Run to Ground(77)

She reached for the light switch when she heard a creak above her head. Possibilities raced through her thoughts as she froze, staring at the ceiling, her arm still outstretched. It’s just the house settling, or one of the kids headed to the bathroom, or…

Or there’s someone else in the house.

Once the idea popped into her head, it wouldn’t leave, no matter how many times Jules told herself she was being paranoid.

Just check it out, she told herself as her hand dropped to her side and she moved toward the dark doorway. You’ll see it’s nothing, and then you’ll be able to sleep. Or at least you’ll be able to clean and think of Theo.

Theo. The reminder made her realize she’d missed something. Viggy was with Theo. If the dog wasn’t in the woods, then what—or who—was?

Her heartbeat ramped up until it thumped in her ears, masking all other sounds. Swallowing hard, her throat suddenly very dry, she forced her feet to move to the window. Check outside first, and then go look upstairs.

She peered into the darkness. The moon was half-full, but that almost made things worse. The wind had picked up again, and every swaying evergreen tree cast a shifting shadow that overlapped other shadows, creating a moving, layered grid of semidarkness. After seeing countless crouching boogeymen that morphed into normal, nonscary things like rocks and trees and scrub, Jules gave up. She wasn’t going to see anything out back, and she certainly wasn’t going to leave the kids and go monster-hunting by herself in the dark woods.

Turning away, she moved quietly into the hall. The house had its own dark corners and frightening, shadowy pockets, and she realized she was tiptoeing as she reached the stairs. It was silly. She was in her own house—her own creaky, noisy, possibly haunted house—and there was no one there who shouldn’t be. Although she drew her shoulders back, determined to believe there was nothing to fear, her feet still touched each stair tread softly, and she cringed at each creaky step.

On the second floor, she slipped down the hall, telling herself she was being quiet so as not to wake the kids, but knowing in her heart she was a chicken and a liar. The room right above the kitchen was at the end of the hall, one of two unoccupied bedrooms. Jules reached for the doorknob. Even in the dim light, she could see her hand was shaking.

Biting her lip, she turned the knob and pushed open the door.

The room was empty. Empty and cold. A night breeze blew chilly air through the open window, making the normally limp, old curtains billow and cast dancing shadows across the wall. Why was the window open? Her heartbeat hiccupped, and she told herself firmly that there were four other people in the house, any of whom could’ve opened the window earlier that day.

Sending a nervous glance at the half-open closet door, Jules took a step toward the window, but decided to check out the closet first. As overcautious as it was, she didn’t want to turn her back on a possible hiding spot.

The closet door resisted sliding open but finally yielded, squeaking as it moved along its track. Moonlight filled the space, revealing nothing but an empty closet. Jules’s heartbeat settled slightly. She crossed to the window quickly. Now that she knew the room was empty, she wanted to shut it, to have that barrier between her and whatever was moving in the trees.

As she closed the window and wrestled the rusty latch back into the locked position, she looked out into the backyard. The roof of the small porch was right below her, and she bit her cheek, trying not to think about how easy it would be to climb from the porch railing to the roof to the open window—

“J-J-JuJu?”

She jumped and spun to see Sam in the doorway. Pressing a hand to her thundering heart, Jules glared at him. “What are you doing up?”

He frowned right back at her. “You w-were b-b-being k-kind of loud.”

“Sorry.” Jules took a deep breath and let it out again before forcing a smile. “I’m just being a nervous Nellie. You should go back to bed.”

Instead of responding, he just crossed the room to look over her head out the window. “Is someone out there?”

“No.” The answer came too quickly to be believable, and she grimaced at his skeptical expression. “Really, truly, there’s no one out there. I’m just letting the night worries get to me. Let’s go to bed.”

After studying her for a long moment, he nodded, but he didn’t head for the third-floor stairs.

“Where are you going?” she asked.

“Wh-where are you g-going?” he shot back.

“I figured I’d sleep with Dee.”

“I’ll s-sleep in T-Tio’s b-b-bed. You know h-he’s in T-T-Ty’s r-room.”