Page 66 of The Vanishing Place

Adam removed the untouched plate of food from his sister’s room.

Dinah sat on her bed, staring at the wall. Her mouth hung open slightly, and strands of greasy hair stuck to her face. She didn’t look at him. She didn’t move her head. Maybe she hadn’t noticed him slip in. Adam could be quiet as a mouse when he needed to be.

Dad had boarded up Dinah’s window in the new house, but Adam had stuck up pictures of the beach and the forest for her. There was a pretty one of a fantail too. Dinah liked birds.

“I’ve brought you some tea,” said Adam. “Peppermint.”

But she just stared at the wall. His sister had cried and screamed for months after the baby.

The house had echoed with it, even when Adam was sure that she was sleeping.

And if ever Adam went near her, she tried to attack him.

One time, she’d scratched a deep chunk out of his cheek, and the scab had taken weeks to heal.

“You like peppermint,” he said.

She was chained up now though. Dad had attached the chain to Dinah’s bed after she’d tried to escape the third time.

Dad said if they didn’t tie her up, she might try to hurt herself.

That she might try to kill herself. And Adam definitely didn’t want that.

He never ever wanted Dinah to die. He loved her.

“I put sugar in it.” He pushed the mug forward. “To give you energy.”

The chain kept Dinah safe in her room, safe from the outside world.

Dad had removed anything that might corrupt her thoughts, and Adam made sure that she always had food and warm tea.

It was Adam’s job to look after Dinah now.

He’d let Cameron poison his sister’s mind and put the devil in her tummy. But Adam would fix all of it.

“I’ll bring you a cloth and some soap later,” he said gently. “It’s important to keep clean, Dinah.”

Adam would fix his sister. And then God would love her again.