It was pretty obvious from the second Cass threw her first strike, that she was the one to beat. By the third frame, she had her third strike. She lifted her arms triumphantly and looked directly at Johan, who grinned at her.
Shane also surprised me. I didn’t really recall him being that great at bowling when we were younger. He had an impressive technique and threw the ball as hard as he could. I noticed how Cait’s eyes were glued to his backside from the second he stepped up to grab the bowling ball to the time he released and turned back to face all of us.
Megan had let go of her jealousy about Shane and Cait, which was a huge relief. She and Milo were meant to be and I would have hated to see anything come between them, or ruin the friendship Shane had with Milo.
Milo was a little too stoned, throwing gutter ball after gutter ball. He just laughed it off.
Like me, Kade was in the middle of the pack. I was glad to see he wasn’t too competitive, though I couldn’t say the same thing about Cait. It was obvious she wanted to win.
The time away with friends was a godsend and made me forget, at least for a little while, about Laria.
“Riley, your turn,” Megan said.
After managing my first spare, I went to sit by Kade, but he pulled me onto his lap. I slid my arms around his neck and relaxed. When I was with him I felt like I could breathe.
Cait watched us with a smile.
Shane sat beside her, his hand moving to her thigh.
She glanced at him and leaned in for a kiss.
Johan yelled triumphantly as he hit a strike, fist-pumping the air.
“Nice,” Milo said, high-fiving him.
Cass walked up beside him, and took her ball from the return rack. She waited for him to take his second turn, and I could tell she watched him from the corner of her eye. Tom sat to my left, and I could feel his frustration. He liked her a lot, but she liked Johan…who sort of liked her.
It was Kade’s turn after Johan.
Tom immediately approached me and sat down. “Riley, I wanted to apologize for being such a dick to you when you first came to Braemar. You didn’t do anything to me and I treated you like shit.”
I hadn’t expected an apology and yet I appreciated it. “That’s okay.”
“No, it’s really not. You didn’t deserve it; I think you’re a good person, and Kade is really into you. If you’re all right with him, then you’re all right in my book.”
“Thanks, Tom.”
“I also respect you for staying in the mausoleum. I mean, I hope that didn’t like...mess you up or anything.”
I wasn’t quite sure what he meant by that, or if he worried that I’d started cutting after that incident. “If anything, I guess it made me face a fear.”
“You’ve got more guts than any girl I know, I’ll give you that,” he said, laughing. When he smiled that way he was actually kind of cute.
I glanced at Kade, who had just picked up a spare. He seemed happy I was talking to Tom, and I wondered if he had put him up to it.
“Friends?” Tom asked, putting out a hand.
“Friends,” I replied, and shook it.
When I looked up, Cass was giving me the stink eye. She’d fooled around with Tom at a party not so long ago, and the two barely even spoke now. I wasn’t going to get all tied up in their drama. I had enough of my own.
At the end of the first game, Megan asked if I wanted to use the restroom, so I went with her. The door was at the end of a long hall, where a mop and pail sat.
The bathroom smelled like pine cleaner and had horrible lighting.
I went to the first stall and closed the door. At least it wasn’t dirty.
Megan cleared her throat. “So…Cait and Shane seem happy.”
“They are. I think they’re good together.”
“Yeah, they are.”
I was glad she thought so, too.
Megan began brushing out her hair. I could see her through the crack of the door, and she started laughing as she mentioned Cass’s love triangle with Tom and Johan.
The door opened and she fell silent.
I zipped up my pants and blew my nose. My gaze abruptly shifted to the floor. Two booted feet stood directly in front of the door of my stall.
Fear rippled along my spine.
They were male boots.
Familiar boots.
I felt the blood drain from my face, and my heart pounded hard against my breast bone.
“Megan,” I said, and dared to look through the crack of the door.
Huge mistake.
Randall stared back at me. I screamed…but it was too late.
Oh my God…I was trapped.
He thrust something through the crack. I yelped, and immediately recognized it as the sickle he’d had in my classroom that first day he had shown himself to me.
The door handle jiggled, and then he became more aggressive.
