Page 57 of Wildwood

I jam the lock back in place and run, breathing rapid, raggedy breaths up the stairs to The Forest of the Dead, with Hugo close behind. I slam shut the bedroom door and fling open the wardrobe. I quickly huddle inside, pull the door nearly closed, arms wrapped around my shuddering body. I stare out of the crack, my eyes trained on the beam of light beneath the bedroom door. I sit like this until the sky begins to lighten in twilight and my eyelids become leaden and sleep takes over.

Chapter 47

Topher finds me half falling out of the wardrobe, with Hugo sleeping in front. He wakes me with frantic shaking.

“Elinor! Jesus Christ, Elinor!”

“Where am I?” I’m disoriented.

“What the hell are you doing in the wardrobe??” He’s kneeling on the floor next to me, a wild look in his eyes.

The previous night comes flooding back to me. I start to cry. I tell him everything. Everything that I’ve been holding back. I tell him about waking in the middle of the night. About the woman standing in the field. About the light in the basement. I tell him about the serpent. About Lydia. And then I tell him I think the Brooks were involved. That they played some role in her accusation and execution.

“They are hiding something. I know it. I think my great-uncle was trying to figure out what role they played.” This last sentence hangs in the air.

We are sitting on the floor of the bedroom. Topher’s arms are wrapped closely around me. For a while, he doesn’t say anything.

“Do you believe me?” It’s a whisper.

He hesitates and I start to cry harder. I want to be angry with him, I am angry with him, but I feel depleted.

“I do believe you. I believe you saw something outside. Next time, if you are certain someone is out there, call the police.”

Now I am quiet. I don’t like the “if you are certain” part. But I also don’t know if I want to call the police. I don’t think they could help.

“I would have but my cell wasn’t working and the landline is in the library.” It’s a white lie.

“So, let’s get more. Let’s sprinkle them throughout the house.”

“Do you really believe me?” He knows what I’m really asking him. Does he believe what I believe? That something unexplainable is happening here.

“Do I believe you saw a ghost? This Lydia person? Or a human serpent? No. Do I believe you saw someone outside? Sure, that’s certainly possible. I don’t know why they’d be there. But I don’t think we should take any chances. Let’s get security cameras set up outside. It will make us both feel better.”

“And what about the light?”

He sighs. “It’s an old house, Elinor. It is probably just faulty electricity. I’m sure that type of thing happens all the time.”

“But—”

“And no one could have been in the house anyway. The alarm system never triggered, right? There are sensors on all the windows and all the doors. No one could have gotten in.”

Unless they didn’t need a door, I think. My vision feels blurry. I’m so tired that I don’t even feel tired. I feel fried, like I’ve spent the night on uppers and now I’m walking home at dawn. I don’t even realize that I’m crying until Topher wraps his arms tightly around me.

“It’s okay. It’s going to be okay.”

My body is heaving, violent, ugly sobs. I don’t even know why I’m crying. I mean, of course I know, but I don’t know what among the growing list of things has pushed me over the edge right now. I believe I’m being haunted in my dreams and now in the waking world. My sleep is shit. There’s something underhanded going on with the one friend I thought I had up here. I’m straining my marriage. I might be going crazy.

“I think you should switch bedrooms,” he says, suddenly and definitively.

“What? Why? No!” It comes out a shout and Topher stares at me, as though coming to some realization he didn’t want to face before.

“Because, Elinor, I don’t think sleeping in that room is good for you.”

“Why do you say that?” I feel a strange sense of desperation in my body, almost as though I’m about to hyperventilate. The room scares me. Yes. But I don’t want to move rooms. It is in that room that I feel most connected to Lydia. The trees are trying to tell me something.

“Because you are having fucking nightmares that take place in the woods. I don’t think sleeping surrounded by creepy trees is helping you!” Topher looks at me like I’ve lost about a million brain cells since being here. “You are switching rooms. You’ll sleep in Mathilde’s old room.”

“No—” I try and push back.