Kimberly took the eight steps down to the basement, then walked towards the door to Joseph’s room. The door was ajar.
That’s odd. Joseph always closes the door.
Kimberly walked closer, then pushed it open and peeked inside. “Joseph?”
No answer. Kimberly walked inside, took a few steps towards the couches he had put up to make it more of a man-cave.
At first she couldn’t see his body because it was blocked by the back of the couch, but as she walked closer she spotted it, lying on the carpet between the two couches where a coffee table would have been had a woman decorated the room.
Kimberly gasped and froze. Then she walked to him and kneeled beside him. Blood was on the floor. It had run from the wound in his head where the axe had hit him. It was still sitting there, making him look like someone from a terrible horror movie. The blood in his face reminded Kimberly of the tomato soup she had made a couple of days before.
“Joseph?”
Kimberly grabbed his hand, but it was lifeless in hers. “Joseph, wake up,” she said. “Don’t toy with me. You know how much I hate blood.”
But Joseph wasn’t moving. There was no pulse in his wrist when she tried to feel it.
Slowly the realization sank in. Kimberly started to sob. Then she felt the salty tears hit her upper lip. The blood had left a pool around him and when she kneeled she had placed her hands and knees in it. Now she rubbed it in her face when wiping away the tears.
“Who did this?” she asked and tried to wipe away the blood on her hands in her skirt. She was crying hard as she backed up towards the stairs and fumbled up to the kitchen.
“Who would do such a horrible thing?” she kept repeating to herself when she heard the ravens in the attic. They were making an awful noise, sounding almost as if they were crying.
“Rose,” she said to herself, then grabbed a kitchen knife.
Chapter 65
May 2016
They kept me waiting in the interrogation room for hours on end. I felt so frustrated and angry with them for making such a big deal of this, even if I tried to convince myself that they were only doing their job.
It was just such a freaking waste of my time and I could have been out there looking for Tyler. Didn’t they know how much every minute counted?
Finally Bellini entered the room. “You can go, Ryder.”
“So it didn’t match?” I asked and grabbed my jacket.
“The footprint didn’t,” she said.
I smiled. “Don’t want to say Told you so, but I kind of did.”
“The dirt on your shoes did match though,” she continued with a skeptic look.
I sighed. They weren’t going to let this go, were they? “Which is only natural when I told you I was at his house yesterday,” I said.
Bellini handed me my phone back. There were several unanswered calls.
“We’ll be in touch,” Bellini said and held the door for me.
I walked outside and went through my calls. My parents had called me from Cocoa Beach, letting me know they were leaving town now. Then Sarah had left a message telling me my parents had called and told her they were leaving town now and asking me when I believed I would be back, since the kids were asking. Next message was from Shannon. I listened to it, standing in front of the police station, in the street, eyes open and jaws dropped. When I had heard it to end, I listened to it one more time, to make sure I had heard everything right.
The doctor is a woman? She is a doll-doctor? But how does that…Betsy Sue told me it was a man, I don’t get it…or did she? Maybe she just didn’t correct me? But why wouldn’t she tell me the truth? Doesn’t she want us to find her? Is she protecting this woman? Does she have like a Stockholm syndrome or something going on?
I called Shannon back, but she didn’t pick up. Then I called Sarah and asked if Shannon had come back.
“No. We haven’t heard from her all day,” she said.
I looked at the time. It was almost five in the afternoon. What had she been doing for all these hours? Something wasn’t right.
I tried to call her again and left a message telling her I was done at the police station and for her to call me back when she heard this, then I hung up and called Sarah back again, told her I wanted her to call me as soon as she heard from Shannon.
“Is something wrong?” she asked. “Did something happen to Shannon?”
“I hope not,” I said while waiving at a taxi. It drove right past me. I cursed but didn’t say it out loud. Anxiety was beginning to rise within me. “Just stay with the kids and make sure they don’t sense anything, all right? I don’t want them to be more worried than they already are.”
“Of course not. Don’t worry about them. They have been playing all afternoon in the yard. They say they miss Betsy Sue and of course they keep asking if you know anything about Tyler. I had a long talk with Austin earlier because he started to cry out of the blue. He said he was afraid he’d never seen his little brother again. He was sad that he never even got to play with him and he was looking so much forward to it, because all the girls wanted was to hold hands. I told him that Tyler would come back and that he would be playing with him soon.”
“Good,” I said feeling pinch in my heart. I wasn’t sure I could go on much longer without knowing where to find my child. I wondered where Shannon was. Had she decided to call this doll-doctor on her own? In the voicemail she only said she had gotten the number from the store, so that’s where I was going to start.
I hung up on Sarah, when finally a taxi responded to my waving. I decided not to take it.
Chapter 66
May 2016
Shannon could hear her phone vibrate on the counter where Kimberly had put it, but she couldn’t pick it up. Kimberly had asked - no demanded - that she sat in a chair by the kitchen table and had some of her coffee. When Shannon had refused and told her she wanted to leave, she had pulled a knife. She had stabbed Shannon’s arm with it so she almost dropped Tyler.
