The Next Step
Tony stood and stretched. “I think that’s enough studying for tonight. Aren’t you getting tired?”
Stephanie nodded and looked toward the stairs. “Yeah, I suppose I am. I better let Devon know we’re done.”
He didn’t like the look of apprehension on the kid’s face. “Do you want to leave and I’ll tell him you were too tired and went home?”
She stared at him for a moment and he thought she would turn down his offer. Instead she smiled. “You would do that for me?”
He shrugged. “Sure. Why not?”
“Cuz he’s not going to like it and he’ll blame you.” She shook her head. “No, I better tell him myself. I don’t want to be the cause of any friction between the two of you.”
Tony touched her arm as she stood up. “Are you afraid of Devon?”
She hesitated and when she spoke, her words seemed forced. “Maybe a little.” Her eyes grew wide and she shook her head emphatically. “But he wouldn’t hurt me. We lo…” She suddenly sucked in her breath and doubled over as if she had been punched in the stomach.
He caught her around the waist and swept her up into his arms. “What is it? Are you sick? Do you need a doctor?”
She shook her head, but kept her face hidden against his shirt. “I’m not sick.” She sniffled. “You can put me down.”
He set her on the floor. Her eyes were full of tears. “I really am tired. If you don’t mind telling Devon I’ve gone home, I’ll take you up on that offer.” She stopped at the door and looked at him with a sad expression. “Would it be okay if I come by the garage tomorrow night after school?”
Shawn’s complaint about Stephanie echoed in his skull. The kid looked so sad and lost; his friend would just have to get over it. The garage was his business and who he invited to be there was also his concern. If others didn’t like it, they could leave. “Of course it’s okay,” he said. “You run on home now and I’ll take care of Devon.”
She had her hand on her chest as if it hurt. “I’m sorry,” she said and ran to her car.
Tony watched her back the convertible out of the driveway before going upstairs to tell his brother that Stephanie had gone home. He was still a little puzzled as to why she said she was sorry, when she hadn’t done anything wrong. He tapped on the bedroom door, even though it was his room too.
“It’s open,” was his brother’s response.
Devon lay on his bed with his hands behind his head. He was staring at the ceiling. He glanced at Tony as he entered. “She left, didn’t she?”
Tony nodded and then realized his brother was no longer looking at him. “She said she was too tired and needed to go home.”
He waited for Devon to reply, but when he didn’t, he turned to leave.
“Tony?”
He turned back. “Yeah?”
Devon sat up, dropped his legs over the side of the bed, and rested his elbows on his knees. “Have you noticed anything odd about Stephanie? I mean, since she came here, have you felt like sometimes you were talking to two different people?”
Tony frowned. “I’m not sure what you’re getting at. She seems like the same sweet kid I knew in Des Moines.”
Devon rubbed the top of his buzzed head. “That’s sort of what I mean. She’s that sweet kid when you’re around, almost too sweet and too much of a kid, like when she was ten, but when it’s just the two of us, she’s…different.”
Tony’s frown deepened. “What are you trying to say?”
“I don’t know exactly. It’s just that—well, it’s like she’s pretending to be ten for you and seventeen—with a wild side—for me, like at that party the other night.” He looked up. “I don’t get it.”
Tony couldn’t believe this. Devon and Emily were the ones with personality disorders. “You’re beginning to sound like Emily. She has this crazy notion that Stephanie is being controlled by her brother’s ghost, only she calls it a ‘Shadow.’” He chuckled and sat on his own bed across the room from Devon’s. “She claims this ‘Shadow’ has been influencing all of us and we need to fight it.”
Devon sat up straight. “Really? That would explain a lot.”
“Yeah, it does, except it’s you, Emily, and Shawn that seem to be losing it.”
His brother’s body stiffened. “What do you mean? You’ve been acting really weird too. You seem to think Stephanie needs protection from everyone, including me, and now you’re taking her side over Emily’s?”
Tony scowled at his brother. “I feel responsible for her. She’s just a kid. People take advantage of girls like her.”
“I would never hurt her.” Devon hit his fist into the palm of his other hand. “Don’t you get it? We’re in love. We plan on getting married after graduation. We’ll both be eighteen by then. I’m the reason she’s here.”
Tony could only stare at his brother. This was as baffling as when Stephanie told him how Emily had treated her. “You two are not getting married.” He ran his fingers through his hair and stood, pacing back and forth the length of the room. “Shawn tells me Stephanie is spooky, and then I learn Emily has threatened her. And now this. If she agreed to marry you, it’s because she’s afraid of you and your temper.” He shook his head. “What is the matter with you people?”
Devon bounded off the bed and grabbed his arm. “Hold it, Tony. Did you just say Emily threatened Stephanie?”
“Yeah, I did. Stephanie told me that Emily warned her to leave Charles City or she might have a bad accident because Emily would make sure of it. Does that sound like a threat to you?”
