Page 129 of The Corruption of Hollis Brown

It’s okay. Most people lived two families to one house. Toji said the people we lived with, the Robinsons, moved out shortly after my family died. None of this stuff is theirs, all of it belongs to strangers.

Hollis could see particles floating in the air. It probably wasn’t safe to be breathing all this in.

Check the bag. Yulia’s smart enough to think of this.

And he was right. Hollis put on the mask, goggles, and gloves Yulia no doubt pestered out of her father and read the handwritten instructions she’d taped to them so he’d put them on right.

How do you feel?

Like standing on a table with two broken legs. Unsteady.

That was better than before.

Where do you think we should do this?

The basement. It’s always the basement. Heart of the house.

Walt took their legs and walked them to a door in the hallway that Hollis had just assumed was a closet, and it opened to a set of stairs. He turned on Yulia’s flashlight.

“Okay . . . okay. Fuck. Okay,” Hollis muttered.

The air was very dry, the stairs might not be safe. They sat down on the first step and eased their way down slow. They clung to the metal railing and skipped stairs that seemed a bit brittle.

Their foot finally touched the ground, and they scampered off the stairs to stand in the center of the room.

“Okay.” Hollis gasped again, out loud.

Candles first.

The flashlight was bright enough to get a sense of the size of the space. It was more like a storage room than a traditional basement: a combination of Hollis’s house’s root cellar and pantry. There were jars still filled with food lined up against the walls, shining in the light. Every inch of it was covered in cobwebs, but it had been long enough that even those had begun to rot and fall to the floor.

Hollis had expected mice since there was so much food, but it was so still. So quiet.

Nothing lived in here.

Are cobwebs flammable?

Stop paying attention to that and be careful. I don’t want anything to happen to you.

Us, Hollis corrected.

He kicked a clean space big enough for them to work safely. They weren’t going to use nearly as many candles as Yulia and Annie had. That had been overkill, a bit dramatic and definitely Annie’s idea.

You know, I didn’t think I’d get this far, to be honest. I half expected to be “Jorged” on the stairs before we even got started.

They’ve done that to anyone who came down those stairs. We’re fine ’cause I’m here. It’s watchin’ me.

Us, Hollis corrected again, irritated.

He spread the herbs Yulia packed in a circle and walked inside without hesitation because he trusted her. Sat down and opened the gallon of spiced water. Soaked the large paintbrush Yulia had packed and painted a large rectangle on the wall in front of the circle. Then he dipped his hands in the white chalk Yulia had painted herself with and tried his level best not to fuck that up.

“Okay,” Hollis said again. “Okay, I think I have to let you to handle the rest in a sec.”

Savior of all men, you that have all virtue and power, Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ—

Are you fucking kidding me?

No, shut up.