Sisters of Misery

by Megan Kelley Hall

  “Ooooh, spooky,” Cordelia said. “Why is it called Misery Island?”

  Maddie explained that a shipbuilder named Robert Moulton got stuck out on the island while harvesting timber in the 1620s. He was stranded out in a terrible December storm for three “miserable” days, hence the name Misery Island.

  “So does he haunt the island, too?” Cordelia asked, clearly amused.

  “I don’t know; I never stayed there by myself.”

  “What’s out there besides ghosts and witches?”

  Maddie laughed. “We go out there to party sometimes. It’s pretty secluded. It used to be this big resort and casino with all these beautiful summer homes back at the turn of the nineteenth century, but a big fire destroyed everything. It’s just a bunch of ruins now.” Maddie paused for a moment, thinking about all of the nights that the Sisters of Misery had gone out there and what had taken place. “The ruins of the casino look like a castle. It’s actually a really beautiful place.”

  “When you’re not being attacked by witches and ghosts, right?” Cordelia asked. “Well, on your next trip out there, bring me along. I’d love to see an old castle. Maybe I can find some fairy circles inside.”

  They finally emerged from the forest across the street from the ocean. Maddie smiled, nodding in the direction of the island so that Cordelia would follow her gaze.

  “Anyway,” Maddie continued, “there’s also a creepy stone wall on Ravenswood hospital with these faces that keep showing up year after year. Supposedly, they’re the faces of the Pickering sisters put there as a reminder that one day, they’ll return seeking revenge.” Maddie felt like she was now a tour guide for the witch trials. She then added with a smile, “So now you know why nobody here likes outsiders.”

  “I wish I was a descendant of one of those sisters. Maybe,” Cordelia said with a cluck of her tongue, “maybe I am, and I was destined to return here.”

  Maddie laughed. “Revenge is sweet, right?”

  “‘And sweet revenge grows harsh,’” Cordelia quoted. “Shakespeare. Othello.” This was a game that Cordelia and Rebecca played often in the store. They’d spend hours going back and forth with quotes, trying to one up each other.

  “Oh, okay. Let me think. Hmm…‘Sweet is revenge…especially to women.’ Lord Byron,” Maddie said, loving the feeling of being a part of Rebecca and Cordelia’s private game.

  Cordelia closed her eyes, the tree branches shifting behind her in the owl-light of the forest. “Mmmm…Oh, I’ve got a good one. ‘In revenge and in love, woman is more barbaric than man is.’ Nietzsche.”

  Her eyes fluttered open, startling Maddie. Cordelia glared at her, her brilliant smile fading, her eyes clouding over, and for a moment, Maddie thought her cousin was going to hit her. Then Cordelia peered into the woods, so dark and impenetrable in the early morning light, almost as if she saw someone or something. Maddie’s entire body hummed with tension, the hairs on the back of her neck standing at attention.

  Then Cordelia’s smile returned, her eyes cleared, and she broke the moment that enveloped them by yelling, “Race ya!”

  Cordelia squealed with laughter as they ran all the way past Town Hall, Fort Glover, and Old Burial Hill. As they ran, Maddie glanced at Ravenswood and the wall that somehow had become a monument to the Pickering sisters. Headlights often threw gruesome shadows on the towering stone wall of the red Gothic monstrosity of Ravenswood, illuminating the ghostly faces that appeared to come alive in the dark. Don’t look directly at them, or you’ll catch your death, people would say. Some believed the faces carved into the stone were a reminder of the terrible fate of those three girls. A warning, a way of making sure that the people of Hawthorne would never let it happen again.

  Not ever again.

  When driving past Ravenswood, people averted their eyes from the faces for fear of bad luck, much like children holding their breath while passing graveyards. The aging building had been erected on the site of a fort that once defended Hawthorne Harbor during the Revolutionary War. It was once a prison, a part of the town’s history that no one liked to talk about. And nearly a century ago, it had been reborn to accommodate a different cast of inmates, those imprisoned by their own minds. Its formal name was Ravenswood State Asylum, and it was a hospital for the mentally ill.

  No one knew how or when the faces were carved into the towering stone wall. They just always remembered them being there.

