CHAPTER 37 RILEY

37

Riley

WHEN EVELYN HARPER'S EYES landed on her through the window, Riley dropped to the floor. Which was stupid—she knew Evelyn saw her, the others, too—but every bone in her body told her to hide anyway.

She blindly reached for her phone on the counter, managed to find it, and dialed her mom.

It rang twice, then connected. Riley didn't give her mom a chance to speak. "Mama, I need you to come home! Somebody's outside! A mean girl from school. Remember the one I told you about? It's her. Her, her brother, and someone else. I don't know what they want, but they're right outside, Mama!"

Riley sucked in a breath and waited for her mom to reply, but there was nothing.

"Mama?"

The display said disconnected .

She dialed again, and the call didn't go through at all.

Someone knocked on the window.

Knocked hard enough to rattle the glass.

"Let us in, Riley! We need to talk to you."

It was her, Evelyn.

The kitchen door shook a moment later, someone yanking at the knob.

"I called the police!" Riley shouted out.

"Phones don't work right."

This came from outside the kitchen door, a boy's voice.

Evelyn hit the window again. "We just want to talk. Let us in!"

From outside the kitchen door: "I found the key. Who actually leaves a key under their doormat? That's just stupid."

Riley heard the key jiggle in the lock and scrambled to her feet. She was about to run when the door opened. The boy with the baseball bat was standing there—Mason Ridler. A seventh grader who lived two houses down from Evelyn and Robby. He played second base for the Hollows Bend Bobcats. Big for twelve. He'd probably grown a foot since the last time Riley had seen him.

Mason tapped his shoe with the tip of his bat, then raised it up and pointed it toward Riley as if it were an extension of his index finger. "World's going to shit, and you're hiding in your kitchen?"

Robby appeared behind him holding something in his hand.

A dead crow.

Its head hung all wrong, neck broken.

"You got about a dozen of these outside your house," Robby said. "You know that? The only other place we found them was out on Main."

He dropped the bird into his red backpack and closed the flap, as if that were the most normal thing in the world. When he hefted the bag back over his shoulder, it looked heavy. She didn't want to know what else was in there.

Evelyn pushed by both boys and walked right into the kitchen as if it were her house, her eyes fixed angrily on Riley. "Her mom works at the diner right where all the other birds hit. Got more here. You ask me, that's no coincidence." She stepped closer and pointed at Riley. "You and your mom into some kind of witchcraft? That it? Some hocus-pocus mumbo-jumbo old-world Mexican shit? That's what I think."

Riley tried to back up but had no place to go; the counter was right behind her. Tears bubbled up, but she choked them back. She wasn't about to cry in front of these three, no way. "I don't know what—"

"I don't know what you're talking 'bout," Mason mocked. "Ev, she don't know shit. Look at her; she's a kid. We're wasting our time."

Evelyn took a step closer. "That true, Riley? You didn't do it? Don't know nothing?" She stretched her hand out behind her back toward her brother. "Give me that backpack. Maybe she just needs a closer look."

Robby seemed to like that idea. This ugly grin bent his lip as he started to wiggle the pack off his shoulders.

Riley tried to ignore him and kept her eyes on Evelyn. "If phones are down, how did you text me?"

"Not all things are down. Landlines are still working as long as you don't try to dial outside the Bend. I don't know why texts are going. Some do, some don't." Evelyn gave her an accusing look. "You sure you and your mom didn't start this? My dad says it's got Mexican juju written all over it."

That just made Riley angry. "We're not Mexican. My abuela is from Honduras. My mom grew up in the States, and I was born in Exeter. I don't even speak Spanish."

"Whatever." Evelyn waved a dismissive hand.

Riley eyed the block of kitchen knives on the far side of the counter. She could make it if—

"Oh, give me a break." Evelyn rolled her eyes and took a step closer, blocked her.

The two boys closed on her from the right and left, boxing her in.

