Whispers in the Night Read Online Free Page B

the house, where it made itself scarce.
    â€œLet’s put her in the bathtub, in case another one comes out of her,” Odetta said.
    â€œWon’t be, but do what you want.” Uncle June sounded sleepy.
    Lola sat placidly in the center of the bathtub while the warm water came up to her waist. Her legs were crossed the way they had been in her crib. Danielle couldn’t stare at her too long before she was sure a madwoman’s wail would begin sliding from her throat. She looked away.
    Danielle gasped when she saw a long blue bathrobe hanging on a hook on back of the bathroom door. It looked like a man floating behind her. And the mirror on the medicine cabinet was askew, swinging to and fro, making her reflection shudder the way her mind was shuddering. Danielle wondered how she hadn’t fainted already.
    â€œI told you,” Uncle June said, and Danielle realized some time must have gone by. Uncle June had been standing before, but now he was sitting on top of the closed toilet lid, reading a well-worn copy of The Man Who Said I Am . “Won’t never be but one o’ them things.”
    When the water splashed in the tub, they all looked down at Lola. Danielle didn’t look away this time; she just felt her body coil, ready for whatever was next.
    Lola’s face was moony, upturned toward Danielle with the same intense gaze she had followed her with all morning. But the water around her still looked clear. No more leeches. Lola had only changed position slightly, one of the rare times she had moved at all.
    â€œThat thing I saw . . .” Danielle whispered. Her fingers were trembling, but not as much as they had been up until then. “Was it a demon?”
    Uncle June shook his head. “What you saw . . . the leech . . . that ain’t it. Just a sign it’s visiting. Evidence. They crawl for dark as fast as they can. Slide through cracks. No one’s been able to find one, the way they scoot. Probably ’cause most folks head in the other direction.”
    â€œIt’s under my bed,” Danielle said.
    â€œNot anymore, it’s not. It’s halfway back to the swamp by now.”
    Danielle shivered for what seemed like a full minute. Her body was rejecting the memory of the thing she had found in her baby’s diaper. She waited for her shivering to pass, until she realized it wouldn’t pass any time soon. She would have to get used to it.
    Lola, in the tub, wrapped her arms around herself with a studious expression as she stared up at Danielle. Lola was still smiling softly, as if she was going out of her way not to alarm her, but her creased eyebrows looked like a grown woman’s. On any other day, Lola would be splashing water out of the tub, or else sliding against the slick porcelain with shrieks of glee. This creature with Lola’s face might be a child, but it wasn’t hers. Water wasn’t novel anymore.
    â€œIf that isn’t Lola . . . then where is she?” Danielle said, against the ball of mud in her throat.
    â€œLola’s still in there, I expect,” Uncle June said. “Dottie Stephens’s baby was touched by it for a month . . . but come fall, it was like nothing happened. And Dottie’s baby is a doctor now.”
    â€œUnnnnh-hnnnh . . .” Odetta said with an encouraging smile.
    Danielle’s heart cracked. A month!
    â€œCourse, you don’t have to wait that long,” Uncle June said. He stood up, lifted the toilet lid, and spat into the bowl. “I’ve got a remedy. They’ll eat anything you put in front of them, so it won’t be hard. Put about six drops on a peanut butter cracker, or whatever you have, but no more than six. Give it to her at midnight. That’s when they come and go.”
    â€œAnd it won’t hurt Lola?” Danielle said.
    â€œMight give her the runs.” Uncle June sat again.
    â€œLola’s gonna’ be fine, Danny,” Odetta said,