The Burning Page 9

Daniel saw flames before him—the bright image of flames leaping tall into a black sky. A momentary image, a vision, lasting a second or two.

  In the flames he saw a girl, a young girl, pretty and blond, twisting in the fire, twisting in agony.

  The image disappeared. The girl and the flames vanished instantly.

  The pendant still felt warm against his chest.

  Simon smiled knowingly up at his grandson.

  The strange three-clawed pendant has powers, Daniel realized, feeling fear and curiosity at once.

  Daniel heard a tapping sound behind him. He turned to see Mrs. MacKenzie enter the room, bent over her cane, an unpleasant frown on her withered face.

  “I have come to take the young gentleman to his room,” she announced coldly, glaring at Simon with her one good eye.

  Simon didn’t reply. He nodded. His eyes closed.

  “Put another log on the fire, boy,” Angelica ordered. “I’m cold—so cold!”

  Mrs. MacKenzie grunted her disapproval of her mistress. Feeling awkward and confused, Daniel picked up his bag and followed the old housekeeper out of the room.

  Tapping her cane against the thin carpets, she led him through a twisting maze of dark halls. Then up creaking stairs to a large bedroom on the second floor.

  Daniel followed her in. The room was cold. The small fire in the fireplace offered little heat. Mrs. MacKenzie made her way to the window and pulled the shutters open to allow some light in. But the windows were caked with soot.

  She offered Daniel a helpless shrug, then hurried from the room, her cane tapping in front of her.

  Daniel slumped onto the bed, shivering. “Why have I come here?” he asked himself out loud.

  Shaking his head unhappily, he removed his pocket watch and studied it. Hours to go before dinner. And Simon’s birthday party is several weeks away.

  What will I do here? How will I spend the time?

  Staring into the small, useless fire, Daniel wished he had never come.

  * * *

  Dinner was solitary and silent. Simon and Angelica were nowhere to be seen. Mrs. MacKenzie served Daniel his dinner at one end of the long dining room table. He had little appetite but forced himself to eat.

  The next day he made his way into town and strolled around Shadyside Village, delighted to be out of the stale air and gloomy surroundings of the Fear mansion.

  He found the town square pretty and pleasant. People smiled at him as he passed. Daniel was so good-looking and friendly, he often drew smiles from strangers.

  A crowd of villagers had gathered at the edge of the square to admire a shiny new motorcar, one of the few “horseless carriages” that Daniel had seen in Boston. Eagerly he strolled over to see it. A strange-looking four-wheeled contraption of glass and painted metal.

  A red-faced man in his shirtsleeves was straining hard, turning a metal crank at the front of the machine, trying to start it up. But in spite of the enthusiastic support of the crowd, the engine refused to sputter to life.

  Chuckling to himself, Daniel stepped away and realized he was quite thirsty, probably from the dust that floated up from Shadyside’s unpaved streets.

  A small white-fronted general store on the corner caught his eye, and he made his way toward it, thinking of a cold drink.

  As he pulled open the door, the aroma of freshbrewed coffee greeted his nostrils. He closed the door behind him. Then, stepping past a large wooden pickle barrel and several burlap bags of flour and sugar, he stopped at the long wooden counter at the back of the store.

  A young woman dressed in a silky yellow high-collared blouse and long maroon skirt had her back to him. She was reaching up to arrange canisters on a shelf on the wall.

  Daniel cleared his throat impatiently.

  She turned and smiled, surprised to see a stranger in the store.

  And Daniel fell in love.

  She is the most beautiful girl I have ever seen, Daniel thought, feeling dazed.

  She appeared to be about his age with long dark hair that fell to her shoulders, creanqy pale skin, and green eyes that gleamed in the light from the store window.

  Her smile, the most beautiful smile Daniel had ever seen, faded. “Are you staring at me?” she demanded. Her voice was lower, throatier than he had expected.

  “Yes,” he replied. He couldn’t think of any other reply.

  Speechless. I’m speechless, he thought. Maybe coming to Shadyside was not such a bad idea after all.