  Again and again, people tried to cover up the faces, squeezing gray plaster and mortar into the gaping grimaces and empty eye sockets. But days later, never longer than a week, the girls’ faces rose to the surface once again. For the cement, no matter how thick or strong, just disappeared. The faces stared out defiantly. There for an eternity. There to tell their story, to be a reminder of the past.

  Maddie never paid much attention to the faces on the wall or the horrible stories of the torture that the Pickering sisters, wrongly accused of witchcraft and ostracized by an entire community, had to endure. And she didn’t want to show Cordelia the wall that immortalized the fate of those three girls. Not yet, not now. Because recently she’d been having terrible dreams.

  And in Maddie’s recent nightmares, she saw the appearance of a fourth face.

  The face of another young girl.

  The face of Cordelia.

  “I’m so excited for you to meet everyone,” Maddie said as she and Cordelia slowed to a walk, heading up the narrow pathway to the school.

  Ever since she and Cordelia had become closer friends, Maddie felt like she was growing out of her awkward, self-conscious behavior and tapping into Cordelia’s unwavering confidence. It was hard to believe that they were related. Cordelia just exuded this natural poise and self-assurance, whereas Maddie had pretty much always been a wallflower. Maddie could just imagine her friends falling all over themselves to try to befriend this mysterious, yet very cool girl from California.

  “There they are,” Maddie said as she waved over to the group of girls. They were gathered in an unapproachable knot, tight as a tourniquet. Kate turned and waved them over, as if they were opening their exclusive doors for a brief moment. Maddie watched as their eyes drifted from Cordelia’s espadrilles, which crisscrossed up her legs, to her bright, floral skirt, and then finally up to meet her eyes with arrogant indifference.

  “Oh, sweet Jesus, it’s the Stepford wives in training,” Cordelia said under her breath. “Do they all share the same hair dye or what?”

  Maddie glowered at her cousin for a moment. She wanted this to go as smoothly as possible. But then she realized that they were all wearing the same uniform of pastel Polo shirts, khaki skirts or shorts, headbands, and Kate Spade purses. They were a J. Crew catalog sprung to life. Maddie wondered why she had never noticed that before, but realized as she looked down at her own clothes that she unknowingly had chosen the same unofficial Hawthorne Academy “uniform.”

  “Hey girls, this is my cousin, Cordelia LeClaire. She just moved here a few weeks ago from California,” Maddie said. None of them smiled. “Cordelia, this is Kate Endicott, Hannah Sanders, Darcy Willett, and Bridget Monroe.”

  “Oh, the infamous Cordelia. We wondered who had taken our little Maddie captive. It’s like you fell off the planet, Maddie,” said Kate curtly. “We could have used you in field hockey camp. Most of those fat asses couldn’t even do the drills without passing out.”

  Kate then turned her attention to Cordelia. “California, huh?” Kate sniffed. “Are you an actress or something?” The girls laughed in unison.

  Cordelia smiled, unaffected by Kate’s remark. “Not really.”

  “Nice skirt,” Bridget said, not making it clear if it was a compliment or not. Maddie shifted uneasily from one foot to the other. This wasn’t going to be as easy as she had hoped.

  “Thanks,” Cordelia said tentatively. “I bought it in a village market in the French countryside.”

  “A flea market?” Kate asked. A few of them giggled.

  Maddie could
feel her face flushing as she looked at the girls. Why are they being so rude? Cordelia’s expression hadn’t changed, which seemed to egg them on even more.

  “Come on.” Maddie protectively grabbed her arm. “We should get you registered.” Maddie pulled her away from the girls before they could say anything else.

  “Nice meeting you, Cordelia,” Kate called after them.

  Cordelia wrangled out of her grasp and turned back to face the group of girls. “No, really, the pleasure was all mine. I hope everyone here is as friendly as you.” She then whipped around and marched ahead of Maddie up the stairs to the administration building. Maddie quickened pace to keep up, the muffled laughter fading behind them.

  “Nice friends,” Cordelia said flatly. “Real charmers.”

  “I honestly don’t know what’s gotten into them,” Maddie said, even though she wasn’t completely surprised by the chilly reception her cousin had received.

  “Maybe you just can’t see it because you’re one of them,” snapped Cordelia. She raced into the registration office, letting the heavy door slam behind her.

