The Stepsister Read online

  “Good. We haven’t missed anything,” Emily said.

  “Told you,” Nancy called back. She stopped at the bottom step to the balcony and looked up. It looked like a steep, dark, concrete mountain.

  “That guy wasn’t kidding about nosebleeds!” Jessie complained.

  They started up the stairs. It actually feels good to climb after being cooped up in the car, Emily thought.

  A short while later they stepped out into the balcony and looked around. The steep aisle was empty. Everyone was seated, waiting for the show to start. “We still have more to climb,” Jessie said, pointing up. They had come out in the middle of the top balcony. A narrow stairway led up to the top seats.

  “Finally!” Jessie cried, out of breath, when they found their row and slid into their seats. “Hey, look—I can almost see the stage from up here!”

  All she does is complain, Emily thought. Nobody asked her to come, after all.

  “Hey, we’re not in the last row,” Nancy said, turning to look behind them. “There are three more rows and—Hey, Carla! Carla!” Nancy recognized someone from school. “Hey, I’ll be right back.” She climbed out of the row and went up to talk to her friend.

  A few seconds later the warm-up band, the Deltoids, sauntered out and started to tune up. Emily suddenly realized she was dying of thirst and then saw a vendor on the lower balcony carrying a large basket of sodas on his head.

  “I’m going to get a drink. Want anything?” Emily asked Jessie.

  Jessie shook her head. Emily climbed over her and stepped out into the empty aisle. She looked for the soda vendor, spotted him about two miles down, and started to make her way down the steep, narrow steps.

  She had only taken two or three steps when the Deltoids let loose with a loud piercing chord. The lights went out and the crowd exploded with cheers and clapping. Emily tried to figure out whether to continue down or turn around and go back up when someone shoved her—a hard deliberate shove high on her back—and she started to fall.

  Chapter

  15

  An Accident

  “Oh!”

  She tried to catch her balance, but she was falling forward and there was nothing to grab on to.

  Her shoulder hit the concrete stair, sending pain up her arm like a powerful shock of electricity. She cried out again, and realized she was going to roll down all the stairs unless something—or someone—blocked her path.

  “Ow!” Her head hit the concrete. She heard alarmed screams. Hands reached out for her from the seats on both sides. But they were too late to catch her or slow her fall.

  “No!”

  Looking up as she fell, she saw Jessie standing at the top of the empty aisle, staring down at her, hands on her hips, as if satisfied with a job well done.

  “No! No! No!”

  She banged her knee, rolled over again—and finally someone grabbed her, stopping her fall.

  “Are you okay?” someone shouted over the loud music.

  “Yeah, I guess,” she managed to reply.

  Whoever it was quickly disappeared to his seat.

  Everything ached.

  She tried to stand, but sank back onto her knees on the hard, cold floor of the aisle. From down below on the stage the twangs and squeals of the band seemed to bounce around inside her head and make her feel even dizzier.

  She closed her eyes.

  The whole fall must have lasted only two or three seconds.

  When she opened them, Jessie was running down the stairs, with Nancy right behind her, looking very frightened.

  “What happened?” Nancy called. “I was talking to Carla. Then I turned around and saw you falling. How did you fall like that?”

  “I didn’t fall. Somebody pushed me,” Emily said, staring hard at Jessie.

  Jessie leaned down and gently started to help Emily to her feet. “It must have been an accident,” Jessie said. “No one would do that on purpose.” She looked innocently into Emily’s eyes. “You could have been killed,” she said.

  Chapter

  16

  Jessie and Josh

  The weather finally turned cold, the kind of wet cold that clings to your clothes and makes your ears burn. The wind blew the trees, bending them back and shaking down the remaining brown leaves. The full moon disappeared behind a thick curtain of gray-pink clouds. It felt like snow.

  Emily turned the corner onto Fear Street, walking quickly, rolling up her coat sleeve to check her watch. Ten-fifteen. Her breath, steamy and white, fogged the watch crystal.

