The Peculiar Night of the Blue Heart (16 page)

By the time they were close to home, and the buildings through the window began to look familiar, Marybeth was struggling to stay awake. She sat up straight, blinking hard.

Neither of the children were sure whether Mrs. Mannerd would give them their chance to prove the blue creature's existence. But when the red house approached, Mrs. Mannerd muttered, “Oh, what am I doing?” and drove straight past it.

When they reached the farmhouse, Mrs. Mannerd switched off the engine and turned around in her seat and said, “I hope you know this is trespassing. What is it that you have to show me?”

Lionel opened the door, and as Marybeth moved to follow him, Mrs. Mannerd said, “No, I won't have you back out in this rain catching your death.”

“I have to,” Marybeth said, with much authority. “Trust us.”

Mrs. Mannerd wasn't given much choice. Marybeth wrapped the blanket around herself like a cloak and followed Lionel out into the night.

The rain had subsided, but the wind had picked up. Lionel moved slowly, holding up the tufts of blanket so Marybeth wouldn't trip. With Mrs. Mannerd on their heels, they made their way to the barn.

Mrs. Mannerd, at least for the moment, had stopped voicing her skepticisms as she followed them.

Lionel threw open the door to the barn, and he felt an awful sense of dread deep within his stomach. Marybeth bristled, and Lionel wondered if she felt it, too, but she only sneezed.

Mrs. Mannerd struck a match and lit the emergency lantern she kept in the car. And in the sudden light, both she and Lionel were stricken by Marybeth's appearance.

Her eyes were sunken, with pale blue bags beneath them. The part of her hair was blue.

Lionel took her hand and led her deeper into the barn. When he reached the softened earth, he picked up the shovel and began the awful task of digging.

“Lionel, this is not our property,” Mrs. Mannerd said.

“Let him,” Marybeth said. “Please.” She was too tired to stand, and she leaned against the wall.

Lionel felt the bone against the shovel, and he closed his eyes as he unearthed the next heap of dirt. When he finally allowed himself to open them, he could see the yellow dress, exactly where he'd left it.

Marybeth moved away from the wall. The blanket fell to a puddle at her feet as she marched toward the shallow grave.

With a heavy heart, Lionel unearthed the hollow skull.

“Heavens,” Mrs. Mannerd whispered.

The blue glow was back in Marybeth's eyes. She dropped to her knees and reached into the grave.

“Marybeth, don't,” Mrs. Mannerd said. But Marybeth was far away by then. There was only the blue creature, and when it saw what was left of its body, it let out a cry that no living thing could make.

Marybeth saw what the blue creature saw. She was inside its body, seeing through its eyes.

Lionel and Mrs. Mannerd were gone. The shallow grave and the bones were gone. The blue creature was wearing the yellow dress.

The dress was much brighter here, and it swished when the blue creature moved.

Marybeth watched as though she were in someone else's dream. The blue creature had the hands of a girl, and she pushed open the door to the barn, and a voice called out, “Liza!”

The blue creature turned its head toward the woods, where a boy in suspenders was wielding an ax.

The blue creature loved the boy. Marybeth could feel it in its heart. But not in the way that she loved Lionel. There was something different, something Marybeth had to search for before she understood. The blue creature loved the boy the way that Marybeth had, so long ago, loved her father. Like family.

She found that part of the blue creature's heart and she lingered there, enjoying the sensation of it. Family. It was a rare, musical word in her world.

The blue creature ran to him, the yellow dress fluttering against her legs. Always running. The blue creature hated to be still, even in death.

The blue creature reached the boy, her brother, and everything went dark.

Marybeth heard the blue creature scream. She felt it in its lungs. She tasted blood, felt the blue creature's legs breaking.

When the light came back, Marybeth saw blurred faces. The blue creature's mouth filled with water, and when it looked up it saw only one face. The boy, her brother, and then her eyes were covered by water, and his face blurred into blue marbles, with dark sockets for eyes.

CHAPTER

19

Marybeth tried to scream, but all that came out was a feeble cry.

The blue marble face turned into Lionel, whose eyes were big and concerned. She was lying in the dirt, and she struggled to move but her head felt too heavy to lift.

“Marybeth!” Mrs. Mannerd cried. She wrapped her in the blanket and lifted her up into her arms. “That's it, I'm getting you home and phoning the doctor.”

Lionel had to pace to keep up with Mrs. Mannerd, she was moving so fast. “You can't,” he said. “They'll take it away.”

Mrs. Mannerd didn't stop, and she didn't answer. All she said was, “Get in the car,” and her tone was so frightening that Lionel listened.

Marybeth closed her eyes and tried to finish the dream the blue creature had shown her in the barn.

