5B murdered him. Him and all the other children. And judging from Anthony’s face, it was not the peaceful death they say comes when you drown. It looked to me like his soul was tortured, and his body weary from the fight. Still, seeing him, I had a hunch of where he died. But what clues would be left after all this time?
“Help me help you,” I whimpered, calling out to the boy who was terrifying but also pitiful. I fought the urge to comfort him, to reach out and touch his tiny hand. To tell him I was sorry. To tell them all I was sorry. Before I could decide what to do though, a gurgling noise, a screeching noise, and an intense heat crowded around me. They stood, the four of them at the edge of my bed. For a moment, a weird peace fell over me.
And then it broke when she stood in front of them, the yellow girl with the indistinct face. The screeching noise threatened to paralyze me as I held my head. She came toward me, her red pigtails billowing as she pointed. As all of them closed in on me. I could feel their hands grabbing at me, their nails clawing. My skin burned from the pressure and from the scratches. There was no more patience left. They were going to hurt me. I was out of time.
I kicked and screamed, flinging myself from the bed. Their little hands pawed and grabbed at me, the screeching noise of yellow mixing with the gurgles and moans of the rest. Their warped presences dug deep into my soul, and I scampered to the door. I turned to see them coming at me, zombie-like creatures too real to be my imagination. I held my head against the piercing sound, dashing out the door as I added my own scream to the chorus of theirs.
When I found myself on the front lawn of the apartment building, holding my head as I lay sprawled on the lawn in my pajamas, I noticed my neighbor’s car. A younger man who usually travelled, he emerged from his door. I looked back, expecting to see the kids coming toward me. But there was nothing. I moaned and cried, looking like a deranged lunatic.
“I’ll call 911,” he yelled to me, looking alarmed.
“No, no, it’s fine,” I said “Please, don’t.” My hands shook. I needed to get it together or I would find myself locked away without an escape from the nightmares, from the beings, from the terrors.
“I’m fine. Just a nightmare. Sorry,” I added weakly, standing and brushing myself off. I tried not to let him see my shaking hands.
I breathed in and out. After what felt like forever, he went back inside, eyeing me suspiciously. I stared at the apartment, knowing I couldn’t go back in. Knowing I needed to do something. I pulled on my hair, feeling like a crazy person. Anthony Ambridge was clearly one of the victims. How had the police missed it? Should I go report him? But what evidence did I have? I needed evidence, and certainly dredging the lake for clues was out of my hands. I needed to figure out who the others were, and where they were. I needed to make it stop. For 5B, for me. For the kids.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered as I turned, abandoning my apartment and the fact that I was in my pajamas. I headed toward the end of the street, thinking about all that had been lost. About all the suffering the kids had endured. And wondering how long a sane person could handle such madness before it was all over.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Iknew I needed to get to 5B, whatever it took. Things were escalating, but Anna was also keeping an eye on me. I was running out of time. And after what I’d found at the library, I knew what I had to do.
I went about my duties as normal on floor two. The whole time, I kept picturing her face, her missing eye, the story about how her parents were distraught. They’d never known what happened to her. She couldn’t be at peace. But even if I didn’t have sound evidence, I had a starting point.
Marsha Waters. It was the little girl I came across in the missing children reports I combed through that jumped out at me. Red. The missing eye, the red hair. The age. It all seemed right. She’d disappeared at the age of eleven walking home from school near Ambridge Farms.
When I saw Roxy come back from break, I beelined for mine. I wandered up the stairs, hoping I’d manage to find an opening.
But on the stairwell, Anna was standing with her arms crossed as if she were on guard already. She stared at me, her face scowling.
“Where are you going, Jessica?”
“I . . . I just . . .”
“I heard about your escapade at your apartment last night. Sounds to me like there’s a lot going on in that pretty head of yours. I’m disappointed, Jessica. I thought you would be different. I thought you’d be professional and focused. It seems like you might be losing it, which is dangerous for everyone.”
I stood a few stairs down from her. She stepped down another one, her eyes staring at me.
“I just want to check in on 5B. I think I know what’s going on with him. I found some things—” I rambled on, suddenly needing to unburden myself. “And if I could just get the police to believe me,”
“Stop,” she shouted, stepping down so she was staring right into my eyes. “You need to leave it all be.”
I stood tall, for the first time in a long time. “What the hell are you hiding? Why don’t you want me figuring out what’s going on with him?”
“Because it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what