Riley tried to keep her voice from cracking. "I don't know anything about birds, but I saw … something."

Evelyn eyed her impatiently. "Oh yeah, what?"

Riley told her.

She knew how crazy it sounded, and talking about it aloud only made it worse, but she told them all about the scratching in the pipes and the thing she saw in the sink.

By the time she finished, both Mason and Robby had flashlights out and were peering down the drain. Evelyn hadn't taken her eyes off her.

"Are you sure?" she said. "People are seeing all sorts of things. How do you know it was real?"

Riley had no proof. She should have taken a picture or something, but she hadn't thought of that.

Mason crouched down, was looking in the cabinet under the sink. "We could take the pipes out. Maybe it's caught in the trap."

"Not if she ran the water that long," Evelyn told him. "It's long gone."

"All chopped up, anyway," Robby pointed out.

Evelyn got right in her face. Her breath smelled like old hot dogs. "Did you get dizzy? A couple hours ago?"

Riley's mouth fell open, then she quickly clamped it shut. She hadn't told anyone about that and didn't plan to. If she told her mom she got dizzy on the stairs and nearly fell, she'd never let her stay home alone again. She shook her head.

"Yeah, she did," Mason said. "Look at her. She's a shitty liar."

Evelyn tilted her head slightly, like a dog studying a new bone. "The whole world went sideways for a second, real fast like, then slowly fixed itself, right? Like standing on a teeter-totter? And things got all quiet, like you were underwater?"

Riley had no idea how the girl knew that, but it was as good a description as any. All three of them were staring at her. Then she understood—it happened to them, too. "What … was it?"

Evelyn's eyes grew narrow. "You're saying it wasn't you or your mom who did it?"

Before Riley could answer, Mason said, "We should search her house. There'd be dead chickens or something. Hoodoo, I think that's what they call it. I bet it's all in the basement. That's where they always do that sort of thing."

"We got plenty of dead birds," Robby pointed out, shaking the pack on his back.

"We don't have a basement," Riley told them, unable to hide the irritation in her voice even if she was scared. "My mom's a waitress. She's been working all morning. And you three are crazy."

Mason pointed the bat back at her. "Hey, watch it."

Evelyn let out another hot dog breath and sighed. "I think she's telling the truth. Look at her. She look like some kind of witch's kid? She's shaking, like she's gonna cry. We're wasting our time here."

"I'm not gonna cry."

"Baby's gonna cry, for sure," Mason chimed in.

"I killed one," Riley threw back at him. "I bet none of you can say that."

"For all we know, you imagined all that."

"Or she's making it up," Robby added.

Riley pointed at the sink. "Or I'm not, and there are more of those things out there. Maybe I'm the only person who's seen one."

Tires squealed loudly outside, and all four of them looked to the window.

"Oh shit, five-oh," Mason muttered, starting for the door. "Let's go, Ev!"

Evelyn didn't move. She remained fixed on Riley. "We should take her with us."

A wave of anxiety rolled over Riley. She didn't like any of them. Evelyn and her brother gave her the creeps. Mason was no better.

Robby shuffled to the door behind Mason, looking like he might buckle under the weight of his backpack. "Mason's right, Ev. Come on!"

The jingle of a key in the front door.

Evelyn gripped Riley by the chin. "You tell them anything, I'll kill you. Understand? What you saw isn't for them. They might be part of it. Don't trust them. "

Riley forced a nod.

Evelyn ran. She bolted out the kitchen door behind Mason and Robby a moment before Matt and Riley's mom came in from the front.

The tears finally came, and Riley slammed into her mother with enough force to nearly knock her over.

Her mom hugged her so tight she could barely breathe. "It's okay, baby. Mama's got you. We're going to stay with Matt for a little while."

Riley pressed her face into her mother's side, nodded, and let her lead her back to Matt's patrol car at the curb. She helped her climb into the front seat.

None of them saw Mrs. Nguyen.

She surprised all of them.