You will die if you don’t leave her.
I’m staying. I want to find my family.
Steven’s thoughts were defiant, the voice in his mind speaking in angry tones. Maybe Marty had rescued him from the boy in the woods, but that didn’t give him the right to be so bossy.
You don’t have a family,
Marty’s words were so unexpected they barely registered in Steven’s mind.
Did you hear me? I said you don’t have a family.
Yes, I do!
No one abandoned you, Steven, There was no one to leave you behind. You are alone, except for me. And the others,
You’re lying!
Why would I lie? What purpose would it serve? You don’t have a family, and only I can help you,
Rachel . . .
Rachel cares deeply about you. There is something special about her but I can’t say exactly what it is. But she must be left behind. You have to come to us. You have to leave, tonight!
I don’t!
You have to!
“I don’t have to!”
“Steven?”
The boy turned with a gasp. Instantly he sensed Marty was gone. Rachel and Eric were coming up the stairs, and he hadn’t even heard them. He gazed at them, blinking his eyes.
“Poor kid,” Rachel said. She shot Eric an annoyed look. “You probably upset him with your yelling.”
“We were both yelling,” Eric pointed out wearily. He looked at Steven, who returned his gaze with innocent brown eyes.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“I . . . I was going to get a drink of water,” Steven said.
He wanted to throw himself into Rachel’s arms. He wanted to tell her everything that had happened in the woods, except that a vague but powerful force was preventing him.
Instead, he turned and headed back to his room.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Rachel asked.
“Uh-huh.”
“Well, we’ll call you at dinnertime,” Rachel said.
“Okay,” Steven mumbled.
He opened the door to his room and went to lie on the bed. Staring up at the ceiling, he tried to make Marty come back. He waited and waited, but there was no sign of the other boy.
Well, good, Steven thought. Because he isn’t going to make me leave here!
Still, he lay there for a long time. His mind was full of questions. What place did Marty want him to come to? Who were the other people? And what did the boy in his mind mean when he said: “You have no family”?
21
LORRAINE AND BETTINA sat in front of the television set, eating soup and sandwiches for dinner. Bettina had brought over two of the kitchen chairs. She sat in one, and they used the other for a table. Lorraine had chosen to make herself comfortable on a cushion pulled from the couch.
The more Archie and Edith fought with each other, the easier it became to forget what had happened on the street below. Lorraine hadn’t said a word about what the landlord had tried to do to her—and what she, in turn, had done to him. She really didn’t believe she was the one who had made him so afraid. The little girl was convinced it was solely Marty’s doing.
Someone knocked at the Bunkers’ door on the television. But when neither character got up to answer it, and the knocking became louder, Lorraine realized it was someone at their own door. She wriggled around on the cushion and tugged at the hem of Bettina’s long skirt. They frowned silently at each other, wondering who could be there. With the exception of a few delivery people, only the landlord had known they were here. And it certainly wasn’t him.
“Bettina,” Lorraine whispered anxiously, “what if . . . what if it’s that strange man?”
Bettina patted the child’s head. “How could it be?”
The pounding went on. Lorraine begged the unseen person to go away.
“Hide in the bathroom,” Bettina suggested. “He won’t go away unless I answer.”
Lorraine shot Bettina a distressed look, then did as she was told. She locked the door behind her and pressed her ear against it, hoping to make out what was being said. Only a few words filtered through the wood:
“Police . . . young child . . . seen here . . .”
“. . . mistake, officer. I’m alone.”
In the living room, Bettina stood with her body wedged in the small opening allowed by the still-fastened chain. The man in the hall was dressed in a gray suit, not a uniform. He stared at her through wire-rimmed glasses with the hardest eyes she’d ever seen. They were like cold, unemotional pieces of coal.
If Lorraine belongs to the likes of you, she thought to herself, I’ll never give her back!
Out loud she said: “I’m an old woman. I certainly don’t have the energy to take care of a child.”
“I know she’s in this building,” the man said. “Have you seen her?”