The Secret of the Painted House Read Online Free Page A

right in front of her. She had been sitting bythe unlit fire. Now she stood in Emily’s path. How had she moved so fast?
    Pin didn’t say anything. She just stood blocking Emily’s way. Her face looked fierce.

    “I told you.” Emily started around Pin. “I’ve got to go.”
    “You can’t go.” There Pin was in front of her again.
    “What do you mean? I can’t go?” Emily was so amazed she almost forgot to be scared.
    “I mean, you’re in my world now. You have to stay.”
    Emily’s scalp prickled. Was it possible? Once she came into the picture, was there no way out?
    Still, she said, “I don’t
have
to do anything!” The words came out sounding braver than she felt.
    She stepped in another direction. Pin was right there again. How could she get away from her?
    “Move!” Emily ordered.
    Pin didn’t. But she didn’t look angry now.She just looked sad. “I need you,” she said. Her voice was soft, pleading. “I need … someone. I get so lonely waiting for my mom to come back.”
    “But I don’t want to stay here,” Emily told her.
    Pin shrugged. Clearly she didn’t care what Emily wanted.
    Emily tried once more to step around her. It didn’t work.
    “Emily!”
    Emily caught her breath. The voice came from far away.
    It was Logan! It had to be Logan. She must go to him.
    “I’m coming!” Emily called. “Logan, I’ll be right there.”
    She began to run. She didn’t try to step around Pin. She just ran straight ahead.And suddenly Pin wasn’t in front of her.
    Had she managed to run past the girl? Or had she blasted right through her? She didn’t have any idea.
    She kept running.
    The grass caught at her feet. She almost tripped over a tree root. Suddenly the ground was rough.
    Birds chirped overhead.
    The air stirred around her.
    Emily looked down at her hand. She still held the marshmallow. Or it had been a marshmallow.
    Now, white paint oozed between her fingers. White paint faintly tinted with brown.

7
Logan!
    E mily couldn’t hear Logan calling anymore. She kept running all the same. At the stream, she didn’t bother looking for the stones. She just splashed across it. She came to the clearing.
    This was where she had left Logan picking flowers. She knew it was the place. But he was gone.
    The grass was trampled. Most of theviolets were beheaded. But her brother wasn’t here.
    “Logan!” she called.
    There was no answer.
    “Logan!” she yelled again, even more loudly.
    Still silence.
    Where had he gone? Back home? Would he know his way back home?
    She started up the hill. She would check at the house first.
    But then she stopped. What if he wasn’t there? What would she say to her mother?
    If she went back without Logan, what would Mom say to her?
    Emily turned down the hill again. He had probably tried to follow her, anyway. She retraced her steps.
    Back at the playhouse, she didn’t see anytrace of her brother. And he had stopped calling.
    The playhouse looked the same. The lock still held the door closed. The broken window gaped. Inside, painted trees covered the walls. She could see no sign that Logan had been here.
    The idea of going in again made her skin crawl. But what if Logan was in there? What if Pin had taken
him
inside the picture? She would try to trap him. Emily knew she would. She would keep him forever.
    The girl had said she was lonely. She wanted someone. Probably even a four-year-old would do.
    Emily ducked through the window. Her sneakers crunched across the glass.
    “Logan,” she called softly. And then a little more loudly. “Logan!”
    She heard him again. “Emileeee!”
    Or she thought she heard him. The call was so faint she might have imagined it. It seemed to come from far away.

    Where was he? Was he outside in the woods? Or was he inside the playhouse wall? How could she tell?
    Emily stepped outside again. She ran from tree to tree. She heard “Emileeee” again. But the call sounded even farther away.
    She stopped, holding on to the trunk