The Secret by R. L. Stine

Author:R. L. Stine
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Tags: Young Adult, Family, Horror, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller
ISBN: 9781442407411
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2009-10-26T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

Jonathan rushed to his sister and took her by the shoulders. “You saw Abigail?” he said. “Where?”

“I saw her face outside my window. She called to me, ‘Rachel! Beware!’”

“But how did you know it was Abigail?” Jonathan asked. “Do you remember what she looked like?”

“She looked like Papa’s picture of her,” said Rachel. “She wore a white cap with blue ribbons, and she was floating outside my window. Then she disappeared.”

Jonathan let go of Rachel. Maybe Mama really had seen Abigail, he thought. Perhaps she saw what Rachel saw. It had to be Abigail. Abigail’s ghost.

Abigail had come to warn her family.

But of what?

* * *

“I am going to call on the Wilsons, Mama,” Jonathan told Jane. She sat by the hearth in the kitchen, too tired to move.

“Let me go with you,” Rachel begged. “I like Delilah.”

“Not today, Rachel,” said Jonathan. “Today I want to see her alone.”

Their mother gave Jonathan a basket of sweet rolls to take with him as a gift. “Please send our regards to her father,” Jane said. Then she sighed. “We should have had them to tea by now, but it has been so difficult….”

Tears welled up in her eyes, which she brushed away. Misery had aged Jonathan’s mother since Abigail’s death. The corners of her mouth sagged, and her eyes were dull and almost colorless. Jonathan noticed that the past few days had sharpened the pain in her face.

“Apologize to the Wilsons for me,” she went on. “And tell them—tell them I have been ill.”

“I will,” Jonathan promised. He put a hand on her arm and added, “You will feel better soon, Mama. I know you will.”

She nodded absently. Jonathan took the basket and set off down the road to the Wilsons’ farm.

The Reverend Wilson was working in a field when Jonathan arrived, but Delilah’s lively face lifted Jonathan’s spirits. She took the rolls with a smile. “It was so thoughtful of your mother to send them,” she said. “How is she?”

Jonathan sighed. “No better,” he told her. “She still sees Abigail at night. But now, at least, she is not the only one.”

“What do you mean?”

“Rachel saw her, too. And I—well, I heard Abigail’s voice. She called to me.”

Delilah dropped the basket and turned her face away. Jonathan saw her shoulders shaking under her faded pink dress.

“Delilah, what is wrong?” Gently he turned her around, put his arms on her shoulders to stop their shaking, and gazed intently into her eyes. But she lowered her face as if she didn’t want him to see her expression.

When she finally raised her eyes, they were filled with tears. “I am very worried about you, Jonathan,” she said. “About you and your family. I—I would never wish any harm on you, ever.”

Jonathan thought she was even prettier than usual with her eyes shining with tears. He wanted to throw his arms around her and kiss her.

“What are you talking about, Delilah?” he asked. “I know you wouldn’t wish harm on us. This has nothing to do with you.

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