The Dead House - Dawn Kurtagich Page 0,78

24 January 2005, 11:26 PM

Basement

“You’ll open your eyes. You’ll be in a—” Naida breaks off and glances at Kaitlyn, who is sitting beside her. Scott and Brett are nearby, while John and Ari are hugging the walls. The room, normally lit by the unreliable bare bulb above them, is illuminated by the dancing flames of six black candles.

“It’s a house,” Kaitlyn says. “It’ll be a room. You’ll be in a room.”

“Right. I want you to check every single room of that house. Look for some kind of doorway. You’ll sense that it doesn’t belong. I’m not sure how—maybe it’ll look out of place, maybe you’ll just know it doesn’t feel right.”

“This is mental,” Scott mutters under his breath. Naida looks pointedly at him, but then her expression softens and she takes his hand.

“Everything’s going to be okay. Once we find that door, you call me. Don’t go through it. We don’t know exactly where it leads—maybe some kind of other world—but we think Carly was taken out that way. If you see it, yell like there’s no tomorrow. I’ll come quick as lightning, and that’ll be it for you.”

Scott leans forward. “What about you?”

She swallows and glances at Kaitlyn. “We have to go through the doorway. We have to find Carly.”

Brett, who has been sitting silently up to this point, blows air through his lips. “You’re asking us to believe something… huge.”

“It’s real,” Kaitlyn says. “Brett, it’s real. I need your help.”

He stares at her for a moment and then smiles, the crystal blue of his eyes melting into something warmer as he looks at her.

She smiles uncertainly and looks toward Ari, who is watching the display impassively.

“I don’t think I can do this,” John says. He steps away from the wall and crosses his arms.

Kaitlyn looks at him and then into her lap.

“That’s okay,” Naida says. “We need a lookout. You stay behind and make sure no one comes down here.”

He looks at Kaitlyn for a full ten seconds before he nods assent.

“Well, I’m coming,” Ari says, and he walks over to Kaitlyn and sits beside her. He takes her hand and rubs it between his own. “What do we have to do to… uh… get there?”

Now it’s Naida’s turn to look uncomfortable. She steels herself, then removes the cover from a box that has been sitting to her left. It is a wire mesh cage, and within it slumbers a plump black rooster.

Scott’s eyes widen, and he turns slowly to Naida. “You’re not… babe—”

“I have to…”

He shakes his head, raising his voice. “No, no—”

“I don’t want to… but…”

“What are you talking about?” John asks.

Scott gets to his feet. “I’m not going to let you pull some Mala bullshit, okay? You told me it was dangerous!”

“This is the only way!” Naida yells again. “I’ll do anything to get my friend back, do you understand? Anything!”

Her voice rings around the room and then distills into a low hum before dissipating into nothingness.

Scott frowns. “What happened to you?” He rubs his eyes and then goes to kneel before Naida. His voice is low. “Naddie, please. You can’t kill something. You can’t. However this works, you can’t take something’s life away—it would change you. Please, babe. There has to be another way.”

There is a small silence before Kaitlyn shifts. “I don’t want to hurt anyone,” she says softly. “Or any creature. I just want my sister back.”

“It has to be a sacrifice,” Naida says. “A trade.”

“Okay, fine. We’ll all give something.” Scott pulls out a necklace from behind his T-shirt, removes it, and kisses it. “Here.”

“Your Saint Peter…” Naida whispers. Scott puts it in her fingers. “But your grandmother gave it to you before she died.”

He shrugs. “Sacrifice.”

Naida’s face crumples as she looks down at it in her hand.

“I don’t have anything on me,” Brett says.

Scott looks up at him and there is a hint of a smile on his face. “Hair. That perfect blond hair. Cut some of it off.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, it’s perfect,” Scott says. “Something beautiful that you care way too much about.”

Brett folds his arms and stares at the wall. Scott rolls his eyes and looks at the others. “Well?”

By the time everyone has finished, Brett is missing some hair from the left side of his head, Naida’s necklace is gone from around her neck, Kaitlyn’s anklet is gone from her ankle, and all the items, including Scott’s Saint Peter, are held carefully in Ari’s round bowler hat.

Naida glances at the rooster. “Now what the hell am I supposed to

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