Page 39 of The Narrow

I think of the anger in his voice. In his eyes. Was it really because he didn’t want Grace’s memory tainted with ghost stories?

Or does Geoffrey Oster know more than he is letting on?

15

IN THE DREAM,I’m standing at the edge of the Narrow, and Delphine is on the other side. She’s young again, dressed in pajamas with slippers on her feet.

Don’t jump,I try to tell her, but she crouches and leaps. She sails across the water. She is going to make it.

A hand emerges from the water and snatches her ankle, dragging her down. I scream and reach for her—

But it isn’t me screaming. I’m awake in my bed, and the scream is coming from the hallway. It comes again, sharp and piercing. I bolt out of bed and run into the hall. The scream is coming from the other side of the door—from Delphine’s rooms. Delphine stands on the other side. She’s sobbing, her eyes wide, pulling at the door handle.

“Delphine?” I rush toward her, reaching for the handle. “What’s wrong?”

“Don’t.” The voice is low and urgent. Madelyn Fournier, at herdoor. She reaches out as if to stop me. “Don’t open the door. You can’t let her out.”

“Please. Please, I have to go,” Delphine cries.

Madelyn snatches my hand, drawing me back away from the door. “She’s dreaming. There’s nothing to do but wait,” she says. Her voice is calm, but she grips my hand tight, and there are tears glinting in her eyes.

“I have to go. I have to go to her,” Delphine pleads. Then suddenly she drops back a step. Her hands go slack at her sides. She lets out a wail, grabbing her head in both hands, and sinks down into a crouch. “No, no, no. Not back there. Not again. I can’t—I can’t—”

She falls silent. Madelyn and I creep closer to the windowed door. Delphine is curled on her side on the ground, her eyes shut and her breathing even once more. Madelyn swiftly puts in the code and opens the door, bending down beside her.

“Delphine. Sweetheart. Wake up,” she says, reaching out but not quite touching her. “Delphine.”

I stand, numb and confused, as Delphine stirs.

“Maman?” she mumbles sleepily.

“You were sleepwalking again, dearest. You need to go back to bed now,” Madelyn says.

Delphine sits up, rubbing her eyes with the heels of her hands. She blinks at her mother, then at me, frowning. “I’m sorry. Did I wake you up?”

“It’s fine. You were just dreaming,” Madelyn says, like she’s talking to a small child. “Now, go on.”

Delphine drifts upstairs, hazy with sleep, glancing behind heronly one more time. Madelyn waits until her footsteps creak the bedroom floorboards, then steps neatly into the hall and shuts the door again. She stands a moment, head bowed, hand on the door handle, before turning to me.

“I take it this hasn’t happened before while you’ve been here,” she says. “Mrs.Clarke should have briefed you.”

“She told me I wasn’t supposed to open the door at night,” I say.

“If she gets outside, she will die,” Madelyn says plainly. She stares straight ahead at the door beyond which Delphine vanished.She’s like her daughter, I think. When they want to tell you the truth, they look anywhere but at you. “You cannot let her out. No matter what. A single drop of water could destroy her.”

“How?” I ask. “How can it do that? That’s not medical, that’s—it’s—”

“What else would it be?” she asks, voice flat. She looks at me, her gaze unflinching, and I am utterly certain that she does not for a moment believe that Delphine’s malady is one that can be explained by science. “This is a lot to deal with for anyone. I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t want to stay on.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” I say.

She gives me a long, considering look. “Don’t let her out,” she says finally. “And don’t let the water in.”

She walks back to her rooms and shuts the door behind her.

—

By morning, Delphine doesn’t remember what happened. “You were trying to get out,” I say. “And then it’s like you realized what you were doing and panicked. You said you had to get to her.”

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