I was so screwed. Although the bowling alley wasn’t huge, the high tempo music was cranked, and there’s no way anyone would hear us, especially since the bathroom was at the other end of the bowling alley.
The sickle turned abruptly and just barely missed my upper arm.
I stepped back against the wall, and put my leg up to keep the door shut.
“Just give into it, Riley.”
Give into what?
I thought to myself, even as a hand with dirt under too-long nails gripped the top of the door.
Laria’s head appeared over the door as she levitated above me.
I squeezed my eyes closed, begged for some kind of guidance, and then unlocking the door, I kicked as hard as I could.
I raced out of the bathroom, and was immediately ripped back abruptly by someone. An elbow locked beneath my chin, and my feet were inches from touching the floor. I tried to fight back, but the arm tightened around my throat.
A little girl and her mom rounded the corner. The mom was yammering on the phone, but the little girl stared at me with wide eyes.
Randall abruptly dropped me onto the floor.
“What are you doing?” the woman asked, her tone borderline pissed off.
I straightened my shirt that had ridden up after Randall had yanked me back. “Nothing,” I said, brushing my hair off my forehead with a trembling hand.
The woman and girl didn’t move and even waited until I was past them before they continued down the hallway. I didn’t make eye contact with anyone, and instead made a beeline for my friends.
Megan sat sandwiched between Milo and Cass, taking off her bowling shoes.
“Why did you leave me in the bathroom?” I asked Megan.
She looked up at me, her brows furrowed. “What do you mean? I walked out of the bathroom with you. We were together.”
My mind was racing. “No, we didn’t leave together. You left me.”
“You’re freaking me out, Ri,” Megan said, standing. “You walked out of the stall, and we left the bathroom at the same time. When we got to the main room you said you were going to find Kade.”
“It’s true,” Milo said. “When she came back, I asked where you were, and she said you went to find Kade.”
I swallowed hard. “Where is Kade?”
“He went outside with Tom and Johan.”
I bolted for the door.
“Riley, what’s going on?” Megan called after me.
My mind was racing. Laria was masquerading as me again.
I ran out the door and nearly collided with an older couple who were walking in. “Sorry,” I said under my breath.
“Riley.” Kade stood with Johan and Tom, who crushed a cigarette beneath his heel. “Are you all right?”
I wanted to ask him if he’d seen “me” during the past five minutes. Hearing about the party at Tom’s grandparents’ cabin and knowing Laria had manipulated him into thinking it was me while I was away in Edinburgh was one thing, but to have her do it right under my nose—now
that
terrified me.
Chapter 16
The entire ride home from the bowling alley, I remained quiet, my mind racing. I still couldn’t shake what had happened in the bathroom, or the fact that Laria had masqueraded as me while I was in the same building.
And I was so exhausted. I felt so drained that the first thing I did when I got home was crawl into bed and take a nap.
I woke up to the sound of laughter. I glanced at the clock. Six thirty. I was surprised Miss Akin hadn’t woken me up for dinner.
I washed my face, brushed my hair and my teeth, and then started down the stairs. I heard my family talking, and Miss A’s laughter at something someone had said.
I walked into the living room and Dad looked up. “I was wondering if you fell in.”
Fell in?
“What do you mean?” I asked, noticing the empty chair with the nearly untouched plate sitting before it. “Who else is here?”
Dad frowned. “No one. Honey, that’s your plate. You’ve been sitting here with us for the past thirty minutes…or until you went to the bathroom.”
Dread filled every pore of my body.
“Dad, I’ve been asleep in my room since I got home from the bowling alley. I literally just now woke up.”
He scratched his head. “You excused yourself from the table five minutes ago, Riley.”
Shane set his fork down. “She’s doing it again.” At the bowling alley everyone had looked at me like I was crazy when I had said Laria was masquerading as me, until Shane had explained what was really going on. I hoped he could help me explain to Dad what was happening.
“What are you talking about?” I could see and hear Dad’s exasperation as his gaze shifted between me and Shane.
Cheryl reached out and put a hand on his arm. “Hear them out.”
For the first time I was grateful for Cheryl’s presence.
