Page 47
Story: I'll Be Waiting
I sigh. “Come in.”
It won’t be Jin. He knows that I’m not the sort to say I don’t want company when I secretly do. I could hope it’s Cirillo coming to apologize, but the approach seems too soft and tentative for him. Shania then, which means I need to put on my best face because she deserves none of my snippy bullshit. Before I stomped from the séance, I should have spoken to her, to make sureshewas okay.
Yep, I suck at this big-sister stuff. I was clearly made to be the bratty younger sibling.
When the door doesn’t open, I call again. No answer.
With a stifled groan, I get up, go to the door, and swing it open.
No one’s there.
I squint down the semi-dark hall. Shania’s gone.
Damn it, I clearly zoned out for longer than I thought. These days, my distraction sucks up time like an industrial-strength vacuum.
I consider going after her. I’m not in the right mood, though, and I don’t want to seem as if I only grudgingly checked on her. Give me a couple of minutes.
I thump back onto the recliner and pick up my—
Laura has moved.
Laura the red-haired pioneer doll. When I came in, she was on the shelf opposite me. She’s still there. But she’d been facing sideways, her glassy gaze on the door. Now it’s on me.
I vault out of the recliner, and as I do, something brushes my arm, which sets me scrambling all the more, nearly falling backward over the recliner footrest.
“Sorry.”
The whisper comes at my ear, so soft it’s almost a sigh. I spin again, and there’s another sound, like an apologetic curse.
No one’s there. No onecanbe there. There’s one way in and out of this room, and I didn’t step far enough through that doorway to let anyone enter behind me.
I look at the doll and remember who had moved it around the last time we were here, turning her head like that to make me jump and cursehimout.
“Anton?” I whisper.
No answer.
“Anton, if that’s you, can you say something?”
Silence.
“Can you do something? Anything?”
Nothing in the room moves. Tears fill my eyes.
Am I sure the doll wasn’t already facing me? Am I sure I heard anything?
If you’re there, give me a sign.
I don’t say the words. They’re too hokey.
Does that matter? Anton wouldn’t judge me for hokey.
A rap at the door has me jumping again. Then it opens, and Jin pokes his head in. Seeing me on my feet, he frowns.
“Everything okay?”
I nod.
Table of Contents
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- Page 47 (Reading here)
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