  She pulled the blue wool cap down tighter over her ears and began walking faster. The wind blew a stampede of crackling, brown leaves past her, and for a moment she felt as if she might be swept away with them, carried by the wind down this familiar street that was still frightening even though she knew every house, every empty lot, practically every tree.

  Fear Street.

  Some of her friends teased her about living on this street that held so many dark legends for the town of Shadyside. Emily had lived on Fear Street most of her life, since she was seven or eight, and hadn’t witnessed any of the horrors her friends teased her about.

  Sure, she had sometimes heard strange moans and howls coming from the woods late at night. But the Fear Street cemetery never held any particular horror for her. And she didn’t really believe all the Fear Street stories about unsolved murders and mysterious disappearances, stories that sometimes even made it into the Shadyside newspaper.

  Nevertheless, she picked up her pace as soon as she got to Fear Street, jogging along the side of the narrow, tree-lined road as it curved toward her house, her heart pounding just a little faster than usual, her eyes wide, alert to anything that moved.

  She had been studying at Kathy’s house, just a few blocks away on Hawthorne Drive, and had lost track of the time. Actually, she had deliberately lost track of the time, she realized. It was so nice to be at Kathy’s, away from her own house, away from . . . Jessie.

  How sad, Emily thought, not to be comfortable in your own home.

  How . . . unbearable.

  The wind shifted. The scuttling brown leaves were coming at her now. Her house came into view, dark against the deep red sky. “Couldn’t someone at least turn on the porch light?” she asked aloud.

  Doesn’t anyone care about me anymore? she thought.

  And then she stopped.

  There was a blue car parked in the cul-de-sac around the corner from her house. Josh’s Toyota.

  That’s strange, Emily thought, beginning to jog again. Why would he park so far from the house? He always pulls up the drive.

  What is he doing here?

  Her puzzlement gave way to happiness. What a nice surprise—Josh came to visit me, she thought. Josh wasn’t the most spontaneous person in the world. It was a good sign that he had just decided to pop in unexpectedly.

  Despite the cold that made her nose and cheeks feel numb, Emily was suddenly flooded with warm feelings. I’m so lucky, she thought. Josh is such a great guy. And he really seems to care about me.

  She jogged past the cul-de-sac, eager to get to her house. The sky suddenly lost its color, fading from red to black. It was so dark now she could barely see the car, even though she was just a few yards beyond it.

  But something caught her eye. A movement inside. A flash of color against the fogged-up window.

  Emily stopped. Someone was in the car.

  “Josh?”

  Her voice came out tiny. She was out of breath from jogging along the street.

  She took a few steps toward the car.

  Why would he be sitting by himself in there? Why hadn’t he gone up to the house to wait where it was warm?

  “Oh.”

  The window was steamed up, but she could suddenly see that he wasn’t alone in there. Staring from the darkness of the curb, so close to the car yet feeling a million miles away, as if watching through a telescope, she could see that someone was in the front seat with him. It was hard to
see clearly. But she saw enough. It was Jessie!

  Josh had his arms wrapped around her. And they were frozen in a long, passionate kiss.

  “Oh.”

  Emily stood in the drive staring into the steamed-up window.

  She wasn’t seeing things—was she? It was Jessie in there with Josh—right?

  Yes.

  She suddenly felt so heavy. So heavy she wanted to drop down onto the driveway. So heavy she wanted to sink through the asphalt and just keep sinking, sinking into the earth until she disappeared forever.

  Jessie and Josh?

  She wanted to scream. She wanted to pound on the car window. Tear open the door. Pull them both out into the cold.

  But she felt so heavy, so weighed down, so paralyzed.

  Somehow she started to run.

  Before she even realized it, she was past the blue Toyota and running at full speed away from the car, away from the house, running into the wind, into the clattering leaves which blew up against her, brushing her legs, as if trying to push her back, back to the scene she didn’t want to see.

  Jessie and Josh?

