Page 92 of The Sister's Curse

Spider-Man paused at that gap in the blankets, where the dinosaur lay. The dinosaur rushed up and grabbed Spider-Man’s leg. Spider-Man fought and thrashed, but got pulled under by the dinosaur.

“Oh, honey.” Mason’s mom’s eyes filled with tears.

Solemnly, Mason grabbed my hand and put it around Spider-Man. He used my hand to pull Spider-Man out of the fuzzy pond.

A lump rose in my throat. “You’re a very brave boy, Mason.”

Mason leaned into his mom’s chest, and she enfolded him in a hug.

“I’m gonna go find that notary, and bring back some food,” Monica said quietly, sensing that Mason’s mom wasn’t ready to leave him.

I stared at the stegosaurus on the bed. I couldn’t take a child’s nonverbal playacting as testimony, but my intuition was screaming at me.

Monsters.There were monsters in the water.

And they were as pissed off at Mason’s dad as Mason’s mom was.

—

That night, I dreamed of Rusalka.

I was sitting on the river’s shore, beneath the Hag Stone. I was barefoot, and the poisoned water licked my toes.

Rusalka slithered through the cattails, peering at me. She wore Dana’s face tonight.

“Haven’t you done enough?” I asked.

She gave a musical giggle. “No. It’s never enough. Not while those men still walk on the earth.”

She reached out for my ankles. Her palms were cool when she rested them on my skin, cool like the bellies of fish. “It can’t be enough for you, can it?”

I frowned. “It doesn’t matter what I think.”

“But you live in this world, where men oppress the women around them. How can that be acceptable to you?”

“It’s not. But murder isn’t the answer.”

“And how would you propose to stop this, then?” Her eyes narrowed.

Words like “law” and “justice” died on my tongue.

“I thought so,” she said. “It is the highest degree of arrogance to think you can change people.”

“Please,” I begged her, “let me try.”

“You have until the anniversary of my death, my sister. Work quickly.” Her fingers slipped away from my feet, and she sank below the water.

21

Basements

I opened my eyes in bed and stared at the patterns of sunlight shifting on the ceiling. Light and shadow.

I glanced over at Nick. He was a good man. He abhorred the oppression of women as much as I did, but I didn’t think he’d really understand, not the way that women did.

And I didn’t expect him to understand this shadowy world I was drowning in. Was I losing my grip on reality again? Was the Rusalka just a projection of my own rage at my father? I couldn’t say. I could say only that shefeltreal, as real as my father’s demons had.

When I’d finally climbed out of bed to start the day, I received an email from the Sumners’ alarm company. Drema had granted me access to the alarm company’s records and app. I downloaded the app to watch the video from the night Mason was hurt. It contained mostly ordinary stuff—Leah arriving, and Jeff and Drema leaving for their date, captured by the front-door cameras. But the front-door camera fizzled out around sunset.