblin’s chest was rising and falling, but he was out. Dad turned to me.

I saw it all in his eyes.

Mom had gone to bed.

Dad, angrier than he’d ever been, had clipped his nubby little nails.

Then, finally, he’d entered my bedroom.

But I hadn’t been there.

And he’d come looking for me.

He must have spotted my bike in the ditch, charged into Goblin’s house, found him choking me, and then returned the favor.

That all seemed just fine, and so I returned to the comfort of oblivion.





CHAPTER 57

I woke up in the hospital. The smell of dirt was so strong that I came to thrashing. It took me a while to stop, even when I realized where I was. Mom and Sephie were brought to my bedside, but not Dad. They had matching bags under their eyes. In fact, they looked a lot like each other. I’d never noticed it before.

Mom rushed immediately to my side. “Cassie! How are you?”

I aimed to say “you tell me,” but it came out as a croak.

Mom grabbed a cup of water from my hospital tray and pivoted its straw in my direction. The cool liquid felt like live coals going down at first, but once it coated my parched throat, I couldn’t get enough. Mom explained the situation as I drank. Goblin had broken my wrist when he’d twisted it, and he’d strangled me within an inch of my life. The doctors said my scar tissue saved me, which is a hoot and a half if you think about it. They said they’d need to keep me twenty-four hours for observation, but other than my wrist, my body would be just fine, they thought.

“Where’s Dad?” My voice was deeper than usual, but back.

Before Mom could answer, Mrs. Wellstone showed up, right there in my hospital room. Her hair was loose and looked like it hadn’t been washed in a while. When she ran over and gently held me, I could smell that I was right about that second part. I felt miserable for her, but it felt so good to be hugged.

“Thank you,” she sobbed.

When I blinked, I could see that finger on the back of my eyelids. Maybe I would forever. “It was Gabriel?”

She nodded.

“You shouldn’t be here,” I said. I meant that she should be with him, or at least his body, but it came out wrong. Then I remembered the necklace.

“Are my pants here?” I asked Mom.