  Her dismay at seeing them locked together in that steamy embrace turned to fury.

  Jessie was ruining her life in every way!

  Jessie killed her dog, tried to kill her—and now she had taken Josh!

  “Why is she doing this?” Emily asked herself. “Why does she hate me so much?”

  She kept running into the wind, her face frozen, her eyes tearing, ducking her head, running without seeing where she was going, everything a dark blur, the only sound the scraping, scratching of the blowing, dead leaves.

  I’m going back there, she thought, her heart pounding.

  I’m going to confront her. I can’t let her drive me out of my own house, out of my own life.

  Is that what Jessie wanted? Did she want to have Emily’s life?

  Well, she’s not getting it without a fight, Emily thought, her anger turning her around, forcing her back.

  I’m through being the victim.

  I’m ready to face her down. I want my own life back. I’m not going to let Jessie steal everything.

  Walking fast, her mouth trailing white steam with every step, she rounded the curve toward her house. And saw that the car was gone.

  Feeling a mixture of relief and disappointment, Emily ran up the drive, tore off her gloves, fumbled with frozen hands in her backpack until she found her house key, and let herself in through the front door.

  Nancy was in the front hall. Startled by Emily bursting in, she nearly dropped the glass of diet soda she was holding. “Oh—it’s you,” she said, recovering quickly. “Close the door. You’re bringing the cold in with you. Look at you—you look frozen!” Nancy chattered nervously. “How come you—”

  “Where are Josh and Jessie?” Emily demanded, breathing hard.

  “What?”

  “Josh and Jessie—where are they?” Emily leaned on the banister, trying to catch her breath.

  “I don’t know. I haven’t seen them,” Nancy said, confused. “What’s your problem, anyway?”

  “Is Jessie upstairs?” Emily asked, ignoring Nancy’s question.

  “No. I don’t think she’s back. She went over to Krysta’s. At least, that’s what she said. She won’t be back till later.”

  “Krysta’s?”

  Jessie was such a liar.

  She told them she was going to Krysta’s, then spent the evening with Josh.

  Kissing in the car.

  Steaming up the windows with Emily’s boyfriend.

  “What’s wrong with you? You’re bright red,” Nancy said. “Why are you acting so weird?”

  Without answering, Emily turned and ran up the stairs. She couldn’t explain it all to Nancy now. She knew if she started, she’d burst into tears.

  She wanted to hold it all in, hold it in until Jessie got home.

  The upstairs hallway was dark. Her eyes struggled to adjust. Everything looked red for a few seconds. She blinked, waiting for everything to come into focus, then stopped at the door to her room.

  The door was closed for some reason. She put her ear to the door and listened.

  Someone was moving around in there.

  What’s going on? she thought.

  Are Josh and Jessie in my bedroom?

  She took a deep breath and pushed open the door.

  Chapter

  17

  Oh, Brother

  “What are you doing in here?” Emily asked, her voice coming out shaky and high-pitched.

  Rich looked up from her bed, startled. “Oh. Hi.” His face turned bright red. He closed the book he had been reading, turned, and sat up.

  Emily walked into the room. All of the lights were on. Rich had been lying on top of her covers, the bed still made.

  “What are you doing in here?” she repeated, forcing her voice down, starting to feel a little calmer.

  “I—I’m sorry,” Rich stammered. He stood up awkwardly, dropped the book onto the rug, bent over to pick it up. “I was just . . . reading.”

  “But why?” Emily demanded, walking closer. She pulled off her coat and tossed it onto the desk chair.

  “There were . . . uh . . . noises. In my room. I don’t know. I guess I got scared.” Rich looked very scared now. Is he really that frightened of me? she wondered. Or does he have some other reason to be scared?

  “So I came in here,” he said, edging toward the door. “It was quiet in here. I just wanted to read.”

  Emily couldn’t decide whether to believe Rich or not. He certainly didn’t look as if he were telling the truth. But, she realized, Rich always looked guilty. He always looked as if he had just done something wrong and knew he was about to be caught.

