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his lips to her ear. “Wait here,” he said.
     
    She clutched his hand tightly and shook her head. Her eyes had gone all big again and her face looked very pale in the muted light. He glanced down at her white knuckled grip on his fingers and then back to her white face. He didn’t argue. He shut off the flashlight and the black shadows greedily closed in.
     
    They took careful steps down, but the old wood still creaked, announcing their descent. At the landing, JD peered around the corner into the room with the fireplace. He cursed softly. Standing on tip-toes on the step behind him, Carly leaned in and peered around his shoulders.
     
    A fire burned cheerfully in the grate and a woman sat in the rocking chair. The runners were still broken, but somehow she made a smooth rocking motion. Back and forth, back and forth. An uneasy feeling settled in his gut as he watched her.
     
    “Hello,” he said, his voice sounding over-loud in the tomb-like quiet. Every nerve in his body on alert, he entered the room. Carly scooted around to stand at his side, but she didn’t let go of his hand. He’d probably lose all feeling in it if she didn’t lighten up a bit, but he didn't say anything.
     
    “I’m JD Dover,” he said, tilting his head to see the woman better as he approached. “I used to live not too far from here.”
     
    The woman turned and smiled at them both. At first, JD thought she looked like a sweet little old lady. She had light brown hair, streaked heavily with white. Half of her face remained in deep shadow, but he could make out the features on the other half and thought she must have been a beautiful woman in her youth. Pale, though wrinkled, she reminded him of a china doll. Even in the gloom, the fire gave enough light that he could see her eyes. They were the color of a summer sky, her lips a muted pink. She wore a house dress like his grandma used to, with big pockets on either hip and a plaid pattern of woven gray, black and red.
     
    “Are you Sissy’s friends?” she asked. “She didn’t tell me you were coming, but that’s okay. I always make too much for dinner.” As she spoke the air filled with a warm, rich scent.
     
    “Fried chicken,” Carly said under her breath.
     
    The woman stood then and faced them and JD’s astonishment at finding her there turned to horror. Beside him, Carly staggered back, pulling JD with her as she recoiled. He stumbled, righted himself, but never took his eyes off the woman. Carly couldn’t look away either. It was like a nightmare that grew and morphed, chased relentlessly through the dark valleys of slumber.
     
    He wanted to believe the woman wasn’t real. He wanted it to be a gruesome but fantastic vision his overtaxed imagination had conjured up and spit out. But Carly’s horror-filled gasp left no doubt that she saw the same thing.
     
    “What is it, dear?” the woman asked, cocking her head to the side and smiling.
     
    But it wasn’t a smile. A terrible grimace, wide and ghastly, stretched her lips. The side of her face they hadn’t been able to see at first was battered, caved in from skull to throat, showing bits of carnage that made JD’s stomach roll. Her eye was missing completely and teeth showed through a ragged tear in her jaw. The pale china face was shattered, destroyed with no hope of ever being whole again.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Eight
     
     
     
    The terror locked inside Carly finally ripped free. She screamed and turned into JD. His arms came up around her, but he didn't make a sound. She could feel his heart pounding wild and hard beneath her ear, though. Feel the breath struggle in and out of his lungs.
     
    It was too much—first Jillian, then the storm, the hurling drop into the canyon, and now this—this inexplicable atrocity. What had happened? How could she possibly be speaking to them when her face . . . her face . . .
     
    “She’s gone,” JD said, his voice stony. “It’s okay, she’s