Page 96 of Serenity Falls

‘You couldn’t get anything newer?’

‘Believe me, I’ve tried. But the bosses like the old feel-goods. If you want something new, or violent or scary, you can drive out of town. People here – they’re kind of old-fashioned.’

Sadie rolls her eyes. ‘Yeah, I’m getting that feeling.’ She takes her card out of her wallet and then remembers her bracelet. ‘Can I pay with this?’

‘Yep. It gets added to your dad’s account. Under eighteen; you got a limit, though.’

‘Guess I won’t go on a spending spree. I’ll take a large popcorn and a Diet Coke.’

Dax fills up the popcorn and drink and then wanders back over with a card machine.

‘So, Ellis says you’re coming to the fair tonight?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Thought we might have scared you off?’

‘Not yet.’

‘But you don’t believe us about Frankie.’

Sadie thinks back to her chat with Stella. A puncture wound. Only ever seen one like it before.

Dax seems to take her hesitation as doubt. ‘Well, maybe reserve judgement till after tonight.’

‘Maybe I will.’ Sadie suddenly remembers something Ellis said. ‘You know quite a bit about Serenity Falls, right?’

Dax scratches at his head under his hat. ‘I guess.’

‘So, you know about the ghost houses.’

‘Ye-ah.’

‘You know the house across from ours. Home and Spry?’

He frowns, and then recognition spreads across his face. ‘You mean Cruellen’s house?’

‘Cruellen?’ Sadie queries.

‘Yeah, that’s what the kids used to call her, because she was mean – and her name was Ellen.’

‘How was she mean?’

‘Oh, just always complaining. Tried to ban balls in the park, have the curfew cut back to seven p.m. for teenagers. A real bitch.’

‘What happened to her?’

‘She just disappeared.’

‘And no one tried to find her? I mean, what if something bad happened to her?’

He gives her an odd smile. ‘In Serenity Falls? Nothing bad happens here.’

She stares at him, an echo running through her mind.

‘Nothing bad happens here. Not by accident.’

‘But you don’t believe that?’ she says.