  He suddenly realized she was gazing at him with concern, her broad forehead wrinkling above the beautiful green eyes.

  He blinked. Felt himself blushing.

  “Are you feeling well?” she asked, hanging back from the counter.

  “I—I apologize,” Daniel managed to stammer. “I—I am thirsty. So”

  “Would you like coffee? Or perhaps some some apple cider?” she suggested, her smile returning. “It is very fresh.”

  Daniel adjusted the starched collar of his shirt. It suddenly felt very tight. “Yes. Thank you. Cider would be wonderful.”

  “Well, it is good. I do not know if it is wonderful,” she replied dryly. With a sweep of her long skirt she made her way around the counter, carrying a tin cup toward the cider barrel across the aisle.

  She walks so gracefully, Daniel thought, following her with his eyes. Like a poem. He suddenly wished he knew poetry.

  She handed him the cup filled with cider. He took a sip. “Very good.” He licked his lips. He raised his eyes to hers and realized that she was now staring at him.

  She glanced away shyly. “Are you new in town?”

  Daniel told her he was. “Can you tell me of some interesting places I should see?”

  She laughed. “Interesting? In Shadyside?”

  He laughed with her. He liked her sense of humor. And he liked the way her chin trembled when she laughed. And he liked her low, velvety voice.

  “Surely there must be something worth seeing,” he protested.

  She narrowed her green eyes as she thought. “I am sorry. There really is not much of interest here—except perhaps the Fear mansion.”

  Her reply startled Daniel. He decided to play innocent. “The Fear mansion? What is so interesting about that?”

  Her expression turned serious. She lowered her voice to a whisper. “It is a very frightening place. Horrible stories are told about it. I really do not know if they are true or not. It is said that the Fears live under a terrible curse, that the mansion is cursed, too. It is said that everyone who enters—”

  “Every town has a house like that!” Daniel scoffed, shaking his head.

  My grandfather’s house certainly looks like a cursed place, Daniel thought. I wonder why the villagers tell such stories about it.

  “I would not venture near it, even for sightseeing,” the girl remarked with a frown.

  “I will take your advice,” Daniel told her. “Would you care to show me around the rest of your town?”

  She blushed. A coy smile played over her full lips. “Why, sir, I do not even know your name.”

  “It is Daniel,” he told her eagerly. He started to reveal his full name, but stopped. He realized he didn’t want her to know yet that he was a Fear.

  “Daniel? I like that name,” she replied, her eyes lighting up. “I was once going to name my dog Daniel.”

  They both laughed.

  “And may I ask your name?” Daniel asked.

  “Nora,” she said, pale circles of pink forming on her cheeks. “Nora Goode.”

  Chapter 25

  “Quick—someone’s coming!” Nora whispered. She grabbed Daniel’s arm and pulled him off the road into the trees.

  Daniel laughed. “It’s just a rabbit. Look.” He pointed to the large brown rabbit that scampered over the carpet of dry leaves at the edge of the woods.

  Nora laughed and pressed her forehead against the sleeve of Daniel’s jacket.

  I love her laugh, he decided.

  I love everything about
her.

  As they walked hand in hand toward the river, Daniel found it hard to believe they had met just five days earlier. He had never felt this way about anyone.

  Each afternoon he had waited around the corner from her father’s store for her to finish work. Then, trying to make it appear that they weren’t walking together, they would make their way up the broad Park Drive to the Conononka River, which flowed through the woods north of the village.

  There they would sit side by side and hold hands under a shady tree. As the sun lowered itself behind the cliffs across the river, they talked quietly, getting to know each other, discussing whatever popped into their heads.

  Daniel had explained to Nora that he was visiting his grandparents. But he still hadn’t worked up the courage to tell her that his grandparents were Simon and Angelica Fear.

  “Do your grandparents not wonder where you go every afternoon?” Nora asked. Her dark hair shimmered in the patches of sunlight that filtered down through the tree leaves.

