“D-Daddy?” she whispered again. “Daddy, is that you?”
There was another silence, and Beth strained once more to see into the darkness surrounding her.
In the distance, barely visible, she thought she could see a flickering of light.
And then she froze, her voice strangling as the sound came again, like a winter wind sighing in the trees.
“Aaaammmyyy …”
Beth gazed fearfully into the blackness for several long seconds. Then, when the sound was not repeated, her panic began to subside. At last she was able to speak again, though her voice still trembled. “Is someone there?”
In the far distance, the light flickered again, and she heard something else.
Footsteps, approaching out of the darkness.
The seconds crept by, and the light bobbed nearer.
And once more, the whispering voice, barely audible, danced around her.
“Aaaammmyyy …”
“D-Daddy?” Beth called once more, her fear surging back. “Daddy, is that you?”
The light stopped moving, and for a moment Beth felt a flash of fear. What if it wasn’t her father? What if it was someone else?
And then, at last, she heard it.
“Beth? Honey? What are you doing here?”
Beth ran toward the light, and threw herself into her father’s arms.
“Daddy! I—for a second, I was afraid it wasn’t you!”
“Sweetheart! What are you doing here?” Alan asked again. He loosened himself from his daughter’s grip, then began leading her back toward the stairs.
“I was walking home from the hospital, and I saw your car,” Beth began, her voice still quavering. But Alan interrupted her.
“The hospital? What were you doing at the hospital?”
Beth’s eyes widened in the darkness, and for a moment she wondered what she should say. But before she could make up her mind, she had blurted out the truth.
“It was Mom. We were hiking, and all of a sudden she fainted. She … she’s going to have a baby!”
There was a momentary silence, and then Alan said quietly, “Well, how about that. You finally get your wish.”
They were at the bottom of the stairs now, and he switched off the flashlight. In the dim light that filtered down the stairwell, he looked into his daughter’s face. But instead of the happiness he had been expecting to see, there was something else. “Hey! You always wanted a baby brother or sister. Aren’t you happy about your mom being pregnant?”
Beth hesitated, then seemed to come out of a reverie. But when she spoke, she wasn’t looking at him. Instead, her eyes were fixed on a spot somewhere in the darkness beneath the stairs. “I … I guess I’m glad,” she said, but Alan was sure she wasn’t thinking about what she was saying.
“Beth?” he asked now. “Honey, what is it? Is something wrong?”
Beth shook her head uncertainly. “I don’t know. I just—I thought I heard something—”
“Down here?” Alan started up the stairs, and Beth, almost reluctantly, followed.
“Unh-hunh. It was like a … a voice. Only not really, you know?”
“No,” Alan chuckled. “I don’t know. It was probably just a mouse or something.”
Beth stopped, shaking her head, and turned back to peer once again down into the darkness of the basement.
And then, barely audible, she could hear it again.
A chill passed through her, and she concentrated, straining her ears.
“Don’t you hear it, Daddy?” she asked. “Don’t you hear it at all?”
Alan paused, and turned back.
For the last hour, he’d heard all kinds of noises in the basement of the mill.
Rats had scrambled out of his way as he’d poked around the foundations of the building, and at least once a snake had slithered over his hand. That time, he’d clearly heard his own muffled yelp of sudden fright.
Now he listened again, but there was nothing. “Sorry, hon. I don’t hear a thing.”
But still Beth hesitated, frowning deeply.
It had been there. She knew it had.
It was a voice, and it was calling out to her.
Why couldn’t her father hear it?
And then, slowly, she realized what the answer was.
He couldn’t hear it, because he wasn’t supposed to.
The voice was calling out only to her.
A chill passed through her, and her skin suddenly felt as if something were crawling over it.
She knew she was right.
In the darkness of the basement, something had reached out and touched her.
Something in the blackness wanted her.
She had no idea what was in the basement, and part of her hoped never to find out. But another part of her felt a faint twinge of curiosity. That part of her, indeed, wanted to go back, wanted to plunge back into the darkness, and discover what was there.