Could Wade be the Vodník?
The thought filters in without restraint and it makes my insides recoil. The disappearances have only happened when he’s in town… Could that be it?
I turn to the door and head inside. Panic wells inside me and I need more answers.
“Dad? Dad, are you home?” I call out, trying to pull back the edge of panic permeating my voice.
A few strained moments later, Dad appears at the top of the stairs. “Hi, sweetie. Did you go out for a bit?”
I scratch at my temple and take a step around the large table in the middle of the entry. “Yeah.”
“Everything okay?” he asks, walking down the stairs to meet me.
“No, not really. I have to ask you a serious question. I don’t know who else to turn to,” I blurt out.
“Okay, that seems ominous,” he says, his blue eyes surveying me critically.
“Do you—” I begin, standing up straighter and pulling my shoulders back. “I mean, did you know there was a hidden door in my bedroom?”
Dad’s eyes widen and his mouth opens and closes, but no words come out.
“Because I think you do. I think you were hiding a door handle that opens it, and Abigail brought me to it. I think there’s something big going on with this house, or with me—us. I need to know what it is…” I say, my words coming out in a jumbled mess.
For a moment, Dad puts his hands in prayer position and brings his hands to his lips. “Autumn, you may be treading in waters you don’t want to be entering,” he warns.
“Really? How about let’s talk about the month I was missing when I was a kid… What was that all about? Why don’t I remember it? Why have you never told me about it?” I say, anger and indignation rising to the surface. “What happened to me?”
Dad takes a step back, clearly shaken. “I thought things would be clearer by now. I was waiting for your mind to… Look, I didn’t want to upset you.”
“Upset me? You don’t think finding out by reading a newspaper article would be a bit upsetting? At first I thought—” I blink, looking away. “At first I thought there must have been another kid—someone who looked like me. Or the newspaper was confused. But…it was me.”
“You were in a fragile state. You needed to be kept calm—”
“Calm? Really? That’s what you’re going with? Everyone in this damn town knows more about me, and our family history, than I do. Why is that?” I yell, my voice rising with my anger.
“Sweetie—”
“Don’t call me that. Not now,” I say, raising my hands and backing away.
“Autumn, I had to…” his voice trails off and I stare at him in disbelief.
“You had to…what?” I urge.
He takes a deep breath before standing up and taking my hands in his. “You were lost to us. I was only gone a moment—just a quick second to get your lifejacket from the boathouse…”
I narrow my eyes, waiting for him to continue.
“When I came back, you were gone. I couldn’t find you anywhere. I called you. I did everything in my power to locate you, but I knew… I just knew something horrible had happened. I felt it.”
My stomach lurches and I take a step back.
“The police were called,” he says, his eyes pleading with mine. “There was an investigation, they searched everywhere, but no one found you—or your body. We suspected a water demon, a Vodník, as having been involved. But we were never a hundred percent sure. Then, one day, well past the point of giving up hope, I found you. You were in that resurrection chamber, the basement room of yours, but didn’t quite look yourself. You were pale and wet, and your clothes were tattered. I realized you hadn’t come from inside the house. You’d somehow managed to come from the catacombs beyond.”
“What on earth are you talking about?” I demand.
“Our home is built on catacombs—they hold the remains of our ancestors as far back as our history in America reaches. It’s a sacred place. One you knew well because we had been working on your powers when you were younger, testing your abilities and what you could do.” His gaze shifts to the floor. “There are only a few ways you can get to it… None of which are easily accessible.”
I narrow my eyes and run my hands through my hair. “None of this makes sense. The newspaper says I was found wet and near the pond? On the dock or something…”
“You were soaked—that was true. But I had to think fast. As much as we like to believe people have accepted supernatural abilities, I knew with something like this, there’d be…questions. Questions I didn’t want to answer at that time. I needed to understand more about what happened to you and why. I made the pond bit up for the police, hoping it would be enough that you were returned from the water, since they suspected the demon.”
“What about the small table with my picture? Why was the door covered up?” I say.
“These are all good questions, but—”
“Dad, I need answers,” I say through gritted teeth.
“The table has been there since the day I found you. I didn’t dare touch it, just in case…”
“In case of what?”
“In case the spell was only temporary,” he whispers. “That’s why I hid the doorway. In case the candles needed to stay lit. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you again through my recklessness…” Tears well in his eyes and for a moment, all color drains completely from his face.
“Lose me?” I say, stepping toward him. “You say that like you mean something other than me going missing…”
His eyebrows knit together, and his lips tug downward.
“Dad?”
“You drowned, Autumn,” he whispers.
My mouth pops open. “That’s ridiculous.”
“The doctors all said your body was showing signs of decomposition and trauma through drowning…but they couldn’t make head nor tail over why you were up and
