The Glass Casket by Templeman Mccormick

Author:Templeman, Mccormick [Templeman, Mccormick]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780449813157
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2014-02-11T00:00:00+00:00

It was Emily who first noticed Arlene’s absence. She was used to sharing gossip in the mornings with the older lady, and since the death of Arlene’s husband, Emily had kept a protective eye over her. It had been a full day, and still she had not appeared in the village. Fearing she might be sick, Emily sent Onsie Best round to check on her while she and Rowan picked up bread for supper. The boy, who had been in the midst of skipping out on family chores when Emily had caught hold of him, was less than thrilled to have yet another thing to keep him from his favorite hobby of shooting at crows with his slingshot. Still, he was a good boy, and used to doing what he was told, so he went round to Arlene’s, hoping that whatever he found there wouldn’t provide much work for him.

He knocked on her door, but there was no answer. He knocked again before going around to look in the windows. There appeared to be no one home, though the curtains were drawn on the bedroom windows, so it was possible she had taken to her bed with sickness.

“Fantastic,” Onsie grumbled as he climbed a tree so he might jump to her roof, and then down to a high window that he knew was easy to jimmy open because Arlene had had him do it once when she’d locked herself out. He pried the window open and then slid himself through, calling Arlene’s name all the while, half fearing he might give her a start, but even more afraid that he might see Arlene in some state of undress.

He was in the hallway outside her closed bedroom door when he suddenly got the shivers. Something felt very wrong in that house, and for a moment, Onsie Best even thought about turning and running straight out the front door, but he knew he’d never live it down, so he swallowed his fear and opened the door to Arlene Blessing’s bedroom.

Even from a hundred yards away, Rowan could hear his screams.

Turning to Emily, her body stiff with fear, she grasped the other girl’s hand. “It’s happening again,” she said.

Rowan dashed off in the direction of Arlene’s cottage, Emily fast on her heels. When Rowan reached the porch, she nearly crashed into Onsie Best rushing out, his face twisted in horror.

“She’s dead,” he said, with lips that were turning pale blue. “It’s the most awful thing I’ve ever seen.” And with that, he promptly fainted.

Emily, who had just reached the porch, breathless, crouched down and propped the boy’s head up on her knee, keeping an eye on Rowan. “Don’t you go in there.”

But Rowan knew she had to. Without a thought for her own safety, she ran into Arlene’s house. She flew up the stairs and rounded the corner to Arlene’s room, but in the doorway she stopped abruptly.

“Goddess,” she whispered, making the sign, and for a moment, she feared that she too might faint.

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