We’ll be right there, honey,” I said into the intercom. Matthew and I raced out of the dining room and toward the stairs.
“Jane!” I called, and she popped her head out of the kitchen. “I think Fate is upstairs with the girls.” She was at our side in an instant, and we climbed the stairs together, hurrying toward the media room where I knew Amity and Heather had been watching a movie.
I opened the door to find both girls huddled together on one of the leather sofas. Fate, dressed in a tattered, old gown, was twirling in slow circles in the middle of the room. She didn’t seem to realize anyone else was there. Her eyes were closed, and she was chanting, over and over:
The witch in the wood comes out to play
By the light of the solstice moon
To sing and sway and conjure and pray
Awakening them with her tune!
Come devil, come imp, come monstrous thing
That hides underground in the day
Come alive this night and give them a fright
When the wood witch comes out to play.
I stared at Amity, openmouthed.
“She just came in here and started … chanting,” Amity said, her eyes darting from Heather to me to Fate, her voice a harsh whisper. “We tried to come downstairs to get you, but she grabbed us every time we tried to get out of the room. That’s when I thought of the intercom.”
Thank goodness for Jane, who stepped into the room, marched right up to Fate, and shook her by the shoulders.
“Now, now, Miss Fate,” she said as though she were talking to a child. “That’s enough dancing for today.”
Fate opened her eyes wide, startled by the sound of her own name. She looked at each of us in turn and only then seemed to realize we were there.
“What are you doing here, Miss Fate?” Jane asked her, patting her hand. “You should be in your own room. You know that.”
Fate broke free of Jane’s grasp and twirled again, her arms out wide. “I heard the girls talking and laughing and it sounded like so much fun, I wanted to join in,” she said, frowning at Jane. “I was all alone and didn’t have anyone to play with.”
Jane grabbed Fate by the arm to stop her twirling. “It’s time for bed, Miss Fate,” she said, her tone as firm as a schoolteacher’s.
“But they get to stay up.” Fate pouted, pointing at the girls.
Jane eyed her. “Yes, they get to stay up. But it’s your bedtime now. Be a good girl and come along.”
“It’s not fair,” Fate complained, stamping one foot and sighing loudly. But she let Jane lead her out of the room, even as she continued to protest.
“You’re not going to be alone,” I heard Jane say to Fate as they were making their way down the hall. “I’ll stay with you until you fall asleep, just like I always do. How about a story?”
I turned to the girls, who were still huddled together on one of the couches. “I’m sorry about that,” I said to them. “Heather, that was Amity’s great-aunt, who recently arrived here from the hospital. She is a little …” I searched for the right word. “… confused.”
Heather nodded. “That’s okay. My grandma has Alzheimer’s. She lived with us for a while.”
“That was really creepy,” Amity said, pulling her knees into her chest and hugging them with her arms. “I know this is bad to say, but I wish she wasn’t here. Where did she even get that dress?”
I sat down next to her and put an arm across her shoulders. “It was probably in her old room or tucked away in a trunk somewhere. But either way, don’t worry about her. She’s harmless. Jane’s going to make sure she’s down for the night. Her room is locked so she won’t bother you girls again, and I’ve also got a call in to her doctor at the hospital. I’ll get some answers when I talk to him, and then we’ll decide what the right thing to do is. It could be that she goes back there or into a nursing home here. We’ll do what’s best for her and it’ll all be taken care of within the next few days.”
Amity’s frown told me she wasn’t buying it. I wasn’t sure I was, either.
“Do you want us to hang out with you up here and watch a movie?” I asked her, shooting Matthew a look, and he nodded. “Or you could come downstairs. There’s a TV in the parlor.”
Amity and Heather shared a look, and I could tell some wordless communication had passed between them.
“We’ll stay up here, and you don’t have to babysit us,” Amity said. “But if she comes in here again—”
I cut her off. “She won’t.”
“If she does,” Amity insisted, “I’ll call you right away. And we’re locking the door in my room when we go to sleep.”
Turning to Heather, I said: “Are you cool with all of this?”
She nodded, smiling. “I’m cool with it.”
“Okay, then,” I told them. “We’re going back downstairs. If you need us, just call on the intercom. After we finish our dinner, we’ll be in the parlor.”
As we were walking down the stairs toward the dining room, Matthew stopped midway and turned to me. “How did Fate hear them?” he asked.
I frowned at him. “What do you mean?”
“She said she heard the girls playing and it sounded like such fun,” he said. “If she was in her rooms on the third floor, she couldn’t have heard them—right? And didn’t you say she was locked in?”
Had she remembered the passageways from her childhood? A sense of dread seeped its way into my skin. I knew she was just a harmless, confused old lady, but I didn’t like the idea of Fate creeping around the house, listening to my daughter.