“Dad, I’m completely serious. I’ve been asleep. I just now woke up and walked downstairs.”
“Then who has been eating with us?” Miss Akin asked, shifting in her chair.
“Laria,” I said.
Dad wiped his mouth with his napkin and tossed it onto his plate. “What the hell is everyone talking about?”
“We live in a haunted house, Dad,” Shane said matter-of-factly. “Your daughter is being possessed by a malevolent spirit who is trying to kill her. If you were around more, maybe you would have grasped that a bit sooner.”
Miss Akin glanced at Shane and shook her head, like she was telling him to save himself.
Dad puffed up and turned to Cheryl. “Perhaps you should retire to your room. I’ll be along shortly.”
She nodded, pressed the napkin to her lips, and left the room without looking back.
“I don’t know what’s happening here,” Dad said, his voice barely above a whisper, “but I’m getting tired of it. If this is your way to somehow get attention—”
A door slammed somewhere in the house. I’d bet my life on it that it wasn’t Cheryl because she didn’t have enough time to get to the room she was staying in. Another door slammed, then another.
Seconds later Cheryl reappeared in the dining room doorway. “That wasn’t me.”
Dad tossed his napkin on the table. “Stay here,” he said, leaving Cheryl little choice but to sit back down. Her eyes were enormous as she looked at me. It was pretty obvious that I made her nervous.
“Maybe I should go with him,” Shane said, standing.
“Maybe you should stay here with us,” Cheryl said, then bit her lip, like she had just overstepped her bounds.
Actually, I agreed with her. I didn’t want Shane going anywhere.
A growling noise came from the far corner of the room.
Miss Akin picked up her butter knife and slowly turned.
“Do you by any chance own a dog I don’t know about?” Cheryl asked, eyes wide, her back straight as a board.
Miss A shook her head.
Overhead we heard footsteps. And not just one set. People were walking back and forth, and there were multiple voices, like there were different conversations happening.
Shane met my gaze, and he whispered, “Son of a bitch.”
Son of a bitch was right.
Although this was hardly the way I wanted validation, in a way I was glad that Dad was finally experiencing firsthand what we were going through. I wanted my dad to know that both Shane and I weren’t nuts. Miss A knew the truth, and she believed us; hopefully now Dad would, as well.
Dad rushed into the room. “Was that a growl I heard?”
Shane nodded. “Yep.”
The way Dad was looking at me, it was like I was causing drama on purpose.
I focused on him and even head-tapped him.
Sure enough, he thought I was responsible. He probably even thought that somehow I was making all this up to cause Cheryl to run and never look back.
I was crushed.
Above us the chandelier shook, so hard that the glass shades rattled. One even fell off the fixture and shattered on the table, shards of glass flying up and around us.
Cheryl screamed and Miss Akin looked ready to, but then got control of herself, and even put a reassuring hand on Cheryl’s shoulder.
“This is what happens when you move into a three-hundred-year-old house,” Shane said, and I knew he was going for humor, but Dad wasn’t feeling it.
We lost the lights a second later.
Miss Akin gasped, or maybe it was Cheryl…or both.
“Calm down, everyone,” Dad said, but I could tell by the quiver in his voice that he wasn’t as cool and composed as he pretended to be.
“In the junk drawer there are candles and a lighter,” Miss A said to no one in particular. It was clear she wasn’t about to leave the room, though.
“I’ll get it. Everyone just stay put.” Dad walked out of the room and we all fell silent. There was a strange sense of expectation hanging in the air.
The sound of a chair being dragged across the wood floor could be heard, then a shriek. My hands gripped the sides of my own chair.
Dad rushed back in, holding a candle, his hand hovering above the flame. “What the hell is this?”
Cheryl was in the corner of the room, her back to us, facing the wall. Her head bowed down, her shoulders rising and falling as she took deep breaths.
“Who did this?” Dad said, his gaze looking from Shane and settling on me.
“Sir, the kids didn’t move,” Miss Akin said. “We’re all still in our seats, and we never moved.”
By his stunned expression, it was obvious he was trying to process what was happening. His mind was racing, trying to come up with a logical explanation.