“Liza?” she whispered. Her head felt as though it was full of wind. There was no answer.

As soon as they returned to the house, Mrs. Mannerd made a makeshift bed for Marybeth on the couch. Lionel sat on the floor beside her, straining to listen to the words Mrs. Mannerd was saying into the phone out in the hall. But for once, he couldn't hear any of it. He was too distracted by Marybeth's sniffling and chattering teeth. She was murmuring things that faded into incoherence.

Marybeth's hair was turning blue. It was a slight change, and it could be mistaken for a trick of the light, but Lionel knew it was only going to get worse. “It's not gone, is it?” he said, when she opened her eyes.

“No,” Marybeth said. She was so very tired. “But I know her name now. It was Liza.”

“Liza,” Lionel echoed. It was such a normal, sensible name for such a destructive thing.

“I think she was murdered,” Marybeth said. “But I don't know what happened. Everything went black.”

“Try and think,” Lionel said. “What did you see?”

“The farmhouse,” Marybeth said. “And her brother. Maybe he was just a little older than we are. But I never saw anyone like that at the farmhouse, did you?”

An instinctive growl left Lionel's throat. “Reginald,” he said. “The old woman's son.”

Marybeth's eyes widened. “You're right.”

“You said the blue creature hated him. That's it. He killed her.”

“He killed his sister?” Marybeth shook her head against her pillow. “No, that can't be it. She loved him. I felt it.”

“Just because you love someone doesn't mean they can't hurt you,” Lionel said.

Marybeth's tired face gave way to concern. “I heard what you said in the woods,” she told him. “You said that you and the blue creature are the same. You said that you both know how awful humans can be. What did you mean?”

Lionel turned away from her.

“Lionel,” Marybeth said.

He growled, not at her but at the memory she was reviving.

Marybeth leaned over the edge of the couch and petted his hair. “You can tell me,” she said.

A clap of thunder shook the house. The grandfather clock rattled against the wall.

Mrs. Mannerd came into the room with a thermometer. “I can't get ahold of anybody at this hour, but I'm going to keep trying. Are you feeling any better?” She
stuck the thermometer into Marybeth's mouth before she could answer.

Marybeth's head lolled against the pillow like it was suddenly too heavy for her neck. Lionel was not sure whether the cold or the blue creature was to blame, or both, but he feared either way that she was dying.

Dying. The word was an echo in the darkest cave of his mind.

Mrs. Mannerd withdrew the thermometer and frowned at it. She left the room and came back with a spoon of foul-smelling medicine that Marybeth dutifully took.

After Mrs. Mannerd had gone, Lionel crawled onto the couch and sat at her feet.

Marybeth could not stay awake no matter how she tried, and after she had been asleep for several minutes, Lionel whispered, “Liza?”

There was no answer.

“I think you can hear me,” Lionel said. “I think you're faking it.”

Marybeth's eyelashes fluttered.

“Those are your bones in the barn. Maybe you don't like it, but that's you. Marybeth needs her own body back. What will happen if you kill her? You aren't sharing a body with me. I'll throw you back in the river if you try.”

Marybeth's raspy breathing gave way to an angry hiss.

“I'll do it,” Lionel said. “You kill Marybeth, I throw you back in that river for good. But if you come out now, I'll help you.”

It was quiet for a long time, save for the thunder and the rain.

Marybeth gasped in her sleep.

The dream returned.

This time, Marybeth was no longer sharing a body with the blue creature. She had no body at all. She was the wind that moved through the trees. She was invisible and she saw everything.

Liza was not a frightening blue creature. She was a girl just like Marybeth, with braided pigtails and a yellow dress.

“Here,” Reginald said. “You hold the ax, and I'll show you how to do it.”

Though Marybeth did not share a body with Liza in this dream, she heard heavy footsteps crushing twigs in the woods, and she felt Liza's fear.

The boys that skulked into the clearing were as tall as Reginald, and they didn't have names or faces—only dark and sinister eyes.

Liza clutched the ax in her unsteady fingers. “Get out of here,” she said, in a voice that was very brave
despite the fear churning her stomach. “I said I'd tell my mother if you came back here. I know what you did to our hens.”

“Liza, shut up,” Reginald said. He was the one who sounded frightened.

The boys moved closer. There were three of them, but it felt as though there were a hundred.

“Go back to the house,” Reginald told Liza.

“No,” she said. “I'm not leaving you alone.”

“Don't be stupid. Go inside.”

One of the boys grabbed Liza by the arms, and the ax left her grip and fell to her feet with a hard sound of metal hitting dirt. The boy's face was nothing but dark eyes and snarling teeth, like something rabid. “She isn't going inside,” the boy said. “She isn't going anywhere just yet.”