“But that isn’t Violet, it’s—” Eric started to say, and Gran interrupted, “Take your sister inside, Eric! Now!”
Sister. Our sister, Vi thought. Our secret sister, the screaming Moth Girl.
Then, still shrieking, Iris took off into the woods.
Phase Two of the plan: the chase.
Gran followed Iris （as they’d all known she would）， with Sal right behind her. Gran turned to Sal and snapped, “No. You stay here and get the damn fire out. I’ll take care of my granddaughter.”
Once Gran entered the woods, and the others were busy trying to untangle the hose so it would reach the shed, Vi took off running toward the Inn.
She sprinted down the gravel driveway, across the road, then the yard. She slipped around to the Inn’s back door. Her heart was pound, pound, pounding, and her whole body was slick with sweat. Her clothes, her hair stank of smoke and another smell, one she hoped no one but her noticed: kerosene.
She knew she didn’t have long. She had to be quick. Quick as a bunny. Hippity-hoppity.
She was about to use Gran’s keys to open the back door when it flew open.
“What’s happening?” Patty asked, nearly breathless, her body silhouetted against the lights behind her in the hall. “Is the house really on fire?”
Vi slipped into the hall, shook her head. “It’s not the house. Just the rabbit hutch and woodshed out back.”
“But is everyone okay?”
“Of course!” Vi said.
“Did you actually do it?” Patty asked. “Get Dr. Hildreth’s keys?”
Vi pulled the key ring out of her sweatshirt pocket. She held up the one labeled B WEST.
Patty’s eyes got big. “No way! I can’t believe it!”
Vi nodded. She couldn’t really believe it either.
“Okay,” Patty said. “Just me and Sheila are here now, and I can keep her busy. I don’t know how long Sal will be gone, though, and when he gets back he’ll probably do his rounds.”
Vi nodded, looked down at her watch: 9:17. “I’ll be quick.”
And she ran past Patty, down the hall toward the Common Room. Once there, she went to the door leading to the basement stairs, took out the key marked BSMNT and opened it.
The lights were already on.
She trotted down the set of concrete steps and found herself in a narrow hallway lined with bricks painted a dull pale green. There was a strong smell of bleach in the air. Long rectangular fluorescent lights flickered and buzzed on the ceiling. To the left was a door marked BOILER ROOM. Vi turned right and reached another door marked B WEST. The door was solid steel, no windows. And instead of a lock built into the door itself, it was fitted with a large metal hasp and a heavy padlock. She took out the key and fitted it into the padlock, felt it slide open, and removed the lock from the hasp. She held her breath, pulled the heavy door open, and stepped through, half thinking an alarm would sound and she’d be caught.
Silence.
More green-brick hallway. More antiseptic smells. More buzzing fluorescent lights. The air felt damp and cool.
Three doors on the left side were all gray metal with little rectangular windows in them. Two doors on the right, no windows.
This felt so different from the rest of the Inn, which had been kept up nicely and felt almost homey—lots of light and windows, warm wood paneling, comfortable furniture. Down here was all dungeon-like cement floor and brick walls, lights that flickered and hummed.
And the doors.
Vi peered through the tiny window in the first door on the left, saw an empty room with a metal hospital bed bolted to the floor, leather restraints attached to the corners. The second room on the left looked the same, but with more equipment: big surgical lights, a metal box on a table with dials and switches and cables leading to two things that looked like microphones. An ECT machine—she’d heard Gran describe such a thing, but had never seen one.