Grayson Manor Haunting
Page 18
Grace stroked the cat, frowned. “Can’t I just hold her and play?”
Viv sighed. “Fine. But if we’re gonna do it, let’s get on with it.”
Addison crossed her arms in front of her, watching the girls’ long, blond, pigtails bob up and down while they hopped along the chalk squares on the driveway. She wondered if they saw her watching them from outside the gate but the few times they glanced in her direction, they looked past her like she wasn’t there.
In an effort to find out where she was and how she got there, Addison cupped a hand over the side of her mouth and shouted, “Hello?”
No response.
She tried again. “Excuse me. Girls. Can you hear me?”
Again, no response.
She stood for several seconds, frustrated and confused before a glaring oversight occurred to her. Nothing about this place made sense. The people, the air, the colors, the car. Everything was off somehow. Everything was … wrong.
Am I … dreaming?
The more she thought about it, the more she convinced herself it was true.
That’s it. This is a dream. It has to be. No one sees me because none of this is real.
It made sense because it had to. And because there was no other possible explanation for what she was experiencing. Now to prove the theory.
Addison pinched the flesh on her arm with the tips of her fingernails. Nothing. No pain. No sensation.
Come on, Addison … wake up.
She squeezed her eyes shut then opened them, finding herself still there, trapped in her own twisted version of the Twilight Zone.
She leaned her head against the gate, and even considered banging against it a few times. Why not? It wasn’t like she’d hurt anything.
“Hi.”
The word was uttered in such a hush Addison almost didn’t hear it. She looked down. One of the twins stood on the opposite side of the gate, her face pensive, eyes curious. The second twin was nowhere in sight.
“Hi,” Addison replied.
“My name is Vivian. What’s yours?”
“Addison. You can see me?”
“Of course I can see you,” the girl said. “We both can.”
And yet when Addison had called out to them just moments ago, neither of them responded. Interesting.
“The other girl. She’s your twin sister, right?”
Vivian nodded. “Her name’s Grace.”
“Where is she?”
“She’s hiding.”
“Why?”
“She’s afraid.”
Addison reached out, attempting to place a hand on Vivian’s shoulder. Vivian jerked back. Message received.
“Oh, honey,” Addison said. “Your sister doesn’t need to be afraid. Neither of you do.”
Vivian shrugged. “She didn’t want you to come.”
“Come where?”
“Come here.”
Still unsure of where here was, Addison decided not to push it. “Why not?”
“No one has ever seen us before.”
No one had ever seen them? How could that be possible?
The kitten leapt out from behind a bush next to the manor. Grace chased after it, yelling, “Shadow, no! Stop!”
But the tenacious feline bounded forward. Vivian intercepted it, snatching the kitten up in one hand before it slipped past the gate. She walked over to Grace and deposited the cat back into her arms. Whispers between the two girls followed, too low for Addison to hear. Grace then tugged at the layers of fabric on Vivian’s dress, like she was trying to hold her back, keep her from returning to the gate again.
Vivian escaped Grace’s grasp, walked halfway back to the gate, and stopped. “I have to go now. Grace needs me. Try and remember, okay?”
Try and remember? Try and remember what?
Vivian turned.
“Wait,” Addison said. “Please. Don’t go. Tell me what I need to remember.”
But Vivian kept walking, leaving Addison’s mind to run rampant, swirling with unanswered questions. The biggest of them all—whether or not the twins realized they were dead.
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