Heading back to my car, I drove back around the corner to my street, threading through the beaten-up vans and wheel-less cars and a mob of kids on scooters and skateboards.
I pulled up short as two girls no older than eight stepped out in front of me, each pushing a stroller that carried a baby sibling. Although the babies were rugged up with blankets, the girls weren’t wearing anything more than tank tops and shorts. I watched them cross the street, the small, pixie-faced blonde girl stopping in the middle of the road to pat her squalling brother.
Driving three doors farther along to my house, I parked the car and rehearsed my act. Be casual. Don’t spill the news to Evie until later tonight.
I walked into a strangely quiet house.
Our house was never quiet.
Normally, Lilly and Willow would be whooping through the house, pretending to be magic unicorns or killer ninjas.
No whooping this afternoon. No unicorns or ninjas.
No sound of music or the TV.
Nothing.
4. Evie
SUDDEN FLICKERS OF MOVEMENT IN THE opposite wall stole my attention.
God, were those eyes peering in from a tiny hole in the stonework?
Yes, eyes, moonlight from a high window making the whites of them luminous.
Someone’s watching me.
I jerked to a sitting position, rushes of cold prickles embedding themselves into my arms and spine.
The eyes glistened in the peephole.
Who was peering at me and the others? What was on the other side of that wall?
I willed someone else to wake.
The girl in the bed closest to mine murmured in her sleep, long, pale hair strung across her face. I choked back an impulse to run across and shake her awake.
I twisted around the other way.
A red-haired girl from the bed on my left side was silently observing me through the dim light. “Having a panic attack? I have those. Just . . . breathe. And cheer up, you’re somewhere good for a change.”
“Don’t you see them?” A tremor ran through my voice. “The eyes, watching us.”
Her face creased into a frown. “Ah, you’re one of the druggies. Good, I’m not alone. The mentors said they’d put us all through rehab before we came here. But you still haven’t come down off your high horse. Sorry, little joke of mine. High horse.” She raised her eyebrows comically.
Not answering, I swivelled back to face the walls. There was nothing but a dark space where the eyes had been.
I let air fill my lungs.
“You really need to chill, or you’ll never get through this,” the girl said, softening her tone. Her accent was what I called jolly-hockey-sticks. Upbeat and very English.
“I’m sorry—” I flinched as the wailing, stereophonic calls of a flock of birds started up, my thoughts scattering. The bird calls were so loud and exotic they were almost alien, coming from somewhere out in the hills.
“Wow, you are a jumpy one,” she said. “Hey, I’m feeling a bit jumpy, too. This place is weirding me out. And those birds are noisy.”
I rubbed my arms. “I don’t know what’s making me so nervous.”
“Don’t sweat it. Why don’t you try to get some sleep? It’s a damned shame to waste time being awake when you could be snoozing.” Yawning, she pulled the covers up close to her chin.
“Thanks. I think I’ll do that.” Wriggling back down under the blanket, I rolled to face away from her, feeling embarrassed.
Why didn’t I just shut my big mouth? I must have sounded like a child.
The birds quietened, and I could hear the steady tick of the metronomes again.
I shivered as I scanned the walls, making doubly sure the eyes were gone.
No, not gone. They’d never existed in the first place.
I was jet lagged. Exhausted. Maybe even feeling the effects of Brother Vito’s sleeping tablets. Enough to make me go a bit loopy.
My elation of mere minutes ago had vanished.
What’s wrong with me? Things finally start going right and then I have to go and start inventing things to worry about.
The girl was right. I needed to chill, or I wouldn’t make it through the challenges.
It’d been a huge rush to get here. A frenzied, whirling dervish of plans and decisions.
Brother Vito had found me through the casino. I’d signed up for a problem gamblers’ group, and the casino had passed my details onto him. Once I’d made my mind up to join Brother Vito’s program, I’d had to find someone to take care of Willow and Lilly—at a moment’s notice. I’d pressed Gray to go to his cousin’s bucks party. Gray didn’t think a lot of Dayle, but I’d needed some time to organise things and make my flight.