Now she was sitting in the chair, Tyler in her good arm, she wasn’t going to let go of him again, looking at her arm, where the blood was soaking her white shirt and her bracelets.
Meanwhile Kimberly was making coffee, humming along, taking out cookies from the cabinet, the knife placed on the counter next to her. The phone vibrated again and again, and Shannon had a feeling it had to be Jack. Hopefully they had let him go. Shannon had been terrified when they had taken him away. All they said was that he was needed for questioning about the death of some guy. They had seemed so serious and it had frightened Shannon. She hoped they just needed his help on some police work connected to the case, but she wasn’t so sure.
Kimberly looked at her like she wanted something from her.
“I’m sorry, what?” Shannon asked.
“I asked Do you take milk or sugar?”
Shannon felt confused. Her arm was hurting badly. “I told you. I don’t want coffee. I think I need to go to the emergency room with my arm. I need stitches.”
“Pah. Stitches, smitches. You’re fine. Don’t you know it’s impolite to say no when someone offers you coffee?”
“I don’t care, Kimberly. Just let me go, will you?”
Kimberly turned on her heel, then tilted her head to the side. “I am sorry. No. Can. Do. You’re staying here with me. You and your boy.”
Shannon sighed and looked down at Tyler. He was so peaceful on her arm. Sleeping through everything. She smiled when his mouth twitched in his sleep. It was tough to hold him on just one arm, but she didn’t care. She wasn’t letting go of him anymore. Never again.
“What do you want from me,” Shannon asked exhausted. She was constantly watching the knife on the counter, wondering if she would make it if she went for it, but then again looked at her bleeding, hurting arm thinking that Kimberly wouldn’t hesitate for even one minute to hurt her again. “Has it anything to do with mother? ‘Cause I feel like you should take it up with her instead, then.”
/> “Your mother I will deal with later,” Kimberly said and poured the finished coffee into two cups. She turned with a big smile, the cups in her hands. “I take it you want it black then.”
Kimberly placed the coffee on the table in front of Shannon, then went back for the knife and sat down across the table from her. She sipped her cup, her eyes flickering back and forth when suddenly noises started to emerge from upstairs. It sounded like vague screams.
Shannon felt a chill run down her spine. “What was that?”
Kimberly shook her head and drank her coffee. “That’s just the girls.” She looked at her watch. “They usually wake up at this time. I slip them something so they can sleep during the day. At night they can scream all they want to. Screaming during the day will attract attention whereas at night, well people will just chalk it up to that fact that the house is haunted.”
Shannon stared at her aunt while she was slurping her coffee. How could she just sit there all calm and cool when there were children screaming upstairs, sounding like they were screaming for their lives. She almost seemed like she enjoyed their screams, like it made her feel happy.
Shannon felt sick to her stomach. The screams were getting louder and louder and she couldn’t stand the sound. “Why are they screaming like this? What are you doing to these girls?”
Kimberly leaned in towards me. “Oh don’t let their innocent looks or screams fool you. They are pure evil. I am only doing this world a favor keeping them here.” She sat back in her chair cool and collected, smacking her lips like she was thirsty.
“So you’re telling me they are the ones who have this gene? What was it you called it? Murder-gene?”
“Yes. You’re getting it, Shannon. You always were the smart one among your sisters. Nevertheless you have it in you as well. And therefor I cannot let you leave this house, ever again.”
Shannon stared at her deranged aunt wondering how she had gotten herself into this mess and especially how she was going to get out of it again. The screams were intensifying now and it gave Shannon goose bumps. “So what, you’re telling me I am related to these girls that you kidnap?”
“Yes, exactly. They’re all children of distant cousins. Like the Hawthornes. Heather is your mother’s cousin.”
Shannon leaned back in her chair. She hadn’t touched her coffee and wasn’t planning on it. So Betsy Sue was family? Was she here? Shannon wondered if one of the screaming girls were her. It made her feel differently about the girl. She had to somehow get up there and help her.
Chapter 67
December 1990
“Rosa?”
Kimberly yelled up the stairs while she ran, taking two steps at a time, the knife tightly squeezed in her hand.
“Rosa? Where are you, girl?”
Images of Joseph in the pool of his own blood wouldn’t leave her mind. Her heart was racing in her chest as she approached Rosa’s room. She opened the door cautiously, holding the knife in front of her.
“Rosa?”
Rosa wasn’t in her room. Kimberly walked inside and looked around. The bed was neatly made, but something was wrong with the dolls on the shelf. Kimberly walked towards them. Rosa had always loved these antique dolls that she had inherited from Kimberly who had them from her mother. Rosa especially loved the one with long blond curly hair and blue eyes that looked mostly like Rosa self. That was her favorite. But what had happened to her?
Who would do such a thing?
The doll’s head was lying in her lap. Ripped off. The one next to it had lost an arm. All the dolls had been completely destroyed. Some were even painted with red lipstick smeared out all over their faces, making them look like Kimberly with all the blood in her face. Kimberly gasped and took the favorite doll down.
