“Yes, biggie,” said Lou, but Sadie pressed her lips together and turned back to the door. “Here, let me try.” Sadie handed her boot to Lou, but before Lou could stick her hand inside, she noticed movement in the window of the door. There was someone waving to her from the other side.

Lou jumped, then looked closer.

No, he wasn’t on the other side. He was in the window. Behind her … It was a reflection! She spun to find the space totally empty. Turning back to the window, she noticed the shadowy boy mouthing her name.

She asked Sadie in a hushed voice, “Do you see him too?” Sadie nodded. Lou rubbed her dry tongue on the roof of her mouth. “He looks like my brother, Jason,” Lou added. She watched in confusion as he waved more frantically and then jumped up and down. “I don’t like this.”

“You don’t like your brother?”

“No … Not that. It’s just … This is the second time I’ve seen him since I arrived. The first time—” He was a giant, peeking in at me through the window upstairs. Lou worried that Sadie might stop listening to her. “The first time I saw him, the house started trembling. I feel like I can’t trust what I’m seeing. Something here is playing tricks on us.”

Jason was shaking his head, as if he could hear what she was saying.

“Maybe it’s not really your brother,” Sadie said out of the side of her mouth. “Have you ever heard of a doppelgänger? An evil spirit that looks like a twin?”

The words were like an icy breeze blowing inside Lou’s shirt. “Let’s get away from the door. Find someplace safe to hide.”

“Like that closet where I found you?”

“Maybe not there,” said Lou, blushing. “Come on. This way. We’ll find a different exit.” Sadie put her boot back on, but left the laces untied. Lou gave one last fearful glance at the boy in the window before she rushed away, trembling.

They made their way to an alcove in the hallway, where the exterior wall bowed outward, forming a rotunda-like space. A pair of high-backed chairs sat next to several windows covered by thick amber-colored curtains. The girls pulled the chairs farther into the rotunda, out of sight from anyone who might be searching the hallway, and then they sat down. “Are we safe here?” Sadie asked, peering toward the hallway.

“For the moment.”

“Do you recognize where we are? According to your dollhouse?”

Lou sighed and shook her head. “Parts of it match the layout exactly. And then I’ll turn a corner, and it’s like someone added on another huge section of the house. I don’t know if I’ll be able to find another way out.”