The Evil Within Read Free Page B

could leave you in peace. ”
    “Why—why can’t you?” I was trying, very hard, not to scream.
    Moonbeams highlighted the black water as Casals slunk back and forth against my ankles like a caressing, comforting hand. Sparkles danced beneath Celia’s hollow eyes. Were they tears?
    “ Because we have to go back ,” she said. “ To Marlwood. ”
    Then my cell phone rang. I plunged my hand into my bag, too panicky to remember where I’d stashed it. Sucking in my breath, I tipped my bag upside down; my wallet and pens and keys and wadded up receipts and notes and sticks of gum tumbled to the ground and where the hell was my phone—
    “Heather?” I cried, as I grabbed it and I accepted the call. “I’m so sorry—”
    “No,” said a low, raspy voice. “It’s me, Lindsay. Troy.”
    Troy. Who had gone missing after that horrible night. Lost, in the woods, in the snow. I sank to the ground.
    “Julie gave me your new number. She said you can’t find your old cell and—”
    “Oh, God, oh my God,” I yelled, gripping the phone with both hands. “Where are you?”
    “I’m okay. Okay now ,” he said. “I’ve been in the hospital. I had a concussion. They found me in the woods. By the lake.”
    “A concussion ?”
    “I don’t remember what happened. I guess I fell.”
    “Fell,” I echoed.
    “Yeah, they said I was lucky. I could’ve died. It was so cold that night.”
    I closed my eyes. I tried to swallow but my throat was closed. I didn’t realize until that moment that I thought he had died.
    “Listen, we’re staying in La Jolla. I want to see you,” he went on.
    I could barely keep myself from shrieking with joy. He was in San Diego . La Jolla was only a forty-minute drive from my house.
    “Yes,” I managed.
    “Is tomorrow okay? I know it’s Christmas, but—”
    “Yes.” I wanted him here. Now. “It’s okay.” More than okay.
    “Great.” His voice was warm. He was alive. “So. Merry Christmas, Lindsay.”
    We disconnected and I was so happy that for a moment I forgot about the dead girl inside me, whose white face floated on our swimming pool. I forgot I had lost my mind in the movie theater, and that I was afraid for my life.
    “ He didn’t fall ,” Celia said, her voice echoing inside my head as I collected all the things I had dumped out of my purse. “ He was pushed. ”
    Shaking, I got to my feet; moving stiff-legged, I walked closer to the edge of the pool and looked down. Her white face, her black, eyeless sockets, her mouth an endless scream. Bubbles popped on the surface of the water, and I stiffened. Was she coming out ?
    More bubbles dotted the surface, like something rising from somewhere very deep. Very cold. As they churned, I screamed and raced back into the house. I slammed the sliding glass door shut, turned on every light, and huddled on the couch with my knees beneath my chin, trembling, until everyone came back from visiting Santa. Hah, I thought. I wasn’t going to get what I wanted this year.
    “I have to go back,” I said to myself, over and over again, making it real, forcing myself to accept it. If I wanted this over, if I wanted to live a normal life—if I wanted to stay alive—I had to go back.

THREE
    I DIDN’T SLEEP all night. I sat in my bed, breathing too hard, avoiding the dresser mirror. And the bathroom mirror. And any shiny object in our house that might cast a reflection. I didn’t want to see Celia. I didn’t know how the possession worked—if that cold feeling on the back of my neck meant she was taking me over, or if she was somehow inside me all the time. I didn’t know if there were other times she possessed me that I was unaware of. I wondered if other people who got labeled as crazy were actually possessed, like back in the Middle Ages—possessed by ghosts.
    The next day I went through the motions of Christmas—the presents, the dinner—forcing myself to stay calm, even though I was becoming more and more afraid that I would