Page 150 of Visions of Darkness

I swallowed hard as I slipped out from under the covers. Careful not to disturb him, I stood and quietly padded to the window and pulled back the drape.

Night echoed back, the stillness only disturbed by the whipping of the wind that tossed through the sparse, leafless trees.

Only my gaze moved, drawn to the top of the stairs just to my left.

To the little girl clinging to the railing, with the palest gray eyes staring back.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Aria

Aria peered back into the room where Pax lay in a fitful sleep. Her heart climbed to her throat, each beat so heavy that it clotted out the flow of air as she struggled to inhale. Time moved as if it both raced and had been set to slow.

Every molecule of her being trembled as she returned her attention out the window.

The little girl with eyes so pale they were nearly white remained, staring back at Aria as if she possessed a tether that ran directly to Aria’s soul.

A beacon.

The child was wearing only a pink-and-white nightgown—no shoes on her feet, and her blond hair whipped in the frozen wind that disturbed the slumbering night.

Never taking her eyes from Aria, she took a step down the staircase with one hand clinging to the railing.

She then took another and another as she began to descend into the nothingness below.

Panic surged through Aria, a blistering heat that burned through her veins. She didn’t know why, but she had to get to the little girl. Reach her. Stop ... something.

Frantic, she looked back to where Pax slept.

The urge to call out to him was almost painful, though she found she couldn’t make any words form on her tongue. The knot in her throat blocked all sound. The words lodged, dead in her chest.

She turned back to the window. The little girl was nearly to the bottom. Dust blew through on a gust of wind, stirring the air into a darkened cloud. The road was barren, though at any time a car or truck could come barreling through.

Aria’s breaths were short and broken as she hurried to undo the lock. Metal grated harshly, and when she finally had the lock disengaged, she stepped out.

The cement was frigid beneath her bare feet.

And the child ... The child peered back at her from over her shoulder. That tether pulled taut. A lure that Aria couldn’t resist.

She had to get to her.

Help her.

Get her back to her room, where she would be safe.

Only the little girl edged deeper into the wisping, dust-laden shadows that covered the lot. The vacancy sign flashed through it in serrated, bent strikes of white.

Aria felt it gather and cover.

A shroud of depravity. An intonation of evil.

It shivered over her flesh, and she sprang into motion and hastened down the stairs, clinging to the railing as if it were a lifeline since she could hardly make out her surroundings.

“Hello?” she shouted. “Hello? Where are you? Please. Come back!”

Another gust of wind whipped through, and the air thickened as a mist of clouds rolled in.

Disorienting.

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