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You should be careful around strangers,” Mom says. “But also, not just strangers. You shouldn’t accept rides or go with anyone who isn’t me or Dad.”
What if it’s someone from the Church?” She stops chewing and looks at him directly. She knows how to make everyone stop and look at her, and the whole table does.
I am ten. Lily and Lavender are fourteen. Ruby is sixteen. I’m the baby of the family. I like being the baby because it means I’m special.
There’s Dale, the bad one I don’t like. He’s mean. He hurts animals. And he likes to pick on me, with her approval.
Sometimes she wakes me and hugs me, crying, saying, “Oh, my little sister, my sweet, sweet little sister. I would kill anyone who hurt you, you know that, right?”
Ruby is taking me to the cold space. I don’t like the cold space. It’s the room underneath the junk room, a hidden unfinished room, not like a real room at all. Mom and Dad call it the cold storage room, or I’ve heard them call it a root cellar,
A man is tied up, silver tape on his mouth and blood on his face, and with an open blue eye that stares right into the light.
“Did you notice,” she whispers into my ear, “that Brother Johnson wasn’t there?” I hardly know who Brother Johnson is, and I’m not sure whether the correct response is yes or no, so I say nothing. “Do you know why he isn’t there?” she asks. I shake my head. “Because, silly . . . he’s in the cold space.”
He likes babies who don’t know better. He doesn’t like big girls like me. He likes little girls like you. Or little boys who don’t know. He likes to trick them. But I tricked him. I told him I’ve pictures that prove it. I’ve been watching him, watching his house at night. I know what he does, and I know how he does it.
“I know there’s a rottenness in people who pretend to be righteous. I know there’s blood behind their smiles. I know that people think I’m bad, and perhaps I am. But maybe they prefer to think of me as bad, and to call me that, than to see that I’m a mirror of their hypocrisy. I see who they really are. And I’ll make them see it, too, if I must shove their faces into that mirror.” Her words whip through our room. “I want them to hurt.”
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Ruby whispers in my ear, “I know because he did it to me.” “What?” “He did it to me. Years ago. He did it to me.” She holds me even closer now. And cries and cries.
Poor girl
“Topaz, you need to start behaving more like a fourth grader and less like a kindergartener.”
I mean she's not wrong. I keep forgetting this kid is 10
“I’m keeping all of you home tomorrow,” Mom says. “Oh,” Lavender says. “Because Janie Potts is missing?”
“What beautiful girls,” the woman says to Mom with a big smile, nodding. Then she stops smiling. “You keep a tight watch on them.” “I’m trying,” Mom says. The woman looks just at me. Tight watch.
he’s, like, a really successful businessman,” Lavender says. “He owns all these houses and businesses. And he also came to our school because he runs this organization called—” 54 “Young Business Professionals of America. It’s a big whoop.” “Right, and he came to our school to, you know—” “Recruit,”
Bad people . . . It’s pretty obvious who they are.”
If only
“What about the evil inside?” Ruby’s voice is so quiet that we can all just pretend we don’t hear her.
“Hello? . . . Hello? Anyone there?” Is it him? Is he calling for me? “Hello . . . ?” Lavender says, then hangs up. Phones don’t ring with no one there.
“And something else is happening to her, and I don’t know what it is. And whatever is happening with her and Topaz—” 69 “Nothing’s happening, Mom,” I say. “Everything’s fine.” “Something is wrong with her. I mean, trust me, I feel it. Something is really wrong—”
“There was a face in the window!” “He was right there!” Lily points to the playroom window, where there is no face.
Now I know that Ruby lied to Dad and lied about it being a reflection from the TV. It was him. Dale was looking for her.
“I never let him go, Topaz. I’m sorry I told you that you could choose. I even thought about it, I was so mad. But I couldn’t do it. I have him now, and I can’t let him go. I didn’t kill him yet, though.”
I kinda figured she hadnt
He’s still there, in the cold space, and has been there this whole time. So he couldn’t have taken Janie Potts. And if he didn’t take her, he didn’t take 79any of them, and he’s innocent just like he said he was, because he’s the Truth-Teller.
he was saying how you’re gonna turn against me and make me take the fall for it, going on and on and on.
I didn’t tell the police. I didn’t tell anyone. I don’t know why. Maybe just because I hate Aunt Jess? Maybe because she swatted me? I don’t know why I didn’t say anything,
Lavender and Lily and Mom—and Brother Johnson, of course—would all be glad to be rid of her.
Dang harsh
Ruby could kill me. She could kill me without even trying that hard. And she could have killed him anytime. So when she said she didn’t want to, that was the truth.
“I hate him, Topaz. I hate him more than I hate anyone, and that’s saying a lot, because I hate a lot of people . . . but him the most. It wasn’t just me; I was just the last one before he decided we couldn’t stay alive to talk anymore. Before that, there were at least two of us he did it to. We were part of this after-school group, and I was too young and too stupid to understand what was happening.
“Some crimes are so bad, jail isn’t enough.”
Men are dogs. They may sit, shake, and even wear a suit, but they’re all dogs. And some of them are dogs that will just try and sniff your crotch and hump your leg, and some will rip your throat out. And you never can tell which is which and who is who.”
They haven’t made it public yet, but they found your classmate. She’s alive and well. She had just run away.
none of us saying anything about what we’re really thinking. Because if Janie Potts wasn’t taken by the Beast, then that means . . . maybe Ruby did catch the killer.
Mom can’t walk. And she’s not alone in the house.
“She knew you. I just found out today Cindy was part of an after-school camp you helped run. She disappeared two years ago. I know you knew her.”
It’s always better to tell Ruby first if you know you did something she doesn’t like, rather than let her find out for herself.
I have always tried to protect you all from him. I had to do this now to protect Topaz.”
“And by the way, Lily, I love your hair,” Ruby says. I have never heard her give one of the twins a compliment before. “You look badass.” “Thanks,” Lily says, trying not to smile.
“He’s home?” I can’t believe it. How did he get out of the cold space? Or wait. Wait a gee-dee second . . . My brain is racing. “Why wouldn’t he be home? You’re a very silly little girl.”
I think about the Just Say No woman saying she sold her body, and I wonder who bought her body and who owns it now.
Her face doesn’t move, like a frozen face, a mask face. I think about the man’s face from the pamphlet, the man from Church, always smiling at you.
I see his hands, bloody behind him. A shard of glass from a broken jar in between them.
“Something is happening with Ruby, but it’s happening with all of you now. Am I right?” 181 It burns in my mouth to tell her about the man in the cold space. None of us says it first, but one of us will, won’t we? Won’t we? We won’t.
No one will get through me. Not Mom, not the Beast, not the police, no one. No one else will protect her, so I will. I will protect Ruby now. I must.
She’s glad Ruby is gone. If Ruby died, she would cry, but I bet she would be relieved. She doesn’t want to protect Ruby; she wants to be rid of her.
“You need to kill the monster, Topaz. Stab the monster in the neck with a knife and stab him until he is dead. Do you understand me?”
