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Who? Who would hear her?
Kara’s heart was beating crazily. Fear curdled through her blood.
“Just come with me and don’t say a word! I mean it, Kara. There are bad people here. They cannot find you. If they do, they will hurt you, do you understand?” Marlie’s face pressed closer and even in their dark bedroom, Kara saw that Marlie’s blue eyes were round with fear. She was dressed, in jeans and a sweatshirt, her blond hair pulled into a single braid.
Kara shook her head violently.
“Okay. Now, this is the last time,” Marlie warned. “Got it?”
Kara nodded slowly. Scared out of her mind.
“Promise you’ll be quiet.”
Kara swallowed against the growing lump in her throat, but nodded again.
“I love you, Kara-Bear. . . . I’ll come get you. I promise.” Marlie hesitated just a second, then withdrew her hand.
Kara didn’t speak.
“Okay.” Marlie glanced out the window, where moonlight played on the thick blanket of snow, then grabbed Kara’s palm. “Come on!” She tugged, but Kara didn’t need any more encouragement. She scrambled to get out of the tangle of bed clothes. They crept past Marlie’s bed, where even in the darkness Kara could see several neatly stacked piles of clothes piled over the rumpled coverlet. Even Marlie’s boots were on the bed. Now, though, she, like Kara, was barefoot.
So her footsteps wouldn’t be heard.
Kara’s blood turned to ice. This was wrong. So wrong. She stepped on a toy, probably a Barbie shoe, but held her tongue as Marlie cracked open the door to the hallway.
Along with the scent of wood smoke from the dying fire, the faint sounds of a Christmas carol filtered up from the floor below.
“Silent night . . .”
Marlie peered into the darkness.
“Holy night . . .”
Taking a deep breath, Marlie squeezed Kara’s hand and whispered, “Let’s go.” She pulled her younger sister into the dark, narrow corridor, past the closed doors of the boys’ rooms toward the far end of the hall, where the stairs curved down to the first floor, light curling eerily up from below, the massive doors to Mama and Daddy’s bedroom just beyond the railing.
“All is calm . . .”
For a second, Kara’s heart soared. Marlie was taking her to get Mama and—but no. She stopped at the last door before the staircase leading down, to the door that was always locked, the doorway leading upward to the attic and the warren of unused rooms above.
What?
NO!
“All is bright . . .”
Kara balked. She wasn’t going up there!No, no, no!
She started to protest when Marlie caught her eye and sent her a look that could cut through steel.
Bong!
Kara jumped at the noise, her heart hammering.
But it was only the grandfather clock near the front door, striking off the hours, drowning out the music.
“Jesus,” Marlie whispered under her breath and pulled Kara behind her as she slowly mounted the narrow wooden steps.
Bong!