by Carrie Bates
They pulled up to the new house on a bright day in June. Tommy, her youngest son, tumbled out of the car and ran for the front door. Her eldest, Robbie, followed quickly.
Kyle got out and began unloading all of the luggage they’d been able to fit in the car. The moving van would be following them about a day or two behind. They’d brought enough to get them through a few days; changes of clothes, sheets, pillows. Later, Kyle would take the car back into town to go to the grocery store or grab a pizza. Probably the latter.
“I’ve got this,” Veronica said as she shut the driver side door. “Do you mind checking on the boys?”
Kyle nodded but didn’t answer. He was much quieter these days than he had been growing up. Veronica looked at him and saw both of their parents in his features – she wondered if he saw the same thing when he looked at her.
“Make sure they don’t go too far,” she called out as Kyle followed Tommy and Robbie out behind the house.
It was a huge, two story home that sat on four acres of land. Supposedly, it had been part of a plantation before that had gotten parsed out when the family line died out.
Veronica had been lucky enough to snatch the house at a low price. She’d never seen it in person until now, trusting her realtor to find her something sturdy and roomy – she didn’t know, and hadn’t experienced for herself, that previous potential buyers had been put off by the feel of the place.
It was so bright out, so gorgeous, that Veronica didn’t feel the foreboding at all as she lugged the old bags up the front porch. It was a wrap-around, worn but solid, with beautiful detailing in the wood railings. Veronica paused and imagined herself reading out here in the evenings. She imagined the boys running across it, the loud happy sound of them.
She thought of her father, a carpenter, and how he would have loved the carvings. Then she sighed and moved into the foyer of the house.
Kyle managed to round the boys up quickly and bring them in through the back door.
Veronica frowned at him from the landing. “Was it open?” she asked, feeling for the only set of keys in her pocket. She'd have to get copies made. She didn't expect Kyle to stay here all of the time, depending on her to let him in and out.
“Yeah,” Kyle answered, following Tommy and Robbie into the kitchen.
Tommy suddenly ran back and halfway up the stairs. “Can I pick out my room?” he asked excitedly.
The last place they’d lived, when their father was still around, had only had two bedrooms – the boys had shared a small room without a closet. It barely fit their bunk beds and a dresser where their clothes had always been spilling out of the drawers. Before the move, Veronica had sold the bunkbed cheap and bought two twin frames and mattresses.
“Kyle first,” Veronica answered, struggling to get a suitcase up the last step. Her brother appeared and grabbed it for her.
“Thanks,” he said, and started down the hall, peering into the rooms. She hoped that, given some freedom and a new room to distract him, he’d be able to move on slowly.
The boys were rumbling around downstairs. Kyle strolled out of one of the rooms. “There’s a family with some kids down the street,” he said casually, roaming into another room. “I was thinking of going by after dinner and seeing if they need a sitter.”
“That’s a great idea,” Veronica shouted from what must have been the master suite. It had its own bathroom, with an old pedestal sink. The windows were huge, and the shower looked old, but it turned on and had decent water pressure. “Come here!”
She could hear her brother moving down the hall. He appeared in the doorway, and she pulled his duffle bag in after him. “You should take this one,” she offered, tilting her head toward the old king bedframe. “We’ll have to get you a mattress but I saved up some money for that.”
“I can get it,” he started, but she interrupted him.
“You did more than enough. Really. Pitching in with the funeral – I don’t want you to have to pay for anything here. You’re a kid, you should enjoy yourself.”
Kyle snorted, shoved his hands in his pockets, and wandered back out into the hallway. He’d been babysitting since he was fourteen for neighbors in their old town. After sleeping in the living room of Veronica’s old apartment, he’d used some of his babysitting money to buy random things for the boys – food, baseballs, socks. She appreciated it but she didn’t want her kid brother worrying about finances just yet. She wanted him to be able to finish out a childhood where she hadn’t.
She would start by giving him the master suite, which she really didn’t need. The space felt too large for her and made her uncomfortable. She quickly left Kyle to his new room and headed downstairs to see what the boys were up to. It was amazing, the trouble they could get into when left alone for only a few minutes.
Chapter Two
Three weeks later, they’d settled in nicely.
Veronica had started working for the bank just before her divorce. They liked her enough that they let her transfer to a branch in Louisiana, and she worked weekends at a boutique on Main Street. It paid minimum wage but it would take care of their weekly groceries.
Tommy and Robbie split their time during the summer between roaming the four acres – discovering new things like vernal pools, an old tire swing out on a monstrous tree, and the barbed wire separating their acreage from the neighbor’s, which Veronica vowed to cut down soon – and racing back and forth down the hall between their rooms.
They weren’t used to being separated yet. She knew Tommy was having a hard time sleeping, but he stuck it out without complaint. Louisiana was hot enough that they could keep the windows open at night and listen to the frogs bellowing. The screens kept out the mosquitos, which Veronica also liked the sound of – their buzzing was like white noise to her and put her to sleep quickly.
