“That’s why you murdered her,” Danny said. “That’s why you pushed your own sister out the window. That’s why you buried her alive.”
“Shut up!” Brenna shouted. “I did what I had to do!” Her eyes softened again briefly as she continued. “But after she was gone, I couldn’t go back to the house. I ran into the woods and got lost. No one came to look for me.” The rage in her eyes had turned to sadness. She lowered her head. “The nights were very cold. There was no food.” She looked at Danny. “I died,” she said finally.
Danny was trembling from fear, but he still didn’t fully comprehend what she was planning. He needed to keep her talking. He needed more time.
“But that doesn’t make sense,” he said, his voice shaking. “If you died, how are you here?”
“You think I want to be here?” Brenna said, staring at Corinna’s grave marker. “Even though I died, I couldn’t rest, not fully. I wandered the woods day and night for what felt like forever, and when I finally found my way back to the house, everyone had gone. All of them. The crops had died. The farm animals had died.” Brenna looked back toward the house. “And somehow the only house left standing for miles was mine.”
“The curse,” Danny whispered weakly.
Brenna looked down at him. “Yes,” she said. “The curse. Corinna’s ghost won’t let me rest. I took her life, and unless I can replace it with another, the curse will never be lifted. Unless you die, I can’t die either.”
Brenna slowly pulled a bundle from the grass and unrolled it, revealing a long, evil-looking knife. Danny cringed and again renewed his struggle to break free. Brenna laughed another cruel, throaty laugh.
“You can struggle all you want,” she said. “But you won’t get free. Once the moon rises, I will spill your blood on Corinna’s grave. Then, when Corinna comes, you and I will both be dead.” She placed the knife back in the bundle. “Until then, we wait.”
As Brenna strode away Danny realized the sun was retreating past the trees. He must have been unconscious for hours. Soon it would be dark.
“What about the gargoyle?” he yelled as Brenna walked away. She only laughed, bending down before the slope and picking up what sounded to Danny like a heavy chain, though he could no longer see her.
“I’ll take care of the gargoyle,” she said bitterly. He heard the clunking sound made by the chain for only a moment as she drug it over the uneven grass toward the arch at the graveyard gates, and then she was too far away, and there was only silence.
Danny struggled between the stakes until he had no strength left, but it was no use. They didn’t budge. He finally relented. He was trapped. He had nothing to do but wait. If only his parents would come back, he thought. But would they even come out to the graveyard to look for him? Would they be able to help him against the undead? He thought about screaming, but there would be no one around for miles who would hear him. No, he thought. He needed to conserve his strength. He was going to need it.
“Khreee!”
Danny’s blood ran cold at the sound of the gargoyle shrieking in the distance.
“Khreee! Khreee!”
It sounded angry.
“Khreee!”
He pictured the creature struggling beneath the weight of the chains Brenna had roped around its concrete frame. No, Danny thought, it doesn’t sound angry. It sounds trapped, just like him.
“Soon now,” he heard a voice say. Brenna reappeared over the slope and made her way to Danny’s side. He had been so deep in thought he hadn’t notice the darkness setting in. It was almost complete. “Once the moon rises and breaks through the clouds,” she said, “I will have my rest, sister.” She looked down at Danny. “And you will have yours.”
“Please,” Danny pleaded. “There must be some other way.”
“Another way?” Brenna hissed back. “There is no other way. Blood was shed, now blood must be shed in return.” Her eyes shone. “I’ve waited over a hundred years for a child to move into my house. For the opportunity to finally rest. To finally die.”
Suddenly the darkness was illuminated by moonlight. It poured between wisps of gray cloud, bathing the graveyard in light. Danny could see the evil smile on Brenna’s face as she unwound the bundle and withdrew the cruel knife from within. She stared up in the moonlight ecstatically. “It’s time,” she said coolly, approaching Danny, lifting the knife high over his chest.
“Please!” Danny pleaded, screaming as he struggled between the stakes. The knife flashed downward. “No!”
“Khrowww!”
Before the knife could meet its mark, a large, dark shadow plunged toward them from the darkness, slamming into Brenna’s slight frame and sending her sprawling across the graveyard. It was the gargoyle.
“No!” Brenna shrieked, dropping the knife as the gargoyle fell upon her. “No!”
“Danny! Danny where are you?” Danny’s dad’s voice rang through the graveyard.
“Dad!” he yelled. “Dad I’m here! Help!”
Danny’s dad ran over the slope and bent at Danny’s side. “Oh, Danny,” he said. “I’m so sorry, son. Don’t worry, we’ll get you out of here.” He picked up the knife Brenna had dropped and began cutting the ropes holding Danny to the stakes. Danny could see his mom standing at the top of the slope. It was them, he thought. They freed the gargoyle.
“But how did you find me?” Danny said, rising from the ground and rubbing his wrists. His dad dropped the knife and helped him to his feet. “How did you know where I was?”
“We looked all over, but couldn’t find you in the house,” Danny’s dad said, ushering him quickly up the slope and away from Corinna’s grave. “When we went up to your bedroom, we found this.” He handed Danny an old, yellowed black and white photograph. It was the photo of Brenna from the book in the library.
“It was on the floor, just under your bed,” his dad went on. “And when we heard the shrieks from the gargoyle, we knew that something bad was happening, however unbelievable.”
“But how did you know it would be safe to free the gargoyle?” Danny asked. “How did you know that it wouldn’t attack you?”
His dad shrugged as they met his mom at the top of the slope. “Like I said, in the old days they used gargoyles to protect people,” he said. “I guess we took a gamble and hoped for the best.”
Danny’s mom reached out and hugged him tight. “I’m sorry we didn’t listen to your fears, Danny,” she said. “We were so concerned with the move we didn’t see that you weren’t acting like a child so much as we were treating you like one.”
Danny’s dad put a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry, too, Champ,” he said.
A bitter howl suddenly broke the silence. “So am I!” Brenna shrieked, and in a crazed frenzy she picked up the knife and began running toward Danny and his parents.
“Brenna, no!” Danny screamed, jumping between Brenna and his parents. But before she could draw near them, Brenna fell to the ground over Corinna’s grave. Something had tripped her, and was holding her in place.
“No,” she said quietly, and her eyes grew wide with fear. “No!” She looked up in horror, reaching toward Danny as two bony hands protruded from the soil below and began dragging her under. “It wasn’t supposed to happen this way,” she whimpered. “No!”
Brenna screamed in terror as she disappeared below the soil, a final “Nooooo!” snuffed out as she was enveloped by the darkness of the earth.
Danny’s mom and dad each grabbed one of his hands and turned to run toward the house. “Come on,” his dad said. “Let’s get out of here.”
The ground beneath them shook as they ran, and in his mind Danny could still hear Brenna’s shrieks of terror ringing in his ears. As they crossed the threshold of the graveyard gates, pieces of stone began to fall from the arch. The gates fell lose of the walls and the walls themselves began collapsing around the graveyard.
They ran along the side of the house and dove into the car. As his dad turned on the engine, the
siding on the house began to crumble, and the porch dissolved before their eyes. As they tore out of the driveway, Danny looked back, seeing nothing but a cloud of dust where the house once stood.
“I don’t know how we’re going to explain this to the landlord,” his dad said, smiling. “But I’m sure we’ll think of something.” He looked at Danny’s mom and placed a hand on her knee. She held it and smiled back at him.
“But where will we go?” Danny asked, smiling, too, because he already knew the answer.
“Home, Danny,” his dad replied, looking at him in the rearview mirror. “We’re going home.”
Danny collapsed into his seat, able to relax for the first time in what felt like forever. He closed his eyes and thought of his old friends, his old school, his old house.
Yet as exhaustion took its hold and Danny slipped into sleep, he heard a faint “Khrowww!” echo in the distance, and a chill went up his spine.
The Barrens House Page 6