I should tell her. Someone should tell her. But why does it have to be me?
A scream. So loud that everyone moving around me stops. They turn and stare at me. The doctors, the nurses, the patients, the man on the floor. Their eyes wide, their mouths open, as if the scream is resonating from all of them, but it’s one sound, one horrifying shriek and the real world slams into me.
Lucy.
My eyes open, and I shoot off the mattress resting on the floor of my new room. Evelyn’s diary falls from my chest.
Adrenaline pumps through my veins. Someone’s hurting my sister. Her scream ends for a beat then her shrieks continue. I fly through my room, grab the baseball bat by the door and swing it over my shoulder as I charge into her room.
The princess bed is set up in the middle of the room, the white sheer curtains hanging from bedpost to bedpost. Pillows at the top of the bed, pink sheets and comforter kicked back, but my sister is gone. Nausea races through my gut, and I fight the wave of dizziness. “Lucy!”
Footsteps behind me, multiple ones, and I spin searching for the threat. There’s no one. Darkness. Only a smidge of light flows from the hallway that leads to Mom’s bedroom. “Lucy!”
Cries. My sister’s cries. Heart-wrenching cries. Desperate cries. And the panic throbbing through me makes me feel like I’m going insane. “Lucy, answer me!”
The door to our apartment bangs against the wall and I jump. A shadow rushes through it, and on instinct, I chase. Out to the foyer, my feet pounding against the floor. Pain in my chest at the sight of another shadow descending the stairs and the craziness in my head grows. “Lucy, answer me now!”
The front door to the house flings open, light from the streetlamps floods in and my heart stalls at the sight of my sister. She’s in her long nightgown, her black hair tangled and her face red. She hyperventilates as tears stream down her cheeks. At the threshold, she starts to step out, and as the roar for her to stop reaches my throat, the shadow on the stairs leaps toward my sister.
My heart tears through my chest, Lucy screams and I sprint with my fingers tight around the bat, the intent to kill. Then there’s a halo of beauty crouched in front of my sister, and I come to an abrupt halt. Short curls, delicate hands on my sister’s shaking shoulders and that musical voice I had heard earlier today isn’t reprimanding, but soothing. “It’s okay. You’re okay. Everything’s okay. Just take a deep breath. You can do it. Try it with me.”
Lucy chokes as she tries to breathe, and Veronica tucks my sister’s hair lovingly over her shoulder. “Good job. Now try again. Can you tell me your name?”
“It’s Lucy,” I say as I lower the baseball bat. I scan the foyer, the corners, and the shadows. The hair on my neck stands on end in warning. Instincts nagging that there are eyes, unseen eyes, glaring at me.
“Hi, Lucy, I’m Veronica. Where were you going so fast?”
Lucy shakes from head to toe, and she tries to jerk out of Veronica’s grip, but Veronica doesn’t give. I’m grateful because I’m taking my time moving toward them. There’s an eeriness in the air. A sixth sense that something’s wrong, a something I need to fight.
“Let me go!” Lucy screeches, and that’s not like her. She starts crying again, and her body convulses with the sobs. “We have to go! It’s coming! The monster is coming!”
“Did you have a nightmare?” I ask, and though I’m only a few steps away, I glance over my shoulder again, toward our new apartment that’s somehow darker than moments before.
The sobs stop, like someone flipped a switch and that causes a terrified squeeze in my lungs. As if the same energy that just pulsed through Lucy is now attacking me. Lucy’s face goes white and taut, and my back itches as if I’m about to be shot. “What’s wrong, Lucy?”
My sister methodically inches her head toward the sidewalk outside as if she already knows what she’ll see, but is horrified by facing the actuality. Veronica glances in the same direction, then shoots up. Her hand slips from Lucy’s shoulder to her elbow and with a firm grip she yanks her back, away from the door, and I’m moving again. On my toes, bat by my ear, coming in fast.
Veronica swings Lucy