His brother dropped his hand and slid it into a pocket. “Yeah, it does.” He turned away and then quickly swung back around. “But it doesn’t sound like something Emily would say. You actually heard Emily say that?”
“No, Stephanie told me. She…”
“Stephanie told you. Have you talked to Emily about it?”
“No, but Stephanie wouldn’t make something like that up.”
Devon’s jaw went slack and he stared at Tony with narrowed eyes. “If what Emily said about this ‘Shadow’ is true, maybe it made Steph say those things. It’s probably making you believe everything she has been telling you.” He tapped his older brother on the chest with the back of his hand. “Think about it. Does that really sound like Emily, or something Stephanie would make up if she were being forced into it?”
Tony had been thinking about it. The Emily he knew would never say such a thing, but she had changed since learning about Stephanie and his own connections to her. “Emily’s jealous of Stephanie. She claims the girl wants me. She told me that herself.”
“Emily told you she was jealous?”
“No, she told me Stephanie wants me and not as a brother.”
Devon’s eyes narrowed. He pointed at his own chest as he stepped closer. “Well, she’s wrong. Stephanie loves me.” He shoved Tony with both hands and nearly knocked him off his feet. “You stay away from her.”
* * * *
Emily continued to lie on the floor for a few more minutes and let the tears roll from the corners of her eyes. Her mind whirled in circles. It all made sense now. Aiden Shaw had told her once that Jack had kidnapped others. At the time, she thought he meant only Tony, Kaylee, and Devon, but now she could add Dana to that list. How many others were there and could she have prevented their kidnappings if she had explored her gift from the beginning?
The old guilt consumed her. Sure, she put Jack and his crazy father behind bars for the rest of their lives, but if she hadn’t been such a coward before that, she might have been able to warn Dana’s parents and maybe Dana would still be alive. How many more had she failed?
Now there was the issue of this new knowledge and what she should do about it. Go to the police? And tell them what? That she had seen everything in a vision? She didn’t even know where to find Dana’s body. They wouldn’t believe her without proof. Besides, she hadn’t seen Jack Nelson kill anyone. In fact she hadn’t actually seen Jack’s face or his father’s well enough to identify either of them. She had only heard their voices. Voices she recognized.
Should she go to Dana’s parents and tell them what happened to their daughter? She would have to admit she didn’t know where to find the little girl’s body, but she could tell them what Dana said happened after she left the house. There was a possibility they would know of the abandoned buildings, or…they might think she was some sort of crackpot and call the police. No, she would need hard evidence first, but how could she get it without forcing Dana to go through that nightmare again?
She covered her face with both hands, feeling sorry for herself and for the girl. To acquire the proof she needed, Emily would have to convince Dana to go back to the murder site, but how does one convince a traumatized twelve-year-old to return to a place where monsters had killed her?
Emily sighed. What about the other vision she’d had about Tony, Stephanie, and Devon? It was strange that the two images came one after the other. Before, when she had seen more than one apparition at a time, they’d been connected in some way. But how could Dana’s plight be linked to Stephanie’s?
There was nothing she could do for Dana right now. Maybe the other vision with Stephanie was more of an immediate threat. The Shadow seemed to be deliberately trying to destroy the brothers’ close relationship and also turn Tony against Emily. To make matters worse, it all appeared to be working.
It also seemed that Tony believed Stephanie. Emily remembered the shocked look on his face and how his eyes had narrowed as he reassured Steph that everything would be all right. Emily couldn’t read minds, but she didn’t have to with Tony.
She needed to talk to Stephanie, and her instincts told her it had to be soon.
* * * *
Emily drove over to the Shaw’s, thinking Stephanie might still be there. Her car was gone and so was Tony’s. Where had he gone this late? His bedroom light was on. Devon must be home. She thought about knocking, but changed her mind when the upstairs window went dark.
She didn’t know Stephanie’s exact address, only the street and block number. She looked at the passengers in the rearview mirror. Two blurry blobs looked back at her.
“You guys okay back there?”
Dana grinned. “Yep, we’re fine.”
“He isn’t home, so we won’t be staying. I have one other stop to make, though.”
Tony had mentioned that Stephanie was staying with some friends somewhere in the nine-hundred block of Cedar Street. It was a great advantage, living in a small town. She just needed to find the girl’s red car.
* * * *
Emily braked at the stop sign and looked up and down Cedar Street. She spotted Stephanie’s red convertible in front of a garage next to a white house at the far end of the block.
She parked across from the house. The lights were on inside, so maybe someone was home and still awake. “You and Max wait here,” she said to her two companions.
“Is it okay if we get out and play?” Dana asked.
Emily almost laughed out loud. What could happen to them, and how would she punish them if they disobeyed? “Sure, why not? I won’t be long, though.”
She knocked on the front door and waited. The curtain on the door’s window moved and Stephanie’s face appeared. It opened and the girl stepped outside, pulling the door shut behind her.
“What are you doing here?” Stephanie asked.
“We need to talk.”