I heard Neil Diamond again, one of Gran’s crackling records.
I am, I said.
“That’s just something my sister and brother and I made when we were kids—it’s got sentimental value, but that’s it.”
He nodded. “I know. I mean, I figured it out. Also that this… this monster… she isn’t really who she says she is. She’s not Rattling Jane.” He paused, chewed his lip. “It’s your sister. Your sister who calls herself a monster.”
I froze, my body turning to ice.
The truth at last.
“What?” I said. “How do you—”
“It’s all here, in this book.” He gave me a well, duh look. “Haven’t you read it?”
“Not for years,” I admitted. “I went to the tower last night after I left you. I thought… I guess I hoped that maybe I’d find Lauren. But all I found was the book and the doll—left for me.”
“Left by your sister?”
“I believe so, yes.”
“And she’s got Lauren,” he said.
I nodded. “She must.”
Skink rubbed his eyes.
“You want to help Lauren, don’t you?”
He nodded, very slightly.
“I want to help her too. I want to find her and save her. And I think I can.”
He sat up straight, staring at me with glassy eyes.
I knew what I had to do, though I hated to do it. I didn’t want to involve this boy. But it was too late. He was already in deep; no way he was walking away. “I think I can do it with your help. Will you help me, Skink?”
He stared at me, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. He still held the phone in his hand.
“？’Cause here’s the thing: if you call your dad, I think we blow all our chances of finding Lauren. I think… I think I need to be the one to find her. I’m being led there. It’s what the monster wants.”
Skink grimaced. “She’s playing some sick game with you, using Lauren as bait.”
“Maybe,” I said. “But it’s not just Lauren. There have been other girls.”
“Okay,” he said at last. “I’ll help you.” He set the phone down on the table. “But I’m warning you, if you try anything weird, or I find out you’re actually more involved in this, then I’m calling my dad. And I want to know everything. The whole story. Like, is she really some kind of… monster?”
How could I even begin to answer that? “She thinks she is,” I told him. “And that’s what matters.”
“So how do we stop her?” Skink asked.
“First, we have to find her. We know she’s on the island. Or she has been in the last day or two, because she left the book and the doll. And if she’s here, then Lauren’s here. Maybe they’re in the woods somewhere? Or holed up in one of the cottages?”
“I don’t think so,” Skink said.
“Why not?”
“I read the book, remember? She’s added new stuff to it. She wrote a note to you at the end, and I think it says where they went.”
Vi
July 28, 1978
VI AND IRIS held hands as they crossed the lawn to the Inn. The yellow bricks seemed to glow. It felt like the building was waiting for them, watching them as they ran to it.