Hellfire

Whatever Tracy was up to, it had to do with the mill. She turned back to face her husband. “What about the mill?” she asked. “Have you decided what you’re going to do with it?”

Phillip felt dazed by her words. “What does that have to do with Beth and Tracy?” he asked.

“I’m not sure what it has to do with Tracy,” Carolyn replied. “But it seems to me that it’s obvious what it has to do with Beth. I want you to tear it down.”

“Tear it down?” Phillip echoed. “Carolyn, what are you talking about? There’s no way I can do that—”

Carolyn’s heart beat faster, for even as she had spoken the words, she had known she was right.

“But you have to! Don’t you see? It’s not just Beth! It’s everyone! Sooner or later, that mill destroys everyone in this family. Your brother — your father. Even Abigail and Alan. And I know who will be next! Phillip, if you don’t do something, the mill will destroy Beth and Tracy, too!”

Phillip stared at her. It was like hearing his father again, rambling on about the evils and dangers that the old brick building harbored. But there was nothing to it — no more than superstition. “No! Carolyn, I won’t have you talking like that. There’s nothing in that mill — nothing at all!”

Carolyn heard his words, and desperately wanted to believe them. And yet, deep in her heart, she knew that he was wrong. There was something evil in the mill, and it was spreading out now, reaching out toward them. If they didn’t do something, it would destroy them all.

But what could they do, short of destroying the mill?

Nothing.

She had to find a way to convince him she was right. And she had to find it soon.

“Did I really do all right?” Beth asked an hour later when Tracy finally called a halt to the tennis lesson.

“You did great,” Tracy lied, wondering why she’d even bothered to suggest tennis lessons, when anything else would have done just as well. It had been so boring, standing there in the hot sun, throwing balls gently over the net for Beth to try to hit. And she’d hardly been able to keep from laughing as Beth kept chopping away at them, most of the time not even coming close to hitting one of them. Of course it had been kind of fun the last fifteen minutes, when she’d started throwing them all over the place, making Beth run back and forth as fast as she could.

“When are you going to teach me how to serve?”

“Tomorrow,” Tracy promised. She jumped easily over the net and started gathering up the balls that were scattered all over the court. When they were finished, they started toward the house, but Tracy suddenly stopped, as if something had just caught her eye. When Beth turned, Tracy was looking up the hill toward the mausoleum. When she could see Beth watching her out of the corner of her eye, she spoke. “I bet Amy’s supposed to be buried up there,” she said.

Beth’s eyes widened. “A-Amy?” she stammered. “I thought you didn’t believe there was any such person.”

“I changed my mind,” Tracy said. “I told you that this morning, didn’t I? That I didn’t think you were crazy anymore?”

Beth nodded hesitantly.

“So if I don’t think you’re crazy, and you think Amy’s real, then I have to think she is too, don’t I?”

“I … I guess so.”

“Besides,” Tracy went on, her voice dropping, “I snuck into my grandmother’s room last night, and found something.”

A thrill of anticipation ran through Beth, and her eyes widened. “About Amy?”

Tracy nodded.

“What?” Beth asked. “What did you find?”

“Promise you won’t tell anyone?”

“I promise.”

Tracy eyed the other girl narrowly. “Swear on your father’s grave?”

“Th — that’s not fair,” Beth protested, struggling against the lump that had suddenly formed in her throat.

“If you don’t swear, I won’t tell you,” Tracy said.

Beth hesitated, then nodded. “I … I swear.”

“Okay, I found a book, and it tells all about Amy.”

“What does it say?”

Tracy smiled mysteriously. “Want to read it?”

“You mean you still have it?”

“I hid it in my room. Come on.”

They hurried into the house, and went upstairs. When they reached the landing, Tracy whispered into Beth’s ear, “Go into your room and lock the door, and don’t let anyone in until I give the secret code. And as soon as I come in, lock the door behind me. All right?”

Beth nodded, and scurried into her room, locking the door behind her. Giggling, Tracy went into her own room, closed the door, then flopped down on the bed and turned on her television. Half an hour later, when she decided that if she waited any longer Beth would decide she’d been joking, she pulled the metal box out from under her bed, checked the upstairs hall, then ran down and knocked twice on Beth’s door, waited a second, then knocked again. Instantly the door opened, and Beth let her in.

“What happened?” Beth whispered. “I thought you weren’t ever coming.”

“I almost got caught,” Tracy told her. “Every time I tried to sneak out of my room, Hannah was snooping around. And if she catches us with this, she’ll tell my father, and he’ll whip us both.”

Beth gasped. “Whip us? Really?”

Tracy nodded solemnly. “That’s why we can’t let him know we have it.” Then she took the box to Beth’s desk, and lifted the lid. Ceremoniously, she took the book out, laid it on the desk, and carefully opened its cover. “Read it,” she said.

When Beth had finished deciphering the strange handwriting that covered the pages of the little book, she looked up at Tracy.

“What does it mean?” she asked. “What’ll we do?”

“It means they buried her in the wrong place,” Tracy replied. “Don’t you see? She’s supposed to be up in the mausoleum, but she’s not. That’s what she wants.”

Beth’s eyes widened. “You mean we have to dig her up?”

Tracy hesitated, then shook her head. “That wouldn’t be enough,” she said. “What we have to do is get her spirit out of the mill.”

Beth swallowed. Her heart was suddenly pounding. “How?” she whispered. “The mill’s all locked up, isn’t it? How can we get in?”

“I know where Daddy hid the keys,” Tracy replied. “So we’ll do it tonight. All right? We’ll go down there together, and we’ll let Amy out, and bring her up to the mausoleum. Then she’ll be where she belongs, and she won’t be angry anymore, and you can visit her anytime you want to. See?”

Beth nodded, but said nothing.

“Keep the book in here, okay? Hannah’s always coming in to clean my room, and if she finds it, we’re dead.”

“But what if she finds it in here?”

“She won’t. But even if she does, it won’t be so bad, because you can say you didn’t know you shouldn’t have taken it out of Grandmother’s room. Just stick the book in your desk, and hide the box in your closet.”

“But what—?” she began again, but this time Tracy didn’t let her finish her question.

“Just hide it, then come down to the stable. There’s some stuff we’ve got to get ready for tonight.” Then, before Beth could say anything else, Tracy slipped out of her room, closing the door behind her.

After Tracy was gone, Beth stared at the book for several long seconds, then slowly read it through once more.

Everything she read fit together with what she already knew about Amy.

So Amy was real after all, and even Tracy finally believed her.

Tracy, she decided as she hid the box in her closet and slipped the book into the top drawer of her desk,