Page 47 of Saving Sparrow
“Well… maybe we can take lights with us.”
“Sure. I’ll see if I can get us out there,” I lied, my heart shattering when he smiled at me. Maybe I should’ve searched for the basement by myself, but that would’ve meant leaving him. Regardless of the options I’d run through before, leaving him felt a lot like abandoning Elliott.
“Okay.” Joshua bounced on his toes, gazing into the snowy night again. “I’ll protect you.”
Once outside his bedroom, he stared down the long, dim hallway, then back into his room. He lifted his arms in the air and stretched up onto his toes as if asking me to pick him up. The action didn’t seem consistent with his age, but I knew nothing about kids or how the maturity levels worked with child alters.
Joshua’s legs were long, statuesque, but that wasn’t how he seemed to see himself. He seemed oblivious to our being the same height.
“I’m not strong enough to carry you right now. I hurt my side.” I’d carried Elliott plenty of times, and although Sparrow had more lean muscle than him, I could’ve still gotten the job done if I were in good health.
“Oh no,” he said sadly, dropping to his heels. “Did you fall?”
“Yeah, I did.”
“Is that how you hurt your face too?”
“Yeah, it is.”
Joshua looked down the hall again, biting his nails.
“But I can hold your hand.” I held my hand out to him. “Would that be okay?”
Joshua slipped his hand into mine, squeezing tight, and it felt like fireworks exploded from my heart.
“What’s the matter?” he asked.
“Nothing.” I wiped the corner of my eyes with my free hand. “Come on, let’s go.”
Joshua flinched at every whine and creak the old house made, but we managed to make it downstairs.
“I think it’s this way.” He made a sharp right at the bottom of the stairs, tugging me along. He didn’t seem to know his own strength either.
“I thought you went down there before.”
“Yes, but I don’t remember how I got there. But I think it’s this way.”
“What if it’s not?” I didn’t want to waste time getting lost.
“If it’s not, you still have to take me to the snow because I tried.”
We passed several barred windows on our way to the basement. Was the purpose to keep people out or to keep people in?
“Have you ever played in the snow before?” I tried to make small talk as he led me down a labyrinth of halls. His hand trembled within mine, or maybe it was my hand that shook.
“Not yet.” His voice was breathless with fear, but his eyes were full of hope. Hope that Elliott likely lost when he was his age.
What did they do to you, Elliott?
The house was cold, the chill worsening the farther we went until my fingernails turned blue.
We were on a different side of the house now. There were cobwebs in every corner, and the wall sconces that worked illuminated the dust motes in the air. It was clear no one had been on this side for a long while. Not even Sparrow.
We passed a room without furnishings, just a lone wheelchair facing a wall. Another room contained a sheetless gurney at its center. Shadows filled the next room, slithering along the floor and crawling up the walls. I glanced at Joshua, but he was too busy staring straight ahead to notice. It was likely a figment of my imagination anyway.
We turned down another hallway, and the house became eerily quiet. Not even the wind howled here. Joshua glanced over his shoulder in the direction we’d come from, prompting me to do the same.
“Do you think we’re almost there?” I whispered, too afraid the mold-stained walls had ears.