The boys had befriended the neighbor’s kids, who Kyle had just recently watched while their parents went out for a much-needed date night. It turned out that the girl who used to babysit for everyone had left recently for college, and the surrounding families were desperate to find someone to fill the void.
Veronica hauled groceries into the kitchen and piled the bags on the dining room table that had come with the house. It was sturdy, clearly left over from the old days, well-loved.
She began putting things away, gazing blindly at the counter as she opened and closed cabinets. She realized quickly that a knife was missing from the wood block they were sheathed in – worried that one of the boys had grabbed it to play with, she put down the box of cereal she’d been holding and rushed upstairs.
She searched Tommy’s and Robbie’s rooms as quickly as she could. The house was a bit larger than she’d planned, and their rooms were huge, bigger than hers even. They felt empty even with the new beds and the toys and balls scattered across the rooms.
Veronica stood in the hallway after riffling through her sons’ belongings. She hadn’t found the knife. She wracked her brain, trying to remember if she’d used it the night before, but they’d had a quick dinner of spaghetti and leftover sausage.
She gazed down the hallway, toward the master bedroom, and a horrible thought crossed her mind.
Kyle was at the age where he wanted privacy, so he kept his door shut. Luckily, he hadn’t gone through the defiant age that most teenagers hit around this time in their lives. But Veronica, even as his sister, felt strange going into his room without asking – she knew that he’d never enter her space, as they’d grown up respecting one another.
But she had to know where the knife was, and she couldn’t get the thought out of her head. He wouldn't...? He was doing better, right?
She searched quickly under the large bedframe and the few drawers on his small dresser. She noticed small touches around the room that meant he was settling in, and it calmed her – she’d been afraid that he would feel uncomfortable here, as he’d only ever lived with their parents. He already had a poster up on one wall and had begun painting the old dresse
r they'd found.
The next big move for him was supposed to be to a college dorm, not to Louisiana with his divorced sister. But such was life.
She found it on the top shelf of the closet. It glinted brightly in the afternoon sunlight. Veronica wrapped a hand around the handle carefully and pulled it down with the blade facing away from her. She felt suddenly very precarious, as though something horrible could happen at any second. She felt desperate.
The handle was warm in her grip. Suddenly, she wanted to get away from the knife as soon as possible and get it out of Kyle’s room – she was scared that he might be distressed enough to hurt himself. The whole room had a pulsing feeling of distress to it.
The sound of Tommy and Robbie tumbling through the front door broke her from the blanket of doom. Her hand shook around the knife, and she cupped it carefully against her chest as she moved down the stairs.
“I don’t want either of you touching these,” she said sharply as the boys came into the kitchen, and she moved the knife block high up into one of the top cabinets.
They stood perfectly still, confused at her tone of voice, as they hadn’t technically done anything wrong.
“Okay, Mom,” Robbie said, trying to soothe her without knowing what was wrong. She sighed and ruffled the hair on their heads.
“I’ll have dinner ready soon,” she assured them, pushing them toward the back door. She considered talking to Kyle later. Maybe about therapy. It was a relatively small town, but maybe there was someone around who he could talk to.
Chapter Three
Veronica was working a double shift at the store Saturday, not something she’d wanted to do, but one cashier had quit, and the other had called out.
Kyle had stepped up, offering to watch the boys for the evening. It was easy enough – they were obsessed with chasing fireflies around the back yard lately, and they stood waiting for twilight now out near the oak tree with the swing on it.
Kyle was sitting lazily against the trunk, knees up, nibbling on a blade of sweet grass. Tommy and Robbie were quickly distracted by a stray cat that had wandered in under the apple trees, most likely looking for a mole or field mice. It was fat but fast – they chased it through the grass, squealing and laughing.
Kyle felt a kind of calm settle in him, and he took a deep breath. There was a lot of pollen in the air for so late in the season but it warmed him. He thought of his parents and sadness passed through him, but it didn’t linger – he let their faces fade out as Robbie ran up to him, stumbling over the roots of the oak.
“Uncle Kyle! Can you help us catch that cat, please, please!”
Kyle tried to look stern, but couldn’t help smiling. “It could be someone’s cat, Rob. Just leave it be.”
“But it doesn’t have a collar!”
He looked out into the yard and saw Tommy trying to stalk the animal, who was clearly aware of his presence, messily.
“How about we talk to your mom when she gets home? We can go to the shelter tomorrow and get you guys a kitten. Your mom had a cat growing up. I’m sure she misses having one around.”
Robbie’s face lit up at the suggestion; to a kid, a kitten was always better than a cat. Kyle was sure that Veronica would say yes. Her ex hadn’t ever let her have a pet, and she was someone who was very nurturing. Just look at how she’d handled the last few years – raising the boys by herself, taking on so much responsibility. And now, she was stuck with him. Guilt swept through him as his nephew wandered off again.
Sometimes, he forgot about the days when they were just siblings, adventuring out in the small town they’d grown up in, trucking through cow fields. He wasn’t surprised that Veronica had picked this house. It came with a lot of beautiful old land, and the boys seemed to belong there.