  He was the most nervous boy she had ever known. He had been living with her in the same house for weeks now, and Emily realized she didn’t know the first thing about him.

  Except that he was shy and liked to read horror novels. And that he was constantly getting into trouble in school and had been caught shoplifting a cassette.

  Beyond that, he was still a total stranger.

  And now there he was, standing against the wall, his face still red, looking so guilty, so . . . frightened.

  Emily found herself feeling sorry for the kid. “Do you want to stay and read a little longer?” she asked.

  “No. No, thanks.” He smiled at her. It was the first time she had ever seen him smile. “That’s real nice of you.” He seemed genuinely touched by her offer.

  “Well . . .” She was beginning to feel as awkward as he looked.

  “I’ll go back to my room. The noises are probably gone. I shouldn’t have gotten scared. It’s just—it’s just . . . Oh, well.” He shrugged and disappeared out the door.

  Weird kid, Emily thought.

  As soon as he was gone, her anger returned.

  She dropped down onto her bed. She saw the steamed-up Toyota again. Saw Josh and Jessie wrapped up in the front seat.

  Where were they now? Where had they gone together?

  Those nights that Jessie had sneaked out of the house—had she sneaked out to see Josh?

  Suddenly Emily felt sick.

  I can’t spend another night in this room with her, she thought. She jumped to her feet.

  I can’t spend another minute in the same room with an enemy.

  I’ll sleep downstairs in the den, Emily thought.

  Her heart was pounding. Her temples throbbed. She knew she wasn’t thinking clearly. But she knew she had to get out of that room.

  Without realizing it, she was pacing back and forth, her arms crossed tightly over her chest.

  Jessie and Josh.

  Jessie and Josh.

  Jessie and Josh.

  “Hey, Em—” Nancy poked her head into the room. “Everything okay? Why are you pacing back and forth like that?”

  “I really don’t want to talk right now,” Emily said, not meaning to sound as harsh as she did.
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br />   “Well, excuuuuuuse me!” Nancy exclaimed with exaggerated outrage.

  “I—I really need to be left alone,” Emily said.

  “Good night, Em.” Nancy disappeared as quickly as she had appeared.

  Emily paced a little more, thinking of Jessie and Josh. Then she walked over to the dresser and began searching for her flannel nightgown. It was chilly in the den. The flannel nightgown would keep her warm.

  I’ll take my pillow and a blanket, she thought. I’ll be perfectly comfortable.

  But she couldn’t find the nightgown.

  Maybe it’s in one of Jessie’s drawers, she thought.

  She searched through Jessie’s top drawer without success. Jessie’s second drawer was jammed to the top with clothes. Searching quickly, Emily pulled up a pile of brightly colored scarves, all folded perfectly into squares.

  Beneath the scarves was a knife.

  A large kitchen knife.

  The blade of the knife was covered with dried blood.

  Emily knew at once what it was. It was the knife that had killed Tiger.

  Chapter

  18

  In Grave Condition

  “A camping trip? I can’t go on a camping trip!” Nancy cried, dropping her soup spoon into her tomato soup. The splash sent a red splotch onto the place mat.

  Everyone around the dinner table reacted to Mr. Wallner’s suggestion with equal horror.

  “I’m really busy this weekend,” Jessie said.

  “I have so much homework, I can’t go anywhere!” Nancy cried.

  Mr. Wallner smiled patiently, as if expecting this negative reaction. “It’s just for the weekend.” He looked over to Emily’s mom, who smiled back at him.

  “It’ll be fun,” she said.

  “No, it won’t,” Rich said glumly. “I hate camping out.”

  “How do you know?” Mr. Wallner snapped, quickly losing his cool. “You’ve never done it. This is a beautiful spot. At least, it was when I was a boy.”

  “We’re going to South Carolina just for a weekend?” Emily asked, still not believing it.