  “My grandparents show little desire for my company,” Daniel told her. “Most days they do not come out of their rooms. When I do see them, they ask me little. In fact, they hardly speak to me at all.”

  “How strange,” Nora murmured thoughtfully.

  “My grandmother lives in a world of her own,” Daniel said sadly. “I am not sure she even knows I am her grandson. And my grandfather … he spends his days in his wheelchair by the fire, muttering dreamily to himself.”

  “You must be lonely,” Nora remarked, squeezing his hand.

  “Not when I see you,” Daniel replied boldly.

  She smiled at him, her green eyes catching the light of the lowering sun. He realized that Nora must be lonely, too.

  Her mother had died in childbirth. Nora was an only child. She spent her days working in her father’s general store. She spent her evenings cooking and caring for her father. They lived in rooms above the store.

  “My dream is to move away some day,” she had revealed to Daniel. “To a town with wide, paved streets and buildings as tall as the trees, a town filled with people I don’t know.”

  As the red sun flattened against the dark cliffs above them, Daniel worked up his nerve, leaned forward, and kissed Nora.

  He expected her to resist. But when she returned the kiss with enthusiasm, he realized that perhaps she was as in love with him as he was with her.

  I have to reveal to her that I am a Fear, he thought, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her again. But will she react with horror? Does she believe the frightening stories about my family? When she learns I am a Fear, will it drive her away?

  The thought made him shudder. Daniel knew he couldn’t bear to lose Nora.

  As they walked holding hands back to her father’s store, Daniel decided he had to learn the truth. Before he revealed his identity to Nora, he had to find out if there really was a curse on his family, if the terrifying tales the villagers told about the Fears were true.

  Once I know they are not true, once I know they are all silly fairy tales, then I will be able to tell Nora that I am a Fear with a clear heart, he decided.

  He said good night at the edge of town, reluctant to let go of her soft, warm hand. Her eyes glowed happily as she whispered good night. Then she turned and ran to the store, her silky dark hair trailing gently behind her.

  Her heart fluttering, the taste of Daniel’s lips still on hers, Nora brushed through the dark store, humming to herself. Thinking happily about Daniel, she started up the narrow stairs that led to the rooms she shared with her father.

  Nora gasped, startled to find her father waiting for her at the top of the stairs, an angry expression on his face.

  James Goode, Nora’s father, was a short, wiry man with shiny slicked-down black hair and a black pencil mustache beneath his long, pointed nose. He was normally quiet and good-tempered. But when his anger got the better of him, he would explode with rage and lose control so that he frightened Nora.

  Now she hesitated halfway up the stairs, staring up at his angry frown, his blazing eyes.

  “Where have you been?” he demanded, struggling to keep his voice low and steady.

  “Just out for a walk,” Nora told him blankly.

  He glared at her, his face set in an angry scowl. He motioned for her to come the rest of the way up the stairs. Then he followed her into the small sitting room.

  “Just out for a walk with whom?” he demanded, crossing his thin arms over the chest of his undershirt.

  “With a friend,” Nora replied uncomfortably.

  “He is no friend,” James Goode said through clenched teeth. “The boy you have been sneaking out with is no friend at all—he is a Fear!”

  Nora gasped. She dropped down onto the straight-backed wooden chair by the fireplace. “He never told me, Father.”

  “Of course he didn’t!” Mr. Goode snapped. “He knew that no decent girl would be seen walking with a Fear in this town!”

  “But, Papa—” Nora’s mind whirled in confusion. Why hadn’t Daniel been honest with her? Was he afraid?

  “Papa, Daniel is wonderful,” she said finally. “He is kind and gentle. He is intelligent and considerate and—”

  “He is a Fear,” her father interrupted with a scowl. He stood over Nora, his hands tensed awkwardly at his sides. “I will not have you seeing a Fear. You know the history of that cursed family. Everyone in Shadyside knows.”

  “I don’t care about that!” Nora cried, “They are just wild stories.”

  “Wild stories?” James Goode exclaimed. “Wild stories? Why, Simon Fear’s own daughters were murdered when they were about your age. Murdered!”

