House of Secrets

Chapter 12

Jonathan came to in a pile of rubble that used to be his new living room. He struggled out from under the heavy shelving that lay on top of him and checked himself for crippling injuries. He felt like he’d been put in a bag of rocks and shaken, but aside from cuts and bruises he was okay.

He looked around the living room. It was like the pictures he’d seen of that horrible tsunami in Japan, where a slew of debris was thrown across the land. What used to be individual chairs and tables and books was now a foot-deep pile of scrap. The shutters were still closed.

“Mom?” Jonathan called. “Dad? Cap?”

He saw part of the pile move. It looked like a mound with an earthworm underneath. Brendan ran over as Alyssa reached an arm up and dragged herself out.

“Al! Are you okay?”

“I think . . . I blacked out. What about you?”

“I blacked out too . . . after a lot of insane stuff. These books grew in front of me—they were massive—and then that . . . I don’t want to say her name . . . ”

“Witch. Wind Witch,” said Alyssa. “That’s what Dahlia called herself.”

“Right, fine. That Wind Witch flew up to the ceiling and knocked me out. Where are Mom and Dad?”

Alyssa’s eyes got very big. She started to call desperately, “Mom! Dad!”

Jonathan joined in: “Mom! Please! Hello? Where are you?”

No answer. Jon’s eyes welled up, but he didn’t let any tears fall. “What about Nell...and Cap?” he asked.

“Nell! Nellie!” Cordelia began, "Casper! Cap!". They stumbled over broken furniture, searching and calling, pawing through piles of splintered wood, trying to avoid slicing their hands on shattered glass. Jonathan felt guilty—what kind of older brother was he? He hadn’t even been able to keep his little sisters safe.

A musical plink made him turn his head.

“What was that?” Alyssa asked.

It came again, a tiny chime, like a muted string being plucked. Brendan and Cordelia moved toward it. “Nell?” “Mom?” “Dad?” "Cap?"

They reached the wreckage of the Steinway. It wasn’t as ruined as the rest of the furniture; although its legs were snapped off, it still had its sinuous piano shape. The plinks were coming from inside. The twins lifted the lid together . . .

And there was Nellie, curled up on the strings. She picked at one. “I think that’s an A.”

“Come here, you.” Alyssa offered Nellie a hand while Jonathan held the piano open. Once she was out, her brother and sister hugged her so hard that they all fell over.

“Did you black out?” Jonathan asked.

“No, I was awake the whole time.”

“What did you see?”

“That . . . angel thing rose to the ceiling, the whole house got really tall, and everything went black.”

“That’s what we saw! You did black out!”

“No, I was awake. It was the world that went black. She made it happen. Casper told you he saw her when we first looked at the house, and you didn’t believe him, remember? And now look what happened!”

“How do you know it was her?” Alyssa asked. “It could’ve—”

But Jonathan interrupted his sister. “I saw her too. The Wind Witch.”