Page 47 of I'll Be Waiting

I sigh. “Come in.”

It won’t be Jin. He knows that I’m not the sort to say I don’t want company when I secretly do. I could hope it’s Cirillo coming to apologize, but the approach seems too soft and tentative for him. Shania then, which means I need to put on my best face because she deserves none of my snippy bullshit. Before I stomped from the séance, I should have spoken to her, to make sureshewas okay.

Yep, I suck at this big-sister stuff. I was clearly made to be the bratty younger sibling.

When the door doesn’t open, I call again. No answer.

With a stifled groan, I get up, go to the door, and swing it open.

No one’s there.

I squint down the semi-dark hall. Shania’s gone.

Damn it, I clearly zoned out for longer than I thought. These days, my distraction sucks up time like an industrial-strength vacuum.

I consider going after her. I’m not in the right mood, though, and I don’t want to seem as if I only grudgingly checked on her. Give me a couple of minutes.

I thump back onto the recliner and pick up my—

Laura has moved.

Laura the red-haired pioneer doll. When I came in, she was on the shelf opposite me. She’s still there. But she’d been facing sideways, her glassy gaze on the door. Now it’s on me.

I vault out of the recliner, and as I do, something brushes my arm, which sets me scrambling all the more, nearly falling backward over the recliner footrest.

“Sorry.”

The whisper comes at my ear, so soft it’s almost a sigh. I spin again, and there’s another sound, like an apologetic curse.

No one’s there. No onecanbe there. There’s one way in and out of this room, and I didn’t step far enough through that doorway to let anyone enter behind me.

I look at the doll and remember who had moved it around the last time we were here, turning her head like that to make me jump and cursehimout.

“Anton?” I whisper.

No answer.

“Anton, if that’s you, can you say something?”

Silence.

“Can you do something? Anything?”

Nothing in the room moves. Tears fill my eyes.

Am I sure the doll wasn’t already facing me? Am I sure I heard anything?

If you’re there, give me a sign.

I don’t say the words. They’re too hokey.

Does that matter? Anton wouldn’t judge me for hokey.

A rap at the door has me jumping again. Then it opens, and Jin pokes his head in. Seeing me on my feet, he frowns.

“Everything okay?”

I nod.

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