“Betsy Sue,” she cried remembering the many wonderful times she had played with that doll as a child. It had been her favorite too. Kimberly sobbed and tried to remove the red lipstick from the doll’s face, by spitwashing it using her sleeve to wipe. But she only made it worse. She tried to put the head back, but it needed to be sewn. Luckily Kimberly knew exactly how to do it. She had been making a good sum of money fixing dolls for other people, mostly collectors. It was a craft her own father had taught her growing up.
Kimberly heard footsteps coming from the attic and the birds were still making an awful noise.
“Those damn birds,” she groaned. Was Rosa up there with them?
Kimberly climbed the stairs to the attic, knife between her teeth, and opened the hatch. A bird darted down towards her with a loud scream and pulled a lock of her hair out. Kimberly screamed, grabbed the knife in her hand and swung it in the air.
“Get away from me you bastards. You creepy bastards! I hate you!”
The bird flew away and Kimberly crawled into the attic. “Rosa?”
She spotted the girl in her reading corner, sitting her back turned at Kimberly, reading something.
She looks fine.
“Rosa?”
Kimberly approached her daughter and looked over her shoulder, when she realized exactly what she was reading.
“It does exist,” she gasped. “You lied to me!”
The girl finally looked up. Kimberly reached down and grabbed the book, remembering how she had been reading all about the general and was about to read about her aunt Agnes’ own story when Joseph had disturbed her.
“You told me there was no book,” she said angrily at her daughter. “Why did you say that?”
Rosa exhaled. “I thought the book made you sick. You were so out of it after reading it, I believed it was better you never saw it again. Dad agreed we’d better not let you read in it again.”
Kimberly shook her head while desperately flipping the pages to get to where she had stopped. “I don’t believe you,” she said holding the knife towards the daughter. She looked her in the eyes. Rosa seemed eerily calm. “What did you do to your father,” she asked, panting heavily as she spoke. “What did you do to him?”
Rosa shook her head. Was that a smirk?
Kimberly pointed the knife at the girl. “What did you do to your father?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she finally said.
“You did it, didn’t you? You killed him, didn’t you?”
Now Rosa reacted. “I what? No! What…is dad…?”
“Don’t give me that. I know you did it, Rosa. Just like I have always wondered about Rick. You were in his room the night he died. Why were you in your brother’s room, Rosa? What were you doing there?”
Rosa took a step backwards while looking at the knife in front of her. Now she started to cry. “Mom. I… I didn’t do anything, you have to believe me. Please mom. I think…I think you’re loosing it.”
“I am not falling for that again, you little monster. I am not! You have tricked me for all these years with your innocent eyes. I am not falling for your tricks anymore. I know you killed him. I know you killed the both of them!”
“But…but… mom? Please? I didn’t do anything!”
Kimberly shook her head. Images of her baby in the crib, lying lifeless, not responding to her CPR, not breathing, no pulse, was coming back to her. For so many years she had blocked them out, trying to forget and move on, but now they were back.
The knife in Kimberly’s hand was shaking heavily when she made the decision. She would have wished that there was another way out, but there wasn’t.
It had to be done.
Kimberly grabbed Rosa’s hand and pulled it hard. So hard Rosa screamed.
“You’re coming with me,” Kimberly said ignoring her daughter’s bone piercing screams.
“Stop, mommy! Stop! You’re hurting me!”
Kimberly pulled her down the stairs, to the fourth floor, and then dragged her across the wooden floors in the hallway towards the door at the end of it.
“NO! Mommy!”
She opened the door by key, then pulled the girl into the room and placed her in the chair. She tied her
down using a rope that was already in the room, still ignoring the girl’s helpless pleads.
When she was done and the girl could no longer move, she wiped her sweaty and bloody face with the edge of her shirt that was ruined anyway, and then looked down at Rosa who was crying hard. She kneeled and looked into the girl’s eyes. “This hurts me as much as it does you,” she said, wiping a lock of hair away from her face. She put it behind her ear, but it kept falling back into her face. “Believe me, sweetheart. But this is the only way. This is what must be done. Do you understand that? I have to do this. To protect you from yourself.”
“But…mommy, please…”
Kimberly looked into her beloved daughter’s eyes once again and knew it would be the last time. She walked to the door and hesitated for just one second to walk out. Rosa was squirming in the chair, her pleading eyes looking at her mother for help. Kimberly looked away, closed the door and locked it by key.
Before she left, she put a hand on the door and whispered:
“I’m sorry, baby.”
Chapter 68
May 2016
“Why do you keep them up there? Why do you put them in that chair?”
Shannon had to try and keep her temper down. The girl’s screams were getting louder and louder and more and more insisting. She had a hard time coping with it and with the fact that the mad woman in front of her was in fact her own family, her flesh and blood.
Kimberly finished her coffee, pretending like she couldn’t hear a thing, then looked at Shannon. She cleared her throat as if she wanted to make sure Shannon was listening. Shannon’s plan was to keep her talking, while she figured out how to get all of them out of there.
“I don’t get it,” she continued. “If you’re going to kill them anyway? Why not kill them right away?”