Grace Anne - By Kathi S. Barton Page 0,56

wanted to see the sheets. The pillows, if there were any, were the same thickness as the spread and probably just as buggy. She sat in the bright orange chair and closed her eyes. What the fuck was she doing here?

She wasn’t aware when they’d fled New York. Thankfully someone, one of the others, had known where to find everything they’d needed to get a plane ticket and get them to safety. Ginny wasn’t even sure what had happened other than she had shot someone and that the person had discovered her body. She didn’t know anything else. But what she did know, or had guessed, was that the police thought someone else had done the deeds and not her.

“They will find out it wasn’t him. When they do, Grace is going to kill us.”

Ginny looked in the mirror at Guinnie. She wasn’t strong enough to speak to her through a simple mind connection, so Ginny spoke to her this way. “You’re just a kid; what the hell do you know about it? And where have you been? Did one of the others hurt you?” Guinnie was shaking her head before Ginny finished the question. “Why do you think Grace is going to kill us? She only knows us as her mother.”

“No, she doesn’t. I told her about us.”

Ginny’s eyes widened in the reflection.

“She knows more than any of the other children because I liked her most. Grace would talk to me when the others walked away. She saw Verrie kill a man at her home.”

Ginny felt her heart pound. Grace knew and, worse yet, she knew that Verrie had a bad habit. Trying to remain calm so that she wouldn’t alert the others, she looked back at Guinnie when she realized she was talking.

“You aren’t the host. You never were. I know that Verrie told you that, but she lied. Verrie is the host.” The sing-song voice was irritating. And Ginny knew that she knew it. “The others, they think that they are the host as well. She tells them all.”

Ginny rubbed her forehead. “Why? What possible reason could she have for lying to us all? And why would she want us to think we were the ones in charge? Don’t you think it would benefit her best if she was the one…”

“Yes, that’s it. Or so I’ve heard. She wants you all to fight about yourselves. If you fight, she can control us. I want this to end. I’m…I’m still a little girl because I can’t grow and she will not let me.”

Ginny heard the anger in her voice, but was too busy trying to figure out Verrie’s angle. She got up to pace. She could still see Guinnie, but only in small glimpses that showed a small child of about ten or so. Ginny knew that she’d been there all along. She’d only come out when the children, Guinevere’s kids, needed her. And now. She started to ask her why she was here now when something else occurred to her.

“Will Grace tell them what she knows? Will she, you think, tell her family about us?”

Guinnie nodded.

“This isn’t good. This will get us put away and I don’t want that to happen. No way are they going to lock my happy ass up.”

“Or they will kill us.” She sounded so wishful that Ginny stopped to stare. “You have to admit that we are not doing so great. If we continue to fight, then we will destroy each other anyway.”

Ginny had been thinking the same thing, but it didn’t set well with her to have it pointed out to her by a child. She glared at Guinnie and decided that she’d had enough of Miss Doom and Gloom. She turned her back on her and tried to bring Guinevere to her. The laughter behind her made her think of nails on a chalk board and metal against her fillings. She turned slowly.

“I’m neither as weak as you think, nor am I as easily dismissed. I may look like a child to you, but I’ve been around as long as you. I listen and pay attention.” Pain seared though Ginny’s head as Guinnie continued. “You’d do well to remember that without me, you would be nothing.”

Ginny felt dizziness swamp her and she felt the floor come up to grab her. Her last thought was that she hoped the floor was cleaner than it smelled before she heard the other two, Guinevere and Verrie, scream.

Chapter 17

Thomas looked around the room again.