32

Upstairs, the basement door opened.

“What’s going on down there?” a voice demanded.

It was my dad.

The witch snarled. The pain in my side was so sharp one of my hands let loose.

“Jason’s captured the witch, Mr. Winter!” Steve cried excitedly.

The witch jerked away but I held on. She was dragging me slowly into the shadows.

We heard my dad coming cautiously down the dark stairway. I wanted to scream at him to hurry, but the words stuck in my throat. I felt my heels dragging along the dirt floor as she struggled to escape.

Dad hesitated, squinting when Steve’s flashlight beam caught him in the face.

“I can’t see,” he protested.

As Steve lowered the beam, the witch blasted me with her breath and slipped out of my grasp.

“Stop her!” Lucy shouted.

I grabbed the witch’s cape but the oily material slipped through my hands.

I couldn’t let her get away now! I couldn’t! Where was Dad?

I launched myself into the air. My arms closed around the foul thing in an awful bear hug as we crashed to the floor.

The witch screamed with fury but this time I held on.

Suddenly a bright light fell over us. My dad had screwed in a new bulb, flooding the cellar with light.

Dad gasped. “Who is this?” he asked in a horrified voice.

“It’s the ghost of the nanny,” Lucy explained. “She’s an evil witch.”

Dad grasped her arm and helped the old witch gently to her feet. Carefully he lifted the hood of the cape. Light spilled onto the witch’s ancient, wrinkled face. Her beady eyes blazed with spite and evil. She flinched away from the brightness, spitting and moaning.

“This is no ghost,” Dad said sternly. “This woman is as flesh and blood as you or me.” He turned to the witch. “Who are you? What are you doing in our basement?”

Baring her stumps of teeth, she snarled and shook off my hand. Squaring her shoulders, she rose in height and became the black-shrouded creature that roamed our house at night, destroying anything—and anyone—who got in her way.

“I’m Alice Everett,” she said in a growly voice that sent shivers down my spine. “This is my house! Your smarty-pants son is trying to steal my ruby like the other one did. Trouble-making boys, it’s all they’re good for! But I’ll fix them, like I fixed Bobby!”

She threw back her head and cackled wildly. “I’ll take care of them kids!”

Then, quick as a cat, her arm came up in a blur and her claws raked my father’s face. Dad gasped and fell back. He covered his eyes with his hand and blood streamed through his fingers.

The witch screamed with glee and spun away from us. Before our stunned eyes she melted into the shadows.