“That is a spooky little kid,” whispered Katrina.
Simon and Katrina stood in the doorway to the living room. Ally lay on the couch, her arm around Lithon. She wore one of Simon’s shirts, the hem dangling around her knees.
“I think she’s been through a lot,” said Simon.
“I don’t doubt that,” said Katrina. “God, Simon. When I helped her with the bath…you could see her spine and every one of her ribs. I don’t think she’s quite starved, but she’s close. But it’s not that, or anything else.” She smacked her fist into her legs. “It’s…it’s…”
“Her eyes,” said Simon.
“Yeah.” Katrina licked her lips. “It’s like she’s looking right through you, and she knows everything about you. And she…knows…things. What are we going to do with them?”
“I can stay with them tomorrow,” said Simon. “I can take off work. And isn’t tomorrow your day off?”
“Yeah,” said Katrina. “But after that?”
“Wait for Conmager,” said Simon.
“Do you really think he’ll come?” said Katrina.
“Oh, he’ll come,” said Simon. “Unless something happened to him. He’ll come.”
“We should sleep down here,” said Katrina. “In case one of them wakes up and freaks out.”
“Yeah,” said Simon. “I’ll take the floor. You can have Mom’s recliner.” He sighed. “This wasn’t quite what I had in mind when I asked you to spend the night.”
Katrina chuckled. “Well, duh.” She kissed him. “We’ll have time for that later.”
“I’ll go get some blankets,” said Simon.
He didn’t sleep well, and spent most of the night wandering the house, checking the locks and peering out the windows.
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The Tower of Endless Worlds Page 42
