Page 9 of I Know She Was There

Howcouldyou?Another voice: my husband’s. That was a new one.

I snapped my head from right to left, seeing nothing but shadows in the empty foyer. “Tim? Are you here?”

Howcouldyou? he repeated, his voice urgent. Accusing.

“This woman, she needs me,” I screamed into the dusky air. “I saw her fall into the window, I saw the blood. I must get to her... I must...” I pushed my legs toward the staircase, as much to escape the voices as to help her, but a painful explosion in the back of my head stopped me where I stood. My mother’s voice again, behind me.You shouldn’t be here.

My knees gave way, andIwasfalling, tumbling into the vast, endless reaches of darkness.

CHAPTER5

TUESDAY, AUGUST 15

It was the cold that woke me. Glacial numbness overwhelmed every cell of my body. I could see nothing.I must be dead.

But no, I was moving, my arms and legs flailing in terrifying slow motion, my eyes and lungs stinging. I gulped for air and my mouth filled with arctic liquid, freezing my gums and teeth as air heaved involuntarily out of me.Water.I was submerged in it. Panic reared up inside of me, my brain swinging between the wildly unthinking reactions of survival and one petrifying thought.

Where is Emmy?

I thrust my head instinctively upward, pain slicing through my skull as my mouth breached the water’s surface and I swallowed a huge lungful of air. My insides seized as my toes found footing, followed immediately by a coughing fit that made me lose purchase, dipping my chin once more into the inky liquid. Treading water as I tried frantically to right myself, I held my breath and felt my feet once more scrape solid earth. I pushed off with all my might, feeling my soggy sneakers resisting even as I shot upward. Impossible underwater images from years earlier collided with my current predicament, legs kicking and hands grasping, disorienting me. I called out to my father for help, my voice terror-stricken.

But Daddy was dead.

Get a grip, Caroline. You’re no longer a child. You have a child of your own.My mother’s admonishing tone.

Emmy. Where was she? I hauled myself out of the water, squinting through darkness as thick as fur as I crawled onto the loamy grass. My drenched clothes clung to me like weights, making movement clumsy and sluggish, yet my heart was racing like I’d just completed a fifty-yard dash.

A mechanical hum assaulted the quiet as halogen lights cut through the night, spotlighting me. My hands shot up to shield my eyes as the car engine abruptly cut off. A door clicked open, and a figure emerged. Fear battled relief as I decided it must be Tim on his way to me. I had a vague memory of his car being parked nearby. I peered through my fingers to see a man’s tall, fit frame silhouetted against the car’s lights as he ran toward me, but the halogens timed out before he reached me, casting us both into utter darkness.

“Are you okay?” he asked, his voice breathy from exertion after closing the distance between us in seconds. Before I could answer, he was pulling me to my feet. “Jesus, you’re soaked. Did you fall in?”

I blinked at the voice that was not Tim’s, unable to speak.

“I saw the carriage beside the road, which made me slow down. It was so odd to see a baby carriage all by itself?—”

“Where is it?” I looked from his shadowy face to the surrounding darkness.

“Over there.” He reached out, pointing to a spot in the direction he had just come from.

I ran, my stiff, heavy clothes turning my gait into a novelty, an action I’d not fully mastered, but I didn’t care. I pushed my leaden legs forward faster. When thebabyzenmaterialized out of the shadows, the taste of vomit filled my mouth. Ignoring the dizzying spin that threatened to topple me, I rushed toward the carriage, grasping the handle and peering under the bassinet hood. The baby was shadowy. I blinked water out of my eyes and waited a few seconds for my pupils to adjust to the lack of light. I could just make out Emmy’s face and tiny body; her eyes were closed in sleep, but her limbs moved restlessly. She looked perfectly healthy.

I started to smile, but the effort hurt my head so badly that it felt split open. Worrying my skull was crushed, I straightened and gingerly touched the source of pain at the back of my head, a few inches above the nape, fingers probing a tangle of hair and a substantial bump.

“What happened?” came the man’s voice from beside my right ear. I jumped at his nearness. In my panic, I’d momentarily forgotten about him.

“I... I don’t—” I began. Trying to focus my thoughts, I continued, but the sounds making it out of my mouth made no sense. I babbled like Emmy. Nonsensical words, as the man before me morphed into my dad. I stared through the shadows, unable to process my father’s sudden appearance. He was dressed in the same white T-shirt and blue jeans he’d worn the last time we were together.Where have you been all this time?I reached out to him, overjoyed to be reunited. I’d missed him so much, for so long... but the hands meeting mine were Tim’s. Clawing fingers digging into the tender flesh of my palms. I screamed, pushing him away.

“What’s your name?” he asked, his voice urgent. “How did this happen?”

I stared at the man, wondering if he was real. Maybe I was dreaming. Caught with shapeshifters in a nightmare. My gut gurgled painfully, and I swallowed hard, the image of a neck running with blood invading my brain... oh God. My armpits broke out in sweat despite the icy dampness clinging to me. The pain, the instant blackness. And now I was here, with a stranger. Wide eyes, a dark staircase, and bright orange fingernails spun like a kaleidoscope of colors in my mind, hitting me with patterns my brain was unable to sort through. I started to shake.

“We need to dry you off,” the man said. “I have a blanket in my trunk.” He turned and ran to the dark box of his car, barely discernible against the night sky.

The sound of gushing water spewed in time to my throbbing head. I whipped my chin to my right and glanced over my shoulder, instantly regretting it. Not only did pain arrow through my brain, but the hated pond between Muzzy’s house and the street bordering Matt and Melanie’s lot came into view, its center fountain surging. The pond I just climbed out of. Breathing erratically as nausea reared up inside me, my stomach heaved. I dropped onto all fours, vomiting violently onto the black earth beneath me.

Warm softness engulfed me, and the man’s voice was beside me once again, murmuring reassurances and helping me gently to my feet.

“This blanket will warm you. Do you want me to bring you to the hospital?”

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