It was dark enough now that a few of the fireflies were starting to light up in the tall grass at the far side of the yard. The boys gave up on the cat, who had disappeared into the tree line, and started toward the pulsing lights with the mason jars they’d found.
The sound of a branch snapping startled Kyle. He brought his knees up closer to his chest and began to push himself up from the ground; in front of him was a young woman, her shoulders straight, her hair braided and slung over one shoulder. He stared at her in surprise.
She was wearing a dress that looked layered but could have been modern. The hem of it was dusty, and her feet were bare. She grinned at him when he looked back up at her face, and he realized that she was actually much closer to his own age then he’d thought – her posture made her seem older. She held out a hand to him, and he froze as he saw the knife. She quickly stabbed the knife into her chest, blood spattering out and staining her dress red.
Horrified, Kyle moved to stand and when he straightened, she was gone. He turned quickly toward the trees that were nearest the oak, but she was nowhere to be seen. He shook his head; had he dreamed this? He must’ve dozed off. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, then laughed out loud. You’re losing it, Kyle. No one was there; it was all in your imagination.
Behind him, Tommy and Robbie shrieked and laughed in the dying light, not having noticed anything out of the ordinary.
Chapter Four
Veronica sat up quickly, throwing the light quilt off and standing barefoot in the middle of her small room. There was only a few feet on every side of her from the wall or a piece of furniture.
She’d gotten a twin bed and shoved it up against the wall. Maybe someday, when she convinced herself to date again, she’d buy a queen or a king and move into the huge room downstairs that the boys used as a playroom. But for now, this was enough for her. The tight space calmed her.
Her room faced the line of the moon, and the dim light of it flooded the dark corners. She listened intently, sure that her motherly instinct had woken her up for a reason. In the moments between dreaming and waking, she thought she’d heard sobbing.
Both of her boys had gone to bed exhausted and satisfied. It wouldn’t be Kyle – he wasn’t much of a crier, hadn’t been even at the funeral.
After listening for a moment more, she opened her door and stepped out into the hallway. She’d just make sure, before going back to bed, that everything was okay.
Veronica stood outside Tommy’s door first – he’d wanted the room closest to hers – and heard nothing. Then she padded over to Robbie’s, and heard nothing as well.
She turned to stare at Kyle’s door, but didn’t move. Instead, she grasped Robbie’s doorknob and opened it carefully. When she found him sleeping deeply, she walked back to Tommy’s room and did the same. He was sprawled out on top of his sheets with one shoe still on. She smiled to herself, relaxing in the doorway.
A loud clattering of sounds made her spin quickly with her hand against her chest. She stared down the hall before charging toward Kyle’s door and bursting through it.
Her brother stood shirtless, wearing basketball shorts and gripping a short baseball bat tightly. He whirled on her as she stopped, but kept an eye over his shoulder.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, the hairs on the back of her neck standing up. Something was wrong, she could feel it. She looked at the windows, but they were both shut and locked. The closet was open but empty of everything except for a laundry basket of dirty clothes and scattered shoes. The door to the bathroom was open too – nowhere for anyone to hide.
“I thought someone was in here,” Kyle said quietly, still in a defensive stance. Veronica backed up against the wall without thinking.
“I don’t see anyone,” she said nervously, more to assure herself than her brother. “I was out in the hall. No one left your room. No one’s in here.”
Kyle moved to double-check that the windows were locked. Veronica hadn’t seen him this animated since before their parents’ death. It was both a relief and terrifying. He was a naturally calm person, and seeing him so frazzled worried her.
“You don’t smell it?” Kyle insisted, an edge of desperation to his voice. The baseball bat
hung limply from his left hand. Veronica took a deep breath, still pressed against the wall, her eyes locked with her brother’s.
The room smelled warm, like sunlight and thick grass and dirt. It also smelled like decay; like something had died in the walls – or in the room.
Veronica suddenly saw a woman on Kyle’s bed and screamed at him to look at her. Kyle looked, but did not see anything.
“Do you see her, Kyle? Oh my…she’s…dead…” Veronica did not get any other words out as she threw up her supper on Kyle’s bedroom floor. When she looked back at Kyle’s bed, the woman with the knife in her chest had vanished.
Chapter Five
At the end of July, the babysitting began to pick up for Kyle. Everyone was going back to work, their kids left to linger for a few weeks before school started. It wasn’t any different for Tommy and Robbie – when Veronica worked and Kyle had to watch someone, he took them with him.
Robbie was at the age where he was obsessed with finding the perfect backpack to make an impression at their new school. He dragged Veronica into town four different times before finally settling on one that was a checkerboard pattern.
“Can I get a skateboard?” he asked as they walked through the sports section, and Veronica remembered vividly Kyle struggling to learn kick flips as a kid.
“I think your uncle has one,” she said, handing the cashier her card. “You should ask him to show you some tricks. He used to be really good.”
Veronica smiled, recalling all of the afternoons she’d been sent to pick Kyle up from the skate park.
“Can we start when I get home?” Robbie asked, slipping back into childhood and holding his mom’s hand on the way to the car.
