That's why her parents had forbid her to come here.
The woods were hers.
'Laurie!'
She started running again, heading in the direction in which she thought they'd come. There was still no sign of the path, but whatever direction she was traveling, she was getting farther away from Dawn, and at this point that was the most important thing.
Ahead was an indentation in the ground, what looked like a partially filled pit, and as she raced around it, Laurie glanced in and saw the bones of cats and rats and other small animals emerging from furry reddish brown mud. There was a partially eviscerated goat as well, lying lengthwise across the bones, and the stem of a red rose protruded from between its clenched teeth.
She continued on without slowing. She was horrendously out of shape, and not only did her lungs feel as though they were going to burst, but the muscles in her legs were cramping, and she knew she would not be able to go on much longer.
'Laurie!' Dawn yelled.
Her voice sounded closer.
She was almost ready to give up and give in, to try to fight it out with the girl if it came to that, but ahead she saw light through the trees, a thinning of brush, and what looked like the black bulk of the House against the sky. She increased her speed, utilizing her last remaining reserves of strength, and ran out from between the trees.
Both of her mothers and both of her fathers, standing on the ground next to the back steps of the porch, turned toward her as she dashed across the open space toward them. 'Oh, there you are,' her biological mother called out.
Laurie turned around to see Dawn standing at the edge of the trees, stomping her feet, gnashing her teeth.
And then she was gone.
Laurie stared at the place where the girl had been and saw only overgrown weeds. She did not stop, did not slow down, kept running toward the House, but she could not help wondering what had happened. Had Dawn gone back into the woods? Had she somehow transported herself someplace else, back, to the House perhaps? Laurie had the feeling that the disappearance was not intentional, that it had been forced or imposed upon the girl rather than instigated by her, and she hoped that was true.
She was almost to the back porch, and this close she could see that all four of the adults were frowning at her.
'What's wrong?' her biological father asked.
'Oh, Mother!' Laurie cried, but she ran into the arms of Josh's mom, not her own birth mother. She recognized the feel of the woman as she hugged her, the smell of her, and a whole host of memories flooded back, and whether it was that or the release of tension from her escape in the woods, she started crying. She sobbed into her mother's blouse, and the woman held her, patted her back, told her everything was all right.
'Are you okay?' Josh asked, and she remembered his baby voice, remembered when he had talked this way, and that instigated another flood of tears. She pulled away from her mother, wiped her eyes, smiled through her sobs, and dropped to one knee to hug her brother. Although he was obviously confused, he did not struggle against her and there was something that looked like understanding in his eyes. Neither he nor his parents broke character--they all pretended as though she were the daughter of the people they'd come to visit, a girl they liked and felt sorry for but didn't really know--but more was at work here than that, and beneath that surface level was an underlying complicity, an acknowledgment that something else was going on.
Her biological mother offered a grim smile. 'We were looking for you. It's time for lunch.'
'I'm starving!' Her father clapped his hands together.
'Let's eat!'
Laurie felt suddenly embarrassed, self-conscious, and she dropped back behind the rest of them as they walked up the steps to the porch.
'It's such a beautiful place you have,' Josh's mother said, turning and looking around the property from over the railing.
Her father, her biological father, nodded proudly.
'We like it.'
Lunch was already on the table, and they ate soup and salad and sandwiches, the adults engaging in polite conversation and completely ignoring what had just happened outside. Laurie and Josh ate in silence.
After they finished, her mother collected all the plates, refusing an offer of assistance from Josh's mom, and promised to return with glasses of homemade lemonade for everyone.
'You should taste her lemonade,' her father said.
'Best in California.'
Conversation started up again, the war this time, and she excused herself from the table and walked into the kitchen, where her mother was using an ice pick to chop ice on the sink counter.
She took a deep breath. 'We have to talk,' she said.
Her mother did not even look up. 'About what?'
'You have to stop seeing that girl,' she said. 'Stop seeing Dawn.'
A moment of silence.
'So you know,' her mother said flatly.
Laurie nodded.
Her mother continued to chop ice. 'I can't.'
'What do you mean, 'you can't'?'
'I don't want to.' Her mother faced her, not embarrassed but defiant, the expression giving her already too serious face an even grimmer cast.
'Jesus.'
'She does for me what your father can't do anymore.'
'The girl is evil,' she told her mother.
Her mother looked away, continued chopping. 'You don't think I know that?'
'Then why--'
'I am the mother here. You are the daughter. I do not want to talk about this with you.'
Laurie pounded a fist on the counter. 'We have to talk about it!'
Her mother looked up at her, surprised, apparently taken aback by the vehemence of her response.
'I don't know if you've noticed, Mother, but I'm not a child anymore. I'm an adult. Aren't you even a little curious why that is?'
Her mother said nothing.
Laurie reached out, grabbed her mother's hand. 'Dawn will kill you,' she said. 'She wants us all out off the House, she wants to leave the House unattended, and she will do whatever it takes to make that happen.'
'Billington won't let that happen.'
'Billington is gone!' Laurie said. 'He's probably dead! She probably killed him!'
There was silence between them.
Her mother coughed. 'You don't understand.'
'No, you don't understand! You think Dawn's doing this for her health? You think she cares about you? She wants you out of the House. And if that means she has to kill you, then so be it.'
Her mother was already shaking her head.
'Father's seeing her, too.'
At that, her mother stiffened. Laurie had not been intending to reveal that fact, had not planned to say anything about it, had been hoping she could talk to both parents individually and get them each to stop seeing the girl, and she instantly regretted spilling the beans. The horrible thought occurred to her that she was the one responsible for sending her mother after her father, for setting into motion the events that led to her parents' deaths.
