I expect him to move, but he doesn’t. Instead, he stands in the doorway, waiting for whoever is down there to come up. They must have discovered the broken back door by now, but the footsteps below are slow and calm.

I swallow my nausea and look behind me, trying to find another way out. The windows are big enough to climb through, but they won’t open. The only way out is down.

We hear someone walking up the stairs, but they stop halfway, and I suck in my breath and hold my hand over my mouth, desperate not to make a sound.

Jamie sees me and copies, his eyes wide, his arms shaking, and I want so desperately to be anywhere but here.

A step creaks, then settles as whoever is out there waits for us to give ourselves away. They aren’t panicked by the broken back door. They want to find us.

After ten long seconds, we hear movement, and when they are almost at the top, Jamie darts into Bernie’s room.

I hear a creak on the top step and slip behind the bed, then look to see Mr. Farrell walking slowly after him.

He looks nothing like he did at the hospital. There, he was smiling, friendly, grateful. But in the moment before he disappears into Bernie’s room, I see something that terrifies me, a calm sort of anger, a devil with no need to hide.

My mind is racing, but my legs are frozen to the spot. I should help Jamie, the way he always helps me, but he said run, and I have the only proof I’m ever likely to get, so I step forward, the noise from the next room loud and terrifying.

I walk out to the hallway and take each step slowly and carefully, not knowing which ones creak and which don’t.

What happens when you break into the house of a monster and that monster catches you? I imagine it and quickly block it out.

I’m still not running. I hold my foot above every step, gently placing it down before steadying myself and going again.

Over and over, I creep down the stairs, then past the family portrait with Bernie’s fake smile and her stepdad’s dark eyes.

I think back to the hospital, when he thanked me for finding Bernie at Mayfield. He was mocking me.

I walk as quietly as I can to the back door and am about to step through when I see the crowbar.

In a flash, I feel Jamie pulling me back from the mouth of the alley. I see him creeping up on Michael with a hammer in his hand, attacking him when he had no idea Michael was harmless. I remember him agreeing to everything I have ever asked, like skipping school and following Clara home and coming here today.