Given Read Free

room.
    I swallow the feeling of dread in my throat. It’s too creepy. A dead girl -- a dead witch’s --house. That can’t be good.
    Do you really want to go wandering around in there?
    I force myself onto the porch and try the doorknob. It’s locked, as expected.
    So I go around the back and try that door, but it’s locked, too. For a moment, I consider just grabbing a rock and smashing the window, then reaching in and unlocking it that way.
    And then I see someone’s already broken a window to get in. It’s right at ground level, and there’s glass scattered nearby.
    Didn’t Nat say she found Raine tied up in Hadley’s basement?
    Somehow it’s comforting to know that Natalia was here. Right here, doing the same thing I’m about to do now. I’m going to climb into the damn basement and hope no one else has decided to take up residence in the meantime.
    I’m a lot bigger than Nat so squeezing in through the opening isn’t that easy, especially since there’s glass poking out of the frame. She cleared most of the stuff at the bottom, but there are plenty of shards left at the top and some of it scrapes my back as I slide in.
    I drop to the floor and look around.
    One dim bulb shimmers overhead. It’s eerie to think that this same bulb was shining when Hadley was torturing Raine. There’s the chair she was tied to, and the rope on the floor that bound her. I kneel down and touch it. There’s specks of dried blood on the ground, the chair, and even stuck to pieces of the rope.
    “What a mess,” I say aloud, and instantly regret it. My voice sounds weird down here. There’s a slight echo.
    The day I was here is so vague that I don’t have much memory of it. I was under Raine’s spell, and Hadley was mind-controlling me too. But being in the basement conjures up a ghost of an image. Raine sitting there, her face bruised and bloodied, and Hadley watching us both. Waiting for something to happen.
    I shake my head as if trying to wake from a dream. It feels like there’s still a lingering after-effect of Raine and Hadley’s presence in the room.
    But other than the chair and the rope, there’s not much down here; some old rags, a few pieces of plywood, some two by fours, and an empty cardboard box.
    I walk up the rickety steps as quickly as I can and head into the rest of the house.
    The kitchen is just as bare as the basement. Hadley was using plastic plates and silverware. There’s a little garbage in a trashcan, just some old food. I open all of the drawers and cabinets, going as fast as I can.
    This place just feels wrong.
    It feels dangerous.
    The living room is totally empty but for a few dust bunnies and a package of curtains that was never opened.
    Finally, I get to Hadley’s bedroom. It’s the most lived-in room in the entire house. There’s a mattress and blanket, but no box spring or bed frame, which is pretty bizarre for a girl. There’s a dresser filled with clothes, and I open the drawers and quickly pull them out. But there’s nothing else in there.
    I’m starting to feel like this is a total wild goose chase. What do I expect to find in here, exactly? A DVD of Hadley telling me what her plans were before she was unexpectedly murdered?
    But still, I keep going. After all, I’m here and I’ll likely never get another chance to look around. Hadley must have had something -- a journal or a book or a computer.
    Maybe a digital camera. Something that can shed light on what’s happening.
    The closet has some clothes hanging in it but not much else.
    And then I’m down to the last few boxes sitting piled in the corner of the room.
    I’m working up a decent sweat now, but a lot of time has passed. Shadows are moving across the floor, and it seems like a warning.
    Hurry up, Cam. You’re in danger.
    I pick up each box and unceremoniously dump its contents on the floor. The first box is filled with books and magazines, but there’s nothing strange about any of them.
    They’re just typical