“Why’d you try to drown me?” I asked her.

“I wasn’t trying to drown you. I was helping you learn how to swim underwater.”

“How do I know you won’t try to do something like that again, something that might kill me?”

“I can’t make any promises, Pearl. You might die. Everyone does, you know. But you’re the only one who can help me now. The town is nearly empty.”

So I climbed out the window.

Running through the woods that time felt more familiar, and I even kind of enjoyed it. She didn’t forget about me, not once, and she set me down gently outside of Tom’s cabin, right by the front door. She told me what she wanted me to do.

“Can’t you at least come down the stairs with me? You came the last time,” I said.

“You have to go someplace I can’t go. I’d rather wait here.”

“How will I know what you want me to get for you if you don’t come with me?”

“You’ll know.”

“But how?”

“Trust me. You’ll know.”

“But—”

“Go!” Suddenly her voice was like the thunder.

I took two steps back from her. It hurt my feelings that she shouted at me like that. And I could tell that she wished she hadn’t.

I turned and checked the door. It was unlocked. She handed me a flashlight. Then she melted into the shadows.

“Are you there?” I asked.

“I am always here.”

Pure fear melted right through me. Grampy, I’ve never been so scared in all my life. Never.

“You can’t tell me anything?” I begged.

“When you arrive at the end, keep going,” she said.

I opened the door, walked through the part of the house we had walked through before, down the long hall, and finally came to the doorway at the top of the stairs. I opened it and started going down.

The walk down took me so long that at one point I thought maybe I had imagined the bottom, that the stairs went on and on forever. That old flashlight kept shining down farther and farther on rickety wooden steps, and I started to panic a little, thinking about what I would do if the batteries died. I even stopped and sat on the steps and almost cried. I doubted what I was doing and why I wasn’t home in my warm bed.

I thought about what she had said: “When you arrive at the end, keep going.”

I stood up, sighed, and kept going down. Eventually, I got there and stood in front of those three doors. I guess I didn’t see it the first time I was there, but it was such a strange place, like an in-between place, like it didn’t really exist except it was where the stairs ended and whatever was beyond the doors began. I took a deep breath, pointed the flashlight back up the stairs one more time, and went through the door all the way on the left.