  “Papa, that was so long ago!” Nora cried. “No one knows what really happened—”

  “The two girls were found in the woods with their bones removed!” James cried. “They found only their skins. Their bones were gone! Gone!”

  “You know that’s just an old story,” Nora screamed. “No one but silly children believes that, Father!”

  “Maybe not, but Simon’s wife, Angelica, she is mad, Nora. She practices evil magic. People have disappeared in the woods behind the Fear mansion. They were Angelica’s human sacrifices. They—”

  “Papa, stop! These are all wild tales! Gossip and rumors! You cannot believe such insane stories!”

  James groaned in exasperation, running both hands back through his slicked-down hair, scowling at his daughter. “I do believe them,” he said, his voice trembling. “I believe them all. This is why I cannot allow you to see that Fear boy again, Nora.”

  “No!” Nora shrieked, jumping to her feet, her eyes wild. “I love Daniel, Father! I love him! You cannot forbid me to see him!”

  “Nora, listen to me,” James insisted, his pencil mustache twitching in anger, his slender face reddening. “Listen to me! For your own good, you cannot see him again! I forbid it!”

  “No!” Nora shrieked, her anger matching her father’s. “No! No! No!”

  James Goode’s eyes narrowed angrily. His words came out slowly, deliberately, through clenched teeth: “Then, Nora, you have given me no choice….”

  Chapter 26

  That night Daniel waited until the house was silent and dark. Then, carrying a candle, he crept downstairs to Simon’s library, determined to learn the truth about his family’s history.

  Holding the candle high, Daniel could see that all four walls were covered from floor to ceiling with books. The air smelled musty, almost thick with dust from the old volumes.

  The floorboards creaked under Daniel’s shoes as he crossed the room to get a closer look at the books. To Daniel’s surprise, the first shelf he examined held books about magic, the dark arts, strange scientific journals, and volumes about astrology and foretelling the future.

  How strange that Simon should possess books of this nature, Daniel thought, moving the candle along the shelves. Did he and Angelica have a scientific interest in such matters?

  Daniel search
ed the library shelves for another twenty minutes but found nothing of interest, nothing that would reveal his family’s history to him.

  Suddenly hungry and thirsty, he made his way to the kitchen with his candle. The old house creaked and groaned as he walked through the darkness. As if warning me away, he thought, feeling a chill.

  A glass of water satisfied his thirst. Then, moving the candle in front of him, Daniel made his way to the pantry behind the kitchen. “Where are those ginger cookies we had at dinner?” he whispered to himself.

  He heard the soft scrabble of padded feet. The kitchen cat, no doubt, chasing after a mouse.

  He moved the candle over the shelves of tins and jars. No cookies.

  Something beyond the pantry shelves caught his attention. A crack in the wall formed a shadow in the flickering candlelight.

  Curious, Daniel pressed on the crack, and the wall slid back. A hidden doorway! Daniel realized.

  His heart beating excitedly, he pushed the door open farther and slipped inside. He found himself in a low-ceilinged narrow room. Holding the candle high, he saw two pillows on the floor, stained by dark mildew, a bundled-up blanket, a girl’s doll.

  How strange, Daniel thought, bending to pick up the doll. Its dress was covered with dust. Its round blue eyes stared up at him in the candlelight.

  Whose doll was this? Daniel wondered, setting it down on one of the pillows. Who used this hidden room? Judging from the dust and mildew, it hasn’t been occupied in many years.

  He kicked at the blanket, raising a cloud of dust. His shoe hit something solid underneath. “How strange. How strange,” he muttered to himself.

  He pulled the blanket away and lowered the candle. The light fell over a large dark-covered book. Bending to examine it, Daniel saw that it was an old Bible.

  The spine was cracked. The tattered pages smelled of mildew and decay.

  This Bible looks as if it has been in the family for many generations, Daniel thought. Why has it been hidden under a blanket in this secret room?

  Kneeling on the dusty floor, he began searching through the pages with his free hand. In the back of the Bible he found what he was searching for—a family history.