“What is it that you want?” I asked him.

“You know what I want,” said Guile, his voice dropping low. Again, he shuffled the cards and plucked another from the deck. He held it out to me, back-first once more. “And this time, you don’t even need to guess, do you?”

Without waiting for a response, he flipped the card, revealing a dark-haired queen of hearts. I dropped my gaze from the card, willing myself not to acknowledge the identity of who it represented.

“She will see him again,” I said. A question masquerading as an observation.

“Soon,” answered Guile as he stepped my way, the queen of hearts extended to me. “Quite soon, in fact.”

“It doesn’t matter,” I reminded myself, for I did have a plan.

“Mm, yes, the plan,” Guile replied to my thought, halting his approach, causing the extended card to vanish with a flick of his wrist. “Listen. About that . . .”

THIRTY-THREE

Stephanie

I hadn’t been asleep for long before my eyes opened.

I wasn’t sure what made them pop wide, the sleep in them gone in an instant.

Most likely, it had been the cold that had settled over me, emanating from the place where Charlie had been sleeping next to me. Had been. But no longer was.

My metal-framed bed creaked as I pushed myself into a sitting position.

Immediately, my gaze went the floor, where I had found Charlie coloring early yesterday morning. Though her crayons lay scattered about, she wasn’t anywhere to be seen.

“Charlie?” I murmured, half stumbling out of bed to face the closet door, which stood closed, just like I’d left it. I tore it open. Nothing. Cracked plaster and emptiness.

I hurried out of my room, my feet carrying me fast in the direction of my sister’s pitch-black doorway. Grasping the banister overlooking the chandelier and the foyer, I halted with a gasp. Clad in her pajamas, Charlie stood below, her small form bathed in the night’s blue-tinted gloom.

“Charlie,” I said as I rounded the top newel. From there, I hurried down the steps to my sister’s side. Kneeling next to her, I grabbed her by the shoulders and spun her to face me.

Though I’d expected to find her in some sleepwalking state since it wasn’t like her to wander at night, I instead found her fully awake, Checkers dangling by a tentacle from one hand. She blinked at me, brows arching to vanish beneath her bangs.

“What are you doing down here?” I asked, smoothing her hair, my panic subsiding.

Instead of answering, she pointed to the pocket doors leading into the parlor.

“What?” I said, “What is it?” I stood slowly, taking my sister’s hand as I did. “Did he come back? Did you see him in there this time?”

“Don’t you hear it?” whispered Charlie, her fingers giving mine a squeeze. “Listen.”

I stilled and, staring through the open pocket doors and into the silent, darkened parlor, I did as she said . . . and listened.