  Maddie’s heart sank. The bond that had grown between them over the past few weeks was on the verge of being broken.

  “What’s with you and the hippie chick?” Kate taunted Maddie at her locker at the end of the school day.

  Maddie swung around and glared at Kate’s perfectly featured face; her heart-shaped face, tiny nose, and freckled cheeks made her the poster child for the all-American girl. Her silken hair fell down her back, sleek and polished as always, and her expression was absent of tolerance.

  “I can’t believe how rude you guys were,” Maddie reprimanded her.

  “Well, I can’t believe that you blew us off for, what, like the entire summer for that—that freak!” Kate laughed. Bridget, Hannah, and Darcy came up behind Kate, nodding their heads in agreement. “Did you forget about us, your friends? Your Sisters!”

  “She’s not like us, Maddie,” Darcy offered. “You know that. She’s like, I don’t know…weird.”

  “Yeah, she was in my European History class today, and she told Mr. Wilson that his description of one of the cathedrals or something was wrong. She said that she had been there and that she could describe it better,” Bridget added. “I mean, who does she think she is?”

  “Just give her a chance. She’s really very cool.” Maddie said halfheartedly, not really wanting to get into it with the girls.

  “Madeline, you need to drop the welcome wagon act already. She’ll never be one of us, you know that,” Kate insisted with a smile. Then the smile faded, a stain of shock spreading over her face as she stared at something behind Maddie.

  Maddie turned to see Trevor Campbell and Cordelia strolling down the hallway together, talking and laughing. His eyes were glued to her face, like a lost puppy hungry for whatever Cordelia had to offer him.

  As they walked past the girls, neither of them acknowledged the stares from the group. An odd, raspy sound escaped from Kate’s mouth as she overheard Trevor offering to give Cordelia an ocean-guided tour of Hawthorne from his new Whaler, the latest gift from his parents. Cordelia flung her hair over her shoulder and agreed halfheartedly, as if her mind was somewhere else entirely.

  Kate spun angrily. “Who does that bitch think she is? You’d better tell her to keep her hands off of my Trevor! Do you understand, Madeline?”

  Darcy snickered. “Your Trevor? Are you sure he knows that?”

  Kate turned to Darcy, “Why don’t you shut up, you little bitch? You’ve always wanted him, and I saw you throwing yourself at him the other night. It’s pathetic.”

  Darcy looked uneasy for a moment but wasn’t about to let herself become the focus of Kate’s wrath. “Pathetic is what I’d call Maddie’s cousin. Throwing herself at a guy she barely knows. Jesus, Maddie. She’s only been in school for what, a few hours? And she’s already gunning for someone else’s boyfriend.”

  Maddie slammed the locker shut. “Listen, I don’t know what’s gotten into everyone. She just moved here. Her dad just died. And she doesn’t know anyone. I don’t see why you have to make it so brutal for her!”

  “I’m sorry, Maddie dear. I don’t do charity work,” Kate snapped. “And if I were you, I wouldn’t hang with the help unless you want to be treated like them.”

  With that, she stormed off angrily after Trevor and Cordelia, leaving the others to smirk and roll their eyes.

  Darcy looked concerned for a moment and then ran after Kate, obviously trying to make amends.

  “Try to get yourself off her shit list, Maddie,” Hannah offered, leaning closer to Maddie. Her narrowly set hazel eyes opened wide in warning. “If you don’t control your cousin, Kate will make life a living hell—for both of you.”

  After years of bending to Kate’s every wish, Maddie knew that wasn’t an exaggeration.

  Chapter 5

  KAUNAZ

  FIRE

  A Period of Darkness and Confusion; A Warning

  or Spiritual Omen

  “So what’s up with you and Trevor?” Maddie asked her cousin that evening while they sat at the kitchen table, doing homework. The late afternoon sun slanted through the trees and created a barcode of shadows along the wooden table.

  “Who?” Cordelia asked earnestly.

  Tess was humming a foreign tune in the other room.

  “Trevor Campbell. I saw you walking down the hall with him after school.”

  “Oh yeah, blond hair, blue eyes, kinda cute. Was his name Trevor? Hmm…fits his type, I guess. What about him?” Cordelia asked, more interested in their reading assignment—short stories by Edgar Allan Poe—than boy talk.

  “Well, he’s sort of been dating Kate, like, forever.”

  “Poor guy.”

  “Yeah, really,” Maddie laughed. “Seriously though, he’s cute and all, but I just wouldn’t get involved with him. He’s bad news.”

  Cordelia laughed hysterically. “Get involved with him? Oh, please. I’d never get involved with a guy my own age. I mean, he’s okay, I guess, but…”

  “Oh, I see. I’m sorry. I just thought that…”

  “Where is this coming from, Maddie?” interrupted Cordelia. “I can take care of myself. Always have.”

  “Of course. It just looked like—”

  “Looked like what? Like I was flirting with him? So what if I was?” Cordelia stopped reading suddenly. A smile spread across her face. “Oh, I see. This is about Kate, right? She freaked when she saw her pretty boy following me down the hall like a puppy dog today, didn’t she? And you’re her messenger girl, is that how it is?”

  “No, I’m not her messenger,” Maddie snapped. “But I just don’t think it’s a good idea for you to piss off Kate. I mean, you just started here, and you don’t want to be on her bad side.”

  “You mean there’s a good side to her? Funny, didn’t strike me that there was one,” Cordelia said, almost to herself. “Like I said before, Maddie, I’m not the one you should be worrying about. I can take care of myself. Always have. You, on the other hand, have to stop worrying so much about what other people think and say.”

  “I don’t!”

  “Whatever,” Cordelia smiled. “Besides, Trevor Campbell isn’t even my type. I need a man with a little more maturity, you know? Now, his older brother, Mr. Campbell, well, he’s another story altogether. He’s more my type, for sure. I think I could be—how does that Van Halen song go—“Hot for Teacher”? But now that I know that there’s a controversy brewing…” Her blue eyes flashed wickedly, and she bit her ruddy bottom lip. “This could be kinda fun.”

  Reed Campbell had forever been known as “the hot teacher,” due to the fact that he was barely out of college and his looks hadn’t changed much since he was voted Most Popular, Best Looking, and Most Likely to Succeed back when he was a student at Hawthorne Academy. All the girls harbored secret crushes on him, even Maddie. But Cordelia was the only girl who seemed capable of attracting his attention. Maddie w
asn’t sure if it was her maturity, her picture-perfect looks, or her passion for literature that made Cordelia the quintessential “teacher’s pet.”

  “Did any of you know that we have King Lear’s favorite daughter right here in this classroom? And since she’s here, I think she should tell us a little bit about herself,” Mr. Campbell said one afternoon. He sat on his desk and looked at Cordelia. Maddie could have sworn that she saw a blush creep onto Cordelia’s face, something that seemed totally out of character.

  Kate whined, “What are you talking about, Reed?”

  The smile dropped from Mr. Campbell’s face, and he walked over to Kate’s desk. He leaned over her and said quietly, but not so quiet that Maddie couldn’t hear, “I know that you and my brother are together, but while we are in school, please treat me with a little respect. I am your teacher during the school year, got it?”

  “God, I’ve got it Ree—er, Mr. Campbell, you don’t have to smother me.” Kate laughed her throaty laugh. “You’re going to make people start talking.”

  He turned when he got back to his desk at the front of the classroom. “I’m going to have the headmaster talking…to you if you don’t cut the crap, Kate.”

  Hannah and Darcy giggled. Kate turned and gave them the death glare.

  “Now, as I was saying…King Lear’s favorite daughter, for those of you who are not familiar with the words of good, old Will Shakespeare, was the beautiful Cordelia.”

  He raised his hand to Cordelia and directed her to the front of the classroom.

  She smiled, blushing still, and said, “‘O thou good Kent! how shall I live and work To match thy goodness? My life will be too short, And every measure fail me…These weeds are memories of those worser hours: I prithee, put them off.’”

  Mr. Campbell laughed while the rest of the class looked at each other, dumbfounded. “I see that they do a good job of teaching Shakespeare in the California school system.” He turned and explained to the class. “She was just quoting something that Cordelia said in King Lear.” And then he shook his head, looking down at his syllabus, almost at a loss for words. “Very impressive, Ms. LeClaire. Very impressive